Audience Research – Independent And Mainstream Films

The second half of my audience research was to discover what people expected from Independent and Mainstream films. The information I collect could help the direction of my own thriller very well.

From Of One To five, How Would You Rate The Plot Structure Of Independent and Mainstream Films?

Shows that in terms of Mainstream films the audience usually expect films to have a medium to relatively poor plot line and are more concerned that the plot line acts as a catalyst for interesting visual sensation.
Whereas for Independent films they expect that the plot is cheaper to make up for a cheaper budget in terms of visual sensation.

From One To Five How Well Do Independent And Mainstream Films Represent Characters

When it came to this question I was surprised to see that both films were expected to have good to excellent character representation with both of the answers for Independent and Mainstream films having all been in the upper three choices. This shows that good character representation is integral for a film.

From One To Five How Would You Rate The Use Of Camera Shots In Mainstream And Independent Films?

The results for this showed me that it is clear that audiences expect Mainstream films to have good to excellent camera shots, whereas they expect that budget costs will limit the quality and extent of the camera shots in Independent films.

Choose Which Of These Subgenres You Would Expect To See In Mainstream And Independent Films.

It is somewhat harder to obtain extra knowledge from this question because other than what is written clearly on the graphs show. The audience expects action to be largely prominent in Mainstream films whereas they expect Independent films to be on subjects that can greater explo mental and cultural ideas.

Choose Which Of These Settings You Would Expect To See In A Mainstream Or Independent Film.

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

Again this question is quite direct and it is hard to explore the thought behind it. One thing I did learn from the people I interviewed was that they thought because that because Independent films have more diverse and rich plot structures, a variety of more obscure settings could cater better to Independent film.

What I Have Learned:
I have learned that the audience expects the smaller budget of Independent films to be substituted by stronger plot lines and more diverse settings and subgenres. When making my Thriller I will think about how to cater partly to the audience’s expectations of a thriller but perhaps prove them wrong on some of the areas where they think Independent films lack.

Shot List

Shot One- A girl Running through ally - Mid tracking shot.Not much light, eerie feel to the shot.

**Credits One** Diagetic sound of Girl Running

Shot Two- girl going through the hole in the fence. - Close up from Front. Various Extreme close ups of Arms and hands, Legs and Feet and Face.

**Credits two** Diagetic sound of Fence.

Shot Six- Girl Running to the civ. - Tracking Mid shot from behind with some More ECU.

Shot Seven- Girl cowering in the corner of the sqaush court - panning shot from front.Close ups of her hands and legs.

**Credit Three** Diagetic sound of crying and Footsteps.

Shot eight- Feet appearing at the doorway, cigarette dropping to the floor and foot stamping it out. ECU on cigarette.

Shot nine- first person view of girl looking up at men, the lighting hides their faces .

Shot Ten- first person view of girl running away, grabbed by man one and hit with the weapon by man two.

Shot Eleven- Blood hits wall.Shot Twelve- Shot from Floor in opposite corner of room, girl slides down the wall and close up of feet as they exit the room.

Initial Audience Research - Consuming Films

I used a questionnaire to collect infomation into the film industry, i asked 10 boys and 10 girls a few different questions to see what there perception of Thriller Films were, and to see how differently the answers between girls and boys varied.

The first question i asked was how the audience preferred to consume there films, be it DVD, cinema, or computer: These results show that only the boys that i asked watch films films via PC, we can almost see how this can effect the film industry because the two who have downloaded films could have gone to the cinema.

Following that question i asked my audience was how many people the audience liked to watch films with:These answers corralate quite strongly with the previous one because we can see that alot of the boys usualy watch films by themselves, which we can guess that there watching downlaoded films on their computers. We can also see that girls are alot more sociable when it comes to watching films.

Thriller Audience Research Proposal

To better understand and prepare for making my thriller film opening i shall conduct some audience research, this involves giving a number of people a questionnaire to fill out to find out what they think about indepandant and mainstream films.

What i aim to find out:

1) The audiences expectations for independant and mainstream films.
2) Whether they prefer independant or mainstream films. And whether people who have interest and/or consume art prefer independant films over mainstream.
3) How the audience prefers to consumes their films, for instance the cinema or on DVD.
4) How many people the audience members usualy watch films with.
5) What sub-genres of thriller the audience prefers, for instance psycological, action, crime, or conspiracy thrillers.

Possible ways to gather infomation:

1) Put on a private screening in my own home and invite people to watch different films and discuss their thoughts.
2) Hand out questionnaires to people and gather their findings.
3) Online poll

I expect to find what the majority of people expect from both mainstream and independant film, which ones they prefer and why they prefer them, i think that the majority of the people will prefer mainstream films over independant films and gravitate towards action and crime thrillers because they can offer a more intense viewing experience because of the larger budget size. This is becase most people like to watch films for the spectical rather than the plot because it provides a form of more unconditional entertainment which does not require strong emotional engagement, i think this because most audiences in my opinion go to watch films for the thrill and as a "laugh". I also expect people who have some interest in art will on the whole prefer independant films to mainstream films, i think this becuase people who connect with art are more interested in the emotional, and social elements, rather than the thrill.

Screenings in my area:

1) At my cinema i can expect there to be about 65 films over a weekend.
2) There are 9 films being exhibited currently in the cinema.
3) there are a number of films that are being screened three or more times. These include Avatar, Wolfman, and Edge Of Darkness.