Questionnaire Evaluation

Before we are able to begin planning our film opening we had to conduct research into our target audience. To do this we conducted a focus group and a questionnaire, distributed by Survey Monkey. The distribution of the questionnaire was conducted through social network sites and e-mail to allow a large number of people to complete it. We want our film opening to appeal to both males and females. Therefore we wanted an equal number of both sexes to answer our questionnaire and give their opinion on the content they want to see. After several weeks we had 54 people answer the questionnaire; out of these 29 were females and 25 were males. We were expecting more females to answer because females are more active on social networking sites than males.

Our opening sequence is to be aimed at youths aged between 14 and 24. We chose this age group because we are in this age group and we have a general idea of what content to include in the title sequence. Out of the featured age groups the most answered were 14-17 and 18-24. This statistic shows that more teenagers conducted the questionnaire.

We then asked what their favourite films were from any genre. The responses given were varied but there were certain trends we could analyse. The respondents gave many examples that included examples from extremely different genres like John Carpenters The Thing through to Officer and a Gentleman. But the most popular films mentioned were the Lord of the Rings series; mentioned by 5

people; the Back to the Future series; mentioned by 4 people; the Hunger Games; mentioned by 3 people and the James Bond series mentioned by 3 people. These findings show that the public has a varied interest in films and do not just watch one genre of film.

We them gave a list of the most famous and unknown dystopian films then asked them to select the films they had watched. The bar chart to the right shows the WallE was the most watched film out of our list with the Terminator series coming a close second. I feel the reason that WallE was the most watched is the fact that the film appeals to all age groups. The film is bright, happy and funny, entertaining all age groups from the young to the elderly. But the story also has morals that may not be seen by younger audiences but is noticeable to older audiences, leaving them to think about the world we live in. The reason the Terminator series is popular is because it was ground breaking at the time with the effects and stories; meaning that younger generations have been brought up watching the films.

Favorite Characteristics For the next question we asked what their favourite characteristics Others of the films were. I compiled their Set/Locations responses into the graph to the right, creating an easy way to see Special Effects their responses. The most Characters Number of mentions popular characteristic was story; a Action good film relies on a good story Story and the public acknowledge that point. The other popular 0 10 20 characteristic is characters; to be Number of Mentions fully involved in a film the audience need characters they can relate to, if they are extremely odd the audience may become disengaged with the film meaning they will not enjoy it as much. It was
Characteristics

interesting that the respondents kept coming back to the same characteristics over and over again. This shows how the general public feel that these characteristics either make or break a film.

We then asked the respondents what they think should happen in a dystopian film. There are common traits that occur in all the responses. The film is set in a world hat has experienced disaster, a nuclear war or a natural disaster. This landscape is controlled by bad guys; these may be the more powerful beings left on the planet, therefore they are in the positions of power. They also feel there is an underdog hero that rises up against these bad guys with the support of the people. This character may have a hidden past, driving him/her to stand against all evil.

We wanted to find out what to include is our title sequence so we asked what they enjoy about this genre of film. On reflection this question is similar to one of our previous questions but the answers given were different in the detail given. They give more detail about how their favourite aspects affect the film for them. A larger number of respondents mentioned the location of the film was an aspect they enjoyed and impacted them because it showed the directors view on hoe the future will look. Many of the respondents mentioned how they enjoyed the story of the film and the thoughts it let them with. The imaginative stories they use are the appealing aspect of the story. The extreme difference from normal life acts as escapism; this appeals to the audience because it allows them to leave their lives and forget about any troubles.

The last question we asked was What do you not enjoy about this genre? The main point that was repeated was there was too much violence. This may be because the violence is not needed or it distracts from the story. There is also the thought that there are not enough main characters that are female. In many dystopian films the female characters are stereotypical and are not in main roles. Some of the respondents feel that some story lines are too far fetched; one respondent wrote That they can go over the top like aliens came down from planet Zogg in UFOs. Nearly all of the respondents wrote that the stories can be predictable; you can usually predict what is going to happen; Sometimes the "protagonist rebelling against dystopian morals" gets repetitive and tedious.

From our questionnaire we now know what the public wants to see in our title sequence. The public enjoys the fact that we need to use striking landscapes to capture the audiences attention. The imaginative stories that are used in dystopian films really appeal to the audience and draw them into the story.