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 achieved through social network sites and e-mail to allow a large number of people access to complete it. We want our film opening to appeal to both males and females. Therefore as far as possible 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 54 people had answered 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 young people aged between 14 and 24. We chose this age group because we ourselves are in it and we have a general idea of what content to include in the title sequence to appeal to this group. Out of the featured age groups the majority of answers were from 14-17 and 18-24. This statistic suggests that young people are interested in films, and because they are more likely to use social network web-sites they were more likely to access the survey.

We then asked what their favourite films were from any genre. The responses given were varied but there were certain trends we could identify. The

respondents gave many examples that included examples from extremely different genres for example John Carpenters The Thing through to An 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 survey respondents have a varied interest in films and do not just watch one genre of film.

We then gave a list of the most famous and some lesser known dystopian films and asked them to select the films they had watched. The bar chart to the right shows that 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 noticed by younger audiences but are noticeable to older audiences, encouraging 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.

For the next question we asked what their favourite characteristics of the films were. I compiled their responses into the graph to the right, creating an easy way to see their responses. The most popular characteristic was Story; a good film relies on a good story and the public acknowledge that point. The other popular

Favourite Characteristics
Others Set/Locations Characteristics Special Effects Characters Action Story 0 10 20 Number of mentions

Number of Mentions

characteristic is Characters; to be 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 interesting that the respondents kept coming back to the same characteristics over and over again. This shows how the general public feel that these two 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 that has experienced a man-made 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, and they impose their will on the rest of the population. 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 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 they included. They give more detail about how their favourite aspects affect the film for them. A large number of respondents mentioned the location in which the film is set was an aspect that contributed to their enjoyment and impacted them because it showed the directors view on how the future will look. Many of the respondents mentioned how they enjoyed the story of the film and the thoughts it left them with. The imaginative stories they use are an appealing aspect of this type of film. The extreme difference from normal life provides an opportunity for escapism; this appeals to the audience because it allows them to temporarily leave their normal lives and forget about any troubles they may have.

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 was also the suggestion that there are not enough main characters that are

female. In many dystopian films the female characters fit in to stereotypical supporting roles, on many occasions providing the love interest for the main male character. 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 have a clear view of what the public wants to see in our title sequence. The imaginative themes that are used in dystopian films really appeal to the audience and draw them into the story. However, re-enforcement of traditional gender stereotypes can be discouraging to many. So we need to create a new variation on the good vs. evil theme ensuring that there are strong male and female character roles.