Target Audience Research

These are the questions we asked in our vox pops:

1) How old are you?

2) How often do you watch crime films?

3) What is your opinion on violence in crime films?

4) What is your opinion on hard drug use in crime films?

5) Why do you like crime films?

6) Do you like crime films were the protagonist gets away?

7) What puts you off from a crime film?

8)  Who is your favorite director of crime films?

9) What do you think about the use of bad language in films?

We chose to ask open questions as we felt that it allowed us to gather a wider range of information, even if it does make it harder to analyse. For example, the question 'why do you like crime films?' allows us to find things we may have not previously considered, as opposed to if we asked if a specific thing was good. We asked the questions about drug use and violence to our audience as these are themes that would be prevalent within our clip so we wanted to discover people's opinions on them. We asked the bad language question for the same reason.

My initial reaction from having watched our clips is that the crime genre is something that is very popular among the 16/17 year old age range. The general ideas were that the themes of violence and drug use within the films were not to be taken too seriously and were entertaining. A popular director was Quentin Tarantino.

Analysis

Above is a pie chart showing how often people said they watch crime films. Whilst it is not perfect in that 'fairly often' isn't a time frame in the same way that 'once a month' is, I feel that it visually represents the answers well. Looking at the chart it is fairly apparent that, at least for the people we interviewed, people do watch crime films quite regularly.

With regards to the key questions about drugs, violence and bad language, we discovered that people around the same age as us had no problems with any of the three things. In fact, not a single response to people's opinions on them was negative, which suggests that we can take free reign with using them to a realistic extent. I feel that 'realistic' is definitely a key word though. For example, for the question about drug use, a third of the responses referred to it adding realism. This gives me the impression that if we overdid it, it may not seem as realistic because it may not accurately represent the lives that criminals live. 

One question that I felt could make a big difference to the potential outcome of the film and therefore the beginning to some extent is question six. For example, one answer was that if the ending made sense they didn't mind if the protagonist got away or not. Therefore, I feel that this is something that would be key going forward. This was something that was perhaps in the back of my mind however hearing this in the vox pops was useful as it brought it to our attention, ensuring it made sense.

Similarly, question 7 was helpful as it allowed us to see what people wanted from crime films. The general response was that it should be full of action, violence and crime. One response was that 'not enough violence' put them off a crime film. Therefore, violence is something that will be a part of the title sequence so that people know that it is a part of the film. 

If I were to conduct another session of target audience research, I think that I would ask closed questions, ask a larger number of people and also a wider range of cultures and ages. Asking closed questions would allow me to analyse the data even further because I would be getting a set response and also allow me to have some kind of control over the answers. Asking a wider range of people both in terms of numbers and background would allow me to gain data that is more representative of society as a whole. However, one benefit of asking the people that I did ask is that they are they kind of people that tend to watch crime films and therefore their opinions on the subject may be more valid than asking somebody who has no interest in them.