Importance of Audience research - The questionnaire

Audience research will prove really useful for me in terms of appealing to my target audience by tailoring the film and also with ideas of what to include. For instance one of the genres my film pulls from heavily is romantic comedy, I am by no means a fan of this genre. Along with my own research it will be useful to see what other people think and would like to see.

I am distributing a questionnaire to people within my target audience to gain more of an insight into what they want to see in a short film. Here it is: First audience research
 

Question 1 & 2: Age and Gender
These questions are to clarify that the opinions in the questionnaire are those of my target audience. Also it will help identify if a particular group of people (for example of the same age) don't like the idea completely, helping me narrow down my target audience.

Question 3: What are the initial thoughts to my story?
Here I outline my the premise of my film to see the initial reactions. This will tell me if I have the right target audience and basically, what they think of my film.

Question 4: Rating classic Rom-Com situations 
I have stated five scenarios that I think I could make humorous by either over doing it or reversing character expectations. I have asked the audience to rate the scenarios in order of how much they would like to see them in the film (1 being high, 5 is low). The five are:

• A dinner date
• A picnic
• Walking out of the cinema
• Watching a movie on the sofa
• In the park, on the sings

This will help me prioritise, so if I don't have time for them all I know which to definitely include. 

Question 5: What other things do you associate with romantic comedies? 

Again, because I am not to accustom to the conventions of rom-coms along with preforming my own research into the conventions it will be useful to find out what my target audience associates with the genre. This will allow me to appeal the my audience all the more, and will also make the parody aspect more prominent. My aim is for audience to identify the situations within my film and recognise the connection to the romantic comedy genre.

Question 6: Which of these titles do you think is best?
I have several ideas for the title of my short film but I am not sure which to go with so I decided to ask the people that matter: my audience. Here were the options:

1. Coffee shop daydream
2. One fine coffee break
3. What could be

I did have a specific thought process behind each one:

Coffee shop daydream - This was what I originally called this film in the idea stage to help me remember what it included and not get in confused with my other ideas. It was like a little code name for me: It was set in a coffee shop and the main character daydreams - and that is how I remembered it. I thought I would come up with a completely new title but then I thought: Well, what is wrong with that? I understand it's not at all perfect but I was interested to see what other people thought of it. 

One fine coffee break - This title is a take on the title of the film One Fine Day (Michael Hoffman, 1996). I like the idea of the title being a parody as well as the subjects in the film. So I researched some rom-coms and found One fine day, and simply substituted "fine day" for "coffee Break" to make it relevant to my film.

What could be - This one is simply based on the premise of the film. When it comes down to it it's about  a guy missing out on what could have been. He could have had that lovely relationship if he hadn't of spent too long thinking about it enabling another guy to get there first. This is a more literal take on the narrative whereas the denotations suggest he wouldn't have had that anyway because this type of love that is so often portrayed in movies may be perceived as non-existent. 

I look forward to collecting in my data particularly for this question and seeing which comes out on top. 

Question 7: What clothes should the main character wear?

This comes down to how he is represented, would the audience want him to be professional or casual? From clothing the audience will make assumptions of what type of person he is and I needed to find out what would appeal to my target audience. 

Question 8: What type of instruments would you expect to hear in the daydream?

As I said before composing and music in general definitely isn't my strong point. To help me get the music right I asked my target audience what they would expect and like to hear. The music during the daydream sequence will help identify that what is presented isn't reality. I gave four options and asked people to circle the one they would most expect.

                                  -Piano        -Acoustic guitar        -Violins        -Woodwind

The answer to this will give me a good starting point for the composition.

Question 9: Should there be music playing all the time, or just during the montage?

Again, I wanted to find out what my audience would prefer. It doesn't make a big difference in my eyes as long as the music during the day dream part reflects the fact it isn't real.

Question 10:  At the ending, should the other male character be someone the girl already knows or a stranger like the main character? 
This decision is probably down to personal preference and doesn't really change the story or the narrative too much. However, once again I still wanted to find out what the target audience would prefer to see happen. 

Question 11: Would it be better in your opinion to have the guys thoughts vocalised or keep the film dialogue free?
I really like the idea of making a film with no dialogue. I think it takes more skill to do and convey everything you want without any speech and also adds a more professional tone to it. Also I don't have access to the best equipment to have dialogue in the film, the microphone on my camera is adequate but by no means amazing and I don't own or have the funds for an external one. But if dialogue will make my film better and more accessible for the audience it is something I will definitely include it.

Question 12: How could the woman appear mysterious or intriguing?

 This is similar to question seven in that it is about representation of characters. I need to know how I could make her appeal to the main character. I am thinking a long the line of what is she doing: reading? Writing? Drawing? And if any of those what? This is important as it is how the main character will make assumptions of her and form his opinion leading him to daydream about her and him together.

After collecting in these questionable I will collate and analysis the data to deduct what changes I need to make and what to include in my short film.