Audience Research

We decided to use a questionnaire to help us see what audiences are looking for. By doing this we have managed to get a general idea of what the audience want so we can make sure our film appeals to them.

1.

We asked how old they were so that we could get a general idea of what specific ages like what and to see if there was a specific age that romantic comedies in particular appeal to. The most popular age range for romantic comedies came back at 16-24 which is our target audience.

2.

We needed to know how often they went to the cinema as we thought that the more often they went to the cinema the more likely they are going to have seen a lot of teaser trailers and know what to expect.

3.

We asked about social networking so that when it comes to advertising our film we can pick the most popular site for our target audience so to get the best feedback.

4.

Certain music genres are specific to what type of film it is. We wanted to see if this was relevant to our audience. We're going to stick with the convention of the typical type of music that is expected of romantic comedies.

5.

We needed to know what our target audience would initially be expecting from our poster so that we could make it the main focus so it will attract them more.

6.

It was important to find out if our audience actually wanted to watch the film they saw as they would be more enthusiastic and accurate with their questionnaire response. We found that most of our audience saw films that they wanted us to see giving us a more personal response.

7.

Finding out who chose the films if our target audience didn't give us some input as to who else would be interested in our genre and therefore are our secondary audience. We found that friends were the most influential so we will have to slightly consider them too.

8.

We asked them to rank their favourite to least favourite film genre. This is very important as we needed to know how popular how genre would be. 12 people ranked rom-com as their favourite which is very good as we now know for definite this is a popular genre.

9.

Asking if people are more likely to see films if well known stars are in it helped us decide if we should include stars names in our trailer and poster. We decided that we would as most of the responses are yes.

10.

We were curious to find out which is the most important all though we will be doing all three, it was just a general idea as to what our target audience would be focusing on most.

As we didn't use the biggest range of ages or types our research is a little biased but it has helped us a lot to just give us a general idea of what is expected.

Initial Film Poster Ideas

Before drafting our film poster we decided to research film posters to get an idea on what is expected.

The most typical conventions are:

-date is at the bottom

-billing block is at the bottom

-actors name is at the top

We stuck to these typical conventions as we thought we wanted to keep it easy to read and pleasing for the audience.

This is our first initial idea of a poster. We decided to put the main characters on a bench as this is a pose that the audience could relate to a romantic comedy film. We kept the typical convention of the billing block and date. We decided as a group to have a tagline that represents our film and shows the audience what it's about and we put this at the top to make it eye-catching. We couldn't decide the best place to put the title as we wanted to make it eye-catching and impacting.

This is our latest design. We have kept the billing block and date the same as this will be easy for the audience to see and recognise. Also, we have kept the picture the same as it still shows the romantic comedy genre of the film. We decided to add some actors names at the top as this makes our poster look more professional and serious. So then we had to move the tagline which was a good idea as having it at the bottom rather than the top doesn't take away the initial impact of the title. The title is put next to the characters on the bench and even though this may not be absolutely typical it still makes the impact.

Film Magazine Research

Most famous film magazines tend to have a similar layout on each cover. This is so they follow continuity making it easier and better for the audience as they would be able to follow the magazine.
Empire is a famous film magazine including many features. The front cover is usually in the same typical format, with the masterhead in the same place and usually always the same colour.

The main character of the film the magazine is advertising covers over the main title of the magazine. But this doesn't matter as it is a well known magazine and it brings more focus to the main character. The colour choices of the font seem to reflect the film being advertised which is a good idea because if it was the same every issue, it could become boring and predictable and also the colours all work well then and are pleasing to the eye.

This would appeal to its target audience as it is bright and eye-catching and the picture is of a famous actor that most peopl know and like so it attracts a wider audience too.

Total Film is similar to Empire in the way that the font and main layout of the masterhead is usually always the same. The picture also covers the title as this is also a major film magazine and the audience would already know the magazine cover well, so it is able to do this. This also has a well known actor as the main star as he will attract a wider audience too and display the main character of the film.

After looking at magazine covers its given me an insight to what is needed and expected. We need to discuss as a group what font and layout we are going to use and how we are going to present the picture on the cover. The main issue is thinking about the target audience and how we are going to appeal to them.