(cover image: art by holly warburton)
Apart from the Herculean quest for motivation to start studying productively again after winter break, I was also assigned the slightly less arduous task of carrying out a survey to determine our potential audience’s preferences which could help me decide what possible forms my film opening may take.
After finalising the questions, with not a single brain cell and only two friends to my name, I set out in search of human entities to fill out my questionnaire, only to realise that my arch-enemy wasn’t, and I can’t stress this enough, the very limited number of people who I know and could coax into contributing to the survey but rather Survey Monkey itself. Which is to say that I am but a broke student and this site requires money to collect more than 40 responses. Although the responses slightly exceeded 40 somehow, leaving the introvert (me) too stunned to speak, I wasn’t able to access them and here we are, with a tiny sample size that perhaps does not exactly represent all of our target audience’s opinions but still might provide insightful data. However, the bigger tragedy was surely the palpable disappointment that accompanied having to close 11 Color Hunt tabs (yes, I counted) once I realised I didn't need potential colour combination options at all because I couldn’t customise the colours of my charts without a paid Survey Monkey plan.
Although I have still not yet recovered from the Shakespearean levels of sorrow that not being able to spend several hours needlessly customising the colours of your graphs brings with it, I managed to share the survey—before the tragic discovery of course—with people who follow my instagram blog. Here are the results compiled in the form of some default coloured graphs after a couple of days of collecting responses.
Most of the respondents are females, making up almost 72% of the potential audience; thus, the film opening will be made while keeping in mind that it is mainly being catered to them.
My target audience is primarily of ages 15 to 18 and I also belong to that age group of ‘Gen Z’ which makes things a lot easier; knowing that I’m creating a film opening directed towards people of my age would allow me to include in it things like themes, narrative situations, music, etc. that I know would appeal to such an audience.
52.5% of the respondents watch films moderately often and 80% of them prefer doing so at home; with access to streaming services and other means of watching films at home that allow people to switch to another piece of media instantly if they don’t find the one they are watching compelling enough, it is imperative for our film opening to be sufficiently captivating, particularly considering that a large percentage of our audience does actually consider film openings to be important (see question six).
As someone who enjoys drama films greatly, especially because of the diversity of what a narrative that falls into the category of ‘drama’ may constitute, this was a relief. The genre of drama was deemed the victor, closely followed by romance and the third favourite being horror. Preferences for other genres are scattered, and, therefore, I think I can be a little more open with what genre I might eventually choose, as the genre of drama, the most popular one, can be combined with another genre seamlessly or used alone and be just as entertaining either way if executed well.
The fact that a majority of the respondents prefer seeing the title sequence/opening credits in a stylised manner relevant the content is also quite helpful because it is again a choice that can be combined with another, such as with being incorporated into the opening scene in an engaging way or in the form of overlays, to create an impactful effect in our film opening. Only a small percentage seems to have no preference regarding this, suggesting that those who do might actually consider these factors to play a role, however small of a role that may be, in affecting their experience while watching a film, so we should take this into consideration when adding the title and more in the project.
Aesthetics took the lead here, followed by captivating mood and atmosphere and a gripping storyline. Although all the elements stated in the question contribute to creating a good film opening, the responses to this question allow me to know which of them I should prioritise when creating the film opening.
The responses to this question will also assist me in deciding what direction I want to take the project in as it concludes what type of film openings are liked by the target audience. The most popular of the options are cold opens, inciting incidents and day in the life. This implies that regardless of what form the film opening may take, some sort of exciting event incorporated into it is likely to make it more enjoyable for our audience.
Since this last question required a response specific to the person answering the question, it is, of course, difficult to determine any pattern in the responses. However, I added it nevertheless, hoping that it will provide intriguing answers that may give me an insight into some individual preferences of the respondents which I could not have predicted exactly while creating the multiple choice questions.
While a friend of mine assumed the role of silly comic relief…
… others’ responses did prove to be quite insightful.
The answers range from a fellow Chungking Express enthusiast (potentially) to appreciation galore for Amelie’s opening scene and have, paired with the responses to the other questions, deepened my understanding of the likes and dislikes of the audience which will hopefully aid me in ensuring that my film opening is as good as it can be in accordance with the preferences of those who will be—hypothetically—watching it.
コメント