1. Researching
Techniques
Charlotte Hollis

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Contents Page
Page 2: Audience Research
Page 2: What is audience research?
Page 2: What is the purpose of audience Research?
Page 2: Audience Categories
Page 3-7: Methods and techniques
Page 7: Market Research
Page 7: What is market research?
Page 7: What is the purpose of market research?
Page 7: Market research categories
Page 7-8: Methods and techniques that would be suitable for
market research into a new movie and why?
Page 8-15: Primary Research
Page 15: Production Research
Page 15: What is production research?
Page 15: What is the purpose of production research?
Page 15: What methods are there of production research?
Page 15-16: Methods and techniques that would be suitable
for production research into a new movie and why?

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Audience Research
What is audience Research?
So what is audience research? Australian Museum describes audience research
as a discipline of museology that seeks to uncover information about visitors to
cultural institutions, such as demographics, behaviour, satisfaction, leisure
habits and learning outcomes.
What is the purpose of audience Research?
Before creating a trailer you need to look into the target audience so you include
the right stuff for a high quality trailer which attracts the right ages. This also
helps find out what and who they are targeting and what they would like to see.
Audience Categories
When looking at audience category‟s I looked into lots of different issues and
needs a few of the techniques I used were:
Standard occupational classification –
the bureau of labour statistics say the
2010 standard occupational
classification (SOC) system is used by
federal statistical agencies to classify
workers into occupational categories
for the purpose of collecting,
calculating, or disseminating data. All
workers are classified into one of 840
detailed occupations according to their
occupational definition. To facilitate
classification, detailed occupations are
combined to form 461 broad
occupations, 97 minor groups, and 23 major groups. Detailed occupations
in the SOC with similar job duties, and in some cases skills, education,
and/or training, are grouped together. This helped me choose which
category my trailer fit into and as my film is based with young people it
was harder as they don‟t fit into the categories so I based this part of my
research on the parents who would decide to watch it and pay for the
viewing and merchandise. Although my viewers would vary I decided to
place them in C1 and C2.

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Psychographics – The business dictionary
says that psychographics is an analysis of
consumer lifestyles to create a detailed
customer. Market researchers conduct
psychographic research by asking
consumers to agree or disagree with
opinions statements. Results of this
exercise are combined with geographic
(place of work or residence) and
demographic (age, education, occupation,
etc.) characteristics to develop a more
'lifelike' portrait of the targeted consumer
segment. This helps me in deciding which
programmes or films to put my trailer as
from knowing peoples interests and
parents occupations I can find what sort
of films people are into or what they
would consider to watch as a family.
Geodemographics – Orau.gov describe
geodemographics to be Geographic
factors and trends in a specific locale
(e.g. where people live, population
density, healthcare, climate, eating
patterns, spending patterns, leisure
activities, local industry, and outdoor
activities) that can help with locational
decisions (e.g., selecting a clinic site) or
local contact interventions. This would
help me in where and what cinema‟s to
choose to have my film shown and
merchandise sold.
Age and Gender – My target age is young people as it‟s a family film.
There isn‟t a particular gender my film is based upon but it may appeal to
females more because of the animal side.
Methods and techniques that would be suitable for audience
research into a Family trailer and why:
Method: Suitable: Reason why?
Questionnaires
Yes This helps me find out curtain
details in which will help me get a
large target audience for my film.
Surveys
Yes This again will help like a
questionnaire would as it helps me
find exact details on curtain pieces
that would help me.

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Online forums
No As my target audience is young
people online forums wouldn‟t
attract the right ages therefore
wouldn‟t get the information
needed.
Interviews
Yes Like the questionnaire and surveys
interview would help by getting the
needed information from the target
audience.
Focus groups
No Like the online forums focus
groups wouldn‟t attract the wanted
target audience.
Online ratings
Yes Although I‟ve mentioned how
online forums wouldn‟t attract the
right target audience online ratings
would as a parent may be looking
for a fun way to spend the day with
the children and may come across
this.
Trailer reviews
Yes Trailer reviews would help as I
could then improve what was
needed to make sure it‟s as high
quality as it could be.
Using different methods to find out information on
audience research
Internet forums
Internet forums are often used for audience research as fans from the same
genre will discuss what they hope for a film or even spoilers which may
encourage people to see the films. Internet forums are often a lot more helpful
in audience research if the film was a book before as there‟ll already be a big fan
base and people waiting for a film.
Internet forums didn‟t help in audience research as much as different methods
as my target audience wouldn‟t necessarily use the internet so I couldn‟t find out
what they wanted to see or what sort of things children wanted to see. I did use
a family films internet forum search on Google to find out that the most popular
children‟s/family films are animation.
Using company’s personal data:
To find out who I was working against I looked into Disney as after research and
many years of watching their popularfilms such as the well-known princess
stories like sleeping beauty and beauty and the beast I found out they were the
biggest and most popular family films distributor as they work from young

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children films such as „cars‟ and „the little mermaid‟ to older children and families
such as „The Pirates of the Caribbean‟ and „John Carter‟.
From just looking at their website I
can see that they have a high
budget and they have a popular
place to advertise their films free of
charge as young people will go to
this website to play Disney games
and see the advertisements of films
they may want to see, this page as
a great example as they have a
trailer playing top centre of the
page where you can‟t miss it. As my
film is low budget I couldn‟t do this.
Films target audience
From this survey my chosen genre
family isn‟t one of the most popular
but that may be based on the fact
that my fan base wouldn‟t be filling
surveys in and are too young for
that sort of thing therefore may be
more popular than some with four
votes. From this survey as well I
can see that I would need to
conduct my own to make sure I
have a reliable source for my
research.

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As the online survey isn‟t
always reliable as we don‟t
know who‟s answering the
questions, I decided to do
my own and asked 67
people around college and
my local area to get a
varied opinion in different
ages.
4
7
6
5
5
3
2
5
8
4
6
7
5
0 2 4 6 8 10
Action
Comedy
Family
Mystery
Adventure
Sci-fi
Crime
Fantasy
Horror
Animation
Drama
Romance
Thriller
What's your favourite genre?

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Market Research
What is market research?
Wise geek describes market research to consist of testing the market to
determine the acceptance of a particular product or service, especially amongst
different demographics. It is used to establish which portion of the population
will or does purchase a product, based on age, gender, location, income level
and many other variables. Market research allows companies to learn more
about past, current and potential customers, including their specific likes and
dislikes.
What is the purpose of market research?
Without researching the market before creating a film or anything alone the lines
you will be wasting a lot of time, money and resources. You need to determine
the profitability of the market, what customers want in the market, who is
already in the market, top rated films in the market, selling strategies, what
films dominate your market and why and potential profit.
Market research categories
Market research includes opinions and thoughts from the public (market)
therefore can be carried out in a few different methods:
Public questionnaires.
Surveys.
Discussions either through the phone or face to face.
Focus groups.
Methods and techniques that would be suitable for market
research into a new movie and why:
Method: Suitable? Reason Why?
Questionnaires Yes
This would let me find out how
often people visit the cinema and
what a family would like to see.
Online reviews of films Yes
This would allow me to find out
what family viewers like and
dislike, so I can adapt my film to
suit the most amount of people.
Online Ratings Yes
This would show me which is the
most popular family film out there
and also the most popular film out
there when I‟d like to release mine
because if it‟s the same genre then
it‟s worth changing when mine

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released so they don‟t clash and I
loose viewers.
Surveys Yes
This would help me in the same
way a questionnaire would as it‟s a
similar thing but a survey may be
more popular and filled out by
more people.
Focus groups No
Focus groups wouldn‟t attract my
wanted genre fans therefore
wouldn‟t work as well as the
methods above.
Interviews No
Again just like the focus groups it
wouldn‟t attract my wanted genre
fans.
Using different methods and techniques to find our market
research
Primary Research
My market research will help me find out more about the competition out there
and the size of the market.
Questionnaires
Using my questionnaire
helped a lot as I was able
to find out a few needed
things about my market.
For example from my
questionnaire I was able to
find that the majority of
families go to the cinema
once a mouth, families are
more likely to go to the
cinema if there‟s a film that
the whole family will enjoy,
Families agree that there
aren‟t enough films out in
the market that both
children and parents can
enjoy, families go to the
cinema more during school
holidays and that the most
popular place to find out about family films is the cinema. All though it was only
a 6 question questionnaire answered by only 10 people it just shows how much
market research can be found in such a small low budget way. If I was to do
this questionnaire again I would ask a lot more people for example the survey I

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took on my target audience (shown on page 6) I asked a lot more people in
different areas which meant that my survey was a lot more reliable and I knew I
had enough information collected to have reliable research.
I decided to change a few of the
questions to pie charts as their easier
to read and a lot clearer. From looking
at my pie charts it shows what the
most popular category is with just a
glance. I chose to use the percentages
on the pie charts as it gives another
clear answer.
0% 0%
39%
49%
12%
How often do you
go to the cinema
as a family?
Everyday or
more
2-6 times a
week
About once a
week
About once a
month
20%
60%
0%
20%
0%
Would you go as
a family if there
was a film you
will all enjoy?
Yes
More likely
No
60%
30%
10%
0% 0%
Do you agree that
there aren't
enough movies in
the cinema for
young children
that parents can…
Totally agree
Partially
agree
Neither agree
or disagree
Partially
disagree
Totally
disagree
62%18%
9%
11%
Do you go to the
cinema more
often during…
Yes
Usually
No

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Posters
My poster research was really helpful as it helped me decide on colours, detail,
and positioning. From my research I have found that family posters are very
bright and use a lot of block bold colours, therefore I will do the same but I‟d like
my colours to be more on the bold side than the bright as I would like the
colours of crayons so it looks hand coloured. The detail used in family posters
varies a lot for example „The Lorax‟ only has his face in the background and
„Tangled‟ has a whole scene.
My poster follows most posters with the main
actors/voiceovers listed at the bottom, the release
date, and a bold title. The main focus of my poster is
spread out for example the house is at the top centre
of the poster like the characters on the tangled poster
but the mouse is at the bottom right similar to the
bottom centre gnome on the „gnomeo and juliet‟
poster. The posters above are created with computer
animation whereas mine is hand drawn but coloured on
Photoshop. I have done this is as I want my poster to
use the traditional cartoon like „The Simpsons‟ for
example.

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Trailer
Researching other popular family film trailer‟s such asMoody Judy and the NOT
bummer summer and Horrid Henry the movie helped a lot with knowing what to
put in the trailer for example pivot points in the story and the main part that
makes it the genre like humour parts in a comedy and I also found out how long
the trailer should be. Most internet sites, such as Wikipedia, ehow and quorasay
that trailers should last from about 40 seconds to a minute and a half but from
all the trailer‟s I‟ve seenwhich are Judy Moody the NOT bummer summer, horrid
henry the movie, Mr popper's penguins, who framed roger rabbit and honey I
shrunk the kids they‟ve lasted around 2 minutes to 2 and a half minutes long.
Forum groups
Before producing my trailer I wanted to get some feedback on it such as „do you
think the trailer was successful and did it contain the codes and conventions of
the appropriate genre so I can improve on what I needed so I showed a class
my trailer and got some feedback. My findings were very helpful and I got back
what I thought I might for example some of the extra comments mentioned that
the trailer looked a lot like a music video and how the fire building went on for
too long in comparison to the dream. Asking different people that like different
film genres helped as it meant they weren‟t looking at what was going to be in
the film but the quality of the trailer itself.

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The feedback on this question was positive as it clearly shows that the trailer
was in fact successful even though I made it my own and there were some risks
and mistakes in the trailer such as the main part of the film (the dream) wasn‟t
shown much as I‟d like it to be kept in the dark until the first preview, this was a
big risk to take as people may pay to see the film and get disappointed with the
outcome but I feel it would fit in the codes and conventions and sit nicely with
other family films.
This question wasn‟t as positive as the one above as some viewers found that it
didn‟t contain the codes and conventions of the family genre so I will have to go
Yes
No
Majority
Do you think the trailer was
successful?
Yes
No
Majority
Did it contain the codes and
conventions of the appropriate
genre?

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back over the trailer and correct it – this may mean I will need to create another
survey/questionnaire but base it only on the codes and conventions.
This question is one of the most positive as I have had 100% good feedback.
This may change when I adapt my trailer to fit the codes and conventions but it
shouldn‟t by much as if it fits the codes and conventions it should fit the
certificate.
Are the following appropriate?
I will need to adapt the colouring in some of my shots as it‟s too dark but luckily
I will be able to do this in adobe premiere which means I won‟t have to go out
Yes
NoMajority
Would it sit comfortably
alongside other trailers for the
certificate?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Font Images Wording Tagline Colours
Yes
No

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and re shot which is what I didn‟t want to have to do although if the editing
doesn‟t work then I may have to.
I thought the font worked well as its bold and stands out but a couple of my
viewers found that it didn‟t work with the genre so I‟ll have to change this to fit.
Online reviews/ratings of current and past films
The reviews and ratings on
current and past films were
really helpful because from
this I found that all the top
family films are animation
and films for very young
children for example
“ZhuZhu Pets Quest for Zhu”
got a rating of 8/10 and got
nearly top reviews along with
“Care Bears: Share Bear
Shines” getting a rating of
7/10 coming in 7th
with top reviews and “In The Night Garden All Together”
getting 9/10. After looking through the top family films I have gathered
information, like what families want to see and what attracts viewers, which
would help my film get into the charts which would mean I get more viewers and
make a larger profit.
Surveys
Surveys helped me find out what parents would be willing to take their children
to see and what they would enjoy to see with their children. This would help me
decide on the content of my film and what would be acceptable in a family film
and what wouldn‟t upset/disappoint the parents and children as a lot of my
advertising will be through word and mouth. For example from my survey I
found that a popular theme of family film is animals.

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Production Research
What is production research?
Business Dictionary describe production research to be the component of market
research whereby the characteristic of a good or service, that will satisfy a
recognized need or want, are identified.
What is the purpose of production research?
Production research is used to make sure the product/film is produced
accordingly and in the best way possible, and also how they can advertise their
product in the best way and in the most according way depending on the
demand in the market place. Another purpose is so the distributor knows how
much money it will cost for the product or again in my case a film to be created
and manufactured. Production research also ensures that the product has
sufficient quality to please consumers or in my case viewers. Usually, production
research begins with an involved research and development phase. For a
professional standard of working all the aspects of the product have to be clearly
thought out.
What methods are there of production research?
There a quite a few methods for production research just like other research but
as there are so many purposes to production research there are more methods –
like other research these include questionnaires, online reviews, online ratings,
surveys, focus groups and interviews but for production research you could also
use books and e-mail which would be un-suitable for other research but good for
finding out from other companies about pricing and techniques.
Methods and techniques that would be suitable for
production research into a new movie and why:
Method: Suitable? Reason why?
Interviews Yes
Interviews would work as
long as you‟re asking the
right people the right
questions and you can
ask direct specific
questions that could be
asked about anything
needed to know without
spending hours of
unsuccessful internet or
book research.
Email Yes
Similar to interviews
specific questions can be
asked and you can store

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the e-mails for other
products or films later in
life that may apply.
Books Yes
Depending on the age of
the book books can be
very helpful in finding
information anonymously
so competitors wouldn‟t
know how much
information you know
and what you have
against them.
Questionnaires Yes/Partly
Like interviews and
emails specific questions
can be asked although
the down side of
questionnaires you can‟t
reply on honest or
professional answers.
Forums Yes
Forums are probably the
easiest way to research
for this subject as the
data or information may
have already been
collected and people may
have commented on
ways to help in terms of
production.