Analysis Of Target Audience Research
The aim of the questionnaire was to get to know the audience, their film interests and their understanding of the film genre social realism. The questionnaire was successful as generalisations can be assumed from the results. For example, most young people have seen some sort of social realism film (whether it’s a hybrid genre or not), also most people prefer other film genres to social realism, another interesting trend in the results is that most people dislike online viewing.
Responses on the questionnaire, under the viewing habits section, show that young people would rather watch a DVD of a film at home by themselves. This shows that young people prefer privacy, and they would rather watch a film at the end of a day under more relaxed conditions. This leads onto the tastes and preferences section and what film genre the participants would rather watch. Most of the participants said they enjoyed the social realism genre, however that’s because they had watched a “hybrid genre” which was the majority had watched. Few participants disliked the genre and that was down to the film itself being described as “crappy”. However some participants led me to believe they had watched true social realism with responses like “it was very moving”. From this variety of responses it is clear that the majority prefer a hybrid genre, especially one with a “comical” taste. This would lead a filmmaker to perhaps think about making a light hearted social realism film, if he wished to cater to the majority.
Responses to the “which genres do you like” category also showed a majority result in the favour of comedy, which would once again influence the genre a filmmaker would pick. Other genres picked were action, thriller, drama, rom-com and sci-fi. One thing all these genres have in common is that “they are entertaining” and they aren’t as hard hitting as social realism films, and the responses show that almost every participant preferred one of these genre to social realism. The participant in the minority said “social realism is more realistic, which I like” This response shows that social realism is a genre meant only to cater for the minority, and perhaps isn’t meant for the mainstream cinema.
On the other hand, another question suggested that people do like social realism. The question asked whether the participant would watch a film with realistic events, like anti-social youths. Some answered yes, but more importantly some participants answered “sometimes” or “maybe” which shows that social realism is the type of genre that has a time and a place, and depends on whether the participant is looking for a hard hitting film at the time. This would still suggest a more niche audience as oppose to the mainstream, as there are few who prefer this genre above others, and those who said they would see it, also suggested it depends on how they felt at the time.
A different section of my questionnaire asks the participants directly about the genre, and how they would define it and whether it belongs in mainstream cinema. For the definition section most participants wrote a similar answer, such as “real issues in a film” or “films that portray social issues”. A few participants did not know what social realism is, and a few had the wrong definition. These results show that some social realism is not wide spread like other genres, and (yet again) suggests a less mainstream audience. The most important question asked whether the participants thought social realism belongs in mainstream cinemas. There were a large variety of responses, most of which said that it would only succeed in mainstream if it were a “hybrid genre” otherwise “it doesn’t attract a large enough audience”. Another response was, “There conventions are found in many other films”, which suggests that there is little to make social realism unique from other genres. However some people answered “mainstream cinema has been lacking it recently” and that it makes people realise “they are not alone” when it comes to their everyday problems. This wide variety of answers would make a filmmaker feel that the only way to cater to all these different people is to make a hybrid film.
In conclusion, from all the responses it is fair to say that they would have a great impact on the creative process, mainly in the genre picking stage. The reason for this is because many people have shown a vague interest in social realism but a large interest in social realism hybrids, this can also be proven by the success of films like “The Full Monty” (this film was a hybrid of social realism and comedy, and it was a huge success). This would influence a filmmaker to create a hybrid genre, but then true social realism would never be shown in mainstream cinemas, which is why true social realism needs to be kept alive through the niche audiences.
