Sample Questionnaire
I wanted to investigate what the audience think about films & film trailers. To get feedback, I generated a questionnaire which I handed out to 20 people of various age groups. I did however, split the questionnaires in half, handing out 10 in College to students and teachers and the other 10 outside of College.
Male/Female Ratio
Out of a total of 20 people, 11 Males took part in the questionnaire as well as 9 females.
Age Groups
Since it is easier to acquire a teenager's time to fill in questionnaires, especially one of this type, you'll notice that out of 20 people, 10 (A mere 50%) were between ages 13 and 18. Three of the respondents were between ages 19-25, two between ages 25-35, two were in the 36-45 age group, another two in the 46-55 category and just one in the 56-65 age group. This concludes that availability decreases with age, when it comes to researches like this. This is also due to the environment that I'm situated in most of the time as I am most of the time around people between ages 13 and 30.
Sample Question 1: Where do you see/watch film trailers most?
Out of a total of 20, 13 people suggest that YouTube & the Internet is the means by which they see film trailers the most. Or the most used source by which they see film trailers. 4 out of the 20 respondents said Movie Theatres and 3 out of 20 said Television.
Since the questionnaire was limited to only 20 samples, it makes it difficult to conclude whether or not YouTube and the Internet is the #1 means in the world by which people see film trailers. However, with the significant technological growth & advancement made over time it is safe to say that the internet has had significant impact on the way we communicate - connecting people from different parts of the world through Social Media websites & software like Facebook, Twitter, Skype etc. There are nearly 3 billion users of internet/data in the world today and with all mobile phones & tablets being produced right now having the capability to access the internet, it's fair to say that each user have seen a trailer or video at some point in owning their phones/tablets.
With with less than 50% of the respondents (Movie Theatres and Television combined) say that these are the means by which they get to see film trailers the most and a whopping 65% of the respondents say that YouTube/Online is the #1 means by which they see film trailers, it really makes me wonder ''are movie threatres and TV getting less popular?'' Yes pretty much, even though I can't fully conclude because you have to consider other parts of the world which don't have access to the internet or TV even. However, it isn't hard to say that the Internet will continue to have a significant impact on the way we communicate.
Sample Question 2: Have you ever watched a film trailer that has persuaded you to go and watch the film?
I also wanted to find out how effective film trailers really are, in terms of persuading an audience to watch a film. Out of 20 participants, 19 said that they've been persuaded to watch films more than once by film trailers. Only 1 said that they've only been persuaded once by a film trailer to go and watch a film.
It's safe to say that film trailers are very effective in terms of their purpose, which is to persuade an individual or a target audience to go and watch a film.
SQ 3: After watching a film trailer which you found interesting, do you? (Share it on Facebook/Twitter OR Tell a friend)
Out of 20 Respondents, 19 of them said that they would rather tell a friend about the film. Just 1 said that they'd share it on Facebook/Twitter. Based on the information given back, it's safe to say that people would rather talk to a friend in person about a film which they may have found interest in.
It's automatic that people would do this, it's human instinct, we like to engage in conversation, we like to share and voice our thoughts and opinions on things. This supports the two step flow of communication.
Sample Question 4: Which of the four do you find the most interesting about trailers?
Out of 20 Respondents, 9 (45%) said they find the Narrative/Story most interesting about film trailers. 5 each for both Music/Sound (25%) and Editing/Video (25%), together they combine for 50% of the votes, this shows that their both as equally as important as they compliment each other, this was one of the debates people had among themselves and found it hard to choose one over the other.
SQ 5: How long do you think film trailers should be?
I wanted to find out from an audience's (consumer) perspective, how long should film trailers be since the conventional length is a standard 2 minutes 30 seconds (3 minutes longest) and because they are the ones who are being targeted anyway it makes it fair to get their point of view.
Out of 20 respondents, 11 people said they think 1-2 mins should be the standard length of film trailers, 5 people think 3-5 minutes, 3 people said 30 seconds and 1 person said 10 seconds. It seems as though people know exactly what a film trailer looks like and how long it should be based on the statistics, 11 out of 20 agreed 1-2 minutes is standard, that's 55% of the votes another 5 agreed that 3-5 minutes should be the standard length. Considering the standard length for trailers are conventionally between 1-3 minutes and 2 mins 30 seconds on average, that's 16 out of 20 people who know what film trailers should look like and how long they should be.
SQ 6: What genre/type of films do you like?
Out of 20 participants, 13 said they liked Action/Adventure and Sci-Fi, each. 12 like comedy, Drama was chosen 8 times, Musicals were chosen 6 times, Romance 5, Horror 4 and at the bottom of the list, Western chosen only by 1 participant.
