The document summarizes the results of a market research questionnaire completed by 10 people to help determine preferences for a short film. It finds that the target audience is 16-20 year olds and they prefer a romantic comedy genre with a happy ending distributed online around 10-15 minutes in length. Key genres and story elements identified in the research, like humor relevant to younger audiences and linear/non-linear narrative structures, will be incorporated into the film.

1. Olivia Lyons
Advanced Portfolio
Market Research
Questionnaires Completed and Analysed
Market Research- Questionnaires Completed and Analysed
To establish the audience’s preference for the genre, narrative and story line, for the short
film I am going to make, I carried out a market research task. I used a primary research
method and created a short film questionnaire of 11 questions and asked 10 people to fill it
out. I then compared my results and put the data I collected into pie charts. I designed my
questionnaire with both multiple choice answers as well as an answer that the individual
can answer specifically; this allowed me to collect both quantitative and qualitative data.
1. What gender are you?
Gender
Male
Female

2. Olivia Lyons
Advanced Portfolio
Market Research
Questionnaires Completed and Analysed
My results show that I collected research from both males and females, allowing me to get an
opinion from both sexes on their preferences in relation to film. Because of this I have an
understanding of what both males and females want to see in a short film so I am going to make my
film appeal to both as a target audience, by using the rest of my market research.
2. How old are you?
Age
16-20
21-30
31-40
40+
The average age range of the people who completed my short film questionnaire were 16-
20 year olds, so this is the age I now have more of an understanding with on short films.
Because of this, this is the age group that I am going to target my film at. In order to make
the film popular with this age group I will include local slang and humour that will be
understood and appreciated by 16-20 year olds.
3. What is your occupation?
Occupation
Full Time
Part Time
Unemployed
Student

3. Olivia Lyons
Advanced Portfolio
Market Research
Questionnaires Completed and Analysed
4. What is your preferred film genre?
Preffered Film Genre
Horror
Comedy
Action
Thriller
Romance
Sci-fi
Other
From the primary research I carried out I found that the preferred genre, for the age range I
am targeting my short film at, is comedy. In order to make my film a successful comedy I am
going to encode clear conventions of the genre so that it meets the audience’s expectations
and creates agreement with what the code means, decoding a preferred reading. However,
as a high percentage said their preferred genre was romance I am going to combine the two
and make the film a hybrid genre (rom-com) in order for the film to have as much success as
possible. This could create a negotiated reading with the audience as they may not like the
challenge of accepting both genres in one film. I will encode clear conventions of both
genres, for example, likeable and down to earth characters, a boy and a girl who are usually
different in some way e.g. one being geeky and one being popular.
5. How many films do you watch per week?
Films per Week
0 Films
1 to 3
4 to 7
8+

4. Olivia Lyons
Advanced Portfolio
Market Research
Questionnaires Completed and Analysed
6. How do you usually watch films?
Usually Watch Films
DVD's
TV
Internet
Netflix/LoveFilm
Other
My research reflected on the change of consumption in media. The results show that over half of the
people I based my research on stream the films they watch off the internet. The rise in the use of
web 2 technologies such as YouTube and Let Me Watch This to watch Films and listen to music has
led to less people consuming media in the traditional ways, such as buying DVD’s and CD’s which has
led to high street stores such as HMV and Zavigoing into liquidation. Consuming media off the
internet is much more convenient and isn’t as time consuming as having to go to the shops to buy it.
Because of this I am going to distribute my film over the internet and put it onto YouTube as this is
where it is more likely to be watched, other than producing copies of it onto a DVD.
7. How much would you be willing to pay for a film?
Price
£4-£8
£9-£12
£13-£15
£15+

5. Olivia Lyons
Advanced Portfolio
Market Research
Questionnaires Completed and Analysed
As I am targeting my short film at younger people, between the ages of 16-20, I don’t want
to make the price of it too expensive as this could put people off buying it. After looking at
the data I collected I decided a suitable price for my film would be £7. This would mean that
everyone I based my research on would be willing to pay the price for the film.
8. How do you prefer a film to end?
Ending
Happy
Tragedy
Cliff-hanger
The results I collected show that 80% of the people I asked prefer a film to have a happy
ending. As my film is going to be a rom-com, this is the ending I am going to use, as it is what
is expected by the audience. By having the film end happily I am meeting the audience’s
expectations of a rom-com, which will then decode a preferred reading.
9. How do you prefer a film to be structured?
Structure
Linear
Non-linear
My results shows that the majority of people I based my research on prefer a film to be
structured with a linear narrative, meaning everything happens in chronological order.

6. Olivia Lyons
Advanced Portfolio
Market Research
Questionnaires Completed and Analysed
However, after looking at the ideas generation I decided I liked the idea of having cut backs
to events in the past, in order to include aspects of comedy, which would make the film
have a non-linear structure. As this could position the audience into having an oppositional
reading (encoding/decoding model), I am also going to use a stream of consciousness
structure in order for the audience to have a personal identity with the film (uses and
gratifications)to ensure it is still enjoyed. This structure is a technique that presents the
thoughts and feelings of a character as they are continuous throughout the text, the
audience may be able to find themselves reflected in the text or learn behaviours and values
from the text which would mean they had created a personal identity.
10. What is your ideal length for a film?
Length
10-15 mins
15-45 mins
45-90 mins
2 hours
3 hours+
Out of interest, I wanted to find out what length people prefer a film to be. Over half the
people I based my research on said their ideal length of a film would be about 2 hours long.
However, as I am only making a short film, it will last between 10 and 15 minutes.
11. What is your favourite film and what genre does it fit in to?
Friends with benefits- Comedy
I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry- Comedy
King Kong- Action
Little bit of Heaven- Romance
Inbetweeners Movie- Comedy
Titanic- Romance
Ted- Comedy
Dear John- Romance
The Beach
Orphan- Horror

7. Olivia Lyons
Advanced Portfolio
Market Research
Questionnaires Completed and Analysed
When carrying out my market research I also collected qualitative data by asking what the
persons favourite ever film is and what genre it fits into. I did this in order to get more of an
insight into what it is that my target audience want to see in a film. My results show that the
majority of films people chose as their favourite come under the comedy genre. Because of
this I am going to make my short film a comedy. I will watch short clips from some of the
above films and take into consideration the conventions of a comedy that they have
included, in order to make my short film successful.
Evaluation
I believe that the research task I did met its aim to help me find out peoples preferences, in
relation to film, in order to help me create my own short film. I asked ten random people to
fill out a questionnaire that I had created, and based the making of my short film around
their answers. The questionnaire I created allowed me to collect both quantitative and
qualitative data, and produced good results in order to help me with the making of my short
film. However, if I was to carry out this research task again I would decide on the specific
genre of my film first and base my questions around what people expect to see from that
genre. I would then give my questionnaires to a selection of people associated with liking
this genre, other than having to base my short film ideas on the genre that was most
popular between a random group of people. For example, if I decided before hand I wanted
to make a horror film I would give my questionnaires to the preferred audience for this
genre in order to get an insight into what is expected from a specific genre, and to get the
most reliable results.
After carrying out the research task, and looking at the data I collected, I decided that I
wanted the genre of my short film to be a romantic comedy, with the target audience being
16-20 year olds. I chose this genre as this was the preferred genre within the age group I
based my research on, therefore from the data I collected I have more of an understanding
of the audience’s expectations. In order to make my film as successful as possible, with its
target audience, I am going to do some further research and look what conventions are
included in other popular rom-coms such as ‘50 First Dates’ and ‘The Break-Up’, to see what
worked well and to help with ideas for my film. In doing all this I hope my short film reaches
its needs and meets the audience’s expectations.

8. Olivia Lyons
Advanced Portfolio
Market Research
Questionnaires Completed and Analysed