Audience Survey

We created a survey which we will be handing out to members of our target audience group to see the best way to interact with out audience. 

AUDIENCE SURVEY

I have created a questionnaire to hand out to people to determine the type of audience my film trailer, and other media products, will be aimed towards.  I have used mainly closed questions so that I can analyse the results easily and create graphs and charts based on the results. The questionnaire is as follows:

Gender:

Male   [   ]     Female   [   ]

Age:

Under 10   [   ]     11 – 17   [   ]     18 – 29   [   ]      30+   [   ]

How often do you watch movies?:

Everyday   [   ]     Once a week   [   ]      Once a month   [   ]     Less than once a month   [   ]

Do you enjoy watching movies?:

Yes   [   ]     No   [   ]     Sometimes   [   ]

Do you enjoy watching fantasy/horror movies?:

Yes   [   ]     No   [   ]     Sometimes   [   ]

Does a film trailer influence if you watch a film?:

Yes   [   ]    No   [   ]     Sometimes   [   ]

Does an actor’s appearance in a film influence you to watch the film?:

Yes   [   ]     No   [   ]     Sometimes   [   ]

Does a film poster influence you to watch the film?:

Yes   [   ]     No   [   ]     Sometimes   [   ]

Which style of horror film do you find more scary?:

Realistic   [   ]     Fantasy   [   ]     Both   [   ]

Which is your favourite genre of film?:

_____________________________________

Where do you prefer to watch movies?:

Cinema   [   ]     At home   [   ]      Online   [   ]     Other   [   ]

Where do you find out about new movies?:

TV trailers   [   ]     Online trailers   [   ]     Magazines   [   ]     Cinema   [   ]

Do you read movie magazines?:

Yes   [   ]     No   [   ]     Sometimes   [   ]

Film Magazines Conventions

Film magazine covers follow similar conventions to all magazines in general. I have drawn together some of the ideas of the conventions from looking at several magazine covers and doing online research. The codes and conventions which appear on the majority of products are as follows:

• MASTERHEAD - Features on all magazine covers, it is usually placed at the top center of the page which tells the audience which magazine it is. It is always the largest text which appears on the magazine which makes it eye catching for the audience. Magazine headings are often placed in colours such as red or placed in bold or capitals because this makes them stand out even more.
• IMAGES - Magazines always contain a main image which takes up most of the space on the page, in terms of a film magazine this will usually be a mid-shot and should reveal what the film is about, perhaps the main character in a still which appears to be taken from the movie. If the film contains a big Hollywood star they will most likely appear as the main item on the page as they are used as a selling point for the movie. Sometimes there are smaller images around the page which show other movies or interviews with movie stars. 
• BUZZ WORDS - These are words which catch the audiences attention, and make the magazine seem to stand out from any other magazine. Using words such as "exclusive" when talking about an interview make them seem like they are the only one with fresh, exciting information about a film which appears in no other magazine. 
• ANCHORAGE TEXT - This text often overlaps with images and is normally quite large on the magazine cover, however, far smaller than that of the masterhead. It tells the audience what stories will appear within the magazine. These often contain quotes taken from interviews or short snappy titles which stand out but also reveal what will be inside the magazine. 
• BANNER - This gives overall information about the magazine and what can be found inside of it. 
• BARCODE, DATE, ISSUE NUMBER and PRICE - All magazines contain these. The barcode appears on the front of the magazine as usually the back page is a paid for advertisement, the date and price are normally quite small but still relevant so that the audience can see this information. 

Different types of Film Posters

Known places for film posters to be seen are on big billboards, bus stops, on buses, underground stations and of course, around the cinema to show future film releases. Because film posters are a physical thing, there is no limit on where they can advertise films. I have examples of posters on some of these to the right of this page.

Because of this there are many different sizes and shapes of posters which are required to be made for the promotion of films, especially big hollywood block busters made by conglomerate companies. These companies have the accessibility and budget to create several posters to promote their film whereas smaller companies may create one or two posters which will only be displayed in a few spots and promoting on, the sides of buses for example, is very expensive.

The outline for our product is that we only have to create one poster to promote our film. I believe we will be creating a standard A4 portrait poster which could be used in a cinema, much like the posters on the last image I have placed here. Through researching many types of poster we should be able to draw up exactly what is required on our poster to make it a successful as well as interesting product. 

Film Posters - History

A film poster is a poster which has been created with the purpose of advertisement for a film. These days studios normally print a variation of posters in different sizes and with different images to both make each new one exciting but to suit a variation of different purposes (like ones for billboards or others for magazines). The main convention of the poster is that it contains photographs of the main actors, however, prior to the 1990's posters usually comprised of drawings or installations. The poster also contains the name of the film, the date it will be released, maybe a catch phrase and the name of key actors or the director. 

Brief History

In the early days of film, there were no movie stars on the movie posters because most actors in films chose to be anonymous. These were legitimate stage actors who felt embarrassed to be participating in this new medium. The producers were thrilled, because they believed they could control the medium as long as there were no stars.

The earliest forms of advertising for movies included hand painted crates and sandwich boards. The turn of the 20th Century saw a world with a very high illiteracy rate.  Posters or advertising for any entertainment needed to have vibrant colors and pictures and a limited amount of words, so that the advertising could be understood by a large number of people, also this would entise the views to keep an eye on the poster to find out the information shown on it. 

In the early days of film, there were no movie stars on movie posters because most actors in film chose to be anonymous. These were legitimate stage actors who felt embarrassed to be participating in this new medium. The producers were thrilled, because they believed they could control the medium as long as there were no stars.

This could relate to Richard Dyers Star Theory, as the institutions creating the film wanted creative control over the product that was released to the audience, meaning that the audience sees the product exactly as the institution wants it to be seen. This could also link in with the encoding and decoding theory of Stuart Hall. The theory is about how media messages are produced, circulated and consumed. 

1910 saw in the era when the production companies saw that they could make money out of these “movie stars” and this brought about the release of movie posters with named actors on the poster.

In 1920 the focus had almost moved away from the film to the star completely (and so the Hollywood celebrity is created). The 1920’s were considered the golden age of the silent movie. Beautiful movie palaces replaced the movie theater. The posters of old were replaced by artistically aesthetic movie posters. Well-known artists were commissioned to design movie poster portraits of leading stars as the posters had to be painted or block printed. 

1930 was when the film industry really came into its own. Since the first motion picture in the 1890’s the film industry proliferated very quickly going from silent pictures in early 1920 and full feature talkies in 1930. However, 1930 also saw in the great depression, people thought that this would be the death of the cinema industry but it instead offered people a chance to escape from the horrible reality they were faced with. This rise in popularity in cinema meant that the big companies where churning out films and posters to match their latest motion picture.

The posters varied in sizes, and they experimented with different styles of letters. During the 30’s, the studios generally produced two styles of one sheet and half sheet posters, each with a different kind of art work. Paramount Studio posters were known as “Style A” and “Style B”. MGM used “Style C” or “Style D”. Universal Pictures were known as “Style X” and “Style Y”. Sometimes there were more than two styles released, especially when the movie was a major production. 

Then, in the late 1940’s, we entered a new arena: the age of television. By this time, TV had attracted a large number of movie goers, so the studios responded by reducing the number of films made. Many of the great directors and stars of that time found themselves out of contracts with the studios. This was a devastating blow to many actors.

With the coming of the 1950’s, and to fight the popularity of television, movie studios created more fantasy films. The studios that once produced the war movies were now making science fiction, comedy and grade “B” drive-in movies. Although the drive-in had been around since 1933, it reached its peak during the 1950’s with over 4,000 screens in the United States alone.

1960’s brought the boomer generation to their teen years. There were so many children from the post-war baby boom that a lot of the movies were very “teen” oriented. Teen idols from the world of rock and roll crossed into movie stardom. Elvis Presley became very popular at this time, not only for his music, but his movies. There were also a lot of “beach movies” with Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon. Action movies also became very popular and we saw the introduction of the infamous double agent, 007, James Bond

The 1970’s was  a launching pad to the era of the blockbusters of the 1980’s. Movies like The Godfather, Rocky, Star Wars and Star Trek were born. Although the posters of this time continued the use of photography, drawing and painting styles were sometimes used and famous artists like Ansel Adams, Frank Frazetta and Bob Peak created some popular posters of this time

The 1980’s was the age of special effects, which was the key to the success of The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Return of the Jedi, Back to the Future, Batman, ET, Ghostbusters and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

With the 1990’s came the computerization of special effects. Because of this, the 90’s brought two of the biggest money making films in history, Jurassic Park and Batman Forever.

Why we chose to create animated logos

Creating Animated Production Company Logos

Here is a slide share on how I created the production company video logo:

Editing of production company video logo from rebecky69

Here is the final product:

Day 5 of filming