Quantitative questionnaire conclusion

Questionnaire conclusion

I found that my target my audience was ‘13-19’ years old, I also tried to keep the levels of females to males equal in my demographic.

The genre most my audience wanted was either horror or thriller, this opens up avenues of media progression and I will undertake my project in the Thriller genre, but I will instil some aspects of horror into this. I also found from my audience that when making my project it should keep to a lot of the expected conventions of its genre and design of product, but I should use some originality in this, by introducing new ideas to the trailer.

I found from my questionnaire that my audience does not want a voice over in the trailer, but instead want diegetic sounds, or backing music. I will research the use of these in modern media outlets and use what I have learned to progress in this vein.

Quantitative questionnaire

Music video questionnaire

Participant background

What Is Your Age?

12-
13-19
20-25
25+

Gender?

Male
Female

Movie Trailer preferences

Genre

What genre of movie do you prefer?

Horror

Thriller

Comedy

Romance

Action

Sci-Fi
Indie

In a trailer, of the specific genre, do you like it to adhere to the convention of that genre trailer, or be something different?

Same

Different

Do you like a Voice Over explaining/selling the trailer?

Yes

No

Do you like music being featured in the trailer?

Yes
No

…how heavily (1-5, 1 being low 5 being high)?

1
2
3
4
5

Do you like on screen text, or more actual footage in the trailer?

Text

Footage

Qualitative questionnaire

Questionnaire Qualitative

1. When you see a movie trailer what features do you like?

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2. What features of performance do you like from a movie trailer?

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3. What kind of genre do you like?

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4. What kind of story do you like?

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5. How do you like the story to be portrayed in the trailer?

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6. What mix of story to dramatic build-up do you like?

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Hypodermic Needle Theory

The theory suggests that viewers of media content are a passive audience who are powerless to resist the impact of the messages in the media source. This is a lot like Action Theory, in the way that messages are portrayed and noted by the viewer. However, the thing that makes the Hypodermic Needle theory a theory in its own right is the fact that they may be subtle, and its not necessarily how an actor portrays an object, but how they are applied in the mise-en-scene, and not necessarily their relevance to the plot.

A good example of this is Nazi propaganda, which was one of the first notable cases in which this theory was applied. Action theory suggests that successful Nazi propaganda would be something like a poster of a Nazi soldier acting positively towards a situation. This was used a lot in English army recruitment posters where soldiers were shown doing 'the right thing'. Nazi propaganda differed in the way it followed the Hypodermic Needle Theory, as most of the posters showed a negative portrayal of the opposing army’s and Jews. For example Nazi children’s cartoons showed Jews as being 'the bad guys'.

I will take this into account when I make my movie trailer in the same way I will use Action theory. Both theories suggest that a subconscious note made by the audience can change peoples views and actions towards a certain media product or icon.

Social Action Theory

The social action theory, which was developed by Anderson and Meyer, suggests that movie’s and subsequently their ‘off-shoot’ products have hidden messages that influence their audience. Using this theory a producer can portray the artist in any way they wish, or portray other people/objects as anything they wish and interpret anything they want in any way to the viewer.

The theory suggests that the actor is seen as an autonomaus object by the viewer. The subject at hand is totally controlled by the actor, and their actions aren't controlled by any cultural or social structure. This theory is alot like the hypodermic needle effect, in the way it suggests actions are noted as acceptable by the passive audience. However, it sees it more from the viewpoint of the producer, who can manipulate the impression created by the passive viewer by using the actor to deliver this theory.

Rather than the objects and events surrounding the actor being the thing that interprets the meaning of the scene, it's the actor that gives meaning to the events and objects, taking things into any context the producer wishes to portray. Examples of this are the impact wrestling has on its audience. There's evidence showing a link between the aggresive behaviour of a child (a passive viewer) and the amount of time spent watching wrestling. The child doesn't take into account any moral, social or cultural structures (hypodermic needle effect), therefore anything the actor wants to interpret the objects and events as, the viewer makes note of the use of the enviroment, and not the moral, social and cultural structure of what the actors is doing (action theory). This is why an incident where somone uses an odd weapon, such as a chair (often used in wrestling), could be linked to them passively watching a chair being used as a weapon on television.

I could use this theory in my music video by deciding what I want to interpret the band and actors as being, and useing their actions to describe that. For instance I may choose a very dark setting. But the actors may be acting possitively towards it, and this may make the dark setting appear happy despite this dark setting. This will leave a good impression of the band and actors on the viewer, and this may make the viewer start to like the band, even if they're not that interested in their music. Now that i'm aware of this theory i'm going to be careful not to leave a negative impression of the band members. However, it may be beneficial to leave a negative impression of the actors, to emphasise the good impression being left by the actors.