For my audience research I wanted a detailed analysis of what my target audience is interested in when regarding comedy films. So instead of conducting a standard questionnaire, I decided to create this reaction video. It includes 3 of my classmates (whom all fit within the age range of my target audience) and my teacher who is in his early 30s. I decided to include my teacher in my audience research because I was interested in seeing his answers and analyzing what the similarities and differences would between each age group. If there were a lot of similarities with each age groups answers then that could mean I would be able to target a larger amount of people, thus increasing the chances of obtaining more viewers for my film. I was not able to include all the footage I shot because the video would have been over 1 hour long and very boring. So instead I recorded all the responses that were given and only showed the best responses in the video.
Here are the questions that I asked my participants.
Each question was particularly tailored in order to generate the best responses from the participants, which I could then use and incorporate into my short film. I made sure to create two sets of questions. This is because I was unaware if the participants had seen all 3 of the movies I used, which were 'Anchorman', '21 Jump Street' and 'Bridesmaids'.
The first question I asked was "Have you ever seen this film before?" This was an important question to ask because depending on whether the answer was "yes" or "no" it would then allocate them onto a particular group of questions.
On the day of recording I decided not to ask the second question in my 'yes' group of questions, which was 'Would you recommend it to someone else? Why/ why not?' I chose to remove this question from the survey because after evaluating the question I couldn't figure out how receiving their answers from this question would improve my film.
So the first questions I asked for the "yes" and "no" responses were "What aspect of the film did you most engage with?" and "After watching this trailer would you go see this movie?" This was important to know because if I know what characters, story plot, style of comedy and so forth my target audience most enjoys then I can include those aspects into my own film, thus making it more enjoyable and more successful. What I found very interesting was that all my participants had similar answers to these questions for all 3 trailers. The general consensus was that dialogue is a highly important factor in the success of a comedy. This is good to know because when I come to the script writing stage of my production I shall be sure to research what makes good storytelling and how to make it funny through the use of dialogue.
The second questions I asked for the "yes" and "no" responses were "What particular aspects of the film did you not enjoy?" and "What particular aspects of the trailer did you not enjoy?". This was a highly important question to ask because the responses given would help me establish what not to include in my comedy film. This research has illustrated that I should avoid including any context that may be seen as 'dark humor' such as sexually derived comedy. This was brought to attention by a female participant who found that this form of comedy, which see saw in the 21 Jump Street trailer, made her feel a bit uncomfortable. However, she found the same style of comedy amusing in the Anchorman trailer. The main aspect that made it enjoyable was that she understood that it was meant to be a joke due to the fact that the character saying it was so outlandish so the participant never took it seriously. This tells me that if I attempt to use this dark humor I should include an outlandish character that the audience can't take seriously in order for the dark comedy to be received well.
Now I shall be evaluating the responses given from my participants about the first Anchorman question, which was titled "What are your first impressions of Ron Burgundy?" I decided to include this question because I felt that this character broke away from the stereotype that viewers like characters because they are relatable. Anyone who has seen Anchorman can easily say that this character is very outlandish and very hard to relate to, but is still considered one of the greatest characters within comedy of all time. So I was interested in finding out why this is. One response that I picked up on was that the participant enjoyed not only Ron Burgundy, but he also enjoyed the responses given off by other characters when they see and speak to Ron. This is useful for me as it tells me that if I decide to go down the route of only having one lead character then I shall need to include supporting characters that react to my characters antics and show the audience that this character should be enjoyed, but not taken seriously (if I choose to use dark humor for this character).
The second Anchorman question was called "Do you prefer a male lead in comedies?" I felt this question would provide me with good responses from my participants, which would then help me decide whether to include a male or female lead in my short film. All the responses given by my participants were very similar. They all said that they didn't have a preference on if they prefer male or female leads. One of my participants stated that the gender of the lead character was dependent on the context of the film. This made sense because in the context of Anchorman (1980's news reporter) people were more likely to see a man being sexiest to females than the other way round. When it comes to me choosing the gender of the lead character in my film I will most likely choose to have a male lead. This is because I am a man and it would be very difficult for me to create humor that a female audience would like more so than a male audience. So by having a male lead it should allow the male audience to relate to this character more.
The first and only question that I specifically asked for the 21 Jump Street trailer was called "Do you prefer comedies with more than one lead character?" This question generated a lot of great responses from my participants. All of them stated that they prefer comedies with more than one lead character. However, some participants had different reasons why they prefer multiple leads. For example, one participant mentioned that he related more to the pudgier lead character in 21 Jump Street than the muscular lead character. This is good because it told me that by having multiple lead characters it would provide a greater opportunity for a larger audience to engage with my film. This larger engagement could be done if I decided to have a male and female lead, thus aiming at two large markets. Another great aspect that one of my participants brought up was the fact that by having two lead characters it would provide the actors to 'riff' off each other, This is good as not only does this provide more footage for me to choose from, but this chemistry also translates through the screen. This is good as the audience can see this chemistry and they can see the friendship between the actors is authentic, thus making it more enjoyable for the audience to watch.
The last question I asked all of my participants after the Bridesmaids trailer was called "Do you think women can be as funny, if not funnier than men?" I asked this question because I was interested in finding out my participants preferences on females in comedies. This interest stemmed from the fact that compared to the amount of comedies with males lead there aren't many films with female leads. The responses correlated with my interest as all the participants stated that they thought women can be as funny if not funnier than men. With some of the participants stating that it was a difficult question to answer due to the fact that they hadn't seen many comedies with female leads, thus making it harder for then to evaluate whether they thought women are funnier than men, These responses are very useful to me because when it comes to me writing a story plot for my film I shall be looking at other successful comedies for inspiration. So if I don't find many examples of good comedies with female leads this won't hinder me exploring the option to either include a character or make a lead character female.
