Market Research Report

Attitude towards Commercial Cinema vis-à-vis Art Cinema

Among Youth in Metro Cities

By:

Disha Bedi

Table of Contents

S.No Topic1 Abstract2 Introduction3 Literature Review4 Exploratory Study5 Pilot Survey6 Questionnaire Reliability7 Final Questionnaire and Data Collected8 Analysis of Data in SPSS and Results9 Conclusion10 References

1.Abstract

In India, Art Film or Parallel Cinema emerged as an alternative to the mainstream Indian cinema as a precise movement in Indian cinema, acknowledged for its serious content, realism and naturalism. This research aims at examining the ‘Attitude towards Commercial Cinema vis-à-vis Art Cinema among Youth in Metro Cities’. The objective of the survey is to find ‘Why Commercial Cinema is more popular in India than Art Cinema among youth in Metro cities’.

To carry on the research, literature from past papers on the similar topic was reviewed. The questions for present research were designed using the findings from literature review. A pilot survey of sample size 20 was conducted using this questionnaire, which helped us modify and reform it. The questionnaire was then tested for validity using Cronbach alpha and factor analysis to prove that the questionnaire is reliable. The final research was done using 38 research items, all on likert scale, on a sample size of 100. Other research analysis like correlation, discriminant analysis, factor analysis and cluster analysis were conducted to derive the final research results. All the analysis has been done in SPSS 16.0.

2.Introduction

The Cinema of India consists of films produced across India, which includes the cinematic cultures of various states. Cinema as a medium gained popularity in the country and as many as 1,600 films in various languages of India were produced annually. In the 20th century, Indian cinema, along with the Hollywood and Chinese film industries, became a global enterprise. Directors such as Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen have made significant contributions to Parallel Cinema and won global acclaim. Following India's independence, the period from the late 1944s to the 1960s are regarded by film historians as the 'Golden Age' of Indian cinema. Some of the most critically acclaimed Indian films of all time were produced during this period.

Bollywood is the sobriquet of the Hindi language film industry, based in Mumbai, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; however, it is only a part of the large Indian film industry, which includes other production centres producing films in multiple languages. Bollywood is one of the largest film producers in India and one of the largest centres of film production in the world.  It is more formally referred to as Hindi Film cinema.

Parallel Cinema or Art Cinema is a film movement in Indian cinema that originated in the state of Bengal in the 1950s as an alternative to the mainstrea commercial Indian cinema, represented especially by popular Hindi cinema, known today as Bollywood. Inspired by Italian Neorealism, Art Cinema began just before the French New Wave and Japanese New Wave, and was precursor to the Indian New Wave of the 1960s. The movement was initially led by Bengali cinema and produced internationally

acclaimed filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, Tapan Sinha and others. It later gained prominence in other film industries of India. It is known for its serious content, realism and naturalism, with a keen eye on the sociopolitical climate of the times, and for the rejection of the dance-and-song numbers that are typical of mainstream commercial cinema.

Rise and Decline of Art cinema

During the 1970s and the 1980s, art cinema entered into the limelight of Hindi cinema to a much wider extent. By the early 1990s, the rising costs involved in film production and the commercialisation of the films had a negative impact on the art films. The fact that investment returns cannot be guaranteed made art films less popular amongst filmmakers. Underworld financing, political and economic turmoil, television and piracy proved to be fatal threat to art cinema, as it declined. One of the major reasons for the decline of the art cinema in India is that the F.F.C. or the National Film Development Corporation of India did not seriously look into the distribution or exhibition of these films. The Art Cinema in its true sense was always on the fringes of the mainstream cinema. Since most of the art cinema rejected the regressive worldview that was largely embodied the mainstream cinema they never found acceptance in the mainstream production, distribution and exhibition system. 

3.Literature Review

Past studies have found that some people consume films as part of their appreciation for the art, while others relish the big-budget, mass-marketed productions that thrill them on the big screen and send them from the movie theatre with the desire to recommend an exciting cinematic experience to others. Estimation results indicate that cinema tastes diverge into different patterns, meaning that some people are more exclusive in their attitudes toward entertainment films, while others look at films as art work.

Understanding the determinants of the consumers’ demand for cinema films has been the object of research by many scholars in various domains. Researchers on consumer behaviour interested in the experiential aspect, attempted to understand what drives movie consumption, that is, the reasons for selecting films. These studies suggest a positive relation between the films’ performance and their budget, reviews and star-drawing power. In the same industry-related line, other studies include exclusively box office data to assess the power of the actors, filmmakers, critics and awards achieved in the choice of a certain type of movie.

Researches on art cinema and commercial cinema over the years have found various individual factors, industry-related factors and cultural-social factors that determine the decision of a cinema-goer to choose a particular movie.

3.1 Individual factors: Consumption patterns and Experiential motivation

Cinema films are experiential goods that consumers engage in for fun, enjoyment and leisure. This approach suggests that the consumer’s experiential needs, such as emotional arousal, result in motivations for film demand and that consumption and needs are associated with perceptions concerning gratifications provided by the cinema. Motives for cinema demand included entertainment and relaxation, learning and gaining new experiences, and a desire to admire art. Frequent cinema-goers reported a greater level of identification with these motives than occasional or infrequent ones.

For some people, motion pictures are more than just another form of entertainment through which one can spend some quality time alone or in the company of friends. For frequent cinema-goers or fans, fascination with movies meets pretty much the definition of product enthusiasm where the product an important role and is a source of excitement and pleasure along sensory and aesthetic dimensions in a consumer’s life.

If the cinema-goers have high consumption patterns that are they are frequent movie goers, an intense level of demand is a necessary condition for the consumption of the two different types of film. Intense demand maximizes the chance that each film supplied will be consumed.

3.2 Industry-related factors: Production, Distribution and Marketing

The market success of motion pictures can be expected to be influenced by the consumers’ assessment of a movie’s quality. Quality, however, is difficult to ascertain prior to viewing, thus, audiences can interpret production budgets as signals of a movie’s high quality, i.e., professionalism of concept and execution.

Distribution is also a great factor in the success of a movie. U.S. film producers were the first to sink endogenous costs into large-scale marketing and distribution which meant that Hollywood became and has remained comparatively more efficient at serving mass markets than film clusters in other large film producing countries. They were thus able to overcome liabilities of foreignness by participating in local distribution and locally adapted marketing campaigns in a high number of export markets, by dubbing films, and, in some export markets, creating cultural preferences for Hollywood-style aesthetics and narrative, as well as English-language films rather than other domestic/foreign films.

For experiential products, such as cinema films, consumers search for two types of information sources: experiential and non-experiential sources. Previews, television and internet advertisement are experiential sources: they provide a chance to try the

film. Friends who have seen the film can describe it and are hence another experiential source. The same applies to reviews. Non-experiential sources such as printed and radio advertising, are less useful because they do not illustrate or mimic consumption. That is why film marketers have pioneered “buzz marketing”, by giving opinion leaders free access to previews, with a view to stimulating positive word-of-mouth so as to sustain the film in the market. Marketing expenditure is itself determined by production cost, the presence of a star, and film genre. Informing people about the star’s presence in the film through advertising is one way to make use of that.

3.3 Cultural-social factors: Education, Occupation and Cultural status

Past studies have examined the link between social class and types of audiovisual consumption, and their findings demonstrated that it is easier to find film and audiovisual fans in higher classes than in any other category. Still pursuing the descriptive side of film research, this link between class status and the cultural hierarchy has received attention in numerous empirical studies.

Social-structural factors such as income, education, and occupation/field of graduation, are likely to constitute important ‘predictors’ of the demand for a certain type of cinema films, namely mainstream versus art house. The higher the social and cultural status of a population, the higher the demand for art house films.

4.Exploratory Study

4.1 Questionnaire Development

Using the theory from the literature reviewed, common concepts and factors determining the decision to watch an art film or a commercial film were extracted and a questionnaire was prepared to do the research. The questionnaire accommodates various individual factors, industry-related factors and cultural-social factors that determine the decision of a cinema-goer to choose a particular movie.

4.2 Market Segmentation and Targeting

With help of the Literature, the following segmentation was done of the market: Gender : Male, Female Age Group : 15 to 24 yrs, 25 to 34 yrs, 35 to 44 yrs, 45 to 54 yrs, 55 to 64 yrs Area : City, Town, Suburbs, Village Frequency of watching a movie : Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly

Of this people, people of both genders, in the age group of 15 to 34 years, living in a city or suburb and watching at least one movie in a month were targeted for the research.

5.Pilot Survey

5.1 Aim of the Pilot Survey

A pilot survey of sample size 20 was conducted before the main survey with an aim to refine the questionnaire. The respondents were made to fill the questionnaire on paper and were interviewed to find out the following:

Time taken to fill the questionnaire If any question was irrelevant, invalid or unreliable If any question was illogical or confusing If any other parameter was needed to be tested in the survey Grammar errors, spelling mistakes, if found

5.2 Modifications after Pilot Survey

After the Pilot survey, it was found that the questionnaire took at an average 6 to 8 minutes by the respondents to be filled. Also, a few refinements were found.

In Gender, ‘Transgender’ was added as it is now an official gender in our country. On the second page of the print out of the survey, likert scale column headers

were added, as its absence before was creating confusion for the respondent. The factor ‘I remember seeing a film several times’ was split into two factors, ‘I

remember seeing an art film several times’ and ‘I remember seeing a commercial film several times’ as the initial factor stood irrelevant for the research.

6.Questionnaire Reliability

Using the data from the Pilot survey, the questionnaire was tested in SPSS for Validity and Reliability. Cronbach’s Alpha and Factor analysis were used to do so.

6.1 Cronbach’s Alpha

This technique tells if a research instrument measures what it is supposed to measure. The Cronbach’s Alpha should be greater than 0.7 for all instruments to be reliable.

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha

Cronbach's Alpha Based on Standardized Items N of Items

.922 .922 38

In SPSS, the Cronbach’s Alpha value for all 38 items is found to be 0.922 which is greater than 0.7, hence no item needs to be excludes and all are reliable. This proves validity of our questionnaire.

6.2 Validity Using Factor Analysis Factor analysis is the most reliable way to measure validity. Hence we crosscheck the questionnaire’s validity using Factor Analysis in SPSS. This technique showed the items were reliable though a few items could be clubbed together to reduce the number of items. This will be explained in detail in the later sections of the report.

7.Final Questionnaire and the Data collected

7.1 The Final Questionnaire The following questionnaire was floated to a sample of 100, in hard copy as well as online through email, social media and messaging applications. The online form was created using Google Docs.

Attitude towards Commercial Cinema vis-à-vis Art Cinema

Among Youth in Metro Cities

Dear Respondent,

We are conducting a research on ‘Attitude towards Commercial Cinema vis-à-vis Art Cinema among Youth in Metro Cities’. The objective of the survey is to find ‘Why Commercial Cinema is more popular in India than Art Cinema among youth in Metro cities’. We request you to kindly take out a few minutes from your busy schedule and fill this small questionnaire.

1. Gender: a. Male b. Female c. Transgender2. Age Group: a. 15 to 24 yrs b. 25 to 34 yrs c. 35 to 44 yrs d. 45 to 54 yrs e. 55 to 64 yrs3. Where do you live? a. City b. Town c. Suburbs d. Village e. Others _____________4. How often do you visit the cinema to watch movies? a. Weekly b. Monthly c. Quarterly5. In which language do you watch movies? a. Hindi b. English c. Punjabi d. Gujarati

e. Bengali f. Marathi g. Others ______________

6. Who do you like to go to movies with? a. A Date b. Spouse c. Family members d. Children e. Friends f. Others_____________

Rate the following statements on the basis of the options given:

Strongly Disagree

Partially Disagree

Neither Agree nor Disagree

Partially Agree

Strongly Agree

1. Too much logic, reality and layers of thought are boring.

2. Movies are an effective media to convey different messages to its audiences in an entertaining story telling style.

3. Movies reflect and portray social realities to

its audiences.4. I like movies with fast temperament.5. I like movies involving comedy, action and

romance.6. I like movies involving drama.7. I like movies showcasing social issues.8. I like movies with a happy ending that leave

me with a happy feeling at the end.9. I don’t like movies which make me realize

how harsh society is.10. I like watching movies released by famous

directors. 11. I like watching movies with a catchy

storyline.12. Trailers of movies are a great tool to attract

audiences.13. I like to have my brain engaged with what is

going to happen next in the movie.14. I like to be surprised at the end of the movie.15. I remember seeing an art film several times.16. I remember seeing a commercial film several

times.17. I have preference for a film being shot in a

particular country.18. I prefer going to cinema hall rather than

buying a DVD and watching it at home.19. I like movies which I can watch with my

family.20. Entertainment is the main purpose I go to

watch a film.21. I would rather watch Dabbang or Singham

rather than Udaan or Black Friday. 22. The only reason why commercial cinema is

widely accepted is because it is star studded.23. Commercial cinema today lacks innovation

and creativity.24. Commercial cinema in India concentrates

more on screenplay, music, choreography, production and direction rather than the script.

25. Commercial cinema has higher audience involvement than art cinema.

26. Commercial movies have high recognition in the cinema industry through awards.

27. Commercial movies sometimes get undeserved acclaim from critics.

28. While art cinema has its share in western countries, it is still not accepted by Indian audience

29. Script is the main hero when it comes to art cinema.

30. Arts Movies do not have the means to be promoted on a large scale as compared to commercial cinemas.

31. Arts cinema deserves the mainstream

acclaim and recognition and more importantly the public acclaim just like commercial cinemas.

32. Art films can hurt sentiments of people.33. Art movies fail to reach entire audience.34. People perceive art films as documentary

because such films do not have songs, dance, melodrama, exaggerated emotions and loudness.

35. People who only watch art films are just trying to be elitists.

36. Art films often have characters that you can't relate to nor sympathize with. They often are immoral or amoral.

37. Art films do not uplift the audience.38. Arts movie with great content are liked all

the time.

Thank you for your time. Your response would be of great importance for us and will be kept confidential.

7.2 Data Collected

Of the total sample size of 100: 56.5% of the respondents were male while 43.5% were female. 64.7% belonged to the age group of 15 to 24 years, 28.2 % to 25 to 34 years and

the rest older than these age groups. 92.9% respondents lived in the city. 45.9% respondents watch a movie monthly, 30.6% watch it quarterly while the

others are not very frequent in watching movies. Around 95.2% watch a movie in Hindi or English while the other watches it in

other languages. A good percentage of respondents watch a movie with a friend or a family

member.

The following Results were obtained:

40% of the sample does not believe that too much logic, reality and layers of thought are boring.

58.8% of the sample says that Movies are an effective media to convey different messages to its audiences in an entertaining story telling style.

45.9% of the sample believes that Movies reflect and portray social realities to its audiences.

34.1% of the samples say that they like movies with fast temperament. 40% of the sample says that they like movies involving comedy, action and

romance.

32.9% of the sample says that they like movies involving drama. 34.1% of the sample says that they like movies showcasing social issues. 35.3% of the sample says that they like movies with a happy ending that leave

them with a happy feeling at the end. 40% of the sample says that they like movies which make them realize how

harsh society is. 24.7% of the sample is not affected by watching movies released by famous

directors while another 23.5% agrees to it. 42.4% of the sample says that they like watching movies with a catchy story line. 55.3% of the sample believes that The Trailers of movies are a great tool to

attract audiences. 55.3% of the sample says that they like to have their brain engaged with what is

going to happen next in the movie. 55.3% of the sample agrees that they would like to be surprised at the end of the

movie. 28.2% of the sample says that they remember seeing a Commercial film several

times. 24.7% of the sample says that they remember seeing an Art film several times. 44.7% of the sample does not have preference for a film being shot in a

particular country. 24.7% of the sample says that they prefer going to cinema hall rather than

buying a DVD and watching it at home. 32.9% of the sample feels neutral about watching a film with their family. 24.7% of the sample believes that Entertainment is the main purpose they go to

watch a film. 50.6% of the sample disagrees with the fact that they would rather watch

Dabbang or Singham rather than Udaan or Black Friday 32.9% of the sample believes that the only reason why commercial cinema is

widely accepted is because it is star studded. 28.2% of the sample believes that Commercial cinema today lacks innovation

and creativity. 36.5% of the sample believes that Commercial cinema in India concentrates

more on screenplay, music, choreography, production and direction rather than the script.

51.8% of the sample believes that Commercial cinema has higher audience involvement than art cinema.

40% of the sample believes that Commercial movies have high recognition in the cinema industry through awards.

36.5% of the sample believes that Commercial movies sometimes get undeserved acclaim from critics.

41.2% of the sample says that while art cinema has its share in western countries, it is still not accepted by Indian audience.

34.1% of the sample believes that Script is the main hero when it comes to art cinema.

31.8% of the sample believes that Arts Movies do not have the means to be promoted on a large scale as compared to commercial cinemas

40% of the sample believes that Arts cinema deserves the mainstream acclaim and recognition and more importantly the public acclaim just like commercial cinemas.

30.6% of the sample does not believe that Art films can hurt sentiments of people.

34.1% of the sample says that Art movies fail to reach entire audience. 37.6% of the sample believes that People perceive art films as documentary

because such films do not have songs, dance, melodrama, exaggerated emotions and loudness.

28.2% of the sample disagrees with the fact that people who only watch art films are just trying to be elitists.

41.2% of the sample does not believe that Art films often have characters that you can't relate to nor sympathize with. They often are immoral or amoral.

44.7% of the sample disbelieves that Art films do not uplift the audience. 30.6% of the sample believes Arts movie with great content are liked all the time

8.Analysis of Data in SPSS and Results

8.1 Correlation On the obtained data we test correlation, using Pearson’s correlation coefficient in SPSS to see if any two variables are linearly related. The strength of the correlation, or effect size, is the magnitude or strength of the association, and can be assessed by these general guidelines:

.1 < | r | < .3 - small / weak correlation

.3 < | r | < .5 - medium / moderate correlation

.5 < | r | - large / strong correlationIn the 38x38 Correlation produced by SPSS, a few factors have a correlation coefficient between 0.5 and 6.5 with a significance of 0.01, but none exceeds 6.5. Hence a very high correlation is not found between any two factors. Hence all the factors can be maintained to conduct the survey.

8.2 Determinant Analysis Here Discriminant analysis is done to find variables which differentiate between people who like art cinema and who do not like art cinema. The Eigenvalues show a canonical

correlation of 0.817. Thus the value of R square and hence Goodness of fit is high ie. 81.7%. The Wilk’s Lambda value is 0.333. Hence the Badness of fit is low. This implies that the data fits in the model. Seeing the discriminate loadings in the Structure matrix, the discriminate loading cut off can be set to 0.25 considering the large sample size of 100.

Hence three discriminant factors are found Script is the main hero when it comes to art cinema. Factor Loading: 0.344 Arts cinema deserves the mainstream acclaim and recognition and more importantly the

public acclaim just like commercial cinemas. Factor Loading: 0.310 The only reason why commercial cinema is widely accepted is because it is star studded.

Factor Loading: 0.273Using the Canonical Discriminant Fuctional Coefficients, the following discriminant function coefficient can be obtained:

D = 0.469(X1) + 0.778(X2) + 0.731(X3)Where,X1= Score for - Script is the main hero when it comes to art cinema.X2= Score for - Arts cinema deserves the mainstream acclaim and recognition and more importantly the public acclaim just like commercial cinemas.X3= Score for - The only reason why commercial cinema is widely accepted is because it is star studded.

Now, According to the Functions at Group centroids table, if the value of D is near -1.790 then the respondent does not like art movies and if the value of D is near 1.097, then the respondent likes art movies.

Functions at Group Centroids

If you like art movies

Function

1

No -1.790

Yes 1.097

8.3 Factor Analysis

We do Factor analysis for this research to see which factors can be clubbed together to reduce the number of factors for any future surveys on the same topic. The KMO value for this analysis is 0.709 which is greater than 0.5 and hence the sample is adequate for the test. According to the Bartlett’s test of sphercity, the significant value is 0.000, hence there is correlation between the factors and the factors can be reduced. According to the total variance explained table, 10 variables account for 71.996% variance of the total 38 factors. Hence a total of 10 factors can be extracted using Factor analysis. From the Component Matrix table, it is confirmed that a total of 10 factors can be extracted.

Factor loading cut off is kept greater than 0.4. Here varimax rotation is used to avoid cross-loading. By looking at the Rotated component matrix table, we conclude that the following 10 factors can be formed:

1. I like watching movies with happy endings that keep my brain engaged.2. I like to watch movies with fast temperament that involve comedy, action and

romance.3. I like entertaining movies which I can watch with my family.4. Commercial cinema today lacks innovation and good storyline, and is only

accepted because it is star studded5. I like watching movies with a good production and a good storyline.6. Arts movie with great content, showcasing social issues are liked all the time.7. Art films are immoral and do not uplift the audience.8. Arts Movies fail to reach the entire audience because they do not have the means

to be promoted on a large scale as compared to commercial cinemas.9. Art movies are boring and are perceived as documentaries.10. Arts movie with great content are liked all the time.

8.4 Cluster Analysis We have used Cluster analysis for market segmentation for finding out sub segments among our segment that is youth living in metro cities. Using the Dendogram, we cannot clearly see that how many clusters can be obtained, as the sample size is large. Hence

we only use Agglomeration schedule to find the number of clusters. Using the Agglomeration schedule, it can be found that a total of 3 clusters can be obtained.

The Cluster membership table shows the cluster membership of each research item and its distance from the centroid in the Dendogram. By looking at the Final cluster centera table, the following 3 clusters can be formed:

1. People who like a lot of drama in their life: These are the people who like watching movies involving comedy, action, romance with fast temperament and lot of drama.

2. People who are serious minded and are emotional: These are the people who like watching movies showcasing social issues that portray social realities.

3. People who are casual and frequent cinema goers: These are the people who like movies with both drama and social realities.

9.Conclusion

The purpose of this study was to analyze the determinants of the demand for art cinema vs commercial cinema at theoretical and empirical levels. It was found that the main reason why commercial cinema is widely accepted is because it is star studded though they lack a good script. When it comes to art cinema, Script is the main hero. Script is the main reason why the fans of Art cinema like Art movies because they involve social issues and lack unwanted drama. Arts cinema deserves the public acclaim and recognition just like commercial cinema.

Also the research items in the questionnaire were proved to be valid and hence the above survey stands reliable to find out why Commercial Cinema is more popular in India than Art Cinema among youth in Metro cities. Also for further studies, the number of factors or research items can be reduces to 10 to obtain the same/similar findings. For deeper research on the issue, the segment ‘Youth in Metro cities’ can be sub segmented into clusters- People who like a lot of drama in their life; People who are serious minded and are emotional; and People who are casual and frequent cinema goers.

10. References

Past Researches: “Comparative analysis of Art and Commercial Indian Cinema” by Anam Muzamill

“Superman vs Shrödinger’s Cat: Taste, Etiquette and Independent Cinema Audiences as Indirect Communities” by Elizabeth Jane Evans, University of Nottingham, UK

“Neo-Wave in Indian Cinema: A Chronological Evaluation” by Piyali Chakraborty and Santanu Banerjee, Vidyasagar University

“A cross-country analysis of the demand for art house vs. mainstream cinema films” by Fernando Governo, Universidade do Porto

Website references:

www.wikipedia.com www.acemedia.edu www.questia.com www.businessofcinema.com www.planetbollywood.com