Media research (primary and secondary)

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1 Secondary Research British Film Institute primary Research Question pro + Asher Erskine

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Transcript of Media research (primary and secondary)

Page 1: Media research (primary and secondary)

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Secondary ResearchBritish Film Institute

primary ResearchQuestion pro+

Asher Erskine

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IntroductionTo increase the chances of making a popular and successful trailer, and

idea for a film in general, it was necessary to conduct some research into the genre. As a group, we set up an online survey that was shared through social media sites to receive feedback from people of our age - this was important as the primary audience for slasher films are teenagers.

In addition to this, we investigated the data that was published by professional bodies into the film industry, to see what correlations could be drawn between their findings and our own. Hopefully, the ideas set forth in our synopsis would include aspects of what we had found through our research, and any points that were not suited to our audience could be changed accordingly.

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This graph looks at the percentage of releases of UK films, by genre from 2007-2012. Thriller films are within the bottom fifth of total releases, whereas horror films are at the top of the last third. After a spike in horror releases during 2009, the genre dropped again, as is expected – the nature of releases within a genre are cyclical, with rates differing from year to year. However, after the drop in 2011, the genre saw an increase in 2012, with a 4.6% rise on the previous year.

This would lead film companies to believe that there was a resurgence within the horror industry, and it would be a good time to produce a new film. Despite the higher competition, it is likely that more films were made to meet the demands of a higher audience demand.

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This graph shows the percentage of gross box office for film released in the UK, between 2007-2012 for each genre.

Again, the horror genre has seen a rise in the last year – from o.0% share of the gross box office in 2011, to 5.8% in 2012. This is the highest share shown in the table for the last five years, again suggesting that horror films and the profit they are creating is on the rise. Looking at the table, a trend clearly suggests that a genre will rise for two years before falling, meaning that 2013 should see an even higher gross box office share. This is likely caused by filmmakers learning of the previous success and trying to ride out the success in the following season.

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This table is evidence, that of the top 10 ‘18’ classified films in 2012, a horror film made it into the top 10. This seems minimal, but due to the limited number of films and general poor ratings, this can be seen as a sign that they are becoming increasingly popular.

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Here, we can see that horror and thriller films constituted 15.1% of the total film sales in 2012. This puts both genres individually in the top half selling genres.

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This evidence suggests that digital downloads for films are more popular than subscriptions to sites such as Netflix. This data supports the findings of our online survey, with more choosing to pay to rent or purchase films online, through services such as Apple TV, rather than signing up to Netflix. We also found that most people prefer to watch films online, rather than in a cinema or on DVD. This is likely due to the ease of availability, and wider choice.

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Using the information gathered from our primary research into viewing trends, it is clear that downloads are the most popular way to watch films, comprising 42% of the total ways in which they can be viewed. Surprisingly, Cinema is just slightly more popular than Netflix, at 22% compared to 21% for Netflix. Least popular with our audience feedback was DVD and Blu-Ray at only 13% - with the rate at which technology is moving, it is likely that these will be obsolete within the next decade.

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This table shows data on films produced within the UK between 2010 and 2012, based on their genre. Looking at horror, there were a total of 59 films produced during this time, which is relatively high compared to the other genres. Furthermore, with a budget of just 180.2 million pounds, horror is towards the lower end of the scale based on expenditures. This is favourable to us as independent film makers, as our films will be produced using almost no budget whatsoever. This helps replicate the conditions experienced by the professional industry, as their budget is limited in the same way ours will be. This will increase the importance to have high standards in other areas such as good composition, lighting and acting.

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Horror films are within the top 5 genres for the most independent productions in 2010-12. This is because of their simplistic nature in terms of script writing - they are very conventional in format and many of the codes are carried across every film. Also, the effects needed to produce a good horror film are quite inexpensive, compared to the costly CGI genres such as Action and Animation require.

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This graph shows that Horror films were the third most popular genre at the box office in the UK in 2012. Most of these horror films were independently produced within the UK, being the second highest genre of film independently produced within the UK in 2012.

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From the data shown on the graph, it is clear that horror films are within the top five proportion of releases based by genres of film. This is due to their low production costs, easily produced scripts and lack of sophisticated post production techniques, such as CGI.

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Our survey was created using Survey Pro, a free to use, online survey tool. All respondents were based within the UK, and completed our survey within a minute. We purposefully kept our survey brief so as to encourage as many people as possible to see it through to completion. This is supported by the results - of the 85 people who saw the survey, 62 started it, and all 62 finished every answer, giving our survey a 100% completion rate. Of the people who completed the survey, half were male, and half were female; as shown in the info-graphic to the left.

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Our audience feedback showed that the scariest weapon was a ‘Knife’ at 21%. At second and third most scary were bare hands and baseball bats. Fortunately, the killings planned in our synopsis make use of all three of these weapons, likely to please our audience given this research. As ‘Peeping Tom’, the film ours is primarily based upon, made use of the tripod legs as a weapon, we are planning to use other pieces of camera equipment as an homage to the original.

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Freddy Krueger was voted as the most memorable villain in a slasher film, at 24%. Similarly to our villain, Krueger was famous for a scary face - ours will wear a threatening mask to play on the audiences imagination, heightening this fear beyond what can be shown on screen. Also, ours will wear ‘regular’ clothes, as did Krueger, increasing the verisimilitude of the film. This will also class our trailer as british social realism.

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The most scary location voted for was ‘deserted woods’ or ‘abandoned houses’, as the option for ‘woods’ on its own was not specific enough for our audience. Other answers included empty car parks, swamps, ball pits and kitchens. These are conventional within the genre, and do not require elaborate or expensive sets or green screening to film in effectively.

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What do you find most scary?When asked what they found most scary, the audience were

given an open ended question so as to receive qualitative data for this particular section. Most popular was blood and gore, with realistic violence being very popular as well. People also said they were scared by violence affecting teenagers and masks. All of these points are somehow incorporated into our existing synopsis, with the masked killer using realistic means of attacks to kill teenagers in a bloody way.

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