Research Project into Film Audiences

I am going to make a questionnaire to help me to find out how people hear about, and view films. In order to make the results fair, I shall print off 40 questionnaires- giving a larger number of results- so I can ask a variety of people of different ages, gender and occupation rather than ten media students, which was the case with my previous questionnaire.

To begin, I shall ask closed questions, such as their age, gender, occupation, marital status and roughly the amount of money a month they themselves, or as a couple, get to spend on things they enjoy, such as films or cinema. Then, I will have information in which I can relate to how people hear about films, and where they view them, so for example, the people that have more money to spend on themselves, are they more likely to go to the cinema, then someone who does not have as much, or do people make the time and money to visit the cinema, whether or not they have more money, because they simply enjoy it?

After they have completed this information, I will then ask them how they find out about upcoming films, and how they decide whether to go and see them at the cinema, whether to wait until the DVD release or not at all. When we were asked in class, the majority said that they found out about films through ‘word of mouth’, opposed to adverts on the television or internet. So I wish to find out whether age and occupation makes a difference - for example; they may find out about films through newspaper film critics, reviews and websites.

I will again use this information further to find out where the majority of people chose to view their films and why, such as Vue or Odeon and why the minority chose to view their films where they do. 

Here is an example of the completed questionnaire I sent around:

Gender:
 Male [ ]  Female [ ]

Age: 
15-25 [ ]  26-35 [ ]  36-45 [ ]  46-55 [ ]

Marital Status:
single [ ]  in a relationship [ ]  married [ ]

Average amount of money you spend on yourself in a month:
£0-25 [ ] £26-50 [ ] £51-75 [ ] £76-100 [ ] 101+ [ ]


Do you enjoy going to the cinema?
 yes [ ]  no [ ]


If so, who do you most often go with? 
alone [ ]  with other half [ ]  a friend [ ] group of people [ ] other, please state ..................


On average, how many times do you go to the cinema per month?
none [ ]  1 [ ]  2 [ ]  3 [ ]  4 [ ]  5 [ ]  more than 5 [ ] 

Which is your favourite cinema to go to and why?
Odeon [ ] Vue [ ] Hollywood [ ] Cinema City [ ] because ..............


Do you buy DVDs to watch at home? 
all the time [ ]  occasionally  [ ] rarely [ ]  never [ ]


What is your favourite genre?
action [ ] thriller/crime [ ] horror [ ] romance [ ] comedy [ ] sci-fi [ ] other, please state ......

Do you subscribe to Sky Movies, or are you a member of any film rental companies?
yes [ ] if so, which one .....................
no [ ]


How do you most often hear about upcoming films?
word of mouth [ ]  internet sites [ ]  adverts on television/cinema [ ] magazines/newspapers [ ]  billboards [ ] please specify ........

What makes you want to go and see an upcoming film?
trailer [ ]  director [ ]  actors [ ]  genre [ ]  good reviews [ ]

 I sent the completed questionnaire around to 40 different people, these included people who worked with my mum (police officers), their husbands/wives, my family and neighbours. Here is a pie chart showing the variety of different ages of people I asked. I believe age makes a big difference as to whether people go to the cinema, what types of film they like and how they hear about films. 

As you can see, I have asked roughly the same amount of people for each age group in order to give a blanced result, because, if you mostly asked people from the 15-25 catagory, it would look like most people went to the cinema in groups, for example, whereas if you asked about the same amount of people for each age group, you will get a fairer result as you will be able to see which age group goes to which cinema, hears about films, or visits the cinema with.
As you can see, one of my questions was martial status, I asked this question in order to see if more single, or people in a relationship/married went to the cinema. I found out that people who were single, were most likely to go to the cinema as they went either on dates to the cinema, or with a group of friends. I also found out that people in a relationship or married, were least likely to go the cinema which is suprising, and I expected the results to be the other way round. However, I did find out from these people that at the beginning of the relationship, or the marriage, that they went to the cinema often, but as the relationship went on, they prefered to stay in or could not go out because they had children and a babysitter was difficult to find, or just added more to the cost of the evening when they could just stay in and watch a DVD. It was also the single people who had more money per month to spend on themselves as they did not have to pay for their family etc. Something that I found out; was that only three people went to the cinema more than twice a month. So I have included another pie chart showing the amount of single people, compared to people in a relationship/married who went to the cinema most often in one month.

As you can see, the majority of people who went to the cinema 2+ plus times per month were single. The three people out of fourty who went to the cinema more than twice, were the people who could spend more than £101 on themselves in once month, and were single. However, in general, the people who had the lowest amount of money to spend on themselves per month went to the cinema the same amount as the people who had more to spend. This shows that if people enjoy going to the cinema, they go no matter how much they earn. Even though people in a relationship or married did not go to the cinema as often as single people, I found out that these were the people who were more likely to subscribe to Sky Movies or belong to a film rental company such as LoveFilm. This shows that they prefere to stay in and to watch films, perhaps they find it more peaceful and can allow themselves to get more involved in the film if it is just them and one other person watching it with them.

Witness

The opening scene is of a young Amish boy who travels to Philadelphia Station on the train for the first time. The young boy finds himself trapped in a toilet cubicle whilst a murder of a police officer takes place, he is the only witness.

The opening shot of the murder scene is an extremely high angled, point of view (from the statue!) shot looking down at the boy in the station. This instantly gives an eerie feel

like a great force is watching over the young boy. Even though the boy is obviously

looking at the statue, it foreshadows the events of the rest of the scene. It's almost like a CCTV shot which Witnesses the events in the train station, which is ironic as the boy is the one who witnesses a murder.

This is a shot of the boy in the toilets of the station. This plays on the audience's fear of confined space and becoming trapped especially with a murder going on outside the toilets as the audience are unsure if he is in danger or not. Tension.

The murder is carried out by a black man which stereotypically represents black/american men as criminals. This is a zeitgeist and represents the mood of the moment in america as there was a lot of gang related knife crime, a majority carried out by black young men.