Market Research: Movie Teaser Poster Results Analysis - Focus Group

In my focus group I had a cross section of participants from 20-60 years of age of men and women. During this discussion I raised four areas for discussion I felt would give me insight to what I would need to change and to enable me to develop alternative ideas in creating a movie poster towards a different audience I have already attempted to target. These four areas were:

Explain how this poster may or may not appeal to you.
Describe the elements of the poster you would change and how this change would make a difference.
Discuss the type of genre you feel this movie falls into.
What do you think the storyline is?

During this discussion some points were raised that I had not put forward for discussion. For instance, on participant said: “This poster gives the strong impression that it is aimed at a male teenage audience.” Another added: “Young men would do an internet search on her name [of the actress] to see who she is.”

I did discover many people in the focus group were drawn towards the image of the masked man. However, the image of the young woman in her underwear with her hands tied behind her back seemed to put women off and felt that this would cause an issue with a female audience.  A response was from a woman in her late 50s was: “Why would any woman want to see a film about young women being attacked? This is purely for male voyeurism!”

The title raised some interesting theories. A change of font and the use of different colours could suggest that the film is a “slasher horror”, one said.

A few people thought that the film could be a “werewolf film” due to the tied up woman looking up at the full moon and thought that somehow the full moon “plays a part in the story”.

The key suggestions of what could be changed on the poster were that the woman could still feature in the middle, but for the masked man to be enlarged, and centralised in the background. There was also a suggestion that there should be some eyes looking through the mask “because without the eyes it suggests a play rather than a film.”

There was a mixed opinion of whether the film was a horror, slasher or a thriller. A participant in their late 20s said; “It could be between the two – between a slasher and a thriller.” There was one person who added: “if the text was red and there was some blood then it would suggest a full horror.”

In regards to the storyline many of the female participants were in favour of the woman coming out on top at the end of the movie. The men had a different opinion: “She’ll die at the end. They always do.” But to find out what does happen – you’ll just have to watch the movie!

Market Research: Movie Teaser Poster Results Analysis - Evaluation

From the results of the three resources I have used to gather my Market Research for the Movie Teaser Poster I have created, the target audience in terms of sex was almost an equal split. I shall in my next poster be aiming more to a female audience and to do this I shall be changing numerous elements of the image but keeping the photo of the masked man. I shall use this image in a different way but still aiming to keep it as a prominent feature within the poster.

The results have also identified the target audience are in the age ranges of 16-24 and 25-34. This was the target audience that I was aiming for and I feel that selecting the image I have enable me to attract that audience. In my next poster however, I shall be changing the colour significantly to try to identify an audience that is more female and slightly older than the age ranges who currently like my poster.

In terms of the story I shall be adding an element of blood and gore, not so that I produce a slasher or full on horror, but to include a very slight element into the movie. The participants of the questionnaire had all made choices on the storyline and the script will reflect the storylines of the options the participants could choose from. The focus group had also raised points on the colour and talked about the storyline and again by using this feedback I shall be adapting the story slightly to accommodate some expectations that were raised, but without going down the route they think the movie is about.

Market Research: Movie Teaser Poster Results Analysis - Questionnaire

The graph below shows 43% of my potential audience is aged between 16-24. A further 43% are aged between 25-34 and the remaining 14% are aged between 35-44.

This is telling me that the potential target audience is in favour of the younger viewers, which is the target audience that I was aiming for. In my next poster I shall be using certain elements of this poster; such as the imagery as my questionnaire results prove and identify this to be the main attraction of the image as 71% were in favour, 14% were attracted to the colour and another 14% were attracted to both the colour and the imagery.

I decided to use the 3D Column Chart as I felt by doing so it was clearer to see the lesser numbers, in this instance zero, for the higher age ranges, in comparison to thee larger results of the lower age groups.

For Question 5 of the Questionnaire I asked the participant, after giving them a few moments to look at the poster, the following question; by selecting one of the options what appeals to you most about this poster?

The possible answers were; Colour, Text, Imagery, Layout, Other.

As you can see from the graph on the below two people selected colour and six people selected imagery. One person did however, select two options of image and colour, which has also been included in the results, which explains why out of seven people asked there are eight answers.

I felt that a standard Column Chart was the simplest method of representing these results as the information displayed is clear and concise.

For Question 10 of the Questionnaire I asked the participant what they thought the movie was about. There were five possible storylines and options to choose from. They were:

Storyline 1; a young woman has a nightmare, but is it really a dream?
Storyline 2; a young woman is kidnapped and escapes from her capturers.
Storyline 3; a young woman is captured and is now in the hands of human traffickers.
Storyline 4; it could be a little bit of all the above.
Storyline 5; it will be completely different from any of the options listed.

Again, I decided to use a standard Column Chart to represent the results which included three people thinking the storyline was about a young woman being captured and is now in the hands of human traffickers, two people thinking the movie could be about a little bit of Storylines 1, 2 and 3, and two people thinking it would be completely different. Without giving the movie away those who answered are all right in their thoughts and this will be evident in the final production of the film. My reasoning behind using a standard Column Chart for to collate the answers for this question are as before, the information displayed is clear and concise. This makes evaluating the results much easier to read and therefore simpler to understand and digest.

Market Research: Movie Teaser Poster Results Analysis - Facebook

Below are the screenshots I have taken from my Facebook page containing feedback from my first Teaser Movie Poster.

From the responses I received there was an almost an equal spilt from men and women who ‘liked’ or commented edging just in favour towards a female audience. At the moment this teaser poster is aiming at a cross section of the audience. To represent this in a graph I have chosen to use a Pie Chart. My reasoning for this is, by doing so, somebody wishing to view the results may do so at a quick glance as there are only two sexes that are given on Facebook.

From the feedback I have identified that people like the masked man as they feel that it draws them straight into the poster. However, many have suggested that the text should be in a different font and colour. Also, there should be less text overall – and one suggestion was – I should let the image do the talking.

Overall people have liked the teaser poster although for my next teaser poster I shall have to aim more at a specific target audience. I will be removing the text that I feel is not needed. The title of the film I shall change to a different font and colour.  I shall be keeping the masked man as part of the final design for my second teaser poster as I have identified that people were drawn to this element.

'The Expendables' Movie Trailer Analysis

 

 

In this blog I shall carrying out a critical analysis of a film trailer for the movie ‘The Expendables’.

 

The intended audience for this film trailer are predominantly males over the age of eighteen that like the thrill of an action movie. Despite this, there is potential that this film may appeal to women on some level. I believe that a film trailer is more likely to entice a female audience to an action movie than a poster for the same movie.

 

The intended audience being male would want to see this movie primarily due to the cast members. The line up of past action movie “hero’s” with those of today would give the intended audience the “wow” factor. This is because the audience will remember the older cast members for the destruction in their previous movies and the audience will have the familiarity of the younger cast members for technological advancements in weaponry and faster and extended hand-fight elements. The amalgamation of these two attributes would make the audience think about what carnage could be created. For the intended audience for an action movie this is what they would like to see as part of the story within the film. Also, in the film trailer there was an “attractive” woman that would appeal to men, mainly for psychological sexual gratification.

 

Partly due to the female character this film trailer would appeal to a female audience. The woman in the film has a dual role that women will be able to relate to. On the one hand she comes across as a “heroine” and then soon after as the “damsel in distress”. There is also a hint within the trailer that there maybe a potential “love” element to it depicted by a short clip of her hugging one of the male characters. This plays on the fact that women, despite modern social conventions, want their men to be “manly”.     

 

Pacifists would certainly be the alienated audience as they dislike the idea of violence, brutality and profanity. Another audience that would be alienated would be religious groups, particularly non-Christians as this film trailer has a representation of good versus evil and the dialogue “We will kill this American disease!” indicates that this group of people will “go to war” with the “American mercenaries”, which due to the American conflict in the Middle East, would have a negative view of this production.

 

Film trailers follow numerous conventions. In this trailer there is the dramatic voice-over, which doesn’t feature so often in modern film trailers, but was widely used in films of the 1980s and 90s. This maybe a reference to the era that Stallone, Lundgren, Willis and Shwarzenegger featured in big budget action movies.

 

The way that the film trailer is edited is another convention. The pace of the “cuts” are quick and snappy to generate a fast pace. The sound effects of gun fire and explosions feature heavily and clips of explosions and gun-fire is at the forefront of film trailers for action movies.

 

The film trailer will also have the production company and the studio of who and where the film was made and also the film’s distributor. The names of the cast members will also appear but, unlike on a movie poster, the “name” will be last. This is because the audience will remember the last name of a movie trailer and very rarely the first, which is normally reserved for the lesser known cast member.

 

The film trailer is also presented to us that this is a movie about good versus evil and this is done by the “American mercenaries” being calm which is in contrast of the “bad guy character” being depicted by someone who is shouting wildly in an aggressive manner.

 

At the end of the film trailer the producers have attempted to add a slight comedic element to end the trailer on “high”.



'The Expendables' Movie Poster Analysis

 



In this blog I shall carrying out a critical analysis of a movie poster for the film ‘The Expendables’.

The intended audience that this poster would be aimed at are for males over the age of eighteen that have a passion for blood-thirsty ‘shoot-‘em-up’ action movies. This is evident due to a number of factors that are contained within the semiotics of the poster.

The producers of this text, in this case a movie poster, have used all of the male cast members that feature in this movie. The actors that play the characters in The Expendables are known for a series of ‘hard-men’ roles in other movies. Stallone, Lundgren and Willis are more known for the action packed movies during the 1980s and 90’s, whereas stars such as Statham, Li and Rourke are currently performing in action films of the modern era.

By bringing this ensemble of actors it would create an excitement amongst the intended audience as they would automatically know that this would be a blood-thirsty movie. They would also have a huge expectation of gunfire, hand-to-hand combat and explosions and would feel cheated and extremely disappointed if this movie turned out not to be the case. This expectation is given, not just by the cast members, but also the weaponry of the knives and guns on the bottom of the poster and of the skull that is a representation of danger and/or death.

However, this would alienate a family audience as the parents being of an age where they would recognise the cast from their previous roles in other action movies will instantly know that this film would be unsuitable for their children due to the bloodshed and, without seeing this film myself, the amount and strength of profanity that may be peppered throughout this movie.

Movie posters use numerous styles, conventions and techniques to promote a movie. The first is the layout of the poster which is conventionally in the style of a portrait layout. This is because of where movie posters are placed to advertise to a potential mass audience. Movie posters are traditionally place in billboards, bus-stop shelters, magazines and newspapers where they would be seen on a regular basis by vast numbers of people including those who are not the intended audience. It is not uncommon to see a poster of a movie long after the theatrical screenings have expired.

By using the colour black gives connotations of a dark film, not in its colour but in terms of its content. The colour black denotes death but also of power and evokes a mysterious sense of potential and possibility. The written text “The Expendables” gives the audience an impression of bloodshed and murder and this is emphasised with the red lighting on the skull and weaponry at the bottom of the poster. The colour red has connotations of violence and danger.

In the vast majority of cases a movie poster will feature cast members in two ways. The first example is by using a photographic image. The producers of this movie poster have placed the cast members in an order that would have been contractually agreed with between the producers of the movie and the actor (or their representatives). Their positioning would determine who is seen as the either the lead role in the movie or the “name” that is going to put the most “bums-on-seats”.

Another way that cast members are feature is by written text. Again the first name that appears would be the cast member with the lead role or the “name”. The other names will appear in the order that have been contractually agreed between the actor and the producers of the movie. They will appear left to right as this is how we, in western culture, are taught to read. This is why the name of the actor seldom appears over the actor.

The facial expressions of the actors on the movie poster tell us in this instance that the film is not a comedy but a more “no-nonsense kick-ass” movie. The fact that Stallone fronts the poster with his arms crossed and bulging muscles is another indication that this movie may contain some level of barbarity.

At the bottom of the poster the weaponry of guns and knives is another convention used in movie posters to depict a cinematic screening where the content will be violent, aggressive, unethical and inhumane.

Two other conventions that are commonplace, but don’t feature on this sample of a movie poster, are the list of credits of cast and key crew members and the date of when the movie is released. Movie credits are often added so that audience members that are interested in the production of the movie can find out the names of those who worked on the project. Also the date is also a convention and one of the most important because what is the point of promoting your movie to a mass audience if they are unable to know when it is going to be released in to the cinema?

The Human Exchange Movie Teaser Poster Questionnaire