Primary Research and Audience Feedback

Before I begun the construction of my own teaser trailer, I decided to get audience feedback from a varied demographic based their favourite film genres, and their expectations. I created a questionnaire with open questions, giving them the freedom to express their preferences and gratifications from viewing these genre of productions without restriction.
To the right is a copy of the questionnaire I created.

In the questionnaire, I began by asking questions based on their favourite genre, to gain insight into their preferences and requirements for that production. I was also interested in making an action-thriller teaser trailer, so at the end of the questionnaire, I included questions to discover their view on the genre, and whether it would be a good decision.

Interestingly, the majority of responses to the first question 'What is your favourite film genre to view?' was in fact action-thriller, with over 50% of all those who participated, male and female, mentioning this genre. I had already previously considered creating a teaser trailer for an action-thriller production, and from these initial results alone believe it will be a very successful and appropriate genre. Also included in response to this question were the genres romantic comedy, and comedy.

At this point in the research, I wanted to keep my options open, and have an open mind; I allowed those surveyed to tell me why they enjoy the genre of film they enjoy, and what they expect to gain from the film. Other questions I included in the questionnaire were: 'What are some of the conventions and ideology you expect to find within this genre of film?'; 'Why do you enjoy watching films of this genre?'; and 'What are some of the gratifictions you get from watching films of this genre?'.

Here are some of the responses I got from the questionnaire:

"I see people on films and draw confidence and courage from them."

"[I enjoy] intriguing characters, [and] great tense scenes."

"I feel exhilarated after watching."

"Fast paced, good storylines help you escape from everyday life."

All of these conventions and gratifications can easily be included in a teaser trailer for an action thriller film. At the end of the questionnaire, I included a section based on the action-thriller production, beginning with simply asking if they enjoyed watching action-thriller productions. Of those surveyed, over 77% stated 'Yes'. This is a very strong result, meaning, obviously with a good construction and narrative, a film and teaser trailer of this production really would be successful and popular. I also discovered from my questionnaire that the audience enjoys both male and female lead characters, with over 40% selecting the 'Both' option, and the other results spread equally throughout the 'Male' and 'Female' options. Reasons for this include "I can relate to [male leads]", "Female leads... [show] strong characters", and "relationships develop [which] is fun to observe", and "[It's] good to see women involved in action packed scenes!"