Victoria Holt

Qualitative Audience Research

Focus groups:
A focus group is a form of research where a group of people are asked about their opinions
and belief towards a product, service, advertisement or idea. Questions are asked by
anyone in a setting where participants are free to talk with other group members. Focus
groups are very similar to interviews in the sense that you ask questions, infact they were
first called focused interviews. Focus groups were first developed to evaluate the
responses to radio programs, these days social scientists have found them useful
for understanding how/why people hold beliefs about a topic.
Normally the people in each focus group have some common interest for a certain
topic, which is then brought together by a moderator who uses the group for a way
of gaining information a specific issue. There are supposedly 7-10 people in a focus group,
normally people who are unfamiliar of each other. The people are selected because they
have things in common relating to a chosen topic. The moderator creates an environment
that encourages people to say their point of view without pressuring them to vote or plan
things. These discussions are done several times with similar types of people to try and find
trends or patterns. Focus groups are used to give information on how groups of people
think or feel about a particular topic, give greater insight into why certain opinions are held,
help improve the planning and design of new programs.
If I was to set up a focus group for the beauty and the beast film, Id want to know what
people want to see in the film. A focus groups would allow a group of people with similar
interests such as for the beauty and the beast film trailer to discuss there views and
opinions. In the group for film trailers people can talk freely and this will help film producers
decide what to include and what not to include in the film. Film trailers can be seen by
anyone as it shouldnt be discriminative so therefore anyone can be in the film trailer focus
group as long as they have an interest in the film which is being discussed.

Questionnaires:
Questionnaires are normally a sheet of paper that has around 8-10 questions on it, this is
then given to the relevant people so that they can answer them with their own opinions. It
is a way of collecting and recording information about a particular interest/topic. It is
mainly made up of a list of questions, but they can also include clear instructions and space
for answers. There are many types of questions that could be used these include open and
closed questions, graded questions and comment type questions. Open questions are where
an answer is expected to be more than one word and closed questions is where you can
answer with a simple yes or no answer. People who are filling out questionnaires need to be
aware of what the answers are going to be used for and whether their information will
remain anonymous. They should also be told how and when they will receive feedback on
the findings. Questionnaires should always have a definite purpose that is related to the
objectives of the research.
Victoria Holt

Structured questionnaires are usually associated with quantitative research. Within this
context, questionnaires can be used in a variety of survey situations. Questionnaire
which are done online are to be completed by either one person or many people in
their own time. Face-to-face questionnaires are used by interviewers to ask a standard
set of questions and record the responses that people give them. Questionnaires are
used to collect factual information, to gather straightforward information, to look at
the basic opinions of a group of people and to measure the satisfaction of customers
with a product or service. An example of a questionnaire is shown in the picture.
When it comes to creating questionnaires they can either be made before or after
something has been produced and released. If a questionnaire was sent out before then the
film producers would be able to see what kind of things people like in films, however if it
was sent after then the film producers would be able to see what people like and dislike
about a certain film. By creating a questionnaire it allows you to interact with the audience
via social media or handing them out. If beauty and the beasts film company was to send
out a questionnaire they would make sure that it would be seen on lots of social media and
on the internet.
1. What age group do you think would watch a film like Beauty and the beast the
most?
49 10 15 16 22 23 +
2. What genre of film do you watch?
Action Romantic Comedy Horror Other
3. How often do you watch films?
Never Sometimes All the time

4. Where do you watch films?

Online TV Cinema
5. Whats your favourite film?

..........................
6. What would you rate Beauty and the beasts film trailer on a scale of 1- 10 in terms
of the storyline and entertainment value?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
7. Do you pirate films or watch them legally?
Pirate Legally
Victoria Holt

Statistical review
As part of this assignment I need to gather some feedback from my questionnaire to find
out peoples opinions on films and the one I have chosen (beauty and the beast). I have
given out 10 questionnaires and now I am going to anyaslse the results below.
1. What age group do you think would watch a film like
Beauty and the beast the most? What age group do you think
would watch a film like Beauty
When looking at my results from this question I have found and the beast the most?
that 4/10 people (40%) said that 4-9 year olds would be
likely to watch a film like beauty and the beast, with 30%
suggesting 10-15 year olds, 20% said 12-22 year olds and
10% thought that everyone would watch it. This suggests to
me that this film would be suitable for most age groups and
4 to 9 10 to 15 16 to 22 23+
it isnt suited to a particular age.
2. What genre of film do you watch?
What genre of film do you
For this question I gave various answers to circle. 20%
watch?
watch romantic, 30% watch action, another 20% like
comedy. The other two people circled more than one
answer, which shows that they tend to watch a variety
of films and dont like a set genre. The first person
circled action, romantic and comedy and the second
person circled both romantic and comedy. Only one
person circled other which suggests that they watch a Action Romantic Comedy Horror Other
genre that wasnt an option such as sy-fy or thriller.
3. How often do you watch films? How often do you watch
From this question I found out that most people do watch films?
films but not all the time. The statistics from this question
are that 6/10 people only watch films sometimes, 3
people watch them all the time and only one person said
that they never watch films. I think this is a generally
good response as it shows that films are still quite
popular. Never Sometimes All the time

4. Where do you watch films?

From the gathered information I have found that most people (60%) tend to watch films
online, which is probably due to the improvement of internet facilities. Only 20% watch
films on TV as this is an older way of viewing films. 1 person selected both TV and
cinema whilst the last 10% watch films on all three media platforms.
Victoria Holt

5. Whats your favourite film?

This is an open question where people could write whatever they wanted to. Some of
the films in which people mentioned are:

Me before you
Dirty dancing
Fast + furious
The shining
Marley and me
Jurassic park
Django Unchained
I think I got a mixed response from this question because I asked people of different age
groups to fill out my questionnaire. A couple of the favourite films are quite old but
most of them are newly released showing that films are still entertaining for most
people.
6. What would you rate Beauty and the beasts film
What would you rate Beauty
trailer on a scale of 1- 10 in terms of the storyline and
and the beasts film trailer on a
entertainment value? scale of 1- 10 in terms of the
storyline and entertainment
I got a mixed result from this question as 10% rated it 1,
10% rated it 5, 10% rated it 6, 20% rated it 7, 20% rated
8, 10% rated it 9 and 20% rated it 10. This shows that
some people thought it was good and some thought it
wasnt. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

7. Do you pirate films or watch them legally?

Half of the people asked all pirate the films they watch, which means they watch them
illegally, 2 people watch films legally and 3 people watch them legally and illegally. The
other 50% of people asked pirate their films. This isnt too good because it means that
they dont actually have permission to watch the films, however websites still make it
possible to pirate them.
Questionnaire conclusion:
To conclude I think the results that I have collected show a good result and shows that
people watch films quite a lot. This is good for the company making the film trailers as it
means that they are still appealing and I have found out what genre people prefer. All in all
people mostly prefer the romantic, comedy and action genres.

Face to face interviews:

These are conversations where there is normally an interviewer and interviewee and then
questions are asked and answers are given in return. The word "interview" refers to a one-
on-one conversation with one person deciding if the other person is right, for example this
Victoria Holt

may be the case when applying for a new job. The participants take it in turns talking so that
each person can be heard clearly. Sometimes at the end of an interview it turns into a
general chat relating to the situation. The whole idea of an interview is to transfer
information from interviewee to interviewer although information transfers can happen in
both directions simultaneously. Interviews are normally organized in advance so that there
is more certainty that both people can make it, this is because most interviews take place
face to face in person. However if it is not possible to have a face to face conversation
modern communications technologies such as the Internet/skype allow people who live far
away from each other to communicate easily. Sometimes non-visual contact interviews
happen where it is just a simple phone call, these tend to be easier as you dont have the
awkwardness of sitting in front of a future employer.
Interviews can also happen over messages although this isnt very professional for a
company. Interviews arent always structured so can be open-ended conversations in which
there is no premade plan with prearranged questions. However, there are
some interviews where questions are set to be asked in a certain order. In a
face to face interview one of the people tends to write notes down or has
some way of recording information with an audio recorder. The notes depend
on the context and amount of information and the length of the interview.
Interviews have a duration in time, in the sense that the interview has a beginning and an
ending.
Interviews arent really relevant for a film trailer unless you are interviewing someone to be
in the trailer itself. If the company making the film trailer wanted to employ a new person
they would want to know whether the person has been in other films, what there role was if
they had. They would ask important questions to help them understand more about the
potential new actor for their company.

Conclusion:
All of the above research methods would help and be useful in finding out information from
the audience about what they like and dislike about films. The face to face interviews isnt
the best way as you are only talking to one person apposed to several people. Also
interviews are ways of seeing if someone is right for the job not finding out information.