questionnaire

Questionnaire on crime drama genre

1. Please circle your gender

 

Male

Female

 

2. Please circle your age range

 0 – 16
 17 – 21
 22 – 30
 31 – 45
 45 +

3. How often do you go to see a film at the cinema ?

 Once a week
 Once a month
 Once every two months
 Once every six months
 Never
 Other

4. What is your preferred genre?

(You may choose more than one)

 

Action

Adventure

Comedy

Crime

Fantasy

Gangster

Horror

Romance

Science Fiction

Thriller

 

5. What form of advertising would encourage you to go to watch a crime drama?

( You may choose more than one )

 

Billboard posters

Internet advertising

Television advertising

Magazine articles

 

 

6. What conventions of crime drama do you prefer?

( You may choose more than one )

 

Multiple suspects

Professionals solving the crime eg. police officers

The crime itself

Exploring the crime scene

Evaluating the evidence

 

7. Do you prefer the police officer in charge / private detective to be

Male 

 

Female

 

8. Do you prefer the villain to be

Male

Female

9. Do you prefer

To have the crime as the opening scene

 

To be introduced to the characters before seeing the crime

  

 

 

Analysis of questionnaire

I gave this questionnaire to 40 people.

I chose a representative cross section in order to get a fair sample.

 

 

 Question 1

 I gave the survey to 20 male and 20 females.

 Question 2

 

I took a representative sample of age ranges

0 – 16     4 people

17 – 21   22 people

22 – 30   6 people

31 – 45   7 people

45 +         1 person

 

 

 The majority of those questioned are of a similar age to me.

 

 

Question 3

 

 

To the question - how often do you go to the cinema -  I received the following answers :

Once a week                       1

Once a month                     16

Once every two months    10   

Once every six months       5

Never                                     5

Other                                     3

 

 

 The people who ticked other all said that they went very infrequently, maybe with several years’ gaps. One said that they only went on a special occasion such as a birthday, and another said that they only went if a particular film really caught their attention.

 The majority of the people who went regularly were from the age categories 17 – 21 and 22 – 30. These people have a reasonable amount of money as they are earning and can afford the entrance fees. Also they do not have as many commitments due to family ties so have more spare time.

 

Question 4

The answers to the question on preferred genre threw up an assortment of answers as this is a matter of individual choice. Some people circled more than one option.

 

 Action               18

 Adventure        16

 Comedy             9

 Crime                 11

 Fantasy               3

 Gangster            10

 Horror                 5

 Romance            1

 Science fiction   8

 Thriller                4

 

 

 Only 1 person chose romance . This was a female and I feel stereotypical.

 Action films were the most popular choice, and people who identified these also liked adventure movies and in some cases gangster movies. These tended to be males of the 17 – 21 and 22 – 30 age range.

 The score for Fantasy films was surprisingly low, and all these came from the 0 – 16 age range.

 Science fiction was enjoyed again mainly by the younger age brackets.

 All the people who enjoyed crime drama came from the age ranges from 17 onwards.

Question 5

The answers to the advertising question again reflected the age of the people.

Billboard posters    15

Internet                    21

Television                26 

Magazine                 10

Internet advertising appealed to age ranges of 17 – 30, reflecting the use of the internet by this age range. Television advertising appealed to all age ranges, but in particular the older age ranges. Magazine advertising was mainly appealing to 17 – 21 age range as they would be the target audience for magazines where films would be advertised.

 

 Question 6

 The answers to the question on conventions of crime drama was interesting.

 Multiple suspects                                                              32

 Professionals solving the crime eg. police officers      16

 The crime itself                                                                   5

 Exploring the crime scene                                                 11

 Evaluating the evidence                                                     21

 

 

 The results show that people watching a crime drama enjoy being introduced to the characters and analysing the evidence in order to try to solve the mystery for themselves. They want to become intrinsically involved in the plot. Very few were watching for the crime itself.

 Question 7

 

Do you prefer the police officer in charge / private detective to be

Male      34

Female  16

 

 

 Stereotypically we think of police officers and detectives as men and the majority of those questioned preferred this to be maintained.

 All of those who preferred a woman police officer were females.

 

 

 

 

 Question 8

 Do you prefer the villain to be

  

 Male       35

 Female    5

 

 

 The vast majority preferred the villain to be a man. This fits in with the stereotypical image of females being kind and gentle, not capable of a crime.

  

 Question 9

Do you prefer

 

To have the crime as the opening scene      29

To be introduced to the characters before seeing the crime   11

 

The majority preferred to be introduced to the crime immediately and then meet the suspects. I think that this is so they can begin to analyse

 

the characters immediately, knowing what has happened.


The target audience for my crime/drama film is males from the ages of 18 to 30. Even though I believe that my film would appeal to most people, I have chosen to use 18 to 30 year olds as my main target audience. My target audience would not be below 18 as I will explore some intense themes in my film. I have chosen to target older teenagers and adults in social classes B+A. This would mean they are in the high end of their careers e.g. lawyers. This would mean they are extremely intelligent and would be able to follow all the complex themes and story plots that will be created in my film. They would understand the plot of the crime/drama. My target audience enjoys going out with friends to the cinema to watch films. They are very sociable. They would have an outgoing personality and are very interested in law and the legal side to crimes.


This will aid me in producing a film opening as it has given me insight into the mind of my target audience and what they expect from this genre of film. I will have to ensure that my film opening contains all the key signifiers that this audience will expect in order to entice them into the film.