Primary Audience Research

I conducted primary audience research in order to:
 - Find out what appeals to my target audience
 - To discover any flaws or potential improvements that could be made to my film genre
 - To identify gaps in the market, and place a refreshing new twist on the genre



This is the chosen product I researched.
These are the questions I asked:

1. What did you think of the method used to display the title of the film?
2. What do you think of the locations used?
3. Do the opening titles give any indication towards the film's genre?
4. Can you understand the narrative from the opening sequence?
5. How do you feel whilst watching it?
6. What is the highlight of the opening sequence?
7. What is a weakness that you would improve?

From my audience research, I found that:
1. It felt somewhat forced and yet fluent simultaneously. This added an eerie aura as it was producing two conflicting views.
2. The locations appear to be random but later on in the film it is revealed that they are all significant to the narrative. This is affective because the audience feels a sense of joy from recognizing the introduction later on.
3. The opening titles give an indication towards a supernatural thriller, this is not the primary genre but the film has aspects of this.
4. There is absolutely no understanding of the narrative from the opening sequence, this is typical of the genre and equally effective as a technique.
5. Whilst watching this I feel like something is missing, which is the intention that the director had in mind. It shows an apparently random sequence but there is an unfinished sense in terms of the character.
6. The highlight of the opening sequence is how the very first shot lasts about 35 seconds, which is a long time for a single shot. From this it blends to reveal the film title.
7. One weakness that I would improve is the effects used to reveal the film title, although it fits with a strength it does feel slightly forced.

This tells me that the genre I have chosen is quite complex, there are many different techniques I could use for a successful execution but I must ensure that it all seems fluent, none of it forced. It also tells me that I can't show many indications towards the narrative right away, I need to maintain an unknown aspect and build to an understanding during the film. This does not come into the opening sequence however so I just need to make inferences towards a complex narrative.