General Audience Ressearch

This research has been done througout the term, the main idea of this research was to find out the main medium people use to see films, quite interestingly it wasn't what I expected.

I found it extremely surprsing that the majority of people still see films at the cinema rather than than over the internet or through DVDs due to the huge cost difference between them, but it obviously shows that people prefer hearing and seeing the movie in the highest quality possible, rather than sub-standard or simply TV quality. Maybe this will change when Blu-Ray becomes standard.

This is the reason I was surprised more people didn't see films on the internet, due to the majority of people hearing about films from it. Also quite interesting is the fact one of the 2nd highest, Word Of Mouth, is one of the most influential even in the heavy advert based word we live in today. A good review from a public person to a group of friends can greatly improve the seeability of the film.

Questionnaire

1. What was the most recent thriller that you’ve seen?

2. What is your favourite thriller?

3. What actor do you think of when you say “Thriller”?

4. Why do you like thrillers?

5. Which do you prefer: thrillers over Comedy, Action, romantic?

6. Do you prefer seeing thrillers are a cinema or at home?

7. What would your preferred escape vehicle be?

   1. Car / bus

   2. Foot

   3. Tank

   4. Helicopter

   5. Train

   6. Boat

   7. Other

8. What is your preferred weapon of mass murder?

   1. Knife

   2. Tank

   3. Gun

   4. Explosives

   5. Other

9. If you were stranded on a dessert island what item would you take? E.g. FHM Magazine

10. If you had the choice would you be villain, hero or victim?

The above is my finished questionnaire, I asked quite a few people to gain some useful opinions. I found that the most relevant and interesting information came from questions 5 and 10. The results are displayed below in the form of 2 graphs.

Question 10 was clearly dominated by most people preferring to play as the victim and none wanting to be the villain. To implement this into our thriller opening I tried to keep as much camera time on the victims themselves as possible to make you feel more as if you were there.

The 2nd graph, or question 5, was also quite interesting due to the fact most people preferred action over all the other 3 options, comedy didn't even get picked once which surprised me. To try to bring this into the equation of our thriller opening we decided to add in a small "push-contest" to add some action to our 2 minute shot.

Overall I found the questionnaire quite interesting, however I think I put to much "fun" into it with question 7 and 8.

Media Studies Questionnaire

Media Studies Questionnaire

NAME: Matthew Tyrrell

GCSE RESULTS: ICT(Dida) = A(a), Maths, History, Statistics, English, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, ICT (Dida) = B(b), English Literature, Religious Studies = C(c), French = D(d).

HOBBIES: Gaming (PC/Xbox etc), Reading, walking the dog, building computers, mild drinking, paintballing, going out with friends when I have the money.

MEDIA INTERESTS:

Radio Media:
I listen to “Radio 1” in the morning to wake up. This is mainly because they are well known and generally play decent music.

Music Industry:
I listen to Indie, Rock & Alternative mainly.

The music industry doesn’t influence my dress, attitudes or aspirations, it’s something to allow you to zone out to not to enable you to be brained washed into thinking everyone sucks or that you’re beautiful…

Video Games:
Favourite video games are either FPS (First-Peron-Shooter) or MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games). FPS are terrible real life examples since all you do in them is shoot other people, which doesn’t help you mature or grow in any shape or form and you rarely socialise at all on them.

MMORPGs on the other hand have their own social standards which you are expected to uphold. If you are weak in the mind or slightly retarded you can find yourself becoming more intoned to the gaming environment than real life, but realistically it is northing more than a hobby such as a chat room which has 3D graphics where you do objectives together.

Females in gaming are normally the “perfect curve” type of women with huge tits, nice ass etc. Basically the geek dream of a woman, however recently that’s changed and you’re getting more realistic women characters, which is good due to graphics now being at the stage where you can fully create an accurate 3D object.

New Technology:
I have access to the internet, I use it to socialise over MSN and Facebook as well as playing games and for doing homework.

The technology today has had a rather balanced affect on society. It’s enabled you to quickly find any information you want about anything as well as increased the need to be the “attention whore”, as you can see by loads of 12year olds on places such as Bebo adding hundreds of strangers. It’s also added a new level of security and paranoia to the world; you get the fanatics who think they’re always being watched even though realistically it helps catch more terrorists and paedophiles than any other median of communication on the planet.

One problem with technology however is the fact it’s now promoted the language known as “text talk”, which is where nearly every single word in existence has been cut down to the smallest amount of characters possible! Just look at Hello, it went from Hello > Hey > Hi > Lo which is all to save space and time for those finger bashers on the mobile or msn.

Television:
I watch what ever movie is on ranging from Thriller to Action. I do not enjoy watching horrors or romantics unless it’s in the right environment, not things I watch by myself.

I prefer watching movies at home or at a friends house since the cinema just costs so much and really you don’t gain anything anymore due to most people now having surround sound and 30”+ size televisions.

Cinema is good if your going in a small group since you can socialise easily in there and get a drink/food and go to the back and enjoy yourselves. It’s basically a day out, you have to get there and book the ticket which is normally in the city so you can then do other things. I would never go by myself it is defiantly a social environment.

In Conclusion:
The most offense media is probably the new technology such as the internet since people can get away with racism, anti-Semitism, being sexist and more when you know if they did that in a street they’d get a slap round the head and a shouting at.

However it is also the most interesting since it offers everything and more over the other median types. You can listen to music, watch tv, read magazines and more on the internet.

I think all media alters you in small ways, I can’t pick one out of mid air but if you look at a piece of art and think “Wow”, it’s touched you in a small way which may nudge your opinion of a certain thing in a different direction.

I’ve chosen Media over mathematics (dropped it), due to it being an interesting subject which looks enjoyable and something that I’ve never done before as well as being more a different type of learning curve due to it not being based on formulas like a science.

I would use the computer to construct a text based around the “Attraction of Russian Brides” or something amusing like that. I’d probably communicate the misconceptions of it and try to change peoples understanding.

Well I’ve moved 4 weeks late into Media and after my first couple of lessons over the past week it defiantly looks good, hopefully I can pick up quickly what I’ve missed!