Wednesday 16 November 2011

Soap opera trailer questionaire results analysis

Once I had recieved back the results of the questionaire I analysed the results and related them to help me when creating my soap opera trailer as for what to include and different facts the audience expect to see.

Question 1) What age are you?

For this question I obtained a large range of results from people aged 16 to the oldest person being 66. I did this so that the results I obtained were not bias and so that I could get a wider range of results from different age groups and see whether the results are similar or see how they differ.

Question 2) What do you look for in a trailer?

A large amount of results were obtained from this question which I have listed below:

Storyline - 3
Character Introduction - 2
Fast paced - 1
Setting up something that will happen (Narrative) - 4

From these results it was clear that the trailer should really show something that is going to happen to build up suspense within the trailer to lure audiences into watch it, two people also commented that the trailer should be used to introduce characters and let the audience know a little about what kind of person they are. So with these results in mind when creating our group soap opera we needed to think about what will be included in our soap opera, we need to now think about creating a narrative during the trailer and maybe introducting the characters to let the audience know a little about them. We need to consider doing this because these are what people expect to see in a soap opera trailer so we need to ensure our trailer is done well and contains content that the audience expect to see to ensure they are lured in and therefore wach the soap.

Question 3) What time would you expect to see a trailer?

5PM - 1
6PM - 2
7PM - 4
8PM - 2
9PM - 1

These results show me that the audience do not expect to see a soap opera trailer on TV before 5PM or after 9PM. This shows me that the trailers for soap operas are aimed towards all different age groups if they are shown before the 9 oclock watershed then the content in the trailer must not be too explicit. This also shows me that trailers are aimed towards demographic groupings C-E as there are not trailers on before 5PM because if there was the target audience that the trailer is aimed towards would be working. From these results I can now apply this to when my group films our soap opera trailer I can start to think about what time it would be shown so if I am going to base the times of trailers on TV from these results (which would be the best option because the people asked in this questionaire would be the target audience for soap operas) I would need to make sure that the group trailer is shown between 5PM and 9PM preferably 7PM as this was the most popular choice chosen in the questionaire.

Question 4) What kind of lighting do you expect to see?

Depends on whats happening - 10

These results were easy to analyse as everyone answered the same, they said that the lighting used in the trailer will depend on what the audience can see is happening. If there is something related to death or murder or tradedy then dark low key lighting should be used as this would create a dark eerie atmosphere which shows the narrative as a dark one whereas if there is something happy occuring in the trailer such as a wedding or a party then there should be use of high key lighting to create a happy atmosphere. When relating this to my groups trailer that we will create I need to ensure I use the correct lighting, if the narrative portrayed in our trailer is dark with storylines such as murder I will need to ensure we use dark low key lighting whereas on the other hand if something happy is portrayed in the trailer I will need to make sure we use high key lighting to create the correct atmosphere and effect on the audience that we would be aiming for.

Question 5) How long do you expect a trailer to be?

20-30 Seconds - 2
31-60 Seconds - 1
61-90 Seconds - 3
91-120 Seconds - 3
121-150 Seconds - 1

From there results it shows that a trailer is expected to be from at least 20-30 seconds and no longer than 2 and a half minuites The most popular length time of a trailer is said to be either 61-90 seconds or 91-120 seconds so I will need to take this into consideration when my group create our soap opera trailer we as a group will aim to create a trailer lasting around 90 seconds as this was the most popular time chosen on our questionaire.

Question 6) Do you expect to see alot of dialogue during the trailer?

Yes - 2
No - 8

These results are quite clear with 80% of the people asked saying that they do not expect to see alot of dialogue during a soap opera trailer. There can be a little bit maybe to let the audience know a little about the characters in the trailer but the trailer should not be based on dialogue. The main dialogue that the trailer will use is at the end with a non-diegetic voice over explaining the details of the soap eg what time it is on and what channel. So taking these results into consideration for my groups soap opera when considering dialogue for our soap opera trailer we need to try to keep it to a minimum.

Question 7) Do you expect to see alot of words in the trailer?

Yes - 3
No - 7

These results show that the majority of people do not expect to see a lot of words used in the trailer the only expected to see the titles at the end and other words kept to a minimum. The three that said that they do expect to see alot of words described a trailer as in one that questions came up written on the screen and they said that they felt these were the most effective trailers. When considering our groups soap opera trailer task we needed to think about whether we would use words in our trailer in a way like the audience answered our questionaires or whether we will not use many words at all and try to keep them to a minimum with pretty much only the titles at the end.

Question 8) Do you expect the sound in the trailer to be high pich or low pitch?

High Pitch - 0
Low pitch - 0
Depends on what is happening - 10

The results from this question were very clear with everyone answering the same, they all said that the sound all depends on what is happening in the trailer very much like the lighting. If the storyline is something such as murder the sound used will be low pitch to create a mysterious dark atmosphere whereas if the narrative is a happy one in the trailer then high pitch sound would be used to create a happy atmosphere to the audience. When thinking about sound for our groups soap opera trailer it was clear that we couldn't decide on this until we had come up with a narrative that will happen, if it is happy then high pitched sounds would be used to express the happyness across to the audience but if the narrative is dark like a murder storyline then low pithed music would have to be used to portray a dark mysterious atmosphere across to the audience.

Creating and analysing this questionaire was very helpful as it gave us a wider insight into what the audience expect to see in a soap opera trailer so now we can take this into consideration when creating our own group soap opera trailer.

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