Film Noir - Audience Research

Question 1: How old are you?

The results to this question show that the majority of people who answered this survey are aged between 16 - 21 (78% were). This is useful information as we now have information that tells us how to create a relevant film noir for teenagers and young adults within the range of 16 to 21. This is very helpful to me as I categorize into that age range, this way I am able to relate to our target audience. This will come in very handy when planning, filming, editing, basically the whole production process as we make our film noir.

Question 2: What is your gender?

The majority of those who answered our survey were female (78% in fact). This shows that the majority of the audience research comes mostly from females, because of this the decisions that we makes based on this audience research will lead to a film made for females which could be a reason to create my film for females aged between 16 to 21 years old. Whether we decide to go through with that or not, we're still unsure.

Question 3: Are you familiar with Film Noir?

The results for this question were very close, 60% answered that no, they did not know what a film noir was. The remaining 40% answered that they did in fact know what a film noir was. This shows that in order for the 60% to understand and enjoy our film we will have to break or challenge some of the typical film noir conventions. We are also looking at including some typical genres of other films that those aged between 16 - 21 would enjoy for example, romance, thriller and action films. This will make our film much more relevant and enjoyable for our target audience. We will also include typical film noir conventions such as chiaroscuro lighting, dark alleyways and a crime based storyline to interest the remaining 40%.

Question 4: If you answered yes in question3, do you like watching film noirs?

Interestingly 62% answered that no, they do not like watching film noire which is understandable for an age group of 16 -21 year olds as originally film noir were popular in the 1950s and are definitely not considered modern films to be watched by teenagers and young adults. This again shows that we will have to include more modern conventions from other genres that will attract our target audience to our own film noir. This will then encourage our target audience to enjoy our film.

Question 5: In the films you watch, what gender is the villain usually?

The majority answer for this question was male. 73% answered that villains are usually male whereas only 7% answered that they were female. A small 20% answered that villains could be either female or male in films. In our film noir we have decided to go with a female as this will challenge our target audiences expectation and should hopefully intrigue them. Having a female villain is common in film noir which is our main reasoning behind our female villain, although we are challenging some film noir conventions we decided to keep within the female villain convention as it will be different to our viewers expectation.

Question 6: With a female villain, what personality traits do you expect?

In continuation with the film noir convention of a female villain we asked people what personality traits they would expect in a woman and gave some typical examples. The four most popular examples in order of highest percentage were as follows: Intelligent, Seductive, Mysterious and Charming. These four personality traits will be really helpful when portraying a female villain in our film noir. In order to show these characteristics we'll have to really think about our storyline, characters, props, costume and editing. These will be key in representing these four characteristics, especially as they are going to be key in showing that our female villain is just as good as a male villain. 78% respondents said that they would expect a female villain to be intelligent, in order to show this in our film I think that the story will be the most important factor when representing this quality trait in our female villain.

Question 7: What locations you would expect in a film noir (or something like a crime thriller)

Location is a very important factor in film, especially in film noir as there are common locations that appear in film noir. Some examples of these are living rooms, alleyways, offices or dark streets. Our audience research shows this as 82% of respondents said that alleyways were a location that they would expect in film noir. This is a film noir convention that we're going to follow as a dark alleyway with low street lighting

really helps with a dark, mysterious atmosphere for our film. 67% of respondents also said that mansions were a location that they would expect in a film noir. After doing some research on locations and where to film nearby we found that filming in a mansion would be hard as we don't own one and no one that we know owns one. We did however come to the realisation that we do live very near to some big houses that could easily pass for a mansion.

Question 8: What music do you expect in film noir?

69% of respondents answered that they would expect jazz music in a film noir, 67% answered that they would expect instrumental music in film noir. Based on my previous target audience research results it became clear that music is very important in any film, including film noir. This research shows me specifics of the type of music to include. Instrumental could be very useful when trying to create certain moods as it adds to the drama. Jazz music could also be very helpful in setting the mood, it creates a mood, specifically from the genre of the classical film noirs.

Question 9: What are some filters that you could see a film noir being in?

88% answered that they could see a film noir in black and white which is probably because black and white is a common film noir convention. Whether we're going to have our film in black and white or not we are still unsure because we still want our film to be relevant to our younger target audience. In order to keep our target audience interested in our film we may choose to challenge this convention and our target audience research and keep the film in colour. We have decided to film everything in colour and then decide in the post production process as to what filter our film noir should be in.

Conclusion

This audience research has been very helpful in making some of the big decisions we have to make as regards to location, music, actors/actresses, storyline, target audience and filters. Although we are still undecided on some of the questions asked, we have been able to make some firm decisions such as our villain will be female, we are going to have jazz and/or instrumental music in our film and our target audience is both females and males aged between 16 and 21.