Facebook Questions - Audience

Whilst waiting for the survey monkey questionnaire to get as many responses as possible I took the time to post a few questions on the National Film Making Society Facebook page about our trailer to see what would entice an audience the best and encourage them to see the movie. Here are the results I have gathered so far:

From the responses to this question I have gathered that the audience watching the movie would prefer to relate to a character in some way or another, especially the protagonist. The way in which the audience relates with the character does not have to be physical - such as gender or age, but can also be with the characters way of thinking, such as the decisions they make. However, as Micah points out, whilst it is comforting to relate to a character the most important thing is that the character links well with the story so nothing is out of place. Overall, rather than adapting our characters to fit an audience, it is better to instead target an audience who can relate to our characters.

100% of people answering this question voting they would like to see a little narrative in the trailer, as long as nothing too important is given away. From this, as well as watching existing trailers, I have concluded that the initial equilibrium in a movie is important to a trailer as it helps establish the characters, as well as  posing a problem that the characters have to face without giving an end result. A good example of this would be the trailer for We're the Millers, which initially portrays the characters in their seperate lives before bringing them together and posing the problem of drug smuggling. To reflect this in our trailer, we will have to present the couple initially as happy before we break this down and pose the problem of her cheating and them arguing.

The majority of people who answered this question voted for the storyline, and so it is important in our trailer to present an interesting storyline to entice and engage the audience. Again, this also depends on personal preference, as some may prefer a fast paced storyline where as others may prefer something more mysterious and challenging. As our genre is social realism/mystery it is importance to emphasise the mystery of the storyline and that not everything may be as it seems. A way we could do this could be through the tagline which we will add at the end of our trailer.