Ancillary Task : Audience Research Into Film Reviews...

I decided that although the Internet and offcourse existing magazines are great resources to finding out key information about reviews, from the different reviews to the code and conventions, a computer cannot give you a human response. Therefore it was crucial for me to conduct some audience research into what my target audience generally think of reviews, what key elements they feel should be included and whether they actually read any reviews. I asked 10 people ranging from a variety of ages from 15 to 56 both male and female and have created a summary of the knowledge I gained from this :


1. Have you ever read any film reviews?
The response I gained was mostly a yes, this was not specifically just to film magazines some had read them within general magazines such 'Closer' and 'Heat' whereas others had read film reviews via the internet on sites such as the guardians media blog and the total film online website. Only a few of my target audience had actually specifically brought a film magazine, and one of these was the one who had studied media as an A-level, with most of the older audience having read them within the radio times or in the newspaper.

2. What elements you would expect to find within a review?
Mostly the response was the obvious "the text, an image of the film, some kind of rating and a title". There was a few who included other information, such as a background to the film, recommondations of other films and maybe how to access more reviews from that particular source online.

3. What kind of magazines are you attracted to within the shop?
Due to my vast range of ages there was a vast range of responces, the younger audience said "look, now and closer", whereas the older generation said "good food". "dales man" and "gardners world". This showed me how infuluential the magazine industry is and the vast product that is available for readers, and therefore although not specifically focussed on film reviews people are still intrested in magazines and therefore is a key source to stream a film review.


4. Would you base your judgement to see a film based on a review?
The response was mixed, some really trusted reviews and stated that it would put them off seeing a film if a repsonse had been a bad one whereas others said that they wouldnt as it was based on a subjective opionion which was mostly biased and that although they make take it into account they would want to see the film to judge for themseleves whether it was so bad or not

5. How important do you think the image is to a review?
The response was that for many the image was of importance if they were flicking through a magazine and saw an image from the film, and thought they were intrested in the film than they were more likely to read the review on basis of seeing the image. It also gives a small snip-pit of the film away as it is directly from the film, tending to include the characters this means that they felt they wrere more likely to watch the film to find out about the particular characters