UNIT 3 & 33: Research Techniques for the Creative Media Industries & Stop Motion Animation P

Research

A

The purpose of research is to become informed on a topic to a greater extent than one would already know depending on how well they already know the topic. This can be done through the internet, books, newspapers, documentaries and other platforms where facts and important stats are shown/stated. For example. I’m going to watch a lot of stop motion short films and watch youtube behind the scenes videos for my research on my animation.

If a company in the film industry were to research what their audience would like, it would help the film industry as it would make the audience enjoy it a lot more essentially meaning that more money is made.

The Toy Story franchise is a good example of audience research as the director from the first film could have seen the reviews and targeted the second film towards the audience that were kids when the first film was released due to the second one being made 4 years after the first. It has a lot of success in the box office shown by the figures below.

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

AUD 2,217,716 (Australia) (13 December 1995)

Gross:

$191,796,233 (USA)

Wallace and Gromit The Curse of The Were-Rabbit is another good example for audience research as the original shorts were made in the 1980-1990s which meant they had a lot of time to check the reviews on the shorts and see what they could improve and and what the audience liked. The movie was made in 2005 which means they had more than 10 years to find out the issues the audience had with it and improve it for the movie. Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of The Were-Rabbit was also successful in the box office shown below.

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$1,321,383 (Australia) (16 September 2005)

Gross:

$56,110,897 (USA)

B

Quantitative Research: Research that measures the numerical aspect of data collected through polls, surveys and questionnaires. This is done as an attempt to find the demographics of the target audience and such. Qualitative Research: Research that attempts find out reasons or opinions through Interviews, focus groups and some questionnaires. This generally finds what are the audiences likes and dislikes so that the people collecting the data are able to make a product that will suit the target audience.

Three examples for each - with pictures and links - use YouTube (for example, an interview on Batman)

Primary Research: Research that is carried out to find out the opinions and answers to specific to specific topics. An example of this would be surveys, observations and interviews. - Include examples here. Secondary Research: Research that has already been carried out and already been summarised. An example of secondary research would be an investigation that imdb have already done like http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114709/faq?ref_=tt_faq_sm in this they asked what other people thought of the movie which would be primary research for them but secondary for people using this website as a source.

C

Demographics: When a person has characteristics like age, race, nationality or social economic status which makes the person fall into a group. This essentially means what each age is interested in and how age and other factors affect what is enjoyable to them.

Geodemographics: Geodemographics is the study of one's demographics and personality in a certain place, for example someone in the UK would have different demographics and psychographics to someone in the US.

Psychographics: The category of which the audience fit into because of their personality and their aspirations. This essentially means why the audience would buy or consume a product, because it is mainstream, gets them through the day or they need it to be successful.

Bruce Wayne

Age: 32

Race: Caucasian

Nationality: American

Social Economical Status: Upper Class

Psychographics: Aspirer, Succeeder

Aladin

Age: 18

Race: Arabic/ Middle Eastern

Nationality: Agrabahian

Social Economical Status: Lower Class

Psychographics: Struggler

The audience are categorized because it means it is easier for films and products to target their product and films at them. By classifying them a by age it is clear to see that films with violence and sex are aimed at a more mature audience rather than children.

D

For research I will look at existing stop motion films that were very successful. I will watch them and find out why they were so successful so then I could make mine like that. I will look at the reviews on IMdb and see what went wrong for some of the less successful stop motion animated films and make sure that mine doesn’t end up like that. I will do this by asking a group of people a few questions about it, I will also make a survey that asks more people about this.