Interview Analysis

To narrow down my target audience I did 14 interviews, 7 males and 7 females, between the ages of 19 and 50. By doing this I found out a more detailed idea of what my target audience thought of musicals and helped me develop my ideas.

1) What factors would make you interested in watching a Musical?

In response to this question, majority of females and males said that they did not like the stereotypical musical and that they would rather see ones without cheesiness and love and ones with a different story line or if they included different themes and were darker. As I have focused on an older audience, I think that musicals which are cheesy and are focused on teenage love are too childish for them, and they would rather see a different style musical. Taking this into account I like the idea of using a different theme, like horror, to make them be more on the edge of their seat as I think they would find this more enjoyable.

2) What would you find unique about a Musical?

Most of the males and females of who I interviewed said that they would find a musical unique if was darker, more realistic, included a sense of horror and more adult views. I agree with all of this, because they are a more mature audience something different and out of the norm needs to intrigue them into watching it and as these are what my target audience would find unique I will try and include some of their ideas into my short film.

3) What do you think is ‘typical’ of a Musical?

This question got very similar answers from both males and females, like in previous questions. Typical musicals in my target audiences opinion involve: A romance that goes wrong but everything is happy at the end, big over the top songs, happy endings, love story and cheesiness. This is obvious, and all of these ‘typical’ things that occur in musicals I must try and not include so that I have a Unique Selling Point and so my short film is nothing like any other.

4) What things do you dislike about ‘typical’ Musicals?

From the question, the responses were simple in the fact that most of the females and males disliked musicals because it was boring and too over used, even if some of the females did love romance films, but for a musical its all they were ever about. As majority of musicals do seem to focus on teenage love and making it cheesy, I hope to step away from this when creating and writing the songs for my short film.

5) Would you be intrigued to watch a musical which moves away from the ‘stereotypical’ style?

As this question is more of a Yes or No answer, there is not a lot for me to analyse. But all of the males and females that I interviewed said that they would be interested in seeing a musical which moves away from stereotypes. This is good information, as the people I asked are all in my target audience age range, I can use it on creating and developing the three ideas for my short film. However some did all say things along the lines off: as long as it moved away from the stereotype in a good way and it kept some of the themes of normal musicals. This complicates things for me as they were not specific in the ways that they think would be good to keep.

6) If you have seen Sweeney Todd, what did you like and dislike about it?

This question got a mixture of responses, they mainly enjoyed the new style of musical but the gore was a bit too much for some of them and some commented on the singing not being up to scratch as other musicals. I am glad that the males and females both liked Sweeney Todd and the change of musical style as it allows me to think of a darker musical and ideas that will suit it.

7) What sort of music/songs would you expect to see in Musicals?

Again, all very similar answers when it is to do with ‘stereotypical’ musicals. The responses I got from my target audience about what sort of songs they would expect based mainly around a big happy love song, and then some others said a depressing song and ones which are reflective. I agree with the fact a big cheesy everyones happy song does normally occur at the end of most musicals, however this question was asked so I knew what was expected so that I could try something different which would suprise my audience.

8) In what ways do you think a musical could become appealing to both male and female audiences?

I asked this question because I know from my questionnaire and generally that males do not enjoy musicals compared to females. And for my target audience I wanted to have both genders included, so by asking this I get to see what I could use in my short musical film to interest males. From what the females said they think that if it moved away from the ‘norm’ of love stories and included themes of horror or comedy, the males that I asked agreed with this by having similar answers. By knowing what males may like to see in musicals I can try and include some of them into my short film.

9) Have you seen any Musicals you dislike and why?

This question was asked because I wanted to know mainly why they didn’t like a certain musical so that I know to not use it. However this is a hard question to analyse as they didn’t all dislike the one musical. But I can tell from some of the responses that females dislike musicals because of having too much gore and taking a while to get into (Sweeney Todd) and the whole cheesy high school idea (High School Musical), the males seemed to focus on these two films also with the same reasons. I should take into account not to include too much gore, have an interesting story line throughout and no cheesy high school things.

10) Do you think including flashbacks would suit a Musical?

I included this question because I would like to include flashbacks in my short film and wanted to see what my target audience thought of using them as well. And happily, they all thought that using them would or could make the musical more interesting if they were used in the right places. This means I will have to plan out carefully when to use them and reasons why so that they fit and don’t make the film confusing.