Technical Writing – A documentation of Gathered Data on Movie-Going Survey

Movie Survey

A Documentation of Gathered Data

on Movie-going Survey

Submitted by:
Wilbert C. Venzon
Oliver Quiambao
Raymond Felizardo
Jovel Catakot
Vincent Elad
Technical Writing – A documentation of Gathered Data on Movie-Going Survey

Submitted to:
Mr. Allan Maroda
Instructor, English 3 – Technical Writing

Table of Contents
Contents:

I. Background of the Study

I.1 Objectives and Scope of the study………………………………….

I.2 Research and Methodology

1.2.3 Qualitative Study

1.3 Questionnaires

II. Finding of the Study

II.1Introduction

II.2The Strength and Weaknesses of local movies as compared to foreign movies

II.3Major factors that might affect the choice of movies

II.4Effective means of movie promotions

II.5Watching movies in cinemas via other means

III. Reasons for movie going and watching video disc

III.1Movie going with family members

III.2The attractiveness of going to cinema

III.3The attractiveness of watching movies via video

IV. Suggestions and Recommendation

IV.1Suggestions for the local film industry

IV.2General Recommendation
Technical Writing – A documentation of Gathered Data on Movie-Going Survey

I. Background of Study

1.1 Objectives and Scope of Study

On September 6, 2010, our group from Technical Writing Report class was asked by Mr. Allan

Maroda to conduct a survey on movie-going habits of about 50 respondents from a cinema inside

the Subic Bay Freeport Zone. The objectives of the study were:

• To understand the consumers’ behavior in selecting the different forms of

entertainment;

• to gather information on the movie-going habits of the local community in respect of

frequency, timing, venue and reasons;

• to outline the background of the frequent and infrequent movie-goers;

• to identify the motivators for movie-going vis-à-vis other forms of entertainment;

• to find out the reasons behind the customers’ choice between watching movies in

cinema and watching videos at home and their respective elements of attraction, and

• to identify the strengths and weaknesses of local movies vis-à-vis imported movies and

other forms of entertainment.

The study consist of the qualitative study (focus groups) which aimed at exploring into

greater depth the past and future trends, comments on the strengths and weaknesses of the

local film industries and suggestions for improvements. The findings of this study were

intended to serve as a reference for the group to identify the movie-goers reasons on
Technical Writing – A documentation of Gathered Data on Movie-Going Survey

watching movie and their intensions of buying a certain movie they like to watch after seeing

it in the movie house. The qualitative studies can be depicted in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 Scope of Study

• Frequency of watching • Choice of local and • Any changes in movie-

movies in cinema, and imported movies and the going habit in the past few
through other media favorite types of movies; years and reasons;

• Frequency of buying or • Elements of consideration • Comments on the strengths

renting VCD, DVD or for choosing a movie; and weaknesses of local
video tape products; movies;

• Preferences among • Reasons for movie-going; • Remedial actions and

different media and improvements areas for
watching movies in cinema; local movies

• Reasons for watching • Tendency of changing of

movies through other movie- going habit in the
means near future and the
associated factors

• Preference among various

forms of entertainment and
the associated factors

1.2 Research Methodology

1.2.2 Qualitative Study

Our group had been held for the survey in the period between September 7-17, 2010 after our

class and a day before we go to school during lunch time in particular. We conducted a survey

for 50 respondents from ages 18-40 years old, male and female. We ask our participants to give

us at least 5 minutes to finish our questionnaires.

Technical Writing – A documentation of Gathered Data on Movie-Going Survey

Table 1.3. Questionnaires

TECHNICAL WRITING REPORT

MOVIE SURVEY

Name:________________________________________________
Gender: a. Male b. Female
Age:______

What sorts of movies do you enjoy?

Please select all that apply.

○ Action

○ Love Story

○ Comedy

○ Horror

○ Sci-Fi

How often do you see movies in the theatre?

○ Once or twice a week.

Technical Writing – A documentation of Gathered Data on Movie-Going Survey

○ Once or twice a month.

○ Once or twice every few months.

○ Once or twice a year.

○ Rarely, if ever.

If you enjoyed the movie in the theatre, how likely are you to buy it on DVD later?

○ Very likely.

○ Somewhat likely.

○ Not very likely.

○ Not likely at all.

Which of the following aspects do you feel is most important to a good movie?
Please select all that apply.

○ Cast

○ Writing

○ Direction

○ Special Effects

Do you feel re-makes of old films are a good idea?

○ Yes
Technical Writing – A documentation of Gathered Data on Movie-Going Survey

○ No

○ Depends on the subject matter

Is the ticket in the theater expensive?

○ Yes

○ No

Which do you choose watching movie in theater or watching in DVD or VCD?

○ Watching movie in theater

○ Watching in DVD or VCD

Which do you want local movies or foreign movies

○ Foreign movies

○ Local movies

○ None

How important is the soundtrack to the movie?

○ Very important, it sets the whole scene.

○ Somewhat important, but mostly as background.

○ Not very important, though a good one is nice.

○ Not important at all.

With the rise of home theatre setups, do you feel the movie theatre industry is
dying?
Technical Writing – A documentation of Gathered Data on Movie-Going Survey

○ Yes

○ No

I. Findings of the Study

2.1 Introduction

The qualitative study was conducted in the form of face-to-face group discussions. The major

purpose of this part of study was to collect some more insightful information to form a more

complete picture of the movie-going habit of the local community. The focus group discussions

were given special attention to issues and factors affecting the behavioral patterns of the

participants. During the warm- up session, participants were asked to indicate what kind of

movies they liked or did not like; preference of the choice of movies and the reasons why.

Participants were then asked to comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the local movies.

Other issues of discussions included the choice of venues for watching movies, habit of movie-

going with family members’ preferences of the forms of entertainment, and improvements for

the local movie industry. Having gone through the discussions, the research team has concluded

that there were six key issues relating to:

• The strengths and weaknesses of local movies as compared with imported movies;

• Τ he major factors that might affect the choice of movies;

• Τ he effective means of movie aspects;

• Τ he reasons for movie-going and watching video discs;

• Μ ovie-going with family members;

• The motivation of movie-going as compared with other forms of leisure activity.

Technical Writing – A documentation of Gathered Data on Movie-Going Survey

In this chapter, we shall provide an analysis of the six major findings and summarizes the views

expressed by the participants. The suggestions for the local film industry will be discussed in the

next chapter.

2.2 The Strengths and Weaknesses of Local Movies as Compared with Foreign Movies

It was found out in the quantitative survey that 71.6% of the general public watched both local

and imported movies. Among these people, 55.3% preferred imported movies; only 17.5%

preferred local ones. During the focus group discussions, participants also felt that imported

movies were generally better than the local movies, yet both types of movies had their own

strengths and weaknesses. The strengths and weaknesses of the local movies became the

opposite for the imported films and vice versa. The merits of local films are identified as follows.

• Most of the local actors and background of the stories were familiar to the local people.

Local films normally reflected the local culture and so local audiences would be more

easily associated with the contents of the films and had resonance. Moreover, local film

industry had better expertise in producing action type or martial arts movies.

• Tagalog was the main dialect of the Philippines. Most audiences should be able to

follow the stories of the Tagalog films. In the case of imported movies, those who were

not good in English (or other foreign languages) would have to read the captions of the

movies. Language might be a barrier for some people and it explained why they

preferred watching the local movies.

Contrary to the advantages, the weaknesses of the local films were also obvious. In this study,

respondents did not consider that local films had ‘meaningful stories’ (40.2%), ‘diversified

themes’ (33.9%), ‘rigorous production’ (33.4%) and ‘appropriate themes’ (29.3%). On the other
Technical Writing – A documentation of Gathered Data on Movie-Going Survey

hand, majority of the respondents felt that imported movies had the advantages of ‘rigorous

production/live- like or grand scene’ (73.9%), ‘good directing skills’ (60.3%), ‘good acting

skills’ (61.5%), ‘diversified themes’ (59.9%) and ‘meaningful stories’ (56.1%). Participants of

the focus group discussions also reflected similar feelings and pointed out considerable

weaknesses of the local films. Their comments are summarized as follows.

• The themes were narrower in range. Audiences felt that the choice of local movies was

limited.

• Good local actors were limited in numbers.

• Actor was normally the key marketing tool of the local movies. The film operators

seldom marketed other accessory products other than the personality.

• The quality of some of the local films was not satisfactory. Some were not produced

seriously as compared with the imported movies. The production time of the local films

could be as short as a few weeks and the films were then released to the market. If a

theme became popular within a certain period of time, then the film producers would try

to imitate each other to better compete in the market. There were situations in which the

local film market was flooded with similar types of movies during a particular period of

time (e.g. heroic gamblers, triad society, love stories etc.).

• Some participants stated that the standard of some of the local film directors and the

techniques of cinematography was not satisfactory, although a few were comparable

with the counterparts of the imported films. The difference was that the directors of the

imported films were generally seen as better supported in other areas such as studio

facilities.
 Technical Writing – A documentation of Gathered Data on Movie-Going Survey

• Poor quality was also explained by the fact that local film producers did not take

screenwriting as an important element of movie production and were not willing to

invest more money and time in it. Therefore audiences often commented that the plots of

the local movies were unrealistic, unconvincing, and vulgar.

2.3 Major Factors That Might Affect the Choice of Movies

In our survey, it was found that the factors that might affect the personal choice of movies were

quite diverse. The major factors were ‘contents of movie’ (51.2%), ‘cast’ (39.1%), ‘types of

movies’ (21.7%), and ratings of ‘movie reviews’ (18.1%). During the focus group discussions,

participants also considered that ‘contents of the movies’, ‘cast’ and ‘ratings of the reviews’

were important factors. Focus group participants had however discussed more diverse factors

and an important one was ‘accompanying of friends’.

• It was pointed out in most of the focus groups that the company of friends to watch movies in

cinemas was considered as very important, and this was more obvious among young people.

Some even emphasized that they went to watch a movie not primarily because they liked that

movie but because their friends asked them to go together. Therefore, the choice of movie-going

was considerably affected by peer group behavior.

• Positive recommendations and referrals by friends, commentaries in the newspapers,

magazines, and radio stations would also affect the decisions to choose a movie. More credits

were however given to comments of the movie columns (especially those written by some

famous film critics) than the general reviews.

• If the previews in the cinemas, bus video or televisions were attractive, some participants

would be attracted to watch the movies.

 Technical Writing – A documentation of Gathered Data on Movie-Going Survey

• Some people would be attracted to watch the movies, which had won film

awards.

2.4 Effective Means of Movie Promotion

It was found in the quantitative survey that the effective means of promoting movies were quite

diversified, namely TV (55.6%), newspapers (33.2%), and magazines (20.6%). The focus

group participants generally considered that although such normal channels as advertisements in

televisions, radios and newspapers were effective means to promote a movie, there were other

important ones which were listed in below as well. Some of the listed promotion means were

more commonly indicated by the participants, whereas others were less common, including:

• recommendations written in the movie reviews (more common);

• feature highlights presented in the TV or in bus video (more common);

• previews in the cinemas or the internet (more common);

• offer of associated accessories, e.g. gift items distributed through mass channels such as

fast food restaurant chains or retail shops.

• the drama series of the movies in the radio (less common);

• web sites dedicated for movies (less common);

2.5 Watching Movies in Cinemas and via Other Means

For respondents who went to cinemas to watch movies at least once a year 43.3% and 36.6% of

them respectively indicated that the ‘unique environment’ and ‘better facilities’ were the reasons
Technical Writing – A documentation of Gathered Data on Movie-Going Survey

for the m to watch movies in cinemas. It was quite consistent with those respondents who

considered internal environment and facilities (45.2%) as the factors for choosing particular

cinemas as shown in Table 1.4.

Table 1.4 Reasons for Watching Movies in Cinemas

Table 1.5 Factors Affecting the Choice of Particular Cinemas

I. Reasons for Movie-going and Watching Video Discs

Nowadays there are diversified means of watching movies. In addition to cinemas, audiences

also watch movies at home via video, VCD, terrestrial and cable TVs. Table 1.3, it was found

that the most common reasons preferring watching movies in cinemas were ‘unique

environment’ (43.3%), ‘better facilities’ (36.6%) and ‘social activities with friends’ (25.4%).

Reasons for watching movies in venues other than cinemas were ‘flexible viewing times’

(56.1%), ‘free environment at home’ (36.2%) and ‘lower cost’ (32.5%). Among the infrequent

movie-goers, however, the most important reasons for not doing so were the ‘availability of

video and VCD as a convenient and satisfactory option’ (55.2%) and ‘pricing’ (51%). It has to

be noted that many cinemas have been converted from the single and grand theatre style to

multiple and mini-theatre style. This implies that the screen sizes of these mini-theatres are
Technical Writing – A documentation of Gathered Data on Movie-Going Survey

reduced considerably. On the other hand, the domestic video and audio equipment become more

and more sophisticated, and the television sets also become larger and larger in size. This

shortening of gap between the two means of watching movies would make the people feel like

more satisfied with the video discs, and go to cinemas less frequently. During the focus group

discussions, we deliberately asked the participants to discuss the reasons why they chose to

watch movies in cinema and/or video. A number of the participants felt that watching movies in

cinema was still somewhat attractive, even though the video became more and more popular. We

therefore asked them to explain why they preferred to go to cinema. The reasons were actually

quite consistent with the data revealed in the study.

3.1 Movie-going with Family Members

• Most of the respondents (94.6%) went to cinemas infrequently (4 times or less) with their

family members . In particular, 69% did not go with their family members.

• The mean frequency of going to cinemas with family members was 1.1 times.

Table 2.1 Number of Times of Going to Cinemas with Family Members

Technical Writing – A documentation of Gathered Data on Movie-Going Survey

‘Comedy’ (64.3%) was obviously the most popular choice for movie-going with family

members. On the other hand, about one-tenths of the respondents chose ‘literary/love story’

(13.6%), ‘action’ (12.6%), ‘cartoon’ (11.8%), and ‘love between kinsfolk/friends’ (11.1%).

Table 2.2: Favorite Types of Movies with Family Members

3.2 The attractiveness of going to cinema

• Audiences could enjoy better facilities (such as better seating, sound systems and larger

screens) and the unique environment inside a cinema (e.g. sharp contrast between the

bright screen and the dark surrounding) so that they could pay full attention to the movie

and would not be easily distracted by other things. Cinema appeared to be particularly

attractive if there were special visual and sound effect, splendid scenes and innovative

approaches presented in a film. Some of the special effect could only be felt effectively

in the special environment of the cinema.

• Audiences could share the feelings with each other inside a cinema. They could laugh

or scream together and felt involved with the movies and the surroundings.

• Some people habitually went to cinema with their friends or family members during

such important traditional festivals as New Year and Christmas. By doing so, they felt

that they could have a stronger feeling of the festive atmosphere.

Technical Writing – A documentation of Gathered Data on Movie-Going Survey

• Films were normally shown for the first time in the cinema. Those people who wished

to watch the movies in the first instance would prefer to go to cinema.

• Movie-going was an important kind of social activities (especially for those under

courtship). Friends could go to the cinema together and share with each other the

comments of the movies afterwards. Participants would prefer watching movies in

cinema to going outdoor when the weather condition was poor.

3.3 The attractiveness of watching movies via video.

• Watching video had the advantage of grouping friends together in an occasion and then

one could exchange views and comments on the movie immediately with their friends.

• Watching video was more economical.

• Movies in the video could be repeatedly watched for many times.

• The viewing time of the video was relatively more flexible and could fit personal

schedule any time.

• It was more free and relaxed to watch video at home (e.g. one could smoke without

affecting the neighboring audiences. One would not feel embarrassed by shouting and

laughing as one pleased).

• Video movie products were available soon after the same films have been shown at the

cinemas. Audiences would have more information about the quality of the films. On the

other hand, this time gap became shorter and shorter. Audiences began to feel that it

was not worthy of paying the high ticket price of going to the cinemas. In fact some of

the movies available in video were not even shown in the cinema before.
Technical Writing – A documentation of Gathered Data on Movie-Going Survey

• If a movie was popular, audiences would have to queue up for a long time to buy the

tickets at the cinemas. On the contrary, it was relatively more convenient for people to

buy the video in convenient shops.

• The audiences could control the flow of the movies at home that is they could easily

select or skip some parts of the movies as they liked.

• The environments of some cinemas had been deteriorating, and some might be even

worse than those at homes (e.g. some people smoked or used the mobile phones when

watching the movies inside a cinema, while others found this kind of behavior

disturbing and intolerable).

• More choices were available through video.

It was revealed that those who liked watching movies considered the environment of the cinemas

had unique advantage despite the availability of VCD or DVD. However, the audiences were

discouraged by the quality of the local movies and the relatively expensive ticket price, and thus

did not consider the local movies as value for money. Therefore, ticket price was a critical factor

in their decision of movie-going after taking account of the quality of a movie. If the quality of a

movie was not as good as they perceived, they would switch to a less expensive option, i.e. video

discs.

I. Suggestions and Recommendations

4.1 Suggestions for the Local Film Industry

In the previous chapters, we have provided the results of the surveys. We have paid special

attention to the behavioral pattern affecting watching movies in cinema and the factors, which

shaped their behavior. We found that development of the local film industry, the production of
Technical Writing – A documentation of Gathered Data on Movie-Going Survey

good local movies, in particular, would be an important factor affecting the behavior of movie-

going among the local people in Olongapo City. During the focus group discussions, participants

were requested to make comments and suggestions on the ways in which the film industry in

Philippines could improve. In the meetings, we did not make any remarks on the suggestions

given by the participants (e.g., some of their suggestions had been addressed by the concerned

parties), and just let them express their opinions. We found that quality of the film products was

the common major concern of the participants.

4.2 General Recommendations

The above discussions revealed that local audiences had an aspiration to watch movies in cinema

and they wished to have the chance to watch high quality local films. Audiences preferred local

films because local people could understand the contents and languages more easily, and they

felt that ‘movie-going’ could be a good choice for leisure activity for families and peer groups.

Yet our findings revealed that the aspiration for movie-going was somewhat discouraged by the

fact that the quality of local movies was poor. The survey results indicated that the major

problem confronted by local film industry was quality. Our respondents had clearly articulated

that they were generally dissatisfied with the quality of the local films. Apparently, ‘quality’

became an important issue, which made people feel the price of the ticket as not value for

money. Although the film industry and the cinema had been confronted with severe market

competition, improving the quality of the film was the major suggestions surrounding the focus

group discussions. In view of the quality factor, price remains an important issue, which should

be addressed by the film industry sectors. The ticket price could be adjusted to increase its
Technical Writing – A documentation of Gathered Data on Movie-Going Survey

attractiveness in the short-term. In the long-term, quality improvement should be the most

appropriate means to enhance the competitiveness of the film industry in the Philippines.

The situation confronting the declining movie-going habits cannot be redressed overnight. Short-

term solutions can only improve the situation temporarily. It is imperative to restore the

confidence of the public to the film industry. Although some of the above suggestions could be

considered and implemented, the fundamental problem should be thoroughly reviewed and

resolved with a long-term development perspective. It is also noted that the future development

of local film industry should not be the responsibility of any single body. The local film

production sector, the cinema operators, the government, and other associated parties should

work together closely to communicate, review, and resolve the problems such that the local film

industry can achieve excellence in the ever changing social and market environments.