what is the science of researching a movie to a group before theatre release called? site with details?

Question by ssjumbo: what is the science of researching a movie to a group before theatre release called? site with details?
I am looking for details on how to get feedback on a movie before its released in the theatre to a small group and make changes etc.. What is it called? I want to do this for my production company. Can someone give me sites to find out info about this?

Best answer:

Answer by Kevin k
Test marketing your movie. There are two ways to do this.

One is to hire a research company to do a survey (in shopping malls usually). You will only give them short clips of the film-or just the trailer.

The other is to have free screenings around the country. Some movies do better in New York than they do in Texas or Oregon. You will have to select two or three theaters in each market and pay the theater rent for use of their facilities and have employees there to instruct the audience to fill out the questionairs and collect the data when finished. The audience in this case is called a focus group.

In either case, prepare questionairs for the audience to fill out. First collect general data from your audience: age, gender, education level (optional for them to fill in) and income (also optional data).

Next, ask what they think of the story and acting merits. What did they like and dislike about the story?

Ask opinions of technical aspects of the sound and picture qualities.

Finally, ask the important questions: Would they have paid to see a movie like this in a theater? Would they recommend this type of movie to their friends? Would they purchase this movie on DVD? Would they rent the DVD?

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!