To help support my primary research for this task, I chose to create a survey to help me get an insight into what the theme fantasy means to others. This will help me to expand my knowledge on the theme, and potentially consider subjects I hadn’t previously thought of.
Using Microsoft forms, I created a survey asking a range of questions linked to the fantasy theme. Then, I used my social media accounts to share the link, asking my friends, family and followers to complete the survey, helping me expand my knowledge in this area.
Here is a link to the survey for anyone wanting to have a look or fill it out ! Your responses will still be very much appreciated and I am still monitoring the results, but the answers may not be included in this post if completed after this has been published ! – https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=g-ZvG4bao0u-6jY8fxUloF3SDjIpJSxOimmw7M9sVo1UNVhON0lCMTI1N0Q2SjJKN1VLNUZWVEZIVi4u&fbclid=IwAR1S9iascRub1TG449AgzaN-ghDK9JBeq9Va1QXq5zghoolChRuWZ05rYSw
Below, I have recorded the results of this survey, and explained what this means for my project.
Question 1 – What does the word fantasy make you think of?
I have created a table to help divide the answers into sections, making them easier to process.
| Characters | Fairies, Unicorns, Mermaids, Goblins, Dragons, Elves, Princess’, ogres |
| Society/reality | A ideal person, hiding behind a mask., celebrities, looking up to someone, escape, a dream, dressing up. |
| Statements | Something you dream of but can not see or touch, Something so amazing you wouldn’t even consider the idea of it being real, Not in the real world only in your imagination ,Anything not quite normal, Something I can’t have, A wonderful dream, Something that’s not real, Color and creativity. |
| Other | Magic, Mythical creatures, Magic forests, Fairy Tales, Make believe, A land far far away, Exploration, The imagination, Dressing up , Something unreachable, Sci-fi, Movies, Fun. |
The response from this question gave me additional insight in to the thoughts that are triggered in different people, when thinking of the word fantasy. This allowed me to explore ideas I hadn’t even thought of myself.
Question 2 – Do you consider any of the following a fantasy subject ?
Below I have inserted a bar chart I created to present the results of this question.
Fairy Tales(32) Mythology(9) Dreams(23) Secrets(4) The Paranormal(8) Space/sci-fi(12) Super Humans(20) Alternate realities(14) Parallel universes(14) Robots and cyborgs(7) Other(12)
The response from this question helped me to visualise how different everyone’s thought processes are, by evaluating how many people agreed with my initial thoughts.
Question 3 – Are there any other subjects you believe may come under the fantasy theme?
- Magic
- Idealism
- Social media
- Dressing up
- Children’s TV
- Animals
- Monsters
- Demons
- Comic book heroes
- Sexual fantasy
- Time travel
- Fiction
- Being rich/famous
- The supernatural
- Make believe
Once again, these responses helped me consider subjects I hadn’t yet thought of, helping me to expand my knowledge, and aiding me in the process of pushing the boundaries of this theme.
Question 4 – Do you believe weather has a strong link to this theme?
| Yes | 19 |
| No | 15 |
Question 5 – please explain your previous answer:
| Yes | No | Undecided |
| Global warming, Conveys the mood-rain=sad, It affects the mood, The elements, Earth, wind, fire, Sunshine = more detail and colour, Elemental power, Dark clouds, thunder, rain, blood red skies, Warmth makes you think of dreams and fairytales, The seasons; spring, summer, autumn, winter, Many characters are based on or inspired by certain weathers, Sunshine = relaxing, It influences our emotions, Linked to the earth/universe processes, Link to an unstable mind (drug users, drunks)Rainbows = unicorns and fairies, Bad weather = evil people | The weather could be anything, possible or impossible, Regardless of the weather anything could exist, Fantasy can occur anywhere any time, People fantasize regardless of the weather, Weather is a real thing | Not necessarily, but it is used to help set the scene (rainbows, thunderstorms)Fantasy is something that isn’t real and is mesmerizing so it depends, Its different for everyone, It depends what is happening and what it means to you |
Including this question meant that not only did I have an answer to the initial question above, but I gained an understanding in to why the person chose the answer that they did. This helps me to further build my knowledge on this specific subject, and helps influence weather I choose to include this idea in to my final designs.
Question 6 – What are some of your favorite fantasy movies/tv shows/ books or performances?
| Movies | The never ending story, Labyrinth, Worzel Gummidge, Lord of the rings, Game of thrones, Men in Black, pan’s Labyrinth, Lost in space, Aliens in the attic, Legend, Peter pan, Secret garden, Dark crystal, Nanny McPhee, Alice in wonderland, Wizard of OZ, Twilight, Lost, into the woods, Avatar, Maleficent |
| Movies | Frozen, Beauty and the beast, Cinderella, Shrek, Cars, Tangled, Peter rabbit, Tinkerbell |
| TV shows | Stranger things, Buffy the vampire slayer, Dr who, Scooby Doo, American Horror Story, Supernatural, Friends, Tales from the dark side, Vampire diaries, Grimm, MTV Catfish, Shadow hunters |
| Books/authors | Fantastic 4, Rahld Dahl, Midsummer night’s dream, Wind in the willows, Terry Goodkind, Jack and the beanstalk, Red riding hood, Eragon |
| Universes | Star wars, Fantastic beasts, Harry potter, Marvel, Dc, Disney |
| Other | Dismaland by Banksy |
Asking this question gives me the opportunity to collect potential resources for my research. This helps to ensure I have a wide range of sources to reference, and once again is likely to highlight things I may not have thought of myself, or maybe didn’t even know about.
Question 7 – Are there any hair or makeup artists you think it may be helpful for me to look into, to inspire my designs for this project?
- Mehron makeup
- Madeyewlook
- Glam and gore
- David Bawtista
- The wigs and makeup manager
- Tom Savini
- Emma Riley
- Christine Dowling
- Candice Dean
- Stan Winston
- Ve Neill
- Look in to alien masks and faces
This question has the same purpose as the one before it, however is more subject specific.
Question 8 – Are there any other comments you have that may aid my research?
- Look in to society and daily life
- Look at musical theater and screen plays, look at the makeup and clothing, and watch their movements
- Look into gaming characters/skins
- Consider and compare the different ends of the spectrum (angels/demons, passive/colorful)
- Research in to the marvel and DC comic universes
- Read – Raymond E Feist’s, Wizard’s first rule collection
- Research in to Dr Who
- Watch a range of things and pay specific detail to the scenery.
Overall, I am so pleased that I chose to collect my primary research this way as it was so easy to access and evaluate the responses. These responses have had a huge impact on my ideas and have most definitely helped in aiding my research. The results from this survey will be used to help me justify my ideas during the design process of tis project.
Megan Hoff 