Audience research

We chose to conduct audience research into what it is that interests young people (around our age), this was done through the medium of Blackberry Messenger, where people were asked various questions along the lines of "Do you enjoy the horror genre?", "Are you into horror films?" etc. Below are screenshots of these conversations and the responses we got:


We gained various responses that showed what our target audience thought was interesting about horror films. Firstly it is apparent through our audience research that, these young people enjoy the thrill of watching a horror film.

This made us decide that one of our main aims would be to, keep the viewers on their toes by revealing bits of action without giving away too much.

Also, we came to realise that the idea of 'fear' was important. As one of potential consumers said that horror films tend to make you feel afraid for the characters. This reinforces the importance of the audience being able to relate to what is being portrayed in the trailer.
With this idea, we thought that it would be good to have shots in the trailer that would make the viewers put themselves in the shoes of the character. We also thought that it would be a good element of our trailer because, we would be creating situations where the viewers would be experiencing escapism, in some sense escaping from reality.

The audience research results suggested that we would need to film a variety of interesting shots in order to gain their interests. For example, one person explained that they liked intense graphic, gory parts and good footage from the actual movie.

This highlighted the importance of what needs to be included in the trailer and how it should be presented. The expectation of having good shots means that we will need to make sure the concept of our trailer is interesting. To also make sure that the trailer shows a good narrative, we will need to make sure that we use a range of shots and transitions that will make it look appealing to our target audience.

So, to produce an effective trailer, we will need to consider carefully how we will combine a number of shots give a brief description on what the film will be about. As we do not want too much away, we decided that we would use a cliff hanger to leave the viewers in suspense. We feel that leaving the viewers in suspense will add on to the adrenaline and excitement that the audience will feel.

Information Gathered by Michael (Analysed by Christina)

Here are some more results obtained:

Another suggestion that was made by one of our potential viewers, was that we should create a trailer that was a bit different from what is always seen in horror films. For example, a person being in a house with a killer out to get them. From this, we noticed that it was okay to challenge a few conventions by adding new ideas to the concept of our trailer or tweaking a few of the conventions that already exist. This made us decide that the main setting of the trailer will be in an office, instead of the character being in a house or somewhere outdoors.

The research results also pointed out that the release date and film title is also an important element of the trailer. So, we will also be adding this into our trailer so that our target audience will be able to remember and identify the film. As a group, we came to a decision where we will add the film title towards the ending of the trailer, and the date at the end. This is because we want our trailer to look realistic, as this is what is usually seen in trailers done by film industry, film makers.

 We also found that our target audience expect to here good sound effects such as, scary music, sharp noise, screams etc.

So we will add banging sound effects and incidental music to help build up tension and suspense in our trailer. We will also think about including a scream at the end of the trailer, but we would like to make it look as realistic as possible.

Lastly, we considered the expectation of one of our respondents by thinking about adding a scene that will make our audience jump. By getting something to

pop up on the screen is a good way of frightening our viewers. We will need to emphasise the fact that our trailer is a horror film through the variety of techniques we use to construct it. It is important for us to leave the audience in suspense and give them a bit of a fright in order gain, and maintain their interests.

(Information Gathered & Written by Christina)

Profiling our audience

David is an 18 year old student who enjoys hanging out with friends and reading in his spare time. The types of film he enjoys watching the most are Horror & Comedies. David reads a lot of magazines and always likes to be kept up to date with films. This is one of the reasons why he reads magazines, simply because he doesn't want to miss out on the latest issues.  Also, he believes that horror films and magazines appeal to him because they present images and ideas that relate to the theme of horror which is what he is interested in.  He is a very trend-conscious person and is always on the alert for new fashionable options. He also likes to experiment with new things and loves using technology.

The type of music he listens to varies because he likes a wide range of genres. Although he spends most of his time at college, he also makes time for extra curricular activities such as sport and games.

Written by Christina