Primary Audience Research

Who is my audience?

I have concluded from my secondary audience research, that my target audience is for people aged over 18 and generaly too the age of 24. However the research shows that there is also a large audience from older ages (generally the audience for horror films thins out as the age gets older). I also found that even though the audience is predominantly male, there is still a large female audience. This is what my secondary audience research tells me, therefore i will now look more in depth at the target audience im going to aim on by asking people of the target audience what they want to see. I will analyse what interests this audience by communicating with people within it. This essential to finding out what will create an effective horror film package for my target audience.

Questionairre

What do you want to see from a horror film?..................................................

what attracts you to films and magazines of this genre?...............................

do you prefer the gory or creepy side of horror films?..................................

do you prefer simple or complex horror?.........................................................

do you find surreal or realistic scarier?.............................................................

what would attract you to see a film of this sort?.............................................

Thankyou

From the questionairre i found out, from a survey of 20 people, that;

What do you want to see from a horror film?

60% of the audience answered a sense of realism and 40% said the gory, 'saw' kind of horror. Everyone answered to be scared. This means that in my film i will use some locations that can be seen in everyday life and show what can go on in these settings behind closed doors. Which incorporates both of these aspects.

what attracts you to films and magazines of this genre?

I got a range of answers for this question. People seemed to agree that disjointed and creepy trailers and postors, which lead the viewer on but dont tell the viewer much, or any, of the story . This means that i'll follow these conventions in my trailer with creepy, disjointed editing and a range of speed of the editing. It will start slow, get a lot quicker throughout the trailer then slow down again, making it seem disjointed. The story will also be clear of what kind of film it will be, without leading the viewer on to much.

do you prefer the gory or creepy side of horror films?

60% creepy
40% gory

From this, in my film i will show signs of goryness, for example, tools used for torture, blood etc. But the editing and disjointed feel will make it seem creepy.

do you prefer simple or complex horror?

40% simple
60% complex

I feel that with these answers, people want to see more of a story, instead of just a simple 'cat and mouse' horror. Therefore in my trailer and magazine cover i will try and make it look busy and like theres a lot going on. However i also want the creepy slow feeling, so i think that i will make the poster look vacant and creepy and parts of the trailer will also slow right down to give it a creepy feel. This will also help build tension.

do you find surreal or realistic scarier?

90% realistic
10% surreal

I can see from these results that the vast majority of my target audience want to see a sense of realism which i think adds to the scarieness of a film cos they can relate it to their own lives which makes it seem even creepier (subconsiously thinking it could happen to them etc.) instead of the surreal horror, which i feel would be to high budget for my trailer anyway.

what would attract you to see a film of this sort?

most of the people i asked for this question mentioned a large sense of tension and disjointed creepyness which is what i wll include in my questionairre.