Target Audience Research

Research into my chosen target audience will allow me gain more knowledge about their interests and so will allow me to understand how to scare them to their cores! This will ensure that my production pieces will feature factors that appeal to the audience and so will successfully appeal and satisfy their horror needs.

Target Audience Profile:

The audience of my new horror movie will effectively consist of both males and females aged 15-35. Although the movie will appeal to both genders, however, the audience will be predominantly female as the emotional and sensitive narrative of supernatural horrors will intrigue her more, however there will be a sub-section of males who will watch the film too. She does not only want to relate to the characters in the movie but also the situations they are placed in furthermore females would be more open-minded to the concept of spiritual objects and the idea of possession and may even be fascinated by the supernatural. Even though she loves horrors they are not the only genre she watches; she also enjoys comedy and the classic Rom-Com such as, for example, ‘The Proposal’, this is because she enjoys the witty speech, funny jokes and like most girls she is a hopeless romantic who loves a happy ending.  

The younger females aged 15-24 will be studying in school or university, thriving to obtain a successful career. She enjoys a strong social life and is always spending time with her friends and family. Obviously, one of her major past times is going to the cinema and watching a good supernatural horror, but her other hobbies include shopping and relaxing with her friends in the local coffee shop or bar/pub for the students aged over 18.

The older age bracket of 25-35 females have a professional job and are successful in their workplace allowing them to have a high disposable income. She may be dating, in a long term relationship/married or even be single but whatever her relationship status is, she is content with her life. The females from both age brackets are spontaneous, curious, loving, intellectual and caring.

 One of her main hobbies is going to the cinema on the weekend to watch a good horror movie. She normally goes with her boyfriend/husband or friends after enjoying a nice intimate dinner. Another major hobby is looking after her body and health and she normally goes to the gym after work or a run on the morning of her weekends. Her diet is healthy and she enjoys cooking exciting, yet nutritional recipes, however she does enjoy the occasional snack such as popcorn and chocolates at the cinema.

Her high disposable income allows her to go on shopping trips with her friends and spoil herself. When relaxing at home she may watch TV series such as ‘An American Haunting’, ‘CSI’ and ‘Eastenders’ or may decide to kick back with a good book such as ‘Angels and Demons’ by Dan Brown or ‘the Surgeon’ by Tess Gerritsen. She tends to read horror/thriller books as she finds them more captivating and gets enveloped in the world of the book.

Movie such as ‘Paranormal Activity’, ‘the Amityville Horror’ and ‘the Devil Inside’ would be some of her favourite horrors which she has previously watched because she finds that she can relate to the characters in the narrative. This is an important feature for her in the movie; it there is no realism she will not enjoy it and so because these movies show the possibility that supernatural occurrences can happen to anyone, they are her favourite. Also the narratives of these movies tend to focus on the protagonist’s family and because she is close to her family, the thought of a threat from her family or happening to her family will terrify her. 

Being a modern, curious and independent woman she enjoys travelling to exotic places and seeing new things. Whilst travelling she may use an iPad/laptop to watch her favourite movie to keep her entertained or listen to her iPod which has playlists that consist of the latest hits. Similarly to most people, she too has a blackberry, iPhone or another Smartphone that she cannot live without; it keeps her connected with her friends, family and business associates.

Horror movies reflect a big part of her personality, fears and life and so all the females from 15-35 will always make some time for a good horror movie, no matter how busy her life is. 

Questionnaire:

This was the questionnaire I designed in order to find out what my target audience like and what really scares them! I added a mixture of open ended and closed ended questions so that the audience wont feel like the questionnaire is a burden to fill out. The questionnaire was handed out twenty three people ranging from the ages of 15-35 and consisted of both males and females. 

Questionnaire Analysis:

This was the first question that I asked; it’s important to ask the age of the target audience so that I know how to address the audience better when thinking about how to make my trailer appeal to them. The youngest people that i asked were 15 as many horror movies are not age certified for 12 or 12A. After seeing this result I decided to make my horror trailer age certified 15 instead or 18, as many teenagers watch horror movies and it widens the amount of people which my trailer can appeal too.

When I was first thinking about my movie narrative and the target audience, I was unsure to whether the audience will be primarily male or female and so this question was extremely helpful to me in my research. it is now clear that the target audience for my trailer are dominantly female. This could be because females tend to be more open minded on supernatural and spiritual topics.

I feel like this is an important question to ask because it allows me to understand how much free time the target audiences spends watch horror movies. My aimed audience will like other movie genres such as comedies and romance and so this is why the majority only was horror movies 'sometimes'. The fact that my target audience are not necessarily horror 'crazy' tells me that my horror movie should include an emotional element and a more sophisticated narrative to intrigue them. 

I chose to ask this question, because it confirmed the fact that most of the target audience prefer the supernatural genre. If the results came back that more respondents preferred, for example, gore, then I would have had to re-think my narrative ideas This question was followed by a open ended question stating 'briefly state why' I felt like this is important to know because it will allow me to incorporate their answer into my work. Many respondents stated that they like the supernatural genre because it explores the unknown and so therefore scares them more. Another popular response was that the idea of ghosts terrify the audience, one person stated 'ghosts completely terrify me'.

The results from this question will help me to decide which features to put into my horror trailer; by knowing which features they find most effective, I can include them into my trailer so it will successfully frighten them. The most popular answer was the eerie music, which is interesting. I personally find eerie music effective and I now know it is popular amongst my target audience. Fast-paced editing was in close second place with 21%, this could be because as the fast montage of images happens it causes the target audiences adrenaline to pump and it is the part of the trailer which excites them most.

Aside from these 5 questions, I also decided to ask 3 open ended questions because it will allow me to draw out more information from my target audience. Below are the questions and the analysis of the results:

'What is your favourite horror movie? Please state why?'

I chose to ask this question as it would be interesting to see if one movie was favoured the most, or if there is a wide variety; if there was a favoured movie I thought I could use it for inspiration. The results showed that there was a huge variety of movies, however 3 respondents chose 'Silence of the Lambs' saying that the psychological narrative kept them interested and that it was a 'Classic' but also 'The grudge' was also chosen by 3 people who claimed that the use of sound was effective and it had 'disturbing scenes'. As 'The Grudge' is supernatural I will watch the movie again and see if I can gain inspiration from any of the scenes so that my trailer will appeal to my target audience. The other movies which were chosen were mainly in the supernatural sub-genre.

'Which horror film trailer have you seen that was the most effective in making you want to watch the film/frightening you? Briefly state why.'

By knowing which trailers my target audience find effective, I will be able to look onto them for inspiration so that my trailer is just as good. Out of 23 people, 4 people stated that 'paranormal activity' was the most effective in frightening them and pushed them to go see the movie. The second popular movie was 'Women in Black'. Below are the trailers for both 'Paranormal Activity' and 'Women in black'.

As you can see both trailers are extremely different, and when asked why they enjoyed the 'paranormal activity' trailer all of the four people said it because it was made in unique style. This trailer breaks the traditional codes and conventions and that is why it is so popular. This has made me realise that my trailer will also have to be unique and possibly invert some conventions so that it will successfully frighten by target audience.

The people who chose 'the woman in black' trailer said that the trailer successfully told the narrative of the movie without revealing too much.

'Have you ever been put off watching a horror movie because of its advertising campaign (film posters, trailers and magazine promotions)? Briefly state why.
Most people answered this question with a 'no', this may be because they genuinely haven't been put off by an advertising campaign. The next popular answer was a comment on horror films in general, four people said that they haven't been put off a specific movie but that they would not watch a movie it it seemed 'unrealistic' or 'too gruesome'. From this research I've learnt the importance of realism within my work and so I hope to maintain realism by, for example, using actors which are the same age as my characters and dress appropriately to societies expectation, this will allow my character to be universal and so the audience imagine themselves in their place.