Target Audience Research

We asked ten people (5 males and 5 females) aged from 16-18 years old to complete our questionnaire based on Horror movies, this will give us an indication on what to include in our own trailer and a general understanding of what our target audience are interested in.

Results

50% of people we asked said their favourite sub-genre of Horror movie was Paranormal/supernatural. This is our chosen sub-genre for our Horror Movie Trailer as it appears to be the most popular. 20% of our participants said they like Psychological and one person enjoys Found Footage and therefore a sense of realism. We will try to include conventions from these three sub-genres to our Paranormal/supernatural Horror trailer as they are the most popular and relevant to eachother.

We will apply the results from Question 2, 3 and 5 as these are the favoured answers from our target audience. They also link in well with eachother to create a ghost/haunting theme relevant to the sub-genre of Paranormal/Supernatural. We also now know to base our trailer in the present time but reference and possibly relate to the past.

60% of participants asked said they would prefer to see a teenager as the main protagonist, this is perhaps due to the age range of the people we asked as they will be able to relate to the main protagonist if they are of a similar age. The fact that all of the participants we asked said they prefer Horror films to be 'realistic' supports the idea that they like Horror movies to be relevant to them and believable, so they can feel directly involved and almost 'part of the movie'. Relating a storyline to real life will be closer to our target audience too, and therefore 'scarier' for the viewers.

This question gave us mixed ideas as to what to do about the casting of our main character, but as the highest percentage, 4/10 participants said 'don't mind/unsure' about the gender of the protagonist, so we have decided to choose our friend who is female to play the main role.

More male than female participants said they would prefer for the main protagonist to be female, perhaps this has relevance to Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory (1975) where the dominant point of view is masculine and the women are often displayed in order to provide voyeurism for the masculine viewers. But as the response to this question is mixed as the majority of participants 'don't mind' or are 'unsure' of what gender they would prefer to be the main protagonist, we will not be conforming to the Male Gaze theory like in many other Horror films such as 'Psycho' and 'I Know What You Did Last Summer'.

Overall, this questionnaire has helped us to make vital decisions related to our Horror Movie Trailer that will affect and appeal to our target audience.