In order to gather information about my target audience as part of the research for my horror trailer; I asked an audience of 20 students which I believed were a likely target audience for my proposed film some demographic profile questions. On top of this, I asked them questions about their interest in films, such as 'who do you go to the cinema with?' The results of our questionnaire show a survey of 20 people all answering 7 questions. We can conclude that there are lots of similarities and differences within these results.
The first question asked my audience who they enjoyed going to the cinema with. There were mixed responses - the most popular ones being 'friends' and 'partner'. I can connote from this that people who go to the cinema as couples or with their friends are often young; therefore they may be a more suitable target audience for a horror film. Only 5% of people go to the cinema alone, it is very unlikely for people to go and see horror films alone. 20% of people go with their children, however the majority of horror films are rated either (15) or (18) which eliminates this group of people. My target audience for my horror trailer should therefore be aimed at both friends and couples.
The aim of this question was to find out some demographic profile information about the audience for my questionnaire. I targeted my questionnaire at an audience which I believed was fit to be the target audience for my film prior to my research. This included students. Results show that 60% of the people I surveyed are aged between 12 and 18, 20% are 19-25 and the other 20% are 26-30. These results reinforce the fact that my audience is going to be young.
It is important to know what percentage of my survey audience go to the cinema to watch horrors. Some horror films will be aired in cinemas, others will come straight out onto DVD or Blu-Ray. Only 20% of my audience do not watch horrors at the cinema at least once a month. 50% do so once a month whilst others watch them 2, 3, 4 and 5+ times a month at the cinema. These results tell me that my audience has a general interest in horror films - making them the right group of people to aim my horror trailer at.
Gender is important when defining sub-groups within horror. The trailer I plan to make will be a supernatural horror. This genre of film stereotypically gains an interest from a female audience. On the other hand, slasher movies are more likely to gain an interest from a male audience due to the way in which females in these films are, to some extent, seen as sexual objects. 60% of my audience are female, although I believe that males will also watch supernatural horrors. The link between females and supernatural horrors should be looked at vaguely.
Nowadays people are much more able to watch films at home. This leaves me asking the question 'how often do you watch horrors at home'. Results revealed that all of my audience watch horror films at home at least once a month. A staggering 10% of people watch horror films at home at least 6 times a month. This reinforces the fact that my audience are very much into horrors - a good statement to be heard when considering the target audience for my horror trailer.
Occupation is important when looking into how much time somebody has in order to do leisure activities such as going to the cinema. It also looks at disposable income - a student may have money to spend on leisure activities because he/she doesn't have domestic bills to pay. Somebody in a well paid full-time job may also have a reasonable disposable income. My results showed that the majority of my target audience are students - this is a positive for my horror trailer. 9.09% of people who responded are teachers. Teachers have well-paid jobs and can therefore also be considered part of my target audience - with the exception of older teachers.
The last question I asked the survey audience is important when looking at the content of the horror trailer I plan to create. 50% said that they are attracted by the cast when going to see a film at the cinema. From this I can defer that it would be a good idea to have a well recognised actor headlining the marketing campaign. A great example of this was the marketing campaign of 'The Woman in Black', which exercised the fact that Daniel Radcliffe was the lead actor in the film in order to attract a specific type of audience. 25% said that the trailer was an important aspect prior to going to see a film at the cinema. This re-emphasises the importance of the trailer and the fact that it has to give the target audience exactly what they want.
I feel that my survey as a whole helped me gain a much better understanding of who my target audience for my supernatural horror trailer should be. I also believe that it gave me an insight into potential secondary target audiences for my horror trailer. This is important because a film needs to be marketed to as many people as possible in order to enjoy the most success. In order to improve my survey I would ask the audience what horror genre they preferred the most. This question would help me in seeing how much of the audience as a whole were interested in supernatural horror without referring to the stereotypical 'females prefer supernatural horrors and males prefer slasher horrors' statement.
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