My media Audience Research write up

To help me gather information for my audience research and their individual likes/dislikes I personally made a questionnaire based on which genre of film they like and why they like it, I alsoadded in a section around my chosen genre which is horror to obtain feedback to help me towards my coursework. I carried out this questionnaire on 20 people to get a wide range of opinions, the questionnaire itself contains overall 10 questions giving meenough points to cover when it comes to audiencesuch as ages, and what they would expect from a certain rated film.

As said in my previous slide, overall I asked 20people with ages ranging from 15 up to 50. This isdue to most horrors usually having an age rating of15 or 18 in terms of language and, of course, gore. I halved my 20 participants into 50/50 in terms ofgender, this is because even though the horror genre usually points to a male based audience I also wanted female opinions on the genre not only for non-stereotypical purposes but also to help me gather information into what way I could possibly spread my aimed audience to both genders.

How old are you? 18 under 25 under 25 over What gender are you? Female Male How often do you watch movies? Not at all A little Often All the time What’s your favourite genre? Action Romantic-Comedy Horror Thriller What do you like about this genre? _____________________________________________________ Do you personally like the horror genre? Yes No What’s your favourite horror movie? ___________________________________ What do you like about this particular movie?______________________________________________________ What do you expect from a rated 15 horror film?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What do you expect from a rated 18 horror film?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

My main findings were also linked with other information. Out of the 10 females I asked 6 of them answered their favourite genre is aRomantic-Comedy however 1 answered Action and the final 3 answered Horror.In referral to the 10 males I asked 7 of them answered Horror as their favourite genre and the final 3 answered Action.These particular findings also link to my gender stereotype research in terms of audience, how females would rather watch a romance as they like to relate tothem or a comedy to make them laugh. On the other hand males prefer to stay away from romance and base themselves around genres like Action as they have more packed and exciting scenes. When asked about whether they personally like the horror genre 18 of the participants answered „yes‟ minus two females. Showing that even though horror isn‟t everyone‟s favourite genre they still like to watch them. In referral to them being asked what their favourite movie in the horror genre, the female participants named films which were based around theparanormal while the males films were based around psychological-thrillers orplain gore. Showing that females prefer films which contain a lot of jumps and also have a history, and the males prefer films with a puzzling yet interesting plot and also to be quite graphic.

From my findings I have learnt that audience stereotypes do apply when it comes to the horror genre which is what I had originally hoped for therefore it‟s confirmed my target audience of both genders however between the 18 and 30 age range. Even though we found that females tend to lean towards theparanormal section of horror and males towards the psychological section. These have also helped me decide to have an openingsequence which doesn‟t reveal too much about the main storyline therefore giving the audience a feeling of mystery making them want to continue watching, this is because each section of horrordoesn‟t usually jump straight into the action unless it‟s in the gore section, film such as “Saw.”

If I were to carry out my research towards finding out about audiences again I do believe that I could have added morequestions as to finding out what they expect to see in particularly rated 18 horror films rather than asking about rated 15 horror films as they aren‟t really what I wish to focus my piece on. I would have also added more about what they expect from the characters based in horror such as what they would expect them to look like, what weapons would be a good choice to use etc.Finally I would have also chose my participants age more carefully focusing on 18 year olds up to 30 year olds at maximum rather than getting opinions from some in their 40‟s. This would‟ve helped me be able to concentrate more towards my aimed target and what they personally seem to like best. Having said these points I overall think that this particular research into audience was a success and helped me find out information which will contribute to my opening sequence.

My media Audience Research write up

by Sophie Conner

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