2. +
introduction
The purpose of this presentation is to illustrate the findings of
a questionnaire I posed to my target audience regarding the
trailer I am going to create. The questionnaire was to gain
outside information from the general public with questions
such as asking their age and what they would expect. After I
collected these results, they were put into chart form with a
bar chart or pie chart to show which answers were preferred.
3. +
Methods and techniques
The method I used was a questionnaire as they are easier to gain
results when involving a lot of participants. They are also quick and
simple, allowing the participants to answer the questions quickly as
most wouldn’t want to spend too much time doing this or would say
no to being involved.
I asked 20 people which allowed me to look at differences in age
for example meaning I could gather a wider range of results from
different viewpoints.
By only printing out one set of questions, I was able to tally the
results which makes it look quicker to the public as they don’t have
to read for themselves or sit down to write the answers. The
questions were varied in terms of open and closed ended so
that, regarding some topics, I could collect more in depth answers
rather than just a yes or no.
4. + 31 - 35
26 - 30
Age
Audience profile
21 - 25
16 - 20
The first questions were about the participant themselves such as
Under 16 their age and gender. Half of the people asked were ages 16-20 due
to the similarities of viewpoints with myself as I am in the same age
0 5 10 15 range – this is also my target audience which is why I focused on this
range. I was able to collect some other age groups such as Under
16, 21 -25 and 26 – 30.
Gender
More females than males were asked by an extra 10% which gives
Male Fema me decent views of both sexes. My target audience is both male and
45% le female so I wanted to make sure I get a near enough equal amount
55% of viewpoints.
Employment is one of the more important questions when looking
Employment into audience profile as they need to have the income to actually be
able to buy/view my product. Due to my target audience being in the
FT
16-20 age range, they are most likely to be students. However, many
25%
students have a part time job which would allow them to go to the
Student/ PT cinema for example. The statistics support this point as 55% are full
PT 10%
time students as well as having a job.
55% Student
10%
The town of residence is also important as you need to know where
to advertise for example. As well as doing the trailer, I am also doing
a magazine front cover and a poster. The questionnaire was
London Town of Residence
conducted in Harlow so it is presumed that most participants would
5% be from Harlow (75%). This shows me that my posters would most
Epping
5% Bishops
likely be displayed in Harlow and Bishops Stortford (15%) and the
magazine would be sold there too. However, I am sure that people
Stortford
15% from different areas would want access to the trailer but due to it
being conducted in Harlow, some areas haven’t been included.
Harlow
75%
5. Other
+
How do you watch films?
Cinema
5% Trailer preferences
20%
DVD From looking at the audiences current film preferences
45% and actions such as how often they go to the cinema, I
Streamin can see how it would affect the trailer I am going to
g DD create. Looking at the pie chart, the majority of people
25% 5%
watch films on DVD (45%) so it would be obvious to use
How often do you visit the this platform. Also, 25% of people watch through online
cinema?
1
streaming but this doesn’t account for whether it is legal
0% 2 or not (which wouldn’t create profit). Even though only
17%
20% chose the cinema, it could change if it were a new
4 film coming into the cinema rather than watching an
50% older film on DVD.
3
33%
This leads onto my next question of how often they
would visit the cinema in a month. Surprisingly, 50%
said 4 times a month which would be a good result –
Paying for DVD
this could relate to the fact that my target audience
Under £15.00
£10.00 16%
mostly have part time jobs.
25% Again, looking at the financial side of things, I wanted to
£13.00 know how much they would pay for my film on DVD. As
18%
predicted, the majority chose under £10.00 which would
£11.00 £12.00 then show me that I could sell my product for perhaps
21% 20% £8.99 for example.
Rent
I wanted to ask about renting as it is becoming much
£3.99 more popular than in the past. People are using
19% iTunes, LoveFilm and Netflix for example to rent films
and watch them at home.81% chose £2.99 which just
gives me an idea of what they’re willing to spend.
£2.99
81%
6. Elements most important in
+ Horror Trailer Preferences continued…
Setting I thought asking about the most important elements in
a horror film would help me focus more on a particular
Sound one. The results show that sound is most important
Gore which leads me to think about what techniques I can
use. From this, I came up with the idea of having a
0 5 10 15
really loud scene then it suddenly becomes silent –
this is used in many horror/thriller trailers I have seen.
Posses Name
sed
25% Even though I already know my storyline and came up
with the main title ‘The Cult’, as I went along doing
The more research, I thought of another title ‘Swarm’
Cult
Swarm
which I think sounds much better. However, I included
10%
65% this question and the public agreed with me.
Gaining the result of Sound being the most important
Loud/Low Loud
element lead me to the question of whether the
sounds
25%
audience would prefer low music which makes you
jump or loud sounds which makes you jump. 75%
chose low music which I will include to make the
scene more tense.
Low
music
75% This question allows me to perhaps watch the
favourite film and take some inspiration by looking into
Favourite horror film
how they used sounds and camera shots to show
scary scenes etc. The majority chose Paranormal
Exorcist
Activity and The Possession which are both relatively
Possession
Poltergeist new films. This also helps me with my textual analysis
Paranormal Activity as I know some more trailers to evaluate etc.
Uninvited
Skeleton Key
0 2 4 6 8
7. + Visual elements Visual elements looks at the magazine film
cover and film poster rather than the trailer
Font itself. I put together a list of the word ‘Swarm’
Font 5
and made it different fonts so they could see
what the title would probably look like. The
Font 4
majority chose font number 3 which I
Font 3
personally thought everyone would choose as
Font 2 it suits the genre and would look good on the
Font 1 cover/poster with an eerie image.
0 5 10 15
I then showed them three different types of film
Poster posters including The Uninvited, Possession
and The Skeleton Key which are all similar
films and are what inspired me to come up
with the storyline. Doing this allows me to
Poster 1
Poster 3 20% gather ideas for my own poster. I have now got
35% ideas for my image and from previous
Poster 2 questions I now know the font.
45%
I asked them why they chose it, whether it was
due to the layout, colour scheme, text or
Why did you choose this poster? image. More than half chose the image as it
was very dark, suited the film storyline/genre
and used effective techniques such as
Layout
20%
superimposition as they had inserted one
Colour
Scheme image into another –an image of a man
Image 10% looking at a house inside an eye.
55% Text
15%
8. + Visual Elements continued…
I then did the same with the
Magazine Cover
magazine cover and showed them
Cover 3
0% three different covers to choose
from. One of the covers was very
old and I knew it wouldn’t be
Cover 2 Cover 1 chosen. However, the other two are
50% 50%
relatively new which is why it was
50/50. This again helps me when I
create my own cover.
To find out why they chose both of
these, I asked about the
font, model, text, colour scheme
Why? and layout and the majority went for
Font the model as they are both
Model attractive famous actors. This would
Text then show me people are interested
Colour Scheme in appearance of the model which I
Layout will take on board when creating my
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
own.
9. + Conclusion
In conclusion, looking at all of these findings, I can gather who
my target audience is, what they expect and what they enjoy. I
know that I am targeting both male and female as it would
appeal to both – also it allows a wider audience meaning more
room for profit. As they are mostly in the 16-20 age
range, nearly all are students. However, they have the means
to buy this product due to part time jobs. I will advertise mainly
in Harlow as almost everyone lives there – from whom I asked
– and would be more likely to see it. The results show people
prefer the DVD platform and would be willing to pay around
£10.00 for the film. The public expects the sound to excel over
the other elements such as lighting and would prefer a low
sound that keeps them on the edge of their seat.
10. + Proposal
From my findings, I have now been able to make proposals for my product in
which the audience has had some say in certain aspects of the creation. For
example, 50% chose sound to be the most important element in a horror film
so I will concentrate on this. From this, I have had ideas such as to use
some loud sound going straight into silence when a scary scene is in motion.
Also, maybe to use some sound affects such as a hospital life support
machine in the background as part of the story. This is similar to another
question asked – whether loud sound or quite sound is preferred – so I will
also look at using quite sound effectively to create tension.
I have also decided the name of the film/trailer is ‘Swarm’ as 65% of people
asked agreed with this change in title. This can now allow me to look further
into connotations of the name and perhaps use it to come up with techniques
such as the ‘swarm’ of flies coming out of the girls mouth showing the
release of the spirit. I will then have this is font 3 as the majority chose this
which was the same as my opinion as it fits in with the title and looks plain
yet bold at the same time.
Overall, these results have helped me find ideas and inspiration into the
creation of my product. It has also made me aware of who my audience is
which is both male and female, 16-20 years old which is ideal as it appeals
to a wider audience rather than being a specific age with a specific gender.
