The researcher conducted product research, questionnaires, and interviews to evaluate audience preferences for a horror film trailer. Strengths included gaining design ideas from existing products and getting detailed feedback from interviews. However, research methods also had weaknesses like products not fully aligning with the concept and questionnaires limiting detailed responses. The response was mixed as audiences desired different elements like runtime, themes, and plot devices, making it challenging to appeal to all. Overall, the research provided useful insights but showed diverse opinions that the trailer will need to balance.

1. Research
Luke Ross

2. Existing Product
Uses misty fog to show
darkness and mystery the
same idea I would like for my
concept and follows the same
idea. That I will use for my
poster of the movie trailer as
well.
Shows a dark house in the
background surrounded by fog
which creates mystery pulling
the viewer towards it and
making them interested about
the house. I also intend to use
a house that is dark with the
same idea of the history of the
house, however it will include
an abandoned house and an
entirely different story.
it gives important in formation
about the film such as release
dates the company's they had
assistance from and gives people
credit.
It includes trees at the
back suggesting a dark
forest as the location a
creepy scary place. Similar
to how I would like my one
to be.
Has a tree with a
rope/noose suggesting
death just from the
poster shows hanging as
well as shadow of
someone hanging
underneath. Showing
how much of a dark film
it is.
It shows the title of the
film in a dark way
showing it’s a horror,
contains facts that it
was based on a true
story. And shows who
it is directed by.

3. Existing Product
Shows darkness with some
light shining out of a
window contrasting both
light and dark which is how I
want my trailer to be using
them both however it will
be more of a mixture of
both and be something very
different although the same
concept.
Shows that its based off
a true story making it
more interesting to
watch to see if its
actually real my story
will be different it will
be looking into
something that could be
real.
Shows information about
the film such as the
company's that helped
make it and gives credit to
the people that took part
in the film(main people).
Shows a dark room in a
house with a large
window and trees
outside shot at an angle
where you can see the
full room.
Shows a religious cross
showing that it is a
supernatural religious
horror, it shows this
giving the viewer clues
on the
story/plot/what's it
about.
Shows the title of the
film in a dark mysterious
way bringing the viewer
in.

4. Existing Product
The lighting changes
throughout from dark to
light and this makes it seem
like a part light and part dark
film mixing between the two,
the light however a dark
shade and reflects the dark
which means the light wont
be bright and sunny in the
film the light that’s in it will
be a different type.
It includes mist which
makes it seem like a
mysterious film that has
mystery and also darkness
which means a dark film.
Shows the main
characters in the film
also wearing black
showing that might be
dark characters.
It includes a slogan type
sentence that gives away
the story of it: “they where
searching for proof they
found it” this reveals that
they go looking for
something spiritual and
then I says in blood they
found it which means that
something is real and they
found it.
Shows the dark creepy
building where it is most
likely set and the
characters under it which
could mean its set under
the building giving clues.
Shows the title in a misty
and dark environment
leaving mystery to the
name of the film.

5. Existing Product
It is dark background meaning
that it is a horror and has no
light in the image which means
that the film is very dark and
will contain scenes possibly
mostly at night.
Has color imagery showing
the dark black background
meaning a dark creepy film
but also everything else
such as writing is in red,
symbolizing blood which
means its likely that there
will be violence in the film.
Shows a creepy demon at
the front showing that it
has monsters and ghosts
in the film making you
interested to find out
what the demon in the
film is and there purpose
is.
It includes a slogan type
sentence like the first film
but a different one “fear is
just a word, reality is much
worse” this shows that
there is something scary in
the film and creepy.
Shows the title of the
film in red to represent
blood showing that
there will be gore in the
film, it also shows that
it will be dark and
creepy.

6. Research Analysis
• What common features do the researched
products have?
That they all contain a dark background and a creepy title, two of the products have a sentence that is catchy
and will make you remember them, they also contain mist and fog leaving a dark atmosphere and show that its
mysterious. They all have the title of the film in a creepy font with colour imagery symbolising different things
in the film. The interesting aspects is that on one of them they contain clues to things that will be in the film
and what the story will be about.
• What aspects of the research will you include
within your on work?
I will use the darkness and the fog atmosphere in my product however I will use a lot of light and sunny scene
in it as well making it unique and fascinating. I will use the same type of horror font as the example products
however I will include different types of colour imagery that will link in to the film and give clues away from the
title. I will try and change the way that my poster for the film trailer is set out however I will keep some of the
creepy aspects to the previous product examples.

7. Questionnaire Analysis

8. Audience research
• Observation:
there are more males than females taking the survey.
• What this says about my audience:
it appeals to males more than it does females.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
it is meant for both genders a horror film is for anyone to watch and is not aimed at a
specific gender just a specific mind set.

9. Audience research
• Observation:
Most people are aged 16-18 with 1 person at the age of 19+ this means that my project ca appeal to
people along that age group
• What this says about my audience:
It says that the audience is aged from 16-18 mostly and that this is helpful as that’s the age group my
project will be aimed at.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
It will be a horror film trailer with some violence and gore and this age group will be old enough to view.

10. Audience research
• Observation:
There are more people wanting a creepy type of film to be shown in the trailer and people also want murder and gory
suicide within the trailer to express terror and leave the viewer thinking.
• What this says about my audience:
That they will most likely enjoy a creepy mysterious film instead of a film that is just about gore and violence and that
they would rather have a story to it.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
My product is based around a creepy mysterious story which appeals to the audience of this as its what most would
prefer.

11. Audience research
• Observation:
More people would prefer a trailer around the 2-3 minute mark long and this is good because that gives ample time to
include things in the trailer to make it look appealing.
• What this says about my audience:
This says that my audience would prefer a trailer that is more than 1-2 minutes and less than 4-5 minutes.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
My product intended to be this long is that I would have time to include important details into the trailer

12. Audience research
• Observation:
People think different things about how many characters there are and have different opinions about it people actually
would prefer between 2-5 main characters within the film.
• What this says about my audience:
This says that my audience like to choose between a large variety of the different main character numbers that they can
have
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
My product will have a number of main characters in-between the number that they want or more so it might not
appeal to all of the audience but it ill appeal to some.

13. Audience research
• Observation:
there is a split view on what people want form merchandise such as clothing and toys.
• What this says about my audience:
That the audience would like a wide variety of options to choose from in terms of merchandise.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
This will only appeal to half the audience as I want to focus on the toy section of merchandise.

14. Audience research
• Observation:
Most people prefer mystery however people also like violence and chaos, this is good because I intend
to have all three of these in my trailer.
• What this says about my audience:
That they like a variety of different things from a film/film trailer that includes gore and violence and
mystery.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
This is good for my product because it will include all of these things to appeal to them all.

15. Audience research
• Observation:
People prefer a slasher type theme of movie and also supernatural rather than creepy.
• What this says about my audience:
This says that they like violence gore and to see people run for there lives type theme, these is good for
my product because it will contain this type of scene and supernatural.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
It will appeal to this audience because it will contain a lot of slasher them and also supernatural and
creepy .

16. Audience research
• Observation:
This shows that people would go see this horror film at the cinema if they enjoyed the trailer
• What this says about my audience:
That people will enjoy watching the film if they see the trailer and they like it they would watch it at
cinema.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
This will only appeal to the audience dependent on how good the trailer is and weather or not they
would like to see it in the cinema.

17. Audience research
• Observation:
people like the idea of horror a film as it goes with the type of age group
watching it, its more of a grown up movie that teens like to watch at cinema.
• What this says about my audience:
That they are interested in the idea of a horror movie and interested to see
how it turns out .
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
This will appeal to my audience as I am going to make a horror film.

18. Interviews

19. Interview 1
• Do you like the idea of a horror film? If so then why? “Yes, I like the idea
of a horror film as its more fun to watch at cinema when your with your
mates.”
• How long do you expect a film trailer to be? “2-3 minutes”
• Why do you expect a film trailer to be 2-3 minutes? “thought it would be
the standard length of time”
• What type of horror films do you prefer to watch as an example:
mysterious, spiritual, supernatural or other? “other, I prefer gory films like
saw that contains blood and violence.”
• What type of evil force would you like to see in a horror, for example a
demon, murderer, ghost or other? “murderer, more intense and thrilling,
makes it seem more realistic.”

20. Interview 1
• Observation: this says that he thinks that a horror film a is
good idea as it fits with his age group. He would prefer a
trailer to be 2-3 minutes long. He also prefers horror films
that have gore and violence.
• What this says about my audience: it says that they might
like the idea of a murderer that kills people in the film to
make it more realistic and to include that in the trailer. The
trailer should be 2-3 minutes long.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I blieve that
my product will appeal to the audience as I intend to make
it between 2-3 minutes long. I also intend to have it realistic
and scary with gore and violence wich should appeal to the
audience.

21. Interview 2
• Do you like the idea of a horror film? If so then why? “yes, as horror films create
mystery and excitement.”
• How long do you expect a film trailer to be? “1-2 minutes”
• Why do you expect a film trailer to be 1-2 minutes “because its long enough to fit
small clips of the film to get the audience exited.”
• What type of horror films do you prefer to watch as an example: mysterious,
spiritual, supernatural or other? “I would watch supernatural murder mystery
because it gets the audience to figure out if its supernatural or not.”
• What type of evil force would you like to see in a horror, for example a demon,
murderer, ghost or other? “either a murder mystery or a demon because a murder
is realistic and gets the audience to believe in it however a demon can be exciting
and you can create different concepts which demons.”

22. Interview 2
• Observation: He believes that horror trailer should be from 1-2
minutes long as it gives time to create excitement and not ruin the
plot. He also believes that a murder mystery is a good option if it
includes different types of supernatural events and gets your mind
to think about who is really behind it.
• What this says about my audience: That they have mixed feelings
about how long the trailer should be and want different things out
of a horror film however both interviewees think that it should
contain gore and violence.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: it will appeal to
them as it will contain gore and violence and also murder and
mystery within the supernatural, the main antagonist will be a
murderer and it will be from 1-3 minutes long. However to appeal
to all age groups it has to only have a certain amount of violence
and gore which would mean it wont necessary appeal to everyone.

23. Audience Profile
Category Demographic Content to appeal to this audience
Age Range
12+ • It will be graphic but should be suitable to
the age of 12 and above however
dependent on how violent the film is it
might still be changed to target 15+.
Gender
both • This will appeal to both genders it is nit
specific to a certain one it just depends
what your interested in and a lot of males
and females like horror movies and will be
interested in a horror film trailer.
Psychographic
A personality that
is interested in
mystery violence
and gore.
• It will be a film trailer that is mysterious and
contains graphic violent scenes that will suit
this certain mind set but also contains a
thrill to get people thinking and can give a
scare.
Social Status
Lower, middle and
higher class
• This will appeal to all classes it will just
depend on the mind set that you are and
what personality you have on weather you
want to view it or not.

24. Research Evaluation

25. Research Evaluation
• Give an overview of how you conducted your research. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each method
– Product Research
Strengths: it allowed me to see how a poster for the horror film is put together to make it look mysterious and appealing to the
audience and make them want to watch it. It also allowed me to see the different types of colour imagery that can be used to point
out different things and give clues about the film and what type of film it is. It also allows me to see the set up of a poster and gives
ideas of how to set mine up.
Weakness: it is time consuming to do, can take up a lot of time when there is much more to do and complete. Each of the posters that
I researched where different in there own way and contained different affects to what there movie was focusing on slightly different
things to what I wanted.
– Questionnaires
Strengths: the questionnaires where helpful as it allowed me to gather other peoples feedback and see what a percentage of multiple
people thought to my ideas by answering certain questions that I provided. It was also helpful as on certain questions that where
important and needed more of an explanation it provided boxes for others to give people the ability to explain what they thought in
detail.
Weakness: a weakness is that it was a questionnaire and people like to fill them in quickly which means that you are unable to get a
specific answer from all people that is detailed and can give me more room to acknowledge what they are saying and apply it to my
trailer.
- Interviews
Strengths: the interviews where very helpful as they allowed people to give me a answer to important questions in detail telling me
there thoughts and what they believe a horror film can contain this allows me to apply what I have learned from them and try and
compensate for everyone in my trailer. It is also good because its quick and easy to do and is more in-depth about the subject.
Weakness: that people have different opinions and while they go in to detail it can end up that people contradict others on what they
would like to see and it can be difficult to think how to give everyone what they would like from a horror trailer.

26. Research Evaluation
– What sort of a response did you get?
I got mixed responses over all with people having different opinions on things about how my
project should look and turn out people expecting to see different things from horror trailers and
different story's, however I have found the research that I have found to be helpful and ones that I
can use. I got responses saying that trailer should be 1-2 minutes long and responses saying that it
should be 2-3 minutes long showing a range of different opinions on what people expect to see
from it and how long it should be. People also responded by wanting a murderer in it to make it
more of a thriller others desired that it has supernatural events. This meant that the responses
was mixed but over all it was helpful and gave me knowledge of what other people want from a
trailer.
– How did you distribute your survey? Give an advantage and a disadvantage
I distributed my survey by sending a link to my friends so that they could access it and answer it.
Strengths: the strengths of this is that I get to see what people with a similar mind set to me share
there opinion and see what they think about a horror film and this means I get other opinions
about what they expect from a horror trailer.
Weakness: the weakness of this is that I only get so many peoples opinion on what they expect
from a horror trailer and if other people have other ideas I don’t to hear them and use there
thoughts.