The document provides primary and secondary research data for creating a trailer for an independent British slasher film. The primary research found that the target audience is mostly male, prefers streaming films online, and finds knives and locations in the woods the scariest. The secondary data found that the horror genre is very popular in the UK independent film market, with the 15 classification getting the most releases. Overall, the research indicates an effective trailer should appeal to male audiences, incorporate popular slasher film elements, and be classified 15 to reach the widest potential audience.

1. Primary Data For
Slasher Trailer

2. What sex are you?
Most of my respondents were
male(71%). This means that within
my trailer I should use things to
appeal to this audience. I can do
this by using the male gaze within
my trailer and portraying women in
a sexualized way. I can also do this
through things such as the
typography within the trailer.

3. What is your preferred way of watching films?
This graph shows that most of the
respondents stream films
online(57%). This means that I
need to appeal to this demographic
through the media platform
approach, focusing a lot on the
internet. Also, in order to prevent
my film from being streamed
online I can use things such as
Netflix and LoveFilm to maximise
profits.

4. What is your favourite slasher film?
I asked my respondents what slasher
films they most liked in order to see what
their expectations are from slasher films.
The two most common answers were
Halloween and Scream. Therefore, I will
take elements from each of the films and
incorporate it within my trailer.

5. Do you find gas masks scary?
I wanted to ask the respondents
something more direct to the
trailer. I found that over 50% of my
respondents find gas masks scary.
Therefore, as I initially thought
using a gas mask will add to the
fear factor within the trailer.

6. Which weapon do you find the scariest?
I wanted to find out which weapon
my audience finds the scariest and
therefore, the most effective. Most
of my respondents said knife. This
is the weapon I will be using within
my trailer. A bloody knife is also an
iconic symbol within slasher films
which will help me create meaning
within my trailer.

7. Which location do you find the scariest?
I then wanted to find out which location/s
would be the best to use within my
trailer. Most of my respondents said that
the scariest location was the woods.
Therefore, this is one of the locations I
will use within my trailer. However, none
of the respondents said the school was
the scariest place for the slasher. As this
was one of the locations I wanted to
initially use, I need to think about the
pro’s and con’s as well as alternative
locations that I could potentially use
instead of the school.

8. What are your worst fears?
I asked this question in order
to find out what scares my
audience, in order to make
my trailer more effective.
Most of the respondents said
being killed and being
kidnapped. I will incorporate
both of these fears into the
synopsis, as well as the
trailer.

9. Which colours do you associate with slasher films?
I asked my respondents which colours
they associate with slasher films, in order
to come up with an appropriate colour
scheme. The 3 colours mostly associated
with slasher films were red (42%), black
(32%), and white (10%). This is the most
common colour scheme within slasher
film, as well as the most popular within
my respondents. Therefore, I will use
elements of those three colours within
my trailer.

10. Secondary Data For
Slasher Trailer

11. Box Office figures are rising steadily
globally. This means that films are
more popular and making more money
than ever before. $34.7 billion was
made in 2012 globally. This means that
there is more opportunity to earn
money within the film industry than
before. However, I need to bear in
mind that my film will be a
British, independent film, which can
only make a limited amount of money.
Therefore to raise my profits, I need to
use effective marketing techniques
and create a buzz around the film
through the word of mouth.

12. The U.K is within the top 10
international Box Office markets. From
this graph we can see that they are in
joint 3rd alongside France. U.K made
$1.7 billion in 2012. This shows that
there is a popular and established
market, as well as audience for British
cinema. As this is also on the rise, it
shows that it is a good time for us to
release our film as there is a paying
audience for us to release our film to.

13. This graph tells us more about
the popular genre’s within the
UK and the Republic of Ireland.
There were 45 releases of horror
films in 2012, which accounted
for 7% of all releases. It made a
gross of £62 million. The best
performing title was The Woman
in Black, this means that we
should use some similar
elements to this film within our
trailer e.g. The music.

14. This graph compares the proportion
of box office by genre. This includes
for all films, UK films, and UK
independent films. This graph
shows that horrors are the second
highest independent films in the
UK, after the comedy genre. This
means that independent horrors are
widely popular within the UK.
Furthermore, elements of British
humour should be used within my
film in order to appeal to a wider
audience, as this graph shows that
British Independent comedies are
very popular.

15. This graph shows us the
percentage of gross box office
for UK independent films in the
UK by genre. From this graph
we can see that horror has
raised significantly this
year, accounting for 20.2%. This
shows that horrors are more
and more popular within the
UK, from seeing that the figures
have significantly risen, it tells
us that this year is good for
releasing films within the horror
genre

16. This graph tells us about all the
releases in the UK and republic
of Ireland by BFFC film
classification in 2012. “15”
accounted for 42.8% of all
releases (277). As this shows
that this is the most common
and popular classification, we
will make our horror fit this
classification in order to
maximise our audiences.