The document discusses the intentions and target audience for a horror movie trailer production. The producer wanted the trailer to leave audiences feeling tense and scared, while also enticing them to watch the full film. Research showed the target demographic was 16-21 year olds. Audience feedback indicated most would watch and pay to see the full movie, correctly identifying the genres as horror and action. The producer felt the trailer was a success in meeting its goals.

1. Intention of the production
I wanted my production to leave the audience feeling tense and actually quite scared.
However the main aim of the trailer was to leave the audience with the feeling that they
wanted more and more, therefore I did some research beforehand and aimed the trailer
at a particular target audience. This meant that those who watched my trailer would be
enthused to watch the real film. From conducting research I reached the conclusion that
the movie should be aimed at an audience between the ages of 16-21.
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2. Using the genre to appeal to particular
audience’s
• Many viewers define themselves through movie genres, for example
they will be attracted to movies of a certain genre, in my case
promoting a movie as an action-horror movie will instantly appeal to
the audience who like to watch these movies and audiences who do
not like this won come back to watch it. I also found that adding in an
action aspect to the movie may create a new market for the product
and lead to more people viewing it.
• For this reason you will normally find a trailer for a horror movie in
the cinemas before the viewing of another movie in its genre. This
way the movie can be directed towards the audience that are
currently viewing a horror movie and therefore money is not wasted
on ineffective advertising.

3. Audience theories
The hypodermic needle theory
Audiences can be grouped into two types, a passive audience who believe what
they see and are somewhat brainwashed into what they are seeing and an active
audience who take the time to think about the meaning that it being represented.
The hypodermic needle theory suggests that the mass audience are passive and
therefore the media ‘injects ‘ ideas into a passive audience , in particular with
horror films.
in this sense horror films can be dangerous as the audience receive the information
they see, such as violence and crime and make no attempt on their part to process
or challenge the ideas put across meaning they become manipulated by what it
shown. This is particularly prominent for children as they may view a horror movie
such as ‘scream’ and take its ideologies as the norm. therefor a child may not be
suitable watching my film as they may seek revenge on the ideas presented, which
is why I have restricted the viewing age to 15 in my movie.

4. Example of the hypodermic Needle theory
• After the Jamie Bulger case where two young boys brutally murdered
Jamie, suspected to be copying the acts performed in the movie
child's play the BBFC brought in new regulations for home cinema
under the video recordings act 1984 this meant that the videos has to
be submitted for classifications, prior to this no certificates has been
introduced, meaning anyone could view any movie

5. • Another example of hypodermic needle theory, although it isn’t
based on film is still in the media is that the murder of John Lennon is
thought to be influenced by the book ‘a catcher in the rye’. This has
not been confirmed but shows that the violence inside a book may
make people want to reenact what they have read.

6. Audience theories
Blumner and Katz
• In the book ‘uses of mass communications’ a theory has brrn produced containing 4
reasons why audience use media
• 1. Diversion: for the idea of escapism and to release oneself from everyday pressure
• 2.personal relationships: to gain or improve friendships or relationships, the sociability
through discussing media products.
• 3. personal identity: the ability to compare ones own life with that of a character in a
media text.
• 4. surveillance: to gain information and knowledge.
• From researching theories like this I was able to take them and apply them to my own
media text. For example, somebody wouldn’t normally go to watch a horror mobvie by
themselves, so my audience increases as they may want to take a friend with them to
see the movie.

7. Representations within my media text.
• A representation I used in my product is the difference between good and
evil, I make this apparently clear and the two sets are defined by the mask
wearing thugs making uo the evil and thos without masks the good. i found
that the masks where quite prominent inside horror movies and so was
appropriate to use for my trailer as I felt it looked scary.
• I also use weapons as a representation of evil and power. In an ordinary
world a baseball bat would be seen as sporting equipment, however in my
trailer I have twisted this and made it a weapon that beats and bulges
people. This I feel is a good way to convey this as a weapon as it will make
the audience at unrest thinking that anything could be made into a
weapon, therefore adding more fright to the audience.

8. Audience Feedback
• After watching the trailer I asked the focus group to fill in a
questionnaire. First of all and most importantly I had a very equal
spread of people in terms of Gender and age. Not only is this fair but
it also allowed us to find that neither gender preffered horror movies
more than the other. This way also means that the results would not
be biased in any way.

9. Audience feedback
• I was fortunate enough to find that the vast majority of the people asked
would like to watch the full movie, and a further amount would pay to
watch the full movie. This is motivating for myself as this was what the sole
intention of creating this trailer was, to leave the audience wanting more
from the trailer and so leaving them enticed to fins out what happens.
• Had the results been different I would have had to evaluate whether or not
there was a gender of age issue with the trailer, perhaps finding that an
older audience did not enjoy the trailer as much.
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10. Audience feedback
• I then gave the audience an open question asking what genre they thought my
production was. This was important as it would show me whether I have
successfully presented the genre to the audience, and therefore tell me if my
trailer has ben a success or not. This question would allow people to enter more
than one option as a joint genre perhaps. I was pleased to find that the vast
majority thought that the movie was going to be a horror movie, and I was also
pleased that many thought it was an action movie too, with many people stating
that they believed it was a cross genre of the two, which is exactly what I was
trying to aim for with my movie trailer.
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11. Development in skills
• This year I managed to learn a lot more about the audience and how I can
market my product towards them in order tfor the product to be as
effective as possible to the audience. I personally feel as though this has
progressed my skills to the next level, and these will become very
beneficiary to myself in the future. For example I hadn’t realised until this
year the importance of directing a film trailer towards a wider audience in
order to gain more views of the movie.
• Through this I believe that my production was somewhat better because
not only could I apply my findings to the actual trailer, but also it meant I
was able to drastically improve the marketing of the movie. For example
after noticing the demographic for my movie would be 16-21 years old I
could target social media in order to promote the movie using this.

12. Do I believe the production was a success?
• Personally I believe my trailer was a success . The goal of the trailer
was met and I believe that I was able to get across the genre in an
effective may to appeal to people who enjoy this genre. On a personal
level I felt this was a success also as I had produced the trailer myself
with help when it came to filming and acting, however all of the
planning and editing was done solely by myself so I am pleased with
the work I had managed to do over the period pf time I had available
to complete the production.