Questions four & fiveWho would the audience be for your media product?

How did you attract/address your audience?

group

Who is your core target audience?

We used Survey Monkey to discover a target audience

Our findings suggested a typical demographic of male (88.89%), aged 11-18 (100%). This was expected as the core audience for horror films is male, 15-24.

The psychographics indicated an audience of regular cinema goers, 88.89% of which went to the cinema once a month (based on a semantic differential). 5/8 participants watch horror films on average once every two months, showing a significant demand for the genre

Gender

Male Female

How do the characters appeal to this target audience?

In our initial treatment survey, we asked an open question “What do you expect to see in a horror film?” which returned some very positive feedback

5 responses expect to see “A group of villains” and “scenes that gave the audience chills”. We felt this was a good opportunity to build on our character development

When we sent out another survey after completing the final cut and asked more questions such as “What did you find was the scariest part?” to which half of the participants answered “the masked killers” showing an effective use of costume and props

How did you test your concept and sequence to an audience throughout the process?

We decided from an early stage in the process that we wanted to produce a Psycological film, but it wasn’t until later we decided to introduce the home invasion aspect after researching “The Strangers” (Bertino, 2008)

In our production pitch, we outlined each aspect of what we wanted to achieve in the opening and received mostly positive feedback. People specifically commented on how they liked the art house, independent style we were going for and the opinion that it will be ‘scary’. Another point that was mentioned was how the audience liked our idea of positive music playing over scenes of violence as inspired by films such as 'Reservoir Dogs' and 'American Psycho' as the teachers felt this could be very effective at building tension

Applying the feedback we received from our pitch, we then produced a rough cut after filming. This aimed to give the audience an idea of how the film would look. Again, we had mostly positive feedback, with people liking the dual-lines of action. There was a suggestion to keep titles the same colour throughout, however, this was disregarded as we believe the red text in the house was not clear enough. We were also informed that the face of the victim was not shown enough

When “premiering” our final cut, we again received positive feedback, having amended our rough cut errors. However, it was advised that we moved the title “Faceless” from it’s initial position at the end to a more suitable one so as to avoid the look of a trailer

What were the results of your audience research?

In response to our final cut, we sent out another survey as well as holding a focus group screening:

Focus Group - seven students aged sixteen to seventeen

Survey - Consisted of twenty participants

Q. Was the opening clear and easy to understand?A. “Yeah I like the two lines of action.” Q. What do you think happens next?A. “ They kill the dad” “ You don’t know why they are there or what they are going to do with them” Q. Would you continue watching?A. “ Yeah I want to know who they are” “ Yeah definitely” Q. Which Aspects did you feel were the strongest?A. “ I really liked the music and how it builds up towards the end” “ Yeah I like how the music leads you into a false sense of security” “ The two lines of action were really good” “ And I liked the masks they were creepy” Q. Would you suggest any improvements?A. “ Maybe keep the titles the same colour throughout?”

Q. Did you like our opening sequence?All 20 people said “yes” to this question

Q. Would you continue watching this film?19 people said “yes” with only 1 participant answering “no”

Q. What did you find the scariest part?9 people said “the masked killers”6 said “the hanging scene at the end”5 answered “the tension building music leading to the climax”

Q. Does this feel like a horror film?All 20 participants answered “yes”

Q. Are there films our piece is similar to?2 participants said “the strangers” 3 said “funny games”1 said “clockwork orange, because of the music aspect”And the rest answered “no”

Did your final audience testing demonstrate that you were successful?

Other than the suggestion to keep the title colour the same throughout, our final audience testing showed that our production had a positive impact on our target audience, with 95% of survey participants saying that they’d continue to watch the film and 100% saying that it felt like a horror film should

The sample also revealed that our film was similar to two of our research pieces, “Funny Games” and “The Strangers”, as well as comparing it to “A Clockwork Orange” because of the music aspect, showing that our decision to use the soundtrack was beneficial