Questionnaire 1 Analysis

Age

11 15 16 17 18 26

We asked those taking part in the questionnaire how old they we in order to get a better understanding of what people of particular ages wanted to see, in order to gain a greater understanding of our target audience’s interests. As shown from the pie chart below, most people we asked we aged 17-18 which are key ages for our target audience.

Gender?

Male Female

We wanted to ask a similar ratio of males to females in order to get balanced feedback from our questionnaires. Although there ended up being slightly more males completing the questionnaire the numbers were fairly similar, meaning we got mostly balanced feedback by including similar amounts of each gender.

Favourite genre?

Horror Rom-Com Drama Comedy Action

The genres of film which members completing this questionnaire were most interested in were horror, romantic comedy, drama, comedy and action. The percentages of favourite film genres are displayed below in the form of a pie chart. The most popular film genres were both action and comedy, following up with romantic comedies and then horror. There was probably such a wide range of genres because of the different ages which the questionnaire was given to, and perhaps if it was given to a more specific age group the results would be different.

Favourite horror sub-genre?

Supernatural Possession Slasher Psychological Gothic

There was a lot of variation with the results of favourite horror sub genre also. Again this may have been because there was a wide variety of ages asked, meaning some may have been more intellectual than others. This would mean that if we asked more, for example, 18 year olds they may have all gone for more similar sub genres as they would have a better understanding of the issues being portrayed.

Do film trailers and posters influence your decision to

watch the movie?

Yes No

We asked participants of the questionnaire if they feel that film trailers and posters influence their decision to watch a film. While the majority of people agreed that promotion techniques do influence their decision, I feel that there would be a greater majority agreeing with this question if we asked 17-18 year olds. This is because they would probably have a greater understanding of how powerful advertisement is in luring in audiences, and that trailers and film posters are a key and most commonly used part of the promotion.

How often do you watch horror movies?

All the time Sometimes Never

Very few people included in the questionnaire said they never, or always watched horror films, and the majority agreed that they watch horror films ‘sometimes’. In our next questionnaire the amount of time spent watching horrors will be specified in order to get a more accurate indication of how often ‘sometimes’ is. Despite this, it shows that the majority of people are interested in horror films.

Favourite horror movie?

Insidious Woman in Black The ConjuringScream Halloween Friday the 13th The Ring Drag Me To Hell None

There was a lot of variation in the audience’s interests in horror films, though a similar theme ran through them in that the majority were supernatural horrors or slashers. This shows that a lot of people or varying ages find these kinds of films interesting, meaning that our chosen horror sub-genre (supernatural) would be appealing to audience members.

Favourite promotion technique?

Trailer Film Magazine Poster

After handing out the survey we found that no one found film magazines an effective way of promoting a film, and trailers were by far the favoured way of promoting films, showing that moving visuals are far more interesting for the audience to look at. A small fraction of people found posters an effective way of promoting films, again showing that looking at images are a much more interesting way of advertising films, as opposed to the potential mass of writing involved with film magazines. Despite this it could be due to the age of those involved in the questionnaire.

What do you dislike about horror movies?

Too Scary Fake SimilarBad Ending Nothing

There was a lot of variety in what people disliked about horror movies. We asked this question in order to get a better understanding of what to avoid putting in our film. A lot of people said they dislike nothing in horror films which was positive, and others said they were too scary though this may be because some people who participated in the questionnaire were quite young and horrors often contain an age restriction due to content which may have ben ignored. Along with this some people commented on how horrors can be quite similar with their plots, which is something we would have to consider when coming up with a unique plot.

Where do you watch them?

Cinema OnlineStreaming Services TV

Three highly popular ways of watching films were said to be in the cinema, streaming services and online, meaning that a lot of the promotion for our film should be accessible online as this is clearly a popular place to watch films. A small amount of people said they watch films on TV which means having adverts displayed on TV of the film could also be an ideal way of promoting the film.

Which character do you find the scariest?

Character 1 Character 2 Character 3 Character 4

On the questionnaire sheet character four was seen as by far the scariest, with character one coming in second place. This could indicate that deformed looking human faces is something audiences find shocking. Along with this the character with a dimly lit face, just about visible is also seen as scary. This links with people’s common fear of the dark. Character 2 is wearing a cloak with a mask and is from a much older horror film, showing how people’s idea of scary has changed. The demonic child was also seen as quite scary, again linking with the idea with in-human faces being terrifying.

Conclusion:This questionnaire was distributed to a variety of different ages, ranging from people from the age of eleven to twenty six, and the majority of people who completed this questionnaire were male. Overall, I found that people’s favourite movie genre was comedy, and people’s favourite horror sub genre appears to be slasher. The majority of people said that film trailers and posters do influence their decision to watch a movie which shows how effective they are in drawing in the audience. Most people said they ‘sometimes’ watch horror movies showing that in order to grab people’s attention and make them want to watch it the promotion must be effective. ‘The Woman In Black’ appeared to be the most popular horror movie, showing that having a plot based on someone haunting a house is an effective one and this links well with my proposed plot for my horror movie. Most people said that their favourite promotion technique is watching a trailer, and their least favourite was a film magazine. Having a movie which is too scary is something which put the audience off watching it, though a lot of people also said they disliked nothing in horror movies. Watching movies online appears to be the most popular place to watch them meaning that the promotion of this film has to reach online users. Also the most scary character was the fourth one showing that seeing deformed human characters appear to be most frightening to the audience. The next questionnaire will be distributed to a more specific age range and the questions will be slightly more specific in order to relate to my horror movie plot more.