Audience Research

In preparation of creating our horror trailer, we used many different methodologies for our audience research. In class, we watched 10 different trailers (3 of which I have reviewed on my blog) and we each provided feedback on what we thought of each trailer. This was useful as we could see what people liked or found impressive in the trailers and could take students feedback into consideration when thinking about ideas for our trailer. We also voted on each trailer to say whether we would want to watch them or not. We then carried out a focus group screening which our trailer 'The Possessed' got the highest average rating of 8.5/10. The feedback we received from the focus group screening provided us with things we could improve upon in our trailer in preparation of the evaluation screening.

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My target audience for The Possessed is 15-35 years olds with a relatively even spread of males and females. It is aimed at individuals and reformers which according to psychographics are what the horror subculture is made up of. Unfortunately these types of people are harder to please than the more reliable 'mainstreamers' who are much easily pleased. It is a Psychological horror with a 15 certificate. This doesn't mean that our trailer isn't scary, in many aspects a certificate 15 trailer can be more creepy and scary than an 18 certificate. The Possessed focuses on the psychological aspect with not much focus on gore at all in the trailer as this is not the type of horror we were aiming for.

The problem with any form of audience research is that you can never fully decode what an audience of people think. Horror is notoriously hard for this as horror audience is largely made up of individuals who are harder to please than mainstreamers, which in many cases leaves you with a mixture of different feedback and opinions. For example in class when we were watching Martyrs (2008) trailer, there were very mixed opinions with scores varying between 4-8/10. Some people said that they liked the mystery at the start of the trailer and the gory ending. However, others said that they found the start boring and the use of body horror unconvincing thus rating it lower.

This was also evident in my trailer 'The Possessed' in the way that there were mixed opinions with how some people didn't like the amateurish documentary style text at the start, and others did. However I chose not to change the text and trusted myself in achieving what I wanted to get out of the trailer and I think it paid off overall with the style of horror trailer I wanted.