Audience Research - Quantitative Data

By Shuruthi Kamalendran

Through the use of the web we conducted a questionnaire on a

website called ‘Question Pro’ that consisted of ten questions which were

multiple choice. We sent the questionnaire around by posting on social media sites such as ‘Facebook’ and ‘WhatsApp’ and got the response

of 51 participates.

What Gender are you?

Male Female

From the 51 participants that did out questionnaire, an equal number of males and females responded. This shows that our demographic should be targeted at both males and females also to not specify, or target one gender.

Under 16 17-19 20-22 23 or over0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

How old are you?Looking at this graph, the majority who did our questionnaire were 17-19 year olds, and the lowest were 20-22 year olds. This gives us an idea for what age rate should be appropriate for our film. Though picking the ‘15’ age rating would gives us a wider range of audience it would force us to stick to certain regulations that we could get away with in the ‘18’ category. Since the majority is close to the ‘18’ age range(compared to the under 16’s being second to last), we will most likely pick that as the age rating for our slasher film trailer.

What is your favourite sub-genre of horror?

Slasher Gothic Supernatural Psychological Other

By asking what their favourite sub-genre is, we get the gist on displaying certain aspects of the subgenre in our trailer. Because the majority picked ‘Slasher’ we learn that it is popular amongst young adults, following closely behind is supernatural, this is due to recent films that have been based on supernatural occurrences e.g. ‘paranormal activity’ the other sub genres such as gothic and psychological are probably not as popular due the lack of these genres appearing in recent films that have shown in the last decade.

Scream

Teeth

Texas chainsaw massacre

Halloween

Final destination

Prom Night

I know what you did last summer

Friday 13th

Other

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

What is your favourite slasher film? Knowing what is the most known and likeable slasher film could help us with adding Easter eggs in our trailer, or using significant scenes that are well known, and easily recognisable. Also adding some minor ideas that have popped up in the most popular film.

Neigh-bourhood

Forest School Abandoned house

Other0

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4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18Where do you think the best location for a horror film is?

Asking this question helped us decide on what location would be scary enough to base most our trailer in. Most people said a ‘neighbourhood’ since that’s where most horror films are set and is also familiar. Also a neighbourhood is the last place to think that there's a killer around, compared to the ‘abandoned house’, the neighbourhood is an unexpected place to start a murdering spree, making it easier to clearly show that we have disrupted the equilibrium.

Cinema

Streaming

DVD'S

Netflix

Other

How do you access films?

Cinema Streaming DVD'S Netflix Other

Most people watch films online due to the revolution of the internet. There are easier access to films over the internet than our parents generation. Also films that are free through illegal downloads are popular amongst the younger generation. Streaming on Netflix is seen to be much cheaper than buying a DVD, for five pound a month it gives you the choice of loads of different films that are considered cheaper than DVDS because of the uprising of the internet and its widgets such as Netflix the least that was picked were DVD’S.

Ghostface- Scream

Michael Myers- Halloween

Freddie Krugeur- Nightmare on Elm Street

Richard Fenton- Prom Night

Carrie- Carrie

Jason- Friday 13th

Other

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Who is your favourite horror film villain?Having an idea of which horror film villain was the favourite gives us inspiration on how our villain could be like. Incorporating similar features. The least favourite horror film villain happens to be a female character, ‘Carrie’ this tells us that most people would prefer or identify the villain to usually be male.

Summer Winter Autumn Spring0

5

10

15

20

25

When would you go and see a slasher film?Winter was the most picked season. I think the reason could be due to the fact that winter is often quite dull, it gets dark quicker too. Also Halloween is around the end of autumn. Most people during the winter would not hangout outside and there's not much to do, since it is cold, so it generally gives them a reason to go watch a film since the cinema is cosy and indoor.

What weapon would you like to see in a slasher film

Knife Gun Machete ChainsawAxe Baseball bat Other

The most picked answers are all with sharp blades eg. Knife, axe, machete. In slasher films the weapon usually is something that has a blade.

Parents Friends Significant others Siblings Alone Other0

2

4

6

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16

18

20

Who do you watch horror films with? This graph displays that most people would watch a horror film with their friends than their parents. Horror films are not family films hence why parents were picked the least.

Audience Research - Secondary Data

A secondary source which assisted our research helped further our initial idea,

was the BBFC website. The website entails several documents in pdf files with

useful information on recent/past performances in the box office.

This piece of data that I received from the BFI website shows the top 20 for box office results for UK independent films. By looking at the top five, the horror genre is not doing well against other independent films though in the overall top 20 you do not see a horror based independent film even as a contender. This shows that there is a gap in the market for horror independent films probably because most horror films are made by bigger companies that invest in more money on digital technology such as cgi and other special effects.

Another piece of data I obtained gave me a better idea about the horror genre and whether it is a popular genre. This table shows the films released in the UK, by genre ranked by the box office. The horror genre is not in the top five but yet in the top ten, World War Z is its best performing title which suggests that my film would find it hard to compete due to World War Z having the budget of $190 million.

Overall, despite the low budget there is not as much competition for the slasher genre (the sub genre of horror) in terms of the box office. Although I must take into consideration that over time, digital technology has advanced making audience members expect for more out of a

horror film which is challenging to attain if my film is low budgeted although the less competition could mean more recognition it would get. World War Z did very well in the box office for the horror genre, due to this I will be using aspects of the World War Z trailer and

incorporate it in my own to fit my film in terms of setting, location and characters.

This graphs shows the proportion of the box office for all film types also it helps compare the different types of film (UK independent films, UK films, All films). It shows the horror genre in terms of it being independent is quite low, it is one of the lowest at the percentage of 0.3. This reinforces the idea that the horror genre are now forced to be made my larger companies since smaller independent companies find it difficult with the lack of technology. UK Films and All films are roughly in par with the percentage which tells me that overall the horror genre is not as popular, especially as a UK independent film. As I said before there could be a gap in the market which gives a slight advantage to my film however in terms of competing against other genres such as comedy, and Biopics it would be tough since the graph shows those two genres being popular.

Audience Profile

Here is a link to another page to show the types of things my audience is associated with:http://my-audienceprofile-blog.tumblr.com/ Most of our survey participants were students due to this the majority of students would have parents/carers that decent in the ABC1 demographic categories as the C1 and C2 social grade. So their parents would either have a job which is supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative, professional or as skilled manual workers. Since the categories, A, B and C1 tend to add more to the economy we make products that is targeted at these groups of people.According to Young and Rubicam’s characterisation model there are seven types of people in the world, this model splits the different types on consumers . The three types of consumer we saw that as reflected from our survey were aspirers, reformers and explorers. Aspires are seen to be superficial and materialistic, their core need in life is status. The explorer tend to be young my nature and always seeking for discovery, most teenagers often have the need to find themselves as well as their world therefore most teenagers fall under the explorer category. However, unlike Explorers, they will not buy things justbecause they are new. Each characterisation has certain needs such as discovery, individuality and status, linking to Maslow's Hierarchy of needs as our consumer have esteem needs which is something that would encourage ones esteem and also self actualisation, a need of being able to achieve ones potential. Everything in terms of my film will be taken in consideration, as its aimed at all sorts of students from both genders that already have an interest in the horror genre.