Audience Research - Quantitative Analysis

QUESTIONNAIRE



 After all of our textual analysis and iconography research, we decided to conduct primary research in the form of questionnaires. By handing out questionnaires we hope to establish who our target audience are as well as what their preferences are when it come to all aspects of horror trailers to give us inspiration and help when it comes to planning our own trailer. We chose a random sample of 19 people and the participants in our questionnaire consisted of 10 females and 9 males who ranged in age from 16-18. The range in ages was a decision we made before handing out the questionnaires to get a range of views from people of all ages and to see whether their opinions would be different.

OUR QUESTIONNAIRE:

From the first four questions, we were quickly able to establish who our target audience was; males and females aged between 16-18. This can be concluded because 15/19 participants answering that they like watching horror films with only the small minority of 4/19 stating that they don't like them. However, the next question established that even though these four people didn't necessarily like horror films, they still watched them because in the next question all participants answered that they either watch films weekly, monthly or yearly; no one stated never.


FAVOURITE HORROR FILM:

From the pie chart it is clear to see that because of the large number of participants we used, there was a wider variety of horror films that people considered to be their favourite. The most popular films that occurred in our results were Saw, Final Destination and The Conjuring. The question had a qualitative element as it progressed to ask why it was their favourite horror film. Answers included, 'because they made me jump, 'they were interesting and gripping', 'they had a good storyline and were interesting', 'the paranormal side to the conjuring makes it interesting', and 'because it really makes you think.' As these three films came out as the most popular among our participants, we will take on board their comments as to why they like the films because they obviously consider these to be good qualities of horror films and find the techniques effective, so it would be beneficial for us to include some in out horror trailer.


FAVOURITE SUB-GENRE:

During our textual analysis and creation of our proposal and brief we had almost definitely decided that the chosen sub-genre for our Horror Trailer would be psychological. This is because we both shared common interests in films such as Insidious and The Conjuring which both fall into this sub-genre, therefore, seemingly, it seemed like the obvious and most interesting choice for us. However, in our questionnaires we still wanted to find out what our target audiences favourite sub-genre was because if the results came back completely opposite to our preferences then we would perhaps have to alter our sub-genre or make it into a hybrid because after all, out trailer needs to appeal to these people; our target audience.
Luckily though, after analysing our questionnaires we discovered that the majority of people chose psychological as their favourite sub-genre. 11/19 people said this was their favourite a score which was closely followed by the 6/19 people who stated that supernatural was there favourite sub-genre whilst the least popular was hybrid and surprisingly, slasher.


WHAT IS THE SCARIEST HORROR FILM YOU'VE WATCHED, WHAT MADE IT SCARY?:

We found this question really useful especially as we used a large sample, we  could collate a lot of information about well-known, effective horror films to give us inspiration for our trailer. This question carried more of a qualitative nature, but this was useful in order to find out what people found scary about these horror films. One aim of our trailer is obviously to engage people from the outset and to keep them on the edge of their seat through the horror. Therefore by finding out what our target audience find scary in horror films, we can use the techniques to make our trailer, hopefully, equally effective.  



WHAT DO YOU FIND SCARY ABOUT HORROR FILMS?:

Although this question is similar to the previous one, this one doesnt focus on specific films and why they are scary, we just wanted to know in general what our audience found scary in horror films. This would then give us more of an overview of a variety of techniques we could use in our trailer to make it a more effective horror.
Below are the audiences view on what they find scary about horror films:

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IN OUR HORROR TRAILER?:

Not only did we want to find out what our audience thought were effective elements of a horror trailer for ideas and inspiration, we also wanted to ask this direct question to get a wider opinion and what they think would work in the creation of a horror trailer. Some answers were very similar suggesting that these were stereotypical features of horror films, whilst some were more specific showing that individuals personal preference. Therefore, once we begin storyboarding and creating our trailer we will take into account these opinions and include some ideas in our trailer that are inkeeping with our plot line. Here are their responses:

• unsuspected sudden action
• loud, appropriate music
• terrifying parts and jumpy scenes
• suspense
• dolls
• creepy children
• scary locations
• woods
• blood
• good sound effects
• close-up shots
• based on a true story
• cliff hanger at the end
• never know whats coming next
• fast pace cuts

LOCATION:

In this question we purposefully chose stereotypical horror connoting locations as the options so that we wouldn't receive any obscure answers that wouldn't be of any use. Our favoured locations prior to doing the questionnaires were abandoned house, woods and a graveyard. This is because they are often used in horror films as abandoned houses and woods have connotations of isolation and abandonment, whilst graveyards have obvious connotations of death; a common theme in horror films. Fortunately, our questionnaire results showed that our audience have the same opinions as we do when it come to the location of our trailer so we will definitely film in at least two out of the three most popular ones.


USE OF CHILDREN:

100% of the people we asked said that they thought the use of children in horror films to represent vulnerability makes a horror film more effective. This result is extremely conclusive and from our previous knowledge through the analysis of The Conjuring and both of the Insidious films, we know that children are often used as either the vulnerable or possessed characters which we also think makes the trailers really effective. Therefore, as long as we could get consent, we would consider using a younger children as one of the main protagonists in our trailer to appeal to our audience and further the element of horror and vulnerability we aim to emit.


MALE OR FEMALE PROTAGONIST:

In our iconography analysis, we in one part focused on who the main protagonist is in horror films and they were predominently female. Upon analysis we realised that this is becuase, stereotypically, women are seen as the weaker sex and therefore seeing them in a position where they are being antagonised by the horror that is occuring in the film makes them seem, to the audience, even more vulnerable. So the results from our questionnaire clearly show that higher proportion of people would prefer to see a female protagonist in our trailer, suggesting that they also think they come across as more effective, vulnerable characters in this genre.