Who are your audience and what have you learned from your audience feedback?

Who are the audience?

When we first came up with the idea for our production we did some research into target audiences. We found that most people we questioned preferred to see the horror genre with a female hero, and so went with this theme for our trailer. Overall we concluded that the target audience for our chosen idea would be both males and females (mainly females) aged between 15 and 25.

Genre and Audience AppealWhen researching into target audiences we considered genre massively. This consideration was based on the idea that the audience, institution and text/genre are all linked – the genre is important to audience and industry because each genre relies on the success of other film of the genre which make money to produce more. Therefore it was important for us to decide on a genre that would suit a specific type of people. We asked the question ‘what is your favourite genre of the ones listed? horror, thriller, action’. Results showed that the most people in the questionnaire preferred horror and were aged 15-25. As we wanted to attract an audience of this age anyway, we decided to develop our ideas with this genre as it was very popular.

Audience TheoryUses and gratification theory suggests that there are 4 needs of an audience that media seeks to gratify:• Diversion• Personal relationships and social interaction• Personal identity • Surveillance

Diversion refers to the audiences need to escape from everyday pressures. This applies to our own production as the horror genre can be used as a distraction from the real world as it is often very different to everyday life. Diversion media is usually a source of entertainment, relaxation or just something to do. The personal relationships aspect of this theory suggests people can find companionship through identification with characters or advertisement spokespersons. People will become involved in lives of people in media texts through conversation about it. This gives viewers an opportunity to bond over media texts.

The hypodermic needle theory suggests that media ‘injects’ ideas into passive audiences. The idea is that people are made to think what they are told because it is the only source of information. Children in particular are passive users of the media and so a rating has to be given to films which are not suitable. The Jamie Bulger case could be an example of this theory as the 10 year old boys who abducted, tortured and murdered the 2 year old, had apparently watched ‘Child’s Play 3’ before hand.

Genre RepresentationsIn terms of characters we had a strong negative representation of women throughout the trailer. In film and the media women are typically portrayed as submissive and vulnerable, however we decided to challenge this convention by creating Evylyn Crick’s character who is dangerous or antagonistic. In the horror genre it is not unusual for a woman to act as the villain (e.g. The Woman In Black) however it is not something that occurs particularly often. So, by doing this we have created a more interesting narrative for the audience to watch.

Feedback

When the production was complete, we invited a number of people to come and view the trailer and give us some feedback. We designed a questionnaire consisting of questions such as ‘what genre is this trailer?’ and ‘would you go to see the film?’. Overall we received positive feedback with all of the focus group correctly identifying the genre as horror and the majority stating that they would like to see the film if it were to be released.

Skills Development and AudienceSince the AS project last year, I feel mine and the rest of the group’s skills have developed extremely well. We have taken a lot more aspects of the coursework into consideration for example audience. We did not do much research into our target audience last year and so worked harder this time to find out exactly what people hope and expect to see in different films, particularly those of the horror genre. We conducted both primary and secondary research into audience through various methods such as questionnaire, analysis, focus group interviews and more generally just internet research, one example being to look at the BBFC film rating guidelines. While I looked into these guidelines last year, I did not develop my understanding completely as I did not do any primary research which is essential. We also planned locations and situations more fittingly to our genre for example by filming in dark alleys. The chase at the end of the production in particular is a camera movement and location seen commonly in horrors. By doing this it makes it clearer to the viewers of what genre it is. This is something we didn’t consider as well as we should have last year, as most of the film opening was shot in daylight.

Is our trailer successful?

Overall I feel we were successful in identifying and targeting an audience most appropriate for our trailer/film. From the beginning we worked closely with the idea of who our target audience would be and decided on our genre in relation to this. This allowed us to include all the necessary conventions of a horror trailer and make it clearly recognisable for our audience. We planned locations and situations more fittingly to our genre too for example by filming in dark alleys. The chase at the end of the production in particular is a camera movement and location seen commonly in horrors.