Target audience feedback video on 'Smile' rough cut.

In order to adapt our film to make it appear as an opening rather than a trailer, we conducted an interview with out target audience to find out what they like and what they would change. We gathered two 17 year old boys so that the 15-18 age bracket target audience could review the film and help us to adapt. From this video the group decided that we need more build up in our film but, we could still use the same sound as they said that this worked well and reminded them of the very famous horror film 'Psycho'

Audience feedback 2

We will use this audience feedback in order to progress our film to a higher level by taking into account what we have been told. For example the key theme highlighted throughout most of the feedback is about the sound and therefore we will use this to change the sound in our film in order to make it better. As we would like to make our film a level 4 piece we will spend more time researching the sound which we want to use in our film in order to build suspense. This means that we will be looking for a soundtrack that builds slowly and would work well in building up the sound and making it louder as the film progresses.

Feedback video on storyboard and narrative

Focus Group

For part of our research we conducted a focus group sessions which allowed us to highlight the type of film which teenagers from our demographic liked in order to incorporate these certain aspects into the film, thus engaging a varied range of people and getting a good grasp on what our target audience would like to see based on previous films.

Rotten Tomatoes comments on horror films

Hush critics review- Hush became a highly acclaimed film when it distributed through the use of its anticipation and psychological fear. It highlights that gore is included in the film however, it is not relied upon in order to scare the audience. The narrative which drives the film forward is magnified as the main element for the success of the film- this leads me to believe that as a group our main focus should be upon the narrative and creating a good story which builds suspense and anticipation throughout.

Scream fans highlighted that the unique use of editing and the originality of the film was an integral proposition for the making the film such a classic horror. The film subverted from the stereotypes of typical horror which engaged the audience in the film as it wasn't something like they had ever seen before. The originality of a film is clearly a key to a successful film in the industry and therefore creating a film with an original concept would be key for our target audience.

Psycho is possibly the best horror film there has been and many fans believe this to be due to the iconic acting and the use of Hitchcock's knowledge of how and when to build suspense. The suspense used in the iconic scenes is what makes the film so memorable to many and therefore shows us that out target audience would need a film where suspense and tension is built in the correct places in order to get the best thrill and scare factor from the film.

Psychographic and demographic research

Psychographic: Study of people based on their personality, values, attitudes and opinions, interests and lifestyle.
Demographic: splitting up and profiling people based on their physical features.

Demographic ideas: As a group we decided to make our target audience 15-18 based on demographic research. We decided on this age bracket as it means that we are able to create a film with an age rating of 15 which can attract the teenagers who have nothing else to do on their weekends.As well as this, we knew that 15s can be viewed by anyone older than this as well so film enthusiasts of an older age could be targeted as well. Furthermore, by setting out this age bracket it means that our film doesn't have to have as much gore and blood and therefore we can focus on other elements of the horror film in order to create a better quality film. We also decided that we would target our film towards both genders as this would create a larger market for our film to be distributed to. If we decided to distribute our film on Netflix after cinema release this would also mean that the teenagers who spend their time watching Netflix could be targeted due to the 15 age rating.

Psychographic: Our psychographic for our film was people who are interested in horror films and whom seek thrills and enjoy the feeling of watching the films. We decided that if we targeted people who enjoy counter-cultural experiences we would be able to attract more viewers as they are enjoying the actions which they know they shouldn't and can't do.