Audience Research - Primary

Above is Clark's Interview of Nicola (age 27).

Summary of Interview:
My interview with Nicola went really well. I found out a lot of information as to what my audience expect and what my audience would like to see, which will be information we will

take forward when we plan and make our own products. When talking about her expectations

for horror movies it was features which I expected to hear such as the typical killer wearing a mask, using a knife etc. Her expectations for setting's were things such as isolated woods, abandoned houses which are the types of settings we had already decided to use in our trailer. Nicola's thoughts on the trailer were very similar to mine, whilst she felt that the trailer worked really well at building tension and having the scare factor, she felt there were too many shots which were very similar to each other and gave the plot away a little too much. She said to improve this she would use less shots, we also agreed that the voice over and inter titles helped create an element of creepiness. Nicola really liked the poster, she thought the idea was really original-using a collage of images of scenes from the movie to make up the antagonists face/mask. I agreed as I think it's really original and effective, she also picked up on the location in the poster showing a row of creepy houses on one side and iscolated woods on the other side- something I myself hadn't noticed but was helpful in making decisions for our locations. Nicola felt that the poster was the weakest item, stating that although it was good for it's purpose she would like to see a more general magazine covering the horror movie genre. She said she likes to see straight lines and equal curning and leading, she did feel the masthead was well planned out though and that the image was very effective for the audience. My interview with Nicola has re inforced our idea as far as sets, costume and shots. She stated that she likes the element of mystery with a masked killer-something we're going to use, she agreed that isolated woods are a scary and effective setting and she also thought that you need to see 'classic' pieces of iconography such as the mirror shots, jumping out of bed scared shots etc. Overall my interview with Nicola was really helpful and has helped us develop our idea further.

This is Rebecca's interview of Aidan Robson (age 18)

Summary of interview:
Aidan's interview was very useful in gaining more knowledge on what our target audience expects to see from horror films, and we will take this information on board when planning our products. In terms of the SAW trailer, poster and magazine cover which I analysed in my textual analysis, Aidan generally agreed with my own analysis; the trailer is very effective as a teaser trailer as it is enigmatic and mysterious, making you want to see more, and the end section is very fast paced and shocking. There is continuity between the film trailer and poster, and Aidan also agreed with my thoughts that the image on the poster brings about ideas of isolation, which is very good at striking fear. He then said, when it came to the magazine cover, that this was the weakest element, as he thought the image was not as good as it could have been. This very much reflected my own opinions, so was very useful in supporting the ideas we have already developed. Aidan gave the type of responses we initially expected to recieve from our target audience when it came to what he expected to see from a horror film, what types of iconography he expected to see, and the films he initially associates with the horror genre. The theme of isolation and mystery works well, particularly isolation as this is a feeling and emotion that any one person in the audience can immediately relate to, and the audience expects to see blood, knives and killers in these films. Blood, knives and other gorey weapons tend to strike fear in audiences, simply due to the connotations and possibilities of the harm they can cause.When asked about what he thought about the idea of a masked killer, which is an idea we are hoping to take into our own work, Aidan said he likes this idea as it reinforces this theme of mystery and fear. We will take all of these opinions and thoughts into consideration throughout the rest of our planning and production.

above is Clark's interview with Niall (aged 18)

Summary of interview:

This interview with Niall was very useful in helping us develop our ideas on our products. What he expects to see from a typical horror film is to be genuinely scared, with many jumpy and gorey moments. He particularly liked the idea of horror films involving masked murderers, as he said this concept of the unkown is something that is actually genuinely scary. This is fitting with our research and planning so far, as we also really like the idea of giving the antagonist an element of mystery, most likely through the use of masks and costume. One thing very interesting Niall mentioned was when asked about the typical narrative set pieces he expects to see in a horror film; he mentioned the idea of a mysterious code or symbol recurring throughout the film, which the characters are trying to work out - for example in Haunting in Conneticut, he mention that each of the dead victims are left with a code written all over of them, which occurs throughout the film. This is something we hadn't thought of previously, and could work very well with our current idea of mystery. We will take this into considerationg throughout the rest of our planning as this is clearly an idea that appeals to our target audience. The iconography Niall mentioned was very much what we expected, and reinforces the ideas we have currently; he talked about dark locations such as isolated forests working well, and also mentioned how he liked the use of characters homes. He emphasised how he finds horror films which have a sense of realism and plausability the most appealing, and he said how the thought that the antagonist can reach you in your own home is particularly scary and appealing to the audience. This is fitting as we are currently considering these types of locations mainly. Again he said how, when it comes to costumes, he finds the characters wearing casual clothing is most appealing to him as again this adds a sense of realism, as the audience can relate to the characters more. When discussing the trailer, poster and magazine cover previously analysed he mentioned how much he likes the Halloween trailer as the situations involved all look quite realistic and as if it could actually happen in any town. He then said, in terms of the film poster, that there was no continuity between the poster and the trailer due to the fire featuring in the poster which appears no where in the trailer, and he said the poster seems a lot more unrealistic. He then said how he very much liked the image used on the magazine cover as, again, it seemed quite realistic as it could just be any man wearing a mask, it isn't some unrealistic creature sent from space. Overall, Niall put a big emphasis on the important of realism in horror films to him, and I personally agree. I think this would appeal a lot to the audience, rather than some very far fetched storyline based around a monster. We will take this into consideration further, and I believe we should aim to make our product as realistic as possible.

(interview with zoe (aged 18) by charlotte alderson)

I showed zoe the poster, trailer and magazine cover i analysed for my textual analysis and got her feedback. I found Zoe's interview really useful and she raised some interesting points. She immediately said that she expects a murder out of this genre which immediately made me think about how we could show this type of thing in our trailer. She mentions that she associates this film with films like paranormal activity and saw and also says that these films should always be dark and creepy which i think we should emulate in our trailer. She says that props could be things such as fire and weapons which i believe both connote danger and fear which would be useful and i would definately consider the use and effectiveness of these items in the trailer. she like the way the boy has "help" in his pupil of his eye on the poster. she like the way it contrasts the story as you dont know whether the boy was the villian or the victim. she mentions that the trailer and the poster had significant continuity but the magazine cover didnt reflect this, as the colours used were brighter than the others used. she liked the editing pace on the trailer the way it stops and starts very quickly and i do believe, myself, that the editing pace was very effective and i think we should definately do this for our trailer. However, she felt that the trailer should have told more of a story in it.

Charlotte Alderson's interview with Jordan Boyle and Luce White (both age 18) 

I found this interview very useful and I put them both together to see how their answers compared and contrasted. Jordan outlined the use and effect if the eye contact made by the boy and the effect of this, was the striking way it caught the attention of the audience. Jordan mentioned that she felt uneasy looking at the products and she didnt know what was going to happen and i think "the fear of the unknown" is something we really need to capture in our trailer and products. Luce believes that "Chucky" is a similar film as it both keeps you on edge. They like it when you dont know who the "stalker", "killer", "psycho" is, as it gives a bigger element of mystery, this was also a repeated comment when asked about the effects of masks in horror films. They also commented on the fact that children are particularly scary in horror films as many people have children so they it is really creepy to them. Also i believe that children are effective due to the fact that its a harsh contrast from the belief a child represents innocence - so its very creepy when its the opposite to the normal thought. They thought the main image on the poster and the magazine was very effective and the eyes really stood out. The genre was very clear on all products and this is very important to relay to the audience. They repeated zoe's earlier comment about how the magazine was too bright for the genre and the yellow was too much, which emphasises the importance of the three colour palette rule throughout all the products. They also loved the editing pace of the trailer and said that it was really effective.