Target Audience Interviews and Focus Groups

Who we spoke to and why?

We spoke to a variety of males and females that were under 35 years of age. We had a focus group that included Dom Frost, Eve Stannard and Ashley Appleyard all of the age of 15 and middle class. Also, we had a second focus group including Elley Witt, Ellie Perry and Vikki Rook all of the age of 16 and also middle class. After this we did a series of interviews, these included Samuel Benzie who is a teacher, in his late twenties (no actual age is given) and he is also middle class. Sarah Peacock and Jamie Johnson who are both teachers and both 28 years of age and both middle class. Finally, Jake Hearn who is 16 years of age and is middle class. We decided to choose these people because they all fit within our target audience categories. The females under 35 are our primary target audience and that leaves us with the males under 35 as our secondary target audience. We thought that including a range of the primary and secondary target audience because we thought that this would give us a more accurate result for our findings of which was the preferred horror subgenre. Also, this meant that with the idea we initially had in mind, we could adapt it to fit with the preference of each target audience.

Questions asked

We included these questions for each person to answer:

1.       Do you like horror films and why?

2.       What is your favourite horror film and why?

3.       What do you want to see more of in horror films and why?

4.       Are there any aspects of horror films you don’t like and why?

5.       Would you like to see more horror films in the cinemas and why?

6.       Do you have a favourite subgenre, if so what is it and why?

7.       What was the last horror film you watched and what did you like and dislike about it?

These allowed us to gather a range of results and therefore get a range of ideas that the target audience prefers. Also, with the range of things that the questions covered it allowed us to be able to generate a range of different ideas using the audience’s feedback.

 

Key answers

The main finding that we received from interviewing the range of people was he preferred subgenre. We found that everyone we interviewed liked horror films because they create suspense and enigma throughout the film and allows them to be able to keep guessing with what will happen. Also, the majority of people said that psychological horror films are their preferred subgenre of horror films because they create mind games throughout the film from start to finish. We got mix results for what they want to see more in horror films because some people said they prefer to have more blood and gore whereas others said that they would like to see more mind games. This resulted in the same as question 3 where some said they didn’t like as much gore and some said they didn’t want it to take a while to get into the film. As already explained the majority said they liked psychological subgenre because it creates mind games which keeps the audience interested. For the final question we found that the genre of the last film they watched was either a psychological horror or a supernatural horror. This then shows us the main theme for the film opening we should produce in order to receive the best review from our primary and secondary target audience.

Shaping our ideas

Using the interview we have decided to edge more towards including a subgenre and having it as a psychological horror. We are intending to shape our idea on what the people we interviewed said was their favourite horror film in order to make it the most interesting and liked film. Also, we are going to include some of the things mentioned for what they would like to see more of in horror films be able to make a more unique horror film as not many current horrors include what they have said. Hence why they requested to see more of it. Using our research and the UK Film Council data we have still decided to aim it at males and females under 35 because we believe that it will then benefit a wide range of people and then get the best audience for it.