Audience Research

The target audience for my film The Awakening were the subcultural groups of individuals and reformers. The trailer's use of body horror, as seen when Bex is stabbed in the mouth, means that the audience would be predominantly male. I did not want to make a half-hearted '15' certificate film, but instead one which had a real impact, which is why I chose to do a film with an '18' rating. I feel that it allowed me the creative freedom I wanted. According to figures on imdb.com, thrillers are watched by a rough 50/50 gender split, whereas gory horrors are watched by a 70/30. The 70/30 ratio was similar to my A2 Media class, so by making it appealing to them, I felt I would be off to a good start. Knowing that they represented a real audience statistic made their feedback represent a wider audience's opinions. This is why the focus group was very important, and I adapted the film depending on what people thought.

I used other methods to research my target audience too. Our first task was to design a class poster, and we discovered that our idea for a psychological horror/thriller called The Stalker wasn't quite as popular as we hoped. Then we watched 10 trailers in class and everyone discussed what they liked and didn't like. Three of these trailers (Martyrs, Pusher Trilogy, 30 Days of Night) and the opinions given on them by the class and myself are on my blog.

Audience research is not perfect. One of the main problems is that no horror is amongst the top 100 box office films ever. The closest example in the top 100 is The Passion Of Christ, but that's more of a historical drama. Horror has its own subculture group and has lots of subgenres like: zombie horrors, supernatural horrors, thriller horrors etc. It most appeals to psychographic groups of outsiders and individuals and they have often unique tastes.

Also, audience feedback isn't always perfect. Opinions are sometimes going to be evenly divided, and other times acting on a negative comment means losing an element of your Auteur influence. Horror movies can be a form of expression for the Auteur, for example George A Romero used Dawn of the Dead to reflect his hatred of consumerism, and if this expression is taken away we are left with just another horror movie. I was pleased I put my own auteur style in The Awakening, and it has the right balance of gore and suspense to appeal to me. I did realise that all my audience would not agree, but I had to trust I had done my best in difficult circumstances.