Q4/Q5. Who would be the audience for your media product? How did you attract/address your audience?

Throughout the process, we tested our concept on our audience. This featured our initial research in which we tested our audience using a questionnaire which featured a series of closed and open questions. From this initial research, we discovered that an abandoned location would be very effective, as the majority of our audience stated that it would be the most conventional of horror. We also used a 1-10 scale styled question, in which the audience circle the number they feel most appropriate. For example:

This particular question was very useful as it gave us an idea as to the most conventional stock character for our clip. From this question, we discovered that the character would definitely have to be young and vulnerable, though the sex was a less important matter. Therefore, we came up with Darren, a young, vulnerable male, conventional of horror. We also tested possible names in a fixed question format.

Initial Audience Questionnaire

Initial Audience Questionnaire II

Our core audience is the 15-24 demographic, this is because the horror genre is intrinsically aimed at a younger audience as this age group enjoy the gore and scares which are evident throughout. The characters appeal to this target audience as Darren fits in with the age demographic due to being a young male around the age of 16/17. This creates verisimilitude for the audience as they feel that this could happen to them which creates an enigma and a social currency.

Despite this, after choosing hysteria, we thought that the name ‘the premonition’ was much more suited to our piece. This is because the word premonition means to see something before your eyes. Below you can see the question we originally asked, however, nearer the time, we realized hysteria didn’t really fit with our piece, and premonition is far more suitable.

Target Audience Initial Audience Questionnaire III

Additionally, people thought our location was perfect, saying the caravans dingy, dull and abandoned look created a more visceral experience for most people and believed that its small, confined space actually contributed to build enigma.

A few people thought the continuity of our sequence could be improved, saying that providing more shots with movement of our protagonist should be added to make our sequence just that little bit better.

Another strength included the high quality resolution of the picture and audiences believed that this made the sequence seem like an actual film.

Also, some of our audience stated that they were unsure as to whether Darren should been killed or whether we should have left it as a mystery to build up a further suspense.

From our audience testing many people liked the use of our soundtrack, saying it fits well with the visuals and the high pitched, discordant sounds of the flashbacks were very effective in creating a sinister, scary feeling about the piece which shocked audiences (this was the effect we wanted to create).

Some people thought that a couple of the shots looked a little bit shaky, which did not fit as well with the piece as it should. As soon as we received this feedback, we tried very hard to alter the graininess of the image and change the colour to create a contrasting look to the normal shots.

Audiences also thought our camera work was excellent, especially the frequent short and long tracking shots which revealed various props as well as our protagonist in the sequence. They also liked the use of pull focus shots and canted angle shots, saying it made the piece more professional and more fitting to our thriller/horror genre.

One person thought that the edited effects and composition of the flashbacks did not look very effective, that our group should improve the look of these flashbacks to make it more clear and sinister.

They both felt that our flashbacks were extremely effective yet felt that we may have done more with the sound in terms of a sound mix to build tension and create a sense of

eeriness which is typical of horror films. Overall, we were pleased with this response, though, as a group we were pleased with the soundtrack we used. This is because we deliberately used the soundtrack to pose a contrast to the general mood of the clip.

In this short video, features two people

inside our age demographic (15-24)

whom are commenting on the strengths and

weaknesses of our clip after seeing our final cut

at the advanced screening.

Vox-pop clip

Summary of Clip

Q4/Q5. Audience Final Cut Questionnaire Results

1. Did you understand what was going on in the opening?

In terms of our results for this first question, we are very happy. I say

this because out of our 10 respondents, 6 said they understood the plot completely and 4 said they

understood the plot mostly. This shows that our plot is very coherent.

2. What genre would you class this film

as?

Again, we are very pleased with these results. This is

because 70% of our respondents thought that it was clearly a horror genre, which shows that on the

whole we have succeeded creating a horror opening.

4. Do you think that in the opening the protagonist

should’ve died?

6. On a scale of 1-10 how tense did you find the opening? (1-

being not tense 10- being very tense)

This chart shows that the majority of our respondents thought that the protagonist should’ve been killed, this is good for us as we were unsure

whether to not kill the protagonist and leave a cliff-hanger.

We are pleased with the results from this question as 60% felt that our clip was an 8+ out of 10 in terms of tension which shows that our clip was

effective in terms of building up suspense.

9. How many flashbacks were there?

This question was more to see if our audience were paying attention. As there were indeed 5 flashbacks, it shows that on the most-part, our audience were paying attention meaning the

other answers will be valid.

11. Do you think our use of font was suitable?

This another encouraging result. I say this because 80% of our respondents felt that our font was

suitable. Considering we changed our font rather close to the deadline, it was very pleasing to see

this.

3. Which part of the opening could’ve been improved?

For this question, we had a varied response. Some stated that the sound could’ve been improved in terms of a sound mix and others stated that the

build-up of tension could’ve been enhanced. In our own opinion, we thought the soundtrack was very

effective as it created a contrast to the general mood of the clip.

5. Was the opening generally entertaining? If so..why?

Again, for this question, there were a wide array of answers, some stated the soundtrack made it entertaining, some said it was so because of the diegetic

sound. On the whole, the most popular answer for this question was the

flashbacks.

7. Would you recommend the film to

others? For this question, we was

looking for a fixed answer of yes or no.

Encouragingly, 100% of our respondents stated

that they would recommend the film.

8. Did you understand the use of flashbacks?

This was also a very promising result, 90% of

our respondents understood the use of flashbacks in our clip, which was to evidently show the caravan to

have a past in terms of murder and torture,

therefore this was a very heartening result for us.