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Audience Profile and Research/Planning into Soundtracks

Audience Profile
From all the research I have collected and I have come to a decision on my target audience for my film trailer. I found out that the main gender who view horror films are male however only by a little difference. Therefore I will be aiming my film towards both genders but slightly more towards men. To attract the female audience I am going to use female characters that they can relate to. Males are more likely to be a fan of horror movies because men tend to be stereotypical thrill seekers. Violence is also a convention of horror movies which is often loved by males.
From my research I found out the usual age for someone watching a horror movie is between 15-24 years old. During young adulthood many people are in the key stages of developing themselves and seeking excitement. Many young adults want to experience new emotions and feelings therefore horror movies gives this thrill to a younger audience a lot easier than an older one. Also a young audience tend not to be put off a film by violence or unnatural images which may make an older viewer feel uncomfortable or negative towards a film.
In general, horror films are aimed towards the working class.This is most likely due to the level of thrill and excitement which is gained form a horror film. If a middle/upper class person watches a horror film they are usually watching a horror film which is related to another genre such as romance or history.

Research and Planning Into Soundtracks

After doing my research into popular, current trailers on the market I noticed that the soundtracks that went with the trailer played a very important role when advertising a film. The sound that I could hear made a extreme difference to the video I was seeing. After watching a few horror film trailers, I watched them again but without the sound and this then emphasised impact that a sound track could add. Especially when watching a horror movie trailer, the soundtrack could create and add a lot more tension and make a trailer a lot more scary.
I wanted to reinforce my horror theme genre by using typical scary sounds in my trailer. To begin with I tried searching into Google, 'horror sound effects.' Multiple website showed up with plenty of difference sound effects. I tried a lot of different websites and listened to a variety of sounds.

None of the sounds I found I was completely happy with apart from a heartbeat sound that I discover. I plan on having a heartbeat sound that can be heard throughout quite a lot of my trailer. I want the heartbeat to be heard but not take the attention away from what is being shown in the trailer. The heartbeat sound will create a rhythm to the trailer which will build up suspension. I think the sound will create more of a creepy atmosphere and add to my horror theme. I made sure the sound clip I was planning to use was from copy right free source before downloading it. The heartbeat sound was influenced by the pendulum sound I heard in the Insidious trailer and wanted to use the same style of building tension by having a continuous beat in the background of the trailer. 

By college, students also had the opportunity to listen to and use some pre-recorded sound effects and sound tracks. I listened to many of these and found one that fitted my trailer well. 

In my sound palette I wanted fairly sinister sounds which would represent a typical horror theme, such as dark beats and horror drones. I also want a high pitch sound that would echo which will be heard when my scary character appears on screen to show that the character isn't a nice one.

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Wider Research

Wider Research

Insidious

I did some wider research into a few of the films I have already analysed. I went onto the Pearl and Dean website and looked into the details about Insidious. I found out that this film was slightly seen more by males than females, however was fairly equal. I wasn't shocked about the split between the genders, in fact it made me think that my trailer should be aimed slightly more at men instead of women. The most popular age range who viewed the film were 15-24 years old which I wasn't surprised about either. However only 4% of the audience were aged 35-44 years old which I found slightly odd.  Momentum Pictures were the company who distributed Insidious. They are one of the leading independent motion picture distributors in the UK and Ireland and have produced other films such as The Kings Speech and P.S I love you.
Summary

• Seen more by males than females
• Most popular age- 15-24 
• Age Rating- 15

Paranormal Activity

I then looked in Paranormal Activity on the Pearl and Dean website. The split between male and female was very nearly equal with only 1% difference. Again the most popular age range was 15-24 years old with over half the audience coming from this age range. From this research I have found out that my target audience should be aimed at young adults. Paranormal Activity was distributed by Icon Films which is an American production company. Between these too films there was a clear difference in the estimated box office total. Insidious took in 3 times the amount Paranormal Activity did.
Summary

• Slightly more females -51% female and 49% male
• Most popular age range 15-24
• Age rating 15

The Hills Have Eyes

The Hills Have Eyes is age rated 18 years old which is the highest rating i have seen yet when analyzing different films. Nearly 60% of the audience came from the age range of 15-24 years old, however, this in fact would have been 18-24 because of the age certificate. The next most popular age range was 25-34 with 24%. I expected these results as horror movies tend to attract the slightly younger generation. More males saw this film than females which again doesn't surprise me as within the movie there is a bit of gore which appeals more the males than females.

Summery

• More males than females viewed the film
• Mostly a younger audience 35 years and under. 

Genre Conventions and Film Classification Research

Genre Conventions

Film Classification Research

BBFC- British Board of Film Classification

When researching into film classification I learnt a lot about the organization BBFC. This is non-government organization funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films in the United Kingdom. The whole idea behind film classifications is to protect and warn viewers how old you should be to watch a certain film and what that might includes. It is especially important when protecting younger children from any unsuitable and harmful content within a film. 

The BBFC website held plenty of important information which could help me into choosing what rating my film should be.

By comparing the ratings and what the rating can include, I have come to the conclusion that my film would be a 15 rating as it includes some of the following above. 

Pie charts for Horror questions

 

I then decided to do a questionnaire focusing just on horror films. I asked the same 40 people, 11 questions based on a horror theme. 3/4 of them enjoyed watching horror films which then made me determinded to find out why and what parts they like. I found out that paranormal and ghost horrors were the most popular. This has given me the idea maybe to focus my film trailer towards these two sub-genres. However, on one of my questions about whether the villian should be shown or not, there was only a slight difference between the results. Again there was a spilt between whether a horror needs to show the villian or not throughout the movie. For example, in paranormal activity the audience never see what is messing with the couple which makes it even more scary. From my results I have decided that I mght include a love story within my horror trailer. This then might attract an audience who might not necessarily like horror films. A question that had a clear difference in the answers was about the editing of the trailer. A lot more of the audience prefered a fast pace trailer instead of a slow pace one. Therefore I will most likely make a lot of my trailer quick with lot of fast jump cuts and strobe effects. I had three locations in my mind of where i might set my trailer; within the home, woods or abandon building. The most popular location was an abandon building which I also agree with and want to film my trailer there.

Summary-

• same 40 people based on horror films
• 75% of them enjoyed horror films
• paranormal and ghost films were most popular
• fast pace trailers were more popular

Pie Charts for general questions

For my first questionnaire I decided to look at general questions about different genres. I asked a few questions about the individual themselves, such as gender and age. I made sure I asked equal number between male and females and decided that 20 of each would give me a good understanding of what the public enjoy. I also asked a range of different ages however mainly focused on 15-17 year olds as this is thr age range I am focusing my trailer towards. When asking what the most popular genre of film was, I found out that horror was in fact the most popular. This then has enocuraged me to continue with my idea of doing a horror trailer. However, the second most popular was rom-com which has given me the idea to have a love story within the horror theme. Amongst my audience I discovered that film trailers are very important when it comes to actually viewing a film.  35 people out of 40 either always or sometimes watch a trailer before the film which is the majority of the people I asked. This then reinforced to me how important a film trailer is. Again 25 out of 40 said that a trailer does encourage them to watch the film. From these results it has helped me to conform my choice of genre and has shown me how important trailers are to the promotion of a film.

Summary-

• I questioned 20 males and 20 females.
• focused on 15-17 year olds
• horror was the most popular genre
• 35/40 either always or sometimes watch a film trailer before the actual film
• 25/40 said the trailer does encourage them to watch a film