Evaluation Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

With the help of a questionnaire we created on SurveyMonkey asking our audience about the codes and conventions of a possesive/supernatural horror film, our narrative and what you would usually see in a film trailer, we were able to use our audience's answers to help complete our final trailer. We recieved a positive response, and found many comments that we felt would help improve our trailer before submitting the final draft. Here are the results:

*75% of our audience are female
*87% of our audience are ages 15-18
*When asked what the main feautures of a possessive/supernatural film were, the main responses were ghosts, spirits, death and possession of the main characters, mystery/suspense
*When asked if the creature haunting the characters should be seen, 95% of people said no, saying that it would ruin the suspense as the fear of the unknown was important.
*When asked what locations would be used in a supernatural/possessive film, the main responses were the home of one of the characters, churches, abandoned houses, graveyards, and hospitals.


From this we could see what the audience wanted and what they didn't want; many films use focus groups, showing a small audience the film so that they can say what they like about it or what can be improved before the film is actually released, so that it can potentially be re-edited. It is important that their comments are listened to lists so that film makers, or us with our trailer, can ensure that the film/trailer appeals to the target audience decided, as they will be the ones to watch the final product.  

We learnt how to how to define our target demographic through questions on age, gender and ideas of narrative, and through research into demographics of films of a similar genre or narrative to ours, such as the ones we have deconstructed. This has helped us to define our target audience, which will be male and females aged 15-25, with the film's certificate being 15.

We felt that the characters would appeal to both genders; the males would be attracted to the girls, whilst the female audience would either admire the girls, or resent them if they cannot relate to them. This is supported by evolutionary research into mate selection; men will choose the women who are young, slim and physically attractive as they percieve them to be the perfect 'mate'. Women will be jealous of other females because they are competing for the attention of the males, and if they have those qualities that appeal to men. The girls in our trailer are typical of the 'perfect mate' in modern western society and film - young, average size 8/10, physically attractive, sexually attractive (seen through their clothing, and the way they walk/present themeselves), long hair and typically white.

Our female audience may also resent the girls because we have presented them as unattainable in their beauty and confidence, as many films do make their main female characters, but it is important that they do dislike them as it means they will feel less sympathy for the girls when they are killed.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have also been useful for recieving feedback from the audience on our trailer and our anxillary tasks, our poster and our webpage.

 On Facebook and Twitter we have set up pages for 'fans', so that we can share the creative process with people we know, as well as others who might follow us if people share the page on their own walls.

By posting our trailer, webpage and poster on Facebook we have managed to collect many comments which have been used to improve our coursework tasks, as it is important that the audience can give feedback that we take into account, otherwise there would be little point in asking for the feedback in the first place. All comments from our audience have been very useful and positive:

By creating a channel on YouTube to share our teaser trailer, test shots and behind-the-scenes videos has also helped to create a connection between ourselves and the audience, as they can see the creative process behind our trailer, as well as see the trailer itself, and they can comment here too:


It also means we can share the information more easily to other sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger for the rest of our audience to see, meaning it is easy to comment on a variety of internet sites.

Questionnaire Results

Through examining the results of our questionnaires from the projects of last year and this year, we were able to choose the direction in which our film would be aimed.

Last year, our questionnaire found that possessive/supernatural films were popular, although less popular than other sub-genres of horror such as slashers or psychological.


However, through examining trends in current and recent cinema releases we have found that possessive horror films are continually being created. This has especially been seen in recent years with the themes of ghosts, possession and demons recurring in cinemas. Examples of these are seen in 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose' and 'The Exorcist', both of which focus on the idea of being possessed by spirits or demons. The popularity of this sub-genre of film is also seen in the re-creation of past films, such as 'Night of the Demons', which was a successful film in 1988 and was remade in 2009. The remaking of past horror films shows the popularity of the genre and also the success of similar ideas.
Another theme in recent cinema and television is the idea of urban legends being retold or examined. This can be seen in cinema releases such as 'Boogeyman' and the less successful 'Don't Look Under The Bed', and is the underlying premise of successful television programme 'Supernatural'. We thought that this was interesting so decided to choose a topic that is surrounded by legend on which to base our film. The theme we settled on was the idea of ouija boards and the possessions that can occur if not used correctly or with respect.
Linked with remakes, it is common for Japanese horror films, which are usually of the possessive/supernatural sub-genre, to be remade. This is shown in films such as 'One Missed Call', 'The Ring' and 'The Grudge'. Due to their popularity we decided to take into account the Japanese influence in our film.


Through these findings we decided to make a possessive/supernatural genre film teaser trailer, as we felt that as well as its popularity and therefore probable success with audiences, it would also be interesting to work with through make up and the less physical threats. The target audiences of possessive/supernatural horrors is similar to other horror film sub-genres, being based between the ages of 15 and 25 due to the use of some gore and upsetting themes. Therefore we chose the same target audience of 15-25 year olds as our project last year, dealing with slasher films. Our questionnaires were put to this demographic, making the information we collected more suitable and reliable in terms of feedback for creating a piece that would be successful. It was found that both male and female viewers were interested in supernatural sub-genres, so this is our target demographic.


The questionnaire that we created this year therefore focussed on possessive films, and we asked what our target audience considered the main features of the sub-genre to be. Reasonably similar answers were received such as the idea of suspense, angry spirits, revenge and unknown supernatural beings.We also asked what they would typically expect to see in a supernatural horror film, and again the answers were quite similar. They expected the houses of the victims to be a popular setting, emphasising their need to be 'creepy' and have gothic features. Other settings such as graveyards and forests were suggested.


We asked what our target audience would expect to see in a teaser trailer in order to shape what we created. A common answer was the idea of quick action shots with unclear focuses, people screaming and unnatural events such as people being thrown around. It was also stated that a concept of how the protagonists' lives were before the haunting must be shown, and then not as much revealed about the supernatural events in order to keep a sense of mystery. Another common answer was the use of darkness to obscure information and create senses of danger.


We asked whether the creature doing the haunting should be seen, and the majority of our target audience stated that they did not want to see the spirit, or not until it was too late. We will echo this by showing the effects of the spirit throughout most of the trailer and then showing the face of the possessed girl right at the end with supernatural make up to make it shocking. It will be at the end of the trailer to create shock for the audience and also reflect that it may be too late for the character.




-Emily