Audience Research (Independent)

Audience research

Independent

From the results of my questionnaire, I can conclude many different results. I sent out a questionnaire around college, 50% girls and 50% boys. Of the boys, 60% said that horror was their favourite genre, compared with only 10% of the girls. This could suggest that horror movies are more appealing to boys than girls, which is why my horror film is aimed more at boys, with shots that support the male gaze theory (leaving the girl on camera for longer), and more bloody and gory deaths throughout. This will hopefully maximise profits. Of the boys, 75% go to the cinema on a monthly basis, and 15% see horror films at the cinema once a month, whereas only 30% of girls go to the cinema once a month, and only 5% see a horror film at the cinema once a month. This shows that the cinema still has strong viewings, particularly among teenaged boys, and that horror movies are still most popular among teenaged boys. Finally, I established from my questionnaire that 80% of males want to see an attractive female play the ‘final girl’, and 90% of females wanted males on camera in an attractive way (e.g. body shots etc.)

Concluding my results, it is easy to show that the main target audience for horror films are boys aging from 15-25. For this reason, my horror film would contain the ‘male gaze ’theory idea, as suggested by Laura Mulvey. This is the suggestion that the camera is male, and looks upon women in usually a sexual way (e.g. a chase scene for a woman capturing only her body, whereas a chase scene for a male would have lots of face in the shots). This would probably attract more of my target audience (male viewers) and so maximise my profits.