When producing a film or any media product, a target audience must be considered and how they would respond to the media product; in this case, a target audience should be identified for our virus sub-genre film. Like all media products, our horror genre film has no meaning until it is decoded by an audience. Therefore, by understanding the demographic or audience profile for our teaser trailer. My group and I can focus on advertising effectively and creating a film that individuals would consume.
Audience Research
Audience research is a major part for any production company. They use questionnaires, focus groups and comparisons to existing media texts in order of gaining an understanding into who would be interested.
Normally, production companies want to know the basics such as income bracket/status, age, gender, race/ethnicity and location and the categorisation of individuals; this is known as 'demographics'. My group and I know we can begin to shape our film to appeal to spectators if we take into consideration these factors.
ABC Scale
I have predicted that the following categories within the ABC scale will be included within my target audience - C2 includes skilled working class individuals such as manual workers (electricians, mechanics, plumbers etc.) D includes working class individuals such as semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers ( bus drivers, factory line workers, retail employees etc.) E includes subsistence individuals (pensioners, casual workers, students)
Ranging from C2 to E entails students still within the education system, apprentices, employed individuals and audience members between the ages of 15 - 25. The reason as to why I have chosen to gather my information through a questionnaire is due to the fact that, when compared to other ways of evaluating information, they have many advantages.
Advantages
They provide questions to large numbers of people simultaneously and in a variety of locations. Each person that participates receives the same set of identical questions with closed-form standardised responses. Moreover, those that participate remain anonymous therefore, the chances that questions are answered truthfully increases.
Disadvantages
It may be difficult to obtain a good response rate. Often there is no strong motivation for those that participate to respond to the questions asked. As well as this, the quality of data is probably not as high as with alternative methods of data collection such as interviewing in person.
Initially, I had to consider what my questionnaire's objective was. But, more specifically, I had to identify what kind of information I wanted to obtain. After this, I began to take notes on what I could potentially ask within the questionnaire. Below, is a print screen of questions I am considering on asking individuals that participate in the questionnaire. If this is to change, I will post a newer and more useful improvement on my blog.
