Focus Group

Today i held a focus group with a group of people who fit my target audience in one way or another. I then asked them questions about horror movies in general to help me with my project and allow me to make a trailer that will appeal to many people.

I asked 15 People 10 questions and here are the results

Question 1-Do you like Psychological horrors?

• Yes-||||\||||\||||\15
• No-0

Question 2-What exactly appeals you to them?

• I liked to be scared-|||3
• It is set in a real life situation and so it could happen to me-||||\||7
• The tension that builds-||||\5

Question 3-Name 3 psychological horrors you like?

• Paranormal Activity-||||\ |||8
• Woman in Black-||||\||||\10
• The Shining-||||\||7
• The Others-||||\5
• The Exorcist-||||\||7
• IT-||||\|||8

Question 4-What do you expect to see in a psychological horror trailer?(Multiple choice)

• The speed of it-||||\5
• Left on a cliff hanger-||||\||7
• Quiet yet scary music-||||4
• Heartbeat-||||\5
• The way it builds up to a climax-||||\|||| 9

Question 5-Do you like a voice over in the trailer?

• Yes-|||3
• No-||||\||||\||12

Question 6-What characters do expect to see?

• Normal people-||||\||7
• One villain-|||3
• Young-||||\5

Question 7-What are your fears?(multiple choice)

• Spiders-||||\|||8
• Ghosts-||||\5
• Clowns-||3
• The Dark-||||\|6

Question 8-Gore or suspense?

• Gore-||||4
• Suspense-||||\||||\|11

Question 9-Do you like the tension and speed to build up throughout the trailer?

• Yes-||||\||||\||||\15
• No-0

Question 10-What makes you want to see the film from the trailer?

• The Actors involved-||2
• Good storyline-||||\5
• Tension-||||4
• Memorable-||||4

Looking at these results many aspects that can help to to create a successful trailer that would appeal to a wide range of people. I can see that the main thing that appeals to them in a horror movie is the fact that it is set in a real life situation and is something that they then think could happen to them, so this shows they like something they can relate to and especially in a horror movie as this makes the concept all that more scary.
On question 4 most people answered that they liked it when trailers built up to a climax which is exactly what i wanted to do, and to do this i was going to making the clips get faster along with he heartbeat in the background.
Psychological horrors tend to play on fears that people have in real life, to make it even more scary. the most popular is the fear of the unknown, such as ghosts, spirits and things like that as it has never been proved that they exist but tit has never been proved that they don't either so things like that play on peoples minds and gets them answering questions as to whether things are real.
When it came to voice overs the majority said no which i agree with, as i find it better when the characters voices are used over some clips.