Research Rationale

For my research, I will be appealing to young people aged 15-19. The reason why I have chosen this target audience is because this is the age range I have access to the most and will be seeing on a daily basis. Most of these people attend my college which will make it much easier to carry out my research. I will conduct my audience research by doing focus groups, surveys and interviews. One thing I thing is important is to find out first of all if my target audience enjoy horror. If not, I will not be using the ones who don’t enjoy it for my focus group.

A survey will allow me to find out what different people like when it comes to horror.I will also be analysing and deconstructing different horror trailers as I will be able to find a pattern in all of them which will allow me to create my own successful horror trailer. Looking at best selling films will also give me a rough idea of what my target audience would like in a horror trailer.

When creating my questionnaire, I will be very careful about the questions that I include. E.g. What do you like about horror? What scares you the most?

For my focus group, I will be choosing a number of people from my target audience and asking them to watch a few horror trailers. I’d note down their reactions (e.g. which bits make them jump or scream), and I’ll ask them a few questions about the trailers. This will help me when making my own trailer as I will be aware of what I should and should not include.

I will need a camcorder to film my audience when asking them questions. I will use a camera aswell in case I need any pictures of something I have come across.