Film Trailer Primary Audience Research & Survey Monkey Results

Target Audience Profile
We will be aiming for a mass target audience as films of the genre often appeal to audiences that love films of other genres too like action, crime, and horror. From the results of my survey monkey and research into similar products, I can tell you that our target audience for the film trailer will be heterosexual males that are aged between 17-22. I chose this age range because like Stanley Hall said in 1904 'Youth seeks excitement' and I chose heterosexual males because my secondary research into existing products showed me that the main target audience is straight heterosexual males as these are the type of people who consume Thriller films. Because we are aiming at a mass audience, we will have a secondary target audience of straight females of a similar age. Analysing psychographics allowed me to conclude that my target audience are likely to be 'Explorers' (Young and Rubican). These type of people are thrill-seeking and like to take chances, much like the characters in a thriller film. I think that films provide an extent of discovery which is what 'explorers' desire the most. In terms of lifestyle categories I think my target audience are likely to be 'egoists' as people watch films for enjoyment and entertainment. People who are categorised as 'egoists' want to get the best out of their lives and get the most pleasure for themselves. I think that my target audience will be of the middle classes and have sufficient disposable income to spend on going to the cinema and watching films. As thriller films are typically low budget, anyone could make a film of this genre which I think makes the concepts and content more accessible to the audience.

The results from the first question in my survey showed that just over 58% of the people that took my survey were male and just under 42% of the people were female showing me that the results from my survey will be quite relevant as my target audience are males. When looking at gender there are a few representation theories that I can relate to, Mulvey's 1975 theory that 'females are erotic objects of desire for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic objects of desire for the spectator within the auditorium' and Mackinnon's 2003 theory that 'Men are increasingly and unapologetically objectified, both in terms of erotic spectacle and as targets of advertising for product beyond cars and beers, including many items once thought to be market for women alone'. 

The results from question 2 show me that out of the 24 people that took my survey 91.66% are between the ages of 0-24, these results compliment my target audience as my target audience is 17-22 year olds. This means that the results I get from the survey will be relevant as the age of the people taking it were between the correct ages for my primary target audience. When thinking about youths I need to look into representation theories such as Stanley Hall's 1904 theory that 'Youth must have excitement and if this is not at hand in the form of moral intellectual enthusiasms it is more prone to be sought in sex or drink' and Hebdige's 1988 theory that The portrayal of youth is not entirely pessimistic as mixed metaphors appear that term “youth as fun” and “youth as trouble maker.”

The third question is asking what the people's sexuality is. The results show that 87.50% of them are Heterosexual, 8.33% of them were Homosexual and 4.17% was Bisexual. This means that my target audience will most likely be majorly Heterosexuals, but there will still be people with other sexualities. When thinking about sexuality I need to think about the representation theories such as Medhurst's 1998 theories that 'Homosexual males are represented as screaming queers and their female counterparts as butch dykes' and 'They are awful because they are not like us'.





The fourth question I asked is about the ethnicity of the 24 people that took my survey. The majority of the people were white/caucasian but there were two people that weren't.  This shows me that the majority of people that will watch the trailer will be white/caucasian so i will use actors that are white/caucasian in the trailer, where as if I has a group of people with a with a wider group of ethnicities I would have to use actors of other ethnicities to relate to the audience. When thinking about the ethnicity of my target audience, I need to think about representation theories such as Malik's 1998 theory that "The word ‘race’ in the cultural and political terrain has almost universally been aligned with Black and Asian people, as though they are the only racial groups that ‘own’ an ethnicity… Whiteness has been naturalized, as though it is an invisible ‘norm.’"  and Alvarado's 1987 theory that minorities are portrayed in four ways: Exotic, Dangerous, Humorous and Pitied. 

For the fifth question I asked how often they watched films and the majority of people that answered my survey watched films frequently at home and also watched them in cinema sometimes too. The people who chose the options that they didn't watch as many films could have been the older people that took the survey, this could relate to Stanley Hall's theory that Youths seek excitement as they could be seeking excitement through film. 

The sixth question asked what genre of film was their favourite and Horror/Thriller was the most chosen answer which is good because our film trailer is going to be a Thriller trailer.

This question asked what the main things people look for in a film, the top three were Storyline, Acting quality and Genre, this shows me that when people are looking for a film to watch and enjoy,  they will be looking into what the story is about (maybe through watching the trailer), who the actors are and if they're recognisable etc. and what the genre of the film is so they know if they will enjoy it or not.

The eighth question I asked was how much about the film should the trailer tell the audience, 62.50 percent of the people chose the option of 'Know something about characters and plot' which shows that we should only explain some of the storyline briefly so we don't tell the audience too much of the film.

This question asked if the people prefer cinematic or teaser trailers. Teaser trailers are trailers that are normally released whilst the film is still being produced and are quite short. The trailer normally just consists of some clips from the film and little information about the film and release date with not a lot of explanation towards the storyline. The cinematic trailer is longer and well edited usually after the film has finished being produced. It usually contains a bit more of a narrative so explains the storyline or characters more than the teaser trailer but doesn't reveal the whole film. It also usually has more information about institutions and dates on it. The results on the survey showed that 83.33% prefer cinematic trailers.

The last question I asked was 'What is the most important quality of a film trailer' and the most popular answers were that the genre is shown well, the camera work is adequate and acting and sound came joint third, showing that in our trailer we need to make sure we meet the views of the audience.

Film trailer analysis

The Walk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR1EmTKAWIw

The Walk is a film based on a true event that Philippe Petit did in 1974. It was produced by TriStar Productions and ImageMovers and is going to be released September 30, 2015 in IMAX 3D, and on October 9, 2015 in regular 2D and 3D and the trailer was released in June 2015. The age rating for the film is a PG and the film was Directed by Robert Zemeckis and produced by Steve Starkey, Robert Zemeckis and Jack Rapke.


The first part of the trailer consists of opening clips of where the film is set, and the main character then begins to say a hook sentence 'When people ask me "why do you risk death?" for me this is life' which interests the watcher and interests them so they watch the rest of the trailer. It then continues with scenes from the full film which explain what the film is about and telling the viewer what the character is like and that its based on a true story. This is to draw the viewer into wanting to watch the film and these components are used a lot as they showcase the storyline roughly, the directors, producers and actors and the all round experience that the viewer will get by watching the film.  The trailer seems to have a lot of transitions between clips from the film which are just blank screens with typography giving info about the release date, telling the viewer it will be in iMax and also the last one has a sentence which can draw the viewer in even more as it says 'Unlike anything you've seen before'. 

The use of sound is quite significant in this trailer, it begins with the hum of wind in the first clip as the camera moves upwards to the top of one of the towers which gives a sense height. Then as the transitions with text show, a loud banging sound can be heard. The guitar riff then turns from a cool generic one to a more determined sounding one, almost sounding like a action/spy film as it shows clips of them planning and sneaking into the world trade centre. Then a stopwatch is turned on in the trailer and you can hear the ticking from it in the background which slowly brings tension as usually things that are timed are quite pressured. The clips then start to change with irregularity and the loud banging sounds are heard whenever they change. Then all the sounds start to combine adding tension and a metallic repetitive sound plays to add suspense. It all then stops after a few clips which are very tense and a slower guitar and choral sounding song starts to play as a break from the suspense, it then shows clips that might be sad and show the characters in problematic situations to match the music. In the final clip its starts with a dull wind like sound and with banging sounds with every step the dull sound get progressively higher pitched which really builds tension. 

There are a number of enigmas which cause curiosity in the trailer such as:

• What does he want to do?
• Why does he want to do it?
• Does he survive?
• Does he get caught?

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is very famous and has been acting since he was a child.  He has been in aa number of thrillers such as Inception, Looper, Sin City and Snowden. Robert Zemeckis is known for many different films from different genres but his films from the Thriller genre are The Pilot, House of Wax, and What Lies Beneath.

Hidden https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qlxTw--4qw

Hidden is an American drama thriller. It was produced by Primal Pictures and Warner Bros. and was  released Digitally on September 15th and on DVD on October 6th. The age rating for the film is an R and the film was Directed by The Duffer Brothers and produced by Lawrence Grey, Roy Lee, Mason Novick, and Richard D. Zanuck.

The first part of the trailer has a couple of dark clips put together and there is a man saying 'we found a shelter' which is quite vague but kind of explains what the film is about. Straight after the speech, you can hear sounds of people screaming and a clip of the family from the film running whilst a high pitched screeching sound is being played building tension and fear. Once the family climb into the shelter the sounds stop giving a sense of escape and allowing the trailer to slow back down.  It then cuts to a transition with text that appears in a glowy font and say 'When the world descends into darkness' which is further explaining along the lines of what the story is about (apocalyptic vibes) but not giving much away. It then shows lots of clips of the family inside the shelter using really dark lighting with just a single lantern, which is a common use of shadows and lights in thrillers.

 The man continues to talk about being the only ones alive and giving apocalyptic vibes and when the scene changes a knocking sound can be heard. The trailer then continues with these kinds of scenes with a quiet dull humming sort of sound with low lighting and quite shadowy with the man speaking and developing the obstacle in the story.  It then shows the man looking outside the shelter using a periscope and the background sound stops which is an indicator that something is about to pop up and builds tension, then the shape of a dark person goes by and a dull screaming sound can be heard making the audience's heart rate raise and building suspense. The whole trailer then goes silent again indicating another jump scare which usually makes the viewer's heart race as you can see that something is about to happen. The trailer then gets really fast paced and you can hear a bang everytime the clip changes, also you can hear the characters breathing. Everything that happens is very loud and quick making the viewers heart race and making them tense. Then at the end you can just hear a blood curdling scream and it goes silent which gives the viewer chills and makes them interested. The films title is then showed at the end which is common for a thriller trailer.

There are a number of enigmas that are created by this trailer:

• What happened to the world?
• Who are they hiding from?
• Do they get caught?
• Why do they have to hide?

The cast in this film aren't very well known but Alexander Skarsgård is in several low budget thriller films such as The East, Straw Dogs, and  Disconnect. Andrea Riseborough is also in some low budget thriller films such as Welcome To The Punch. The Duffer Brothers have made several Thriller and Horror films and are currently producing a Thriller TV series called Stranger Things.

The Purge: Anarchy  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yaoh3PqHG7I

The Purge: Anarchy is the sequel to the film The Purge, they are both very successful films and made about $199.9 million dollars total gross worldwide. It was produced by Blumhouse Productions and Platinum Dunes and was released July the 18th 2014. The age rating for the film is a Rated R for strong disturbing violence, and for language and the film was Directed by James DeMonaco and produced by Jason Blum, Andrew Form, Bradley Fuller, Sebastien Lemercier, and Michael Bay.

The trailer starts off with upbeat pop/alt sounding music and bright clips of a couple driving. The female in the car says 'Can you step on it, its getting late. Im sorry Im so anxious its just tonight..' and the male says 'Its gonna be okay, just like always.' this makes the viewer question what they characters are talking about and makes them want to watch on. Its quite common for thriller trailers to start off normal and bright but then the problem is shown and they turn very dark. After the speech the car breaks down and the screen goes black after showing some clips of the car slowing and stopping and you can hear the female and male characters start to panic slightly. The black screen then goes into more clips of the characters panicking but they sound a lot more distressed making the viewer question even more and slightly tense.

The trailer then goes from more bright clips to black screens to make the viewer question even more and for dramatic effect, each time the black screen is shown a louder industrial sound can be heard. Then an official sounding announcement and sirens can be heard whilst more clips are being played, during this there is noises which raise the heart rate and make the trailer more intense.

When the announcement stops a high pitched metallic sound rings out and revving motors are heard which are very loud and override the viewer making them shocked. A digital sounding countdown then begins which is also a method of raising heart rate and in between each number a high pitched digital sound is played, the countdown could also make the viewer panic because it makes you wonder what is at the end of the countdown. Once the countdown ends a very loud choir combined with a digital sound in the background plays and loud crashing sounds when the blank screen with text shows, making the audience's heart beat fast and raising the intensity because of the loudness. Between the transitions with the text, there are clips from the film of crazy things happening but in slow motion which matches the choir/ church sounding music and makes the audience want to watch the full film to see all of the action in the film. There is then a gunshot and no noise remains apart from the choir, making it more intense and suspenseful. The title then shows at the end and it shows the release dates etc.

The cast in this film are also not very well known. The main actor Frank Grillo is in a number of thriller films like Disconnect (with Alexander Skarsgård) End of Watch, Demonic, and My Soul to Take. Carmen Ejogo is in The Brave One and Zach Gilford is in The Last Winter.