Audience Research - Halloween (1978)

These are the questions asked to a group to identify the successes and fails to this specific film trailer. It is more related to horror than thriller however the opening of this inspired me with the making of ours due to the suspense which relates to our specific genre.

Videos:

Questions:

• What do you think builds the suspense?  The music, POV shot and using the mask to hide certain aspects of the film to build tension. In the opening, they also show flickering which can build to the atmosphere and make the audience afraid of what's to come.
• What do you think is successful about the opening? The build of the opening is successful as it is slow and can create the feeling of uncomfort and fear for the characters. This is done by the focus on small things that are happening which are brought to attention to the audience.
• Is there anything you think they could do to improve? Improvements would be that the special effects don't fit in with the scene and opening are separate to the film itself. As well as the death show at the beginning of the film could be more realistic, as it was presented to be quite fake.

Evaluation:

I plan on applying this research onto our production as with the feedback I got from the this opening, I can acknowledge the factors that make thrill the audience therefore to include that purposely into our opening to ensure it scares the audience. From the research, I have learnt specifically what the audience want to see or hear or feel when watching a thriller and with the answers I can incorporate it into our opening. The main effect is to make the audience jump or feel fear however this isn't  just all built up by the scene in front of them, it is a gradual feeling that has to happen with the use of titles, sound, editing etc. Therefore the feedback has allowed me to identify now that the other factors increase the emotions we want the audience to feel and that they need to be perfected in order to create the reaction we want.