Survey Analysis

When deciding what to do for our final film, we decided to create a survey on Survey Monkey, where we made 10 short, multiple choice questions for the public to answer. We though carefully about these questions and the answers, as we were only allowed to create 10 questions and the answers needed to be easy and reasonable to use in our opening scene.

1. What age range are you?

We chose this question so that we can identify who our target audience is. This is because we needed to know what age rating to make the film and what content we can include.

Here are the results for this question:

From the survey, we can clearly identify that our main audience will be for 15-17 year olds. Before we released the survey we were expecting the main age range of the audience to be over 15 so that our rating would be either a 15 or and 18. I believe that our film should be a 15 because it means that anyone over 15 can legally watch it and we can still make it scary and not too light hearted.  

2. What location do you think is good for a slasher horror film? 

This is an important question as the location can change how the film appears. We need to chose the right location otherwise the opening scene won't look like it fits into the genre and it may leave the audience feeling disappointed or confused if we chose the wrong location.
Here are the results from this question:

The results show that the majority of the public would prefer the opening scene to be shot in an abandoned building. However, from our location scouting, the abandoned building that we would like to use is now unavailable to shoot in. The next most popular location is in natural settings. This is ideal as having done some more location scouting, we have found a rural area that fits in with our concept.

3. Which time period do you think is good for a horror film?

Originally we wanted to use the present day time period as it will be the easiest to film for and get the right location and props etc. However, we included this question because there are some horror films e.g. 'The Conjuring' and 'The Woman In Black' which use the past as their time period, which works effectively. 

Here are the results from this question:

Overall, the majority of the answers chose the present tense for our time period. This works well with our concept as we have included modern technology to add creativeness to our film opening. 

4. What do you think is a good age range for the victim?

This question is important as the age of the victim can make the opening scene appear more dramatic and suspenseful.

Here are the results from this question:

Overall, the results show that the age of the victim should be between 18-24. However, as a group we have decided to go for the age range of 15-17 years because someone in our group can play the victim and will be more reliable and will know more about the story-line of our opening. 

5. What type(s) of music or sounds do you think would create a good atmosphere for a slasher horror film?

For this question we had to think about what sounds we could easily create and what sounds would be the most effective for our genre and concept. For this question we narrowed the sounds down to the ones that would be most significant to our concept. In our final opening scene, the sounds will probably be edited, added in or taken out to make it look as effective as possible.
Here are the results from this question:

Overall, the most popular answer was footsteps. In our most recent story-line we have included diegetic footsteps as this corresponds with the story line and would be an effective sound effect. However, we may also include some of the other sounds listed in the survey and may even add more as we start filming/editing.

6. Would you like to hear dialogue (speaking) in the opening?

We chose this question because as a group we could not decide if we wanted dialogue or how much of it we wanted so we decided to include this as a question for our survey and let our target audience decide. 

Here are the results from this question:

  

The most popular answer was to have some dialogue in our opening. In our updated story-line, we have decided to include a small amount of diegetic, transitioning into non-diegetic singing. This will be sung by one of the actors and will make the opening seem more scary and sinister. Overall we have decided to have no 'speaking' as this can make the acting look bad and fake.  

7. Do you think that the film title should appear at the start of the end of the opening? 

This was another issue that our group could not make an agreement on, so we thought that they best solution was to include this question in our survey. 

Here are the results from this question:

Overall, the target audience chose for the typography to appear at the start of the opening scene, however, in our more recent story-line we have placed the typography at the end of the opening scene as we have come up with some good ideas for the ending of our opening scene and this will make it look more dramatic.  

8. What type of clothing should the characters be wearing?

This was an important question as depending on our setting and concept, the clothing for the characters would change. We made the answers broad so that whatever we chose, it would be easier to create the costumes and we wouldn't be 'tied down' to one specific look.
Here are the results from this question:

The most popular answer for this question was for the characters to be dresses in everyday/casual attire. This therefore makes it easier to find clothes for the actors as we do not need to hire or buy any particular clothes. Instead, the actors can wear their own clothes and feel comfortable, yet still look the part.

9. Would you like the victim to be aware of the killer?

Again, this was an aspect that as a group could not decide on an answer. Having the victim being aware/not being aware of the killer can change the tension and adrenaline of the opening scene. Both options can change the feel and concept of the opening scene.

Here are the results from this question:

The results show that the victim should only be partly aware of the killer. However, due to a change in our story-line, we have chosen for the victim to not be aware of the killer. We believed that this would therefore create more suspense and adrenaline for the audience. 

10. What type of character would you like the killer to be?

This is an important question as different types of killers have different effects and meanings depending on the film's concept. Overall, we came up with a few ideas that would be easy to film and use for our opening scene. 

Here are the results from this question:

Overall, the most popular answer was for the killer to be a man. As a result, in our most recent story-line we have made the character of the killer a man. This is very easy and simple to do and also makes our opening scene seem more realistic.