Audience Research
For my audience research I created an online survey, in which I asked questions about their age, what kinds of films the respondents enjoy, what sub-genres they enjoy, how much they enjoy zombie and thriller films, whether zombie/thriller film would appeal to them and about the kind of movie poster that appeals to them.
I asked about what kinds of films people enjoy most and the most enjoyed film was comedy, with horror second and action and drama in joint third as the most enjoyed movie genres between the ages of 15 and 18. This is useful to me because it helps me know what genres are enjoyed most by my target audience and will help me add in elements to my final product, which'll be an action/thriller hybrid. For example, I can add elements of comedy through the use of sarcasm, but I need to make sure I don't over use it.
I asked a question about what kind of sub-genre they enjoy most when blended in with a thriller. The most enjoyed styles were survival and action/adventure, with comedy being the second most enjoyed. This helps back up the idea of making the plot about having to survive during a zombie apocalypse but by having to be constantly on the move, which uses elements of both action/adventure and mostly survival. It'll also back up my idea for using a small amount of comedy through the use of sarcasm in my media text.
Next, I asked a question about how much the respondents enjoy thriller films, on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being 'Strongly Dislike' them and 5 being 'Strongly Enjoy' them. From my results, I can see majority of the people asked, 57% of them, enjoy thrillers and a further 14% strongly enjoy them, with the rest of the respondents either choosing the neutral option or only disliking them. From this, I can see that majority of people in my target audience age range would enjoy a film with a base genre being a thriller.
Next, I asked whether they enjoy films which feature zombies. Luckily, no one dislikes those styles of films, with the mass majority of people enjoying that style of film. Only 14% of respondents picked the neutral option, and the remaining respondents picked either 'Partly Enjoy' or 'Enjoy', which helps further cement the idea of making a thriller/action film revolving around the idea of surviving in a world populated by mostly zombies.
For this question, I asked which of the four movie posters best portrays the idea of a zombie based thriller/action adventure. I used the Resident Evil film posters as an example because if you haven't seen the films or know what they're about, you'd have to judge their content purely based on what the posters look like, and now I can know which style of shot, use of colours, costumes and settings best give the impression of a post apocalyptic action adventure/thriller film.
Over 50% of respondents chose Resident Evil Apocalypse.
This gives the idea that the use of the colour blue works best for an eerie setting and zombie film. This could mean the use of shots that are lit up by moon light, as moon light gives quite a blue effect
This shot from 'American Horror Story: Coven' is an example of the use of less intensive blue lighting for a night time scene.
I can also learn from it that torn up and dirty costumes, that look like they've been over worn, give the impression of having to survive in a rough environment.
The costumes shown in these shots show that the characters are quite rough looking, they're wearing quite torn up and dirty clothing, and the characters themselves have quite a messy look, as their hair isn't neat and they aren't clean shaven.
Finally, I can learn from the title of the film that using words, such as 'Apocalypse' can help portray the idea of a zombie film, as the word itself is most often closely linked with zombies bring upon the end of the world within television and cinema. This can help me when I come to pick the title for my film as it can help me come up with a creative and effective movie title that'll drawn in the audience more.
