The Research Question and future SMEs and DMEs

So I am struggling a little bit with this one because I had to restart my research for this thesis project. I also may be over thinking this as well.

I decided that instead of working on solving the lack of research money towards endometriosis, I'm going to research the history and evolution of movie trailers and apply those findings to Stephen King movies and then develop a solution to promoting Stephen King movies to a younger generation.

According to one poll from 3 years ago on the Stephen King forum, a third of his readers are middle aged adults. That is just for his readers though. The question now is whether that applies to the movies and if middle aged adults are more likely to go see his movies compared to teenagers and young adults.
Does this mean that his target audience is for middle aged adults? Has this changed from when he first started writing/making movies in the 70s? In a blog post about his take on marketing (for books), Stephen King says to visualize your reader, and he claims his is his wife Tabitha. So his books are aimed for an older crowd, but again does this apply to the movies that are produced?

I am still trying to work out my research question but one that I think is a good start would be the following:

How can motion design promote and sell a classic Stephen King movie/story to a younger generation?

Revised Thesis question: What is the role of a movie trailer regarding the marketing of a film?

Now with this research question, who do I need to talk to about this subject? What questions do I need answered? I think I need to know someone who knows the technicalities in how to make a movie trailer; as well as someone, or the same person, to tell me the process in making a movie trailer and how that might apply to different audiences. Then I might need someone who is an expert in marketing movies, so that I can find out how they test their movie trailers to their target audience, and what becomes of that testing to the final piece. Finally, I will need to find someone who knows about different audience types, and what marketing techniques appeals to those audiences. I don't know if it is possible to get in contact with a Stephen King expert, but I might have to do primary research myself in order to find out who these movies appeal to.

Goals:
1. Understand the history of movie trailers and the trends from each decade
2. Understand what makes the most successful and effective movie trailer
3. Learn how to write and create a movie trailer that entices people to see it.
4. Learn different techniques in Adobe Premiere, Effects and Cinema 4D that make a more successful movie trailer
5. Understand the influence of the director in the final cut of the movie trailer

Some potential SMEs and DMEs are:

Howard Movshovitz

David Liban

Hans Rosenwinkel


Updated potential SMEs and DMEs:
Ryan Mast
Katey Marquette
Eric Jewett