Section 4 - Audience Research

In order to fully understand what kind of thrillers people like, my media group developed a questionnaire directed towards anyone. The limit was 30 people of any age group. We collected these because we were then going to use these study answeres to create our own thriller intro and having results about what kind of thriller people like was going to help us decide what kind of thriller we should make.

Thriller Questionnaire

Please circle answers to multiple choice questions.

1.     Are you male or female?

         male                                       female

2.     How old are you?

                                 ______________

3.     What is your favourite colour?

                                 ______________

4.     What is your favourite genre of film?

                                 ______________

5.     Are you a fan of the thriller genre?

           yes                                         no

6.      What kind of thriller do you prefer?

      psychological            action                 crime              supernatural

7.      What is your favourite thriller from this list?

      Seven        Jaws        The Silence           Saw            Other ____________

                                       of the Lambs

8.     Why did you choose this film?

__________________________________________________________

9.     What scares you?

__________________________________________________________

10.                         What do you expect to see in the opening of a thriller film?

       concealment          action             tension                other ____________

11.                         Do you like to be able to relate to characters in films?

             yes                                       no

12.                         Would you prefer to see younger or older characters in a thriller film?

        younger                           older                                   both

13.                         Do you prefer to see male or female characters in a thriller film?

        male                                female                                 both

14.                         What kind of music do you expect from a thriller film?

       fast-paced            mysterious            scary                other ___________

15.                         Do you prefer realistic or supernatural thrillers?

            realistic                               supernatural

16.                         Would you prefer to see simple or complex text in the credits sequence in a thriller film?

                 simple                           complex                        other __________

17.                         Do you find that the lighting used affects the mood of the film? Eg. dark/dim  lighting

                       yes                                           no

18.                         Do you like to be introduced to the main character in the opening sequence of a thriller?

                       yes                                           no

19.                         Which sound do you find builds the most tension in a thriller?

      a ticking clock       heavy breathing       footsteps     other ___________

20.                         What kind of location do you prefer for a thriller film?

                 claustrophobic                  open                         other ___________

After collecting all the results from the 30 people, we then turned all the results into tally charts and then into graphs in order to better understand the results. Each question gave us better information into specific aspects on peoples liking of thrillers.

Question 6 - What kind of thriller do you prefer?

Out of the 30 people we asked, 16 replied that they prefer psychological thrillers above the others. This shows us that our target audience would prefer to watch a psychological thriller, and therefore we should create a thriller from this sub-genre. As we had already chosen to create a psychological thriller, we know we are following what our target audience wants.

Question  7 - What is your favorite thriller from this list?

 

Out of the 30 people we asked, 8 chose The Silence of the Lambs as their favourite thriller. As The Silence of the Lambs is a psychological thriller, this shows us that we are definitely right in choosing to create a psychological thriller for our coursework. However, as 22 people chose other thriller films as their favourite, we need to ensure that we do not isolate these people when we create our thriller. This has shown us that we need to include elements in our thriller which may not necessarily be traditional to the psychological sub-genre.

Question 8 - Why did you chose this film?

Out of the 30 people we asked, 9 answered that the plot line was the reason they chose their answer to Question 8. This means that the plot line we choose for our thriller film is very important, as it has to attract our target audience. 10 people chose 'other' to answer this question; however as the answers they gave were very specific to the film they had choosen in Question 8, we decided that the more generalised answer 'plot' gave us more information about what our target audience looks for in a thriller film.

Question 9 -  What scares you?

Out of the 30 people we asked, 8 replied that what scares them most about thriller films is the killer. This means that in creating our thriller, we need to ensure that we create the character of the killer so it lives up to the expectations of our target audience. Again, 13 people chose 'other' to answer this question, but as their answers were also specific to a particular thriller, we decided that the more generalized answer 'the killer' told us more about what our target audience expect from a thriller film.

Question 10 - What do you expect to see in the opening of a thriller?

Out of the 30 people we asked, 12 answered that they expect to see tension in the opening of a thriller film. This shows us that when creating our thriller, we need to ensure that we create tension in the opening sequence, as this is what our target audience expect. We are going to create tension in a range of camera angles and the music we played over the sequence.

Question 11 – Do you like to be able to relate to characters in a thriller film?

 

Out of the 30 people we asked, 28 answered ‘yes’ that they do like to be able to relate to characters in a thriller film. This showed us that when we create our characters, we need to create a character who the audience can relate to. We decided that the protagonist in our thriller will be a regular person who becomes a victim, as this will help the audience to be able to imagine themselves in the same position.

Question 12 -  Would you prefer to see younger or older characters in a thriller?

Out of the 30 people we asked, 18 people answered that they prefer to see ‘both’ younger and older characters in a thriller film. This showed us that we should use characters with a range of ages in our thriller film. We decided that we would use three characters in the opening of our thriller; one younger character and two older characters.

Question 13 -  Do you prefer to see male or female characters in a thriller film?

Out of the 30 people we asked, 16 people answered that they would prefer to see ‘both’ male and female characters in a thriller film. This showed us that when we make our thriller, we should use characters from both genders. We decided that out of the three characters we will use, the younger character will be female and the two older characters will be male.

Question 14 -  What kind of music do you expect from a thriller film?

Out of the 30 people we asked, 14 people answered that they would most expect to hear ‘fast-paced’ music in a thriller film. This showed us the kind of music we should be using when we make our own thriller. We decided that we will definitely use fast-paced music in our thriller, as this also fits with our plot as we were planning to have our protagonist running to a location, so fast-paced music will work well.

Question 15 -  Do you prefer realistic or supernatural thrillers?

Out of the 30 people we asked, 21 people answered that they preferred ‘realistic’ thrillers. This showed us that our target audience would prefer to watch a realistic thriller than a supernatural thriller. We decided originally that we would make a realistic thriller, so we know that we are definitely right in making this decision.