Research into Target Audience- Miss Miller

This research was carried out to find out more opinions of peoples view upon thrillers. To complete this questionnaire, we asked 40 people from different age groups all these questions about thrillers. These results would help me with my opening sequence as it gives me more of an insight towards what the publics most preferrable thing about thrillers is, for example what their favourite use of iconography is.

Questionnaire

1.How old are you?

2.what gender are you?

3.Do you enjoy thrillers?

4.What is your favourite element of a thriller?

For instance death, suspense, tension, shock, surprise, chase scenes, weapons and why?

5. What type of thriller do you like?

Action, murder, stalking, psychological and why?

6. What type of setting do you like/ prefer?

7.Do you prefer thrillers which are relatable to your age group?

8. Do you think background music makes a thriller film more effective?

9. What type of weapons do you prefer?

E.g knife, gun, strength of the antagonist, or other.

10. Do you like the effects of having a hidden identity within a thriller film?

This questionnaire was used to show which gender prefers thriller films more, to get more of an insight towards the popularity of this genre of film between genders. As you can see; I used a pie chart to clearly show which gender preferred it, in this case it was the male population.

This question was used to show what age a certain person that was interviewed was. This then showed us what age group prefers these types of movies by looking at the pie chart and seeing what had a higher percentage. The most popular age group was 16+ and the least popular was 1-10 years. I think these were the results due to the fact that teenagers enjoy the thrill of being scared and finding thrillers interesting due to a particular narrative and younger children's do not understand as much and find the narrative disturbing and uncomfortable. I think teenagers tend to like the idea of thrillers more as it could be relatable, as the storyline is mainly about teenagers in trouble and by using this age group in the film, makes the target audience (teenagers) almost feel as if they are in the situation with the characters in the film because of all the enigma created, making it effective.

This was a simple question aimed at the audience to see if the interviewee actually liked thriller films or not. More than half said yes, this then makes the genre of a thriller effective and successful as people enjoy their time watching thrillers. By using a pie chart shows clearly what is the most popular answer. I think this question was simple and effective as it linked with the genre of thrillers and evidentially shows if the audience that were asked enjoyed thrillers or not. From the question before, more than half were aged 16+ which would make them a suitable audience to watch thrillers, so it is effective in which using this closed question to get a general idea.

This question was an open question, which means there should usually be more than one answer as it's more of the audience own perspective without being 'pigeon holed.' This question was used to get more of an insight towards what they enjoyed most when watching a thriller film and why. As you can clearly see, the element of suspense was the most favoured. 

This was also an open question so that we could get more of an idea towards all types of thrillers without the interviewee feeling pigeon holed. Most preferred the action part of these genres of films. I think this question is effective as it gives an idea for us for when we make our own opening sequence to consider what the audience enjoy to watch.

I think this question was effective as it shows how much a certain age group can relate towards a thriller film.bin my opinion, I think if you can relate to a film, you can then build a relationship with the characters of the film and then is much easier for the audience to sympathise and empathise for the characters when they are in danger, this makes the audience fear more for them and then want to see what happens next to make sure the characters end up safe and ok, resulting to carrying on watching he film making it a productive piece. As you can clearly see from the pie chart, more than half of the people that were asked, answered to the closed question with 'yes.'

I think this closed question was effective as there were only three answers to choose from, which gave a more quantitative view for us to see what was the most popular answer, more than half said yes which shows most of the audience enjoy thriller films a lot more when there is shock, surprise and tension involved. I think these three things are very important in thrillers and it makes the audience on edge and makes them more eager to watch on without typically knowing what's going to happen and get bored, which would make it an ineffective and uncreative piece.

This question was used to get more of an insight towards the preferable weapon the audience would like to see the typical antagonist with (iconography.) This was a closed question. As you can see the knife was most popular, I think this was because it is simple, yet still fearful for both characters and audience. I think knife is more relatable than a gun as in every home there is some type of knife, which makes the audience on edge as they could be out in danger at any time. The antagonists strength was the least popular.

I like this question as I think background music provides a lot of tension and informs the audience that something is going to happen. This suspense is created with eerie music. Most people that were asked said no towards that it doesn't provide any effectivity within a thriller film, however I disagree, if you were to watch a full movie with absolutely nothing of non-diegetic sound, then the movie would seem pointless and not up to the potential horror or shock that it could have.

This question was used to get more an insight towards audience perspective towards the scenery that the characters are surrounded in. The pie chart shows that the two most popular types of setting were dark and isolated areas, I think these were chosen as it provides the audience of something dangerous is going to happen to them. If they were in a place filled with a lot of people with everything nicely furnished, would make the character feel more comfortable and safe whereas the whole point of particular narratives is to make them feel on edge, and as the audience create a relationship with the characters, also makes them feel on edge too. 

This research was all equally useful, both vox pops and questionnaires as it allowed me to see evidentally from both video and paper proof to see what people liked and preffered. This will help me with my opening sequence as it allows me to use the most effective method when creating my own scene. As I will use the most popular methods or equipment, this will make my opening sequence effective and creative, allowing the audience to see what they would like to see, allowing them to engage with the characters and the scenary.