Audience Questionnaire Results

In our audience questionnaire, we first asked for the participants age. This was so that we would be able to get a firm grasp of which age group were more likely to watch thriller films. The scatter chart shown below made us aware that the majority of people who would take part in the questionnaire about thrillers were between the ages of 10 and 30.

 

Of these people, we found that most of them did watch thriller films, shown by the pie chart here:

 

Further to this, we asked each participant what their favourite thriller film was and why. One of the most common reasons for the film being their favourite came down to the narrative in some way, with one participant saying (about The Butterfly Effect) "it's narrative is so cleverly constructed and is extremely intriguing - it made me question not only aspects of the film, but also my own morals".

The next question asked what the participants expected to include in Thrillers which produced a wide range of results. To make this easier for us to process, we asked them which one aspect they believe to be the most important to include in a Thriller. However, each person still gave a very different answer. These included:

• Intrigue
• Contrast
• Tension
• Suspense
• Mystery
• Complex Narrative
• A Relatable Protagonist

We then asked whether each participant believed the film opening to be more important than the rest of the film. As the pie chart below shows, the majority of people believed it did. However, a few were unsure, with one even stating "Yes and No; Yes because it helps to establish the film and will be what causes the audience to stay and watch, yet No because the ending/ revelation is just as important to the film's narrative! If the ending is poor, it will counteract the ingenuity of the rest of the film."

Finally, we asked what 3 aspects would make the participants more likely to watch the rest of the film if they were to see them in the opening. Just as before, the answers were wildly unconnected. However, the most commonly stated aspects were:

• Unstereotypical Location
• Ambiguity
• Captivating Narrative
• Foreshadowing
• Raising Questions
• Minimal Character Introductions

From this we have decided to aim our film at students and young adults and to focus heavily on creating a complex and intriguing narrative. Further to this, we aim to include mystery and high contrast created through low key lighting. We aim to use unstereotypical locations and raise questions within our opening that could be answered later in the film. Finally, we aim to have as minimal character introduction as we can. By applying these aspects we will be able to attract our target audience as we know that these methods are usually successful.

By Olivia Calver