For our audience research we are conducting a Questionnaire in order to get an understanding of assumptions and expectations of the Thriller genre, this is so as a group we are able to take these ideas and opinions into consideration when editing our storyboard so we can appeal to our target audience.
From our results we should hopefully be able to improve our storyboard and synopsis in order to create the best opening sequence to a Thriller possible, enabling us to attract a mass audience.
Our film is classified as an 18 on the British Board of Film Classification; this is because our film involves domestic matters, sexual references, strong language, a drug culture and strong gang crime and violent scenes. As our film will be an 18 it is vital to take this into consideration when conducting our audience research and therefore we will be aiming our questionnaire for those who are 18 and above.
Audience Research Questionnaire
(Please circle the appropriate answer)
1) What is your Gender?
Male/Female
2) Which age gap do you fit into?
15/25 25/35 35/45 45+
3) Do you like the Thriller Genre (Thriller films and novels), please state the reason for your answer.
Yes/No
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4) What is your favourite sub-genre of a Thriller? (If you answered no to the question above then please skip this question).
Psychological / Legal Biohazard (Disease) / Supernatural / Terrorist / Other (please state) __________________________
5) What do you expect to see in a Thriller film? (Please give an example from a film which you have seen).
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6) What would you expect to see in a Thriller involving gang crime, and why?
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7) Would a Thriller based on domestic issues appeal to you? Please state your reasons
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8) In the opening sequence of a Thriller what would appeal most to you? For example; immediate action, or an introduction to the story and character’s life. Why would this opening appeal to you?
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9) Please read this brief synopsis and comment on its title and indicate whether you would be interested in watching this movie if it was to come out in cinema, what could be improved in the synopsis and whether you think it appeals to you and why.
'To Kingsway
Seventeen year old Heidi Williams (Emily Connor) leaves her foster parents and home town of Ipstone in order to search for her birth mother who abandoned her at the age of 3. Lost and confused, Heidi arrives in Kingsway; a suburban city filled with gang crime and poverty, with no friends, income or support, only half of a photo of her mother and herself. Heidi is forced to prostitute in order to pay rent for her 10th floor flat, befriending opposite resident Justin (Scott Wilson) along the way. Heidi is constantly struggling in order to keep her dreams of finding her mother alive, but when one of her highest paying clients Spike (Matthew Emson) offers her £30,000 to join and work for his notorious gang X2, Heidi sees this as an offer she cannot refuse. Becoming a key member of the gang, Heidi grows closer to the gang members in particular oblivious Spike’s wife Tracie who acts as a mother figure to Heidi. However despite Heidi’s new social status, she is now faced with rape, theft and drugs and realises she is trapped in the vicious circle of infamous X2. Witnessing murders, mentally and physically scarred Heidi confides in friend Justin who states that she is no closer to finding her mother and therefore helps Heidi plan her escape from dictating leader Spike and the lifestyle she so desperately wants to escape. Putting her plan into action, Heidi’s brutal plans see her kill and trap key X2 members in order to assure her own well being. After her barbaric actions, Spike is informed of the killings committed by Heidi and kidnaps her unaware that companion Justin is just around the corner. Heidi kills Spike and wife Tracie in a brutal and emotional showdown which leaves distraught Heidi in a suicidal state after finding the other half of the photo in Tracie’s room, realising that the woman that she had just murdered was actually her birth mother.'
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10) Is there anything you would like to add to your expectations of a Thriller genre or what you believe works/doesn’t work in a Thriller film and why?
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We’d like to thank you for your time in taking part in this survey
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Results from our Questionnaire
After handing out 30 questionnaires to 30 volunteers, we were able to collect our results and draw conclusions from these. Our results are as followed.
The first question on the questionnaire was ‘What is your Gender?’ this question was asked in order to be able to draw gender preferences with the Thriller genre. From the results14/30 were male and 16/30 were female, this is nearly half and half which gives us enough results to work off and draw a conclusion with.
When put into a bar chart, our results from the first question looked like this:
As our film will be certified as an 18, our target audience for our questionnaire is for those who are 18+, however we split ages into categories, in order to group each questionnaire volunteer, we split into the following age groups: 15/25 25/35 35/45 45+. As our target audience is aimed for young to middle aged, we labelled a group as ‘45+’ as this age category isn’t considered as important as the other groups. Our results identified that 11 out of the 30 were between the age of 15/25, although this is our intended audience, we are unable to identify who is between 15 and 18 and this therefore should have been considered before creating our age categories for our questionnaire.
We then asked if the participant liked the Thriller genre, this is because it is direct and straight to the point. It also gave us an indication of who was aware of the genre and why they did (didn’t) like the genre. 21 out of 30 said that they liked the genre, 6 out of the 9 who circled ‘no’ reasons for not liking the genre were because they didn’t know what it was. This immediately narrowed our questionnaire results as the nine who didn’t like the genre or know what it was are only able to give us limited information as they don’t have particular interest in the genre.
Our fourth question focused on the sub-genres of Thrillers, this was to narrow those who ‘liked’ the genre into different categories so we could establish the most popular type of Thriller. Although 9 out of the 30 claimed not to have liked Thriller’s, they all continued with the questionnaire. From our results we were able to identify that the most popular sub-genre of a Thriller was psychological as 17 out of 30 identified this as their favourite, 8 out of the 30 preferred supernatural Thriller’s and 5 preferred terrorist Thriller films. By offering the category ‘other’ it enabled the audience to list a film which they consider not to fall into this category, as well as giving reasons for why. However, none of our participants circled ‘other’. We collected our results in a tally chart. As our film includes domestic and slightly psychological issues, our results may work to our advantage.
By including our synopsis on the questionnaire it enabled us to get feedback from potential viewers and those who are interested in the genre. From the response, a clear 13 stated that they believed the synopsis to be good and that they would consider going to see it in the cinema, 8 of the 13 were women. Out of the remaining 17, 11 did not respond or leave comments and 6 although saying it was a good synopsis, suggested rooms for improvement through the following:
- less domestic/more domestic narrative
- more detail in the rapes and crimes
- giving the viewer a role to play or dramatic irony within the film
- Spike being the protagonist’s real father!
Each criticism/room for improvement will be considered in any redrafting. However, as our opening sequence is fairly simple, restructuring the storyboard isn’t necessary.
Our research has been essential in order to maintain that our film is targeted at the correct audience, yet also appeals to a mass. From our results we are able to conclude that despite including elements of the most popular sub-genres (from our participants) there are still areas for improvement and consideration within our opening sequence.
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