Initial Audience Survey

BlueSkyStudios

Question One: How old are you?

From looking at the data collected by our survey, we see that 65% (2 significant figures) of participants were aged between 16 and 19 years old. This helps us to narrow down our target audience in the age category. It also helps us to establish the age rating of our original thriller film that we will create an opening sequence for. Due to the fact that the majority of our participants were 16-19 this means our film will likely be a 12A meaning we can have a variety of options when we create the film and appeal to a wider range of people and most of our participants while still attracting teenagers(the majority of participants). It cannot be an 18 as some of our target audience will be below that age which would therefore make it inappropriate.

Question Two: What gender are you?

This set of data, taken from our survey, shows that the vast majority (82% - 2 significant figures) of participants identified as female. The difference between the number of female to male participants is so substantial (22 votes and 64.7%) that it is clear that we need to make the gender of our target audience female, using codes and conventions, but is important to not make the film too gendered to increase the size of our audience and the appeal of the film.

Question Three: Rank this in order of what setting you would most like to view

From analysing these charts, we can see that the two settings that were ranked highest were the woods and an urban setting, both receiving an overall rank of 2nd place (1 significant figure). This means that for our production we should set our action in a setting which incorporates both locations if possible. Urban areas are often associated with psychological thrillers and woods with horror thrillers. Depending on which genre we decide on, based on survey responses, we are likely to choose the most appropriate of the two.

Question Four: Rank these in order of sub-genre you are most likely to watch?

From this data, we can see that the sub-genre of thriller our target audience preferred was psychological with a overall rating of 2(.5)nd place with 44.1% of participants ranking it at 1st place – i.e. the sub-genre they are most likely to watch. From this, it is clear that we should create a psychological thriller as that is the one the majority of our audience would be most likely to watch.

Question Five: What character would you most like to view?

This data from our survey shows us that collectively, 61% of our target audience participants said that they would most like to view a character who was a psychopath (35%) and a teenager (26%). In order to create the perfect character who would appeal to the largest number of people, widening our audience, it would be best to combine the two. Having a psychopath teenager as our main character, it will be easier to create a story as the age of our character gives us an idea of the surroundings we should use: e.g. a school or a park.

Question six: Which are you most likely to watch?

Unfortunately, the results from this question are not helpful to us. This is because there is not clear, consistent theme/sub-genre amongst the films ranked the highest (i.e. James Bond (spy) 21%, Jurassic Park (action) 18% and Sixth Sense and Sherlock Holmes (Horror) 15%. Therefore, it is likely that instead we will use the data collected from question 4 where psychological thriller came out on top with 44.1% of participants ranking it at 1st place. 44.1% of participants ranking it at 1st place – showing that is the best genre for us to use in our opening sequence.

Question 7: How many thriller films do you watch a year?

From this data we can see, that thriller films are not a particularly popular genre with our target audience participants with 26% of participants having watched 0-2 and a further 26% having watched 3-5. When we make our thriller film opening we need to try to make it appealing in order to encapsulate the audience and draw them in. This way, they will be more likely to want to watch the rest of the thriller film (if we were to make it) and more thriller films in general.

Question 8: What appeals to you most in opening sequences?

From this data we can see that the one thing which appeals to our target audience participants most in opening sequences is the character with an overall rank of 2(.18)nd place. In our storyboard and script for our final opening sequence we will focus on establishing character. However, it cannot be ignored that both music (2.21nd place) and story (2.65nd place) were both also quite highly ranked. Due to this, we will also make sure our music is fitting and the story is clear, however establishing character will most likely be our main priority.

Question 9: Do you think it is more important for an opening to establish the character or the story?

This data shows us that the majority (68%) of our target audience participants said that it is most important to establish the character in the opening sequence of a film. This links to the data from our previous question where the majority of participants said that character appeals to them most in an opening sequence with an overall rank of 2(.18)nd place. This shows how important our target audience view the character in a film so therefore we should focus on the character as our main priority.

Question 10:What music fits thriller movies the best?

The data from this survey question shows us that 50% of our target audience participants said that the music that the music that they think fits the thriller genre best is tense. This is because it helps build up suspense and enigma in the plot as the audience anticipate what is happening next. This is also a convention of the psychological thriller (And thriller in general) genre so it is likely that we will use tense music during our opening sequence.

Question 11: Rank the colours in what you expect to see

From analysing these charts, we can see that the most popular colour our target audience participants would most like to see is black, which had an overall rating of 1st place (1sf) with 79.4% of participants rating it in the top position. It is clear that black would be the best colour to use as not only does it appeal to the vast majority of our target audience participants but it also is a convention of a psychological thriller, which was our highest ranking sub-genre.

Question 12: What gender would you rather see play the main role?

From this set of data, we can see that 62% of our participants said that they would rather see a Male as the main role in our thriller opening sequence. This would indicate that it would be best for us to make the main character of our film male. However, in question 2 we saw that 64.7% of our audience participants were female. As aforementioned, we do not want to make our opening too gendered, reducing our potential audience, so we will include actors of both genders (male and female), however we are yet to decide whether our protagonist will be male or our victim. By including both genders, our film is more gender neutral and will appeal to a wide audience.