TARGET AUDIENCE RESEARCH RESULTS

How old are you?

As can be seen below the majority were aged 17-18, with 54.55% of people taking the questionnaire in this age bracket. Closely behind was ages 15-16 at 40.26% . This is good because this means we have answers from our intended target audience but 3.6% of the people were aged over 19 and as our target audience is 15-25 the answers are not completely representative.

What is your gender?

The majority of people who took the questionnaire were female, 57.14%. Our primary target audience is men so this is not an accurate representation from our target audience although 36.36% were male it is not ideal that there was a female majority . 6.5% of them did not identify their gender which also means that we will get a range of opinions.

On average how often do you watch Thriller films in a month?22.08% said they never watch Thriller films but 77.92% said at least once a month. This shows that the majority who answered do watch Thriller films fairly regularly. This is good because it means the answers will be from people who have an active interest in the Thriller genre.

Is there anything you particularly like to see in Thriller films?Below are examples of some of the responses which give us a clear understanding of what the audience wants to see in a Thriller. As can be seen these do directly relate to what a Thriller should be, which has ‘mystery and action’ and ‘suspense and anticipation’. They also want it to be psychological and unique, which from feedback from our focus group shows us that they believe it is.

Is there anything you dislike to see in thriller films?

The answers from the questionnaire tell us that the audience does not want a ‘cliché story and ending’ and that it should not be filled with ‘jump scares and pointless plots’. They also do not want to see stereotypes used.

Do you prefer films with a simple or complex storyline?

The data on the right shows that 78.95% of the people you responded prefer a complex narrative. This tells us that we need to make sure our production is complex. We hope to fulfil this as we are creating a psychological Thriller. Furthermore I can deduce that the audience wants something to think about, to keep them on their toes as such, so we need to make sure there is a deeper meaning to the narrative

How long, on average, after a film starts does it take you to decide whether you want to continue watching?18.18% of people responded saying it takes 1-5 minutes to decide whether they are going to commit to watching the film and a further 31.47% said it takes them 6-10 minutes to decide whether they will continue watching. This is time of an average opening sequence so we need to make sure our opening sequence is captivating and make sure we establish the narrative enough so that the audience understand it but it does not give too much away. 24.68% of the respondants said 16-20 minutes and 14.29% said 21+ minutes. This is a fairly large amount of people we would have to convince to watching it in under that time as we are only producing an opening sequence.

What makes a character in a film stand out to you? What makes them interesting?

For out characters the audience appear to want a character with a backstory, this is most probably because it makes them more believable and dependent on the narrative it can put it into context. They also want someone to relate to, this could be through gender, age or if they have similar interests/ experiences.

If you have one, what is your favourite Thriller film and why?

Looking at the answers, especially ones that outline why, it supports what people said about what they like to see and do not like to see. For example the complex narratives, characters with interesting backgrounds. By looking at this it shows that we need to create a production that includes characters with interesting backgrounds and a complex narrative that keeps the audience thinking

What type of themes do you like to see in a Thriller film, if any? Please place the themes in order 1 – 6 (1 being most desirable and 6 being the least desirable) Our final question was more

complex and asked them to rate themes in their preferred order. 21.74% put murder/ death as their favourite theme and second was mystery with 20.55%. 18.84% said they like psychological thrillers. This has told us that we should make a Thriller that includes all of these aspects.