Research

I conducted some research before I started my film so that I could identify what age group, and type of people my thriller film would and should be targeted to. This will then allow me to make a film that is tailored to these peoples wants, rather than a thriller film that would appeal to a different demographic audience. Knowing my target audience will also help me marketing my film, as I will be able to decide on the forms of advertising for my film, depending on what my target audience look at/watch the most.

First I conducted a survey and asked people various question about whether or not they watch thriller films, and if so how often they watched them. This is the survey that I handed out. After asking various people the data that I received was that younger people tend to watch more thriller film than older people. To be precise people aged 17-26 watch the most thriller films. However, there wasn’t an overall trend regarding the gender of thriller film watchers, and from my research and conducting some secondary research I found out that there wasn’t a trend about what gender watches more thriller films and it is down to pure preference of favourite genres. This therefore told me that my age group that I should target my film at would be both males and females aged between 17 and 26. Also from the research that I conducted I found out that it is the 17-26 year olds that go to the cinema most frequently which means that the cinema could be an ideal place to promote my film if I was actually going to launch it. It would also be a good idea to promote it using social media or YouTube as this age group are one of the highest users of technology and social media, meaning that an advert could be shown to a wider span of people.

The 2nd piece of research that I carried out was a focus group. This consisted of getting a number of people (from my target audience) and ask them questions regarding thriller films. The first question that I asked was regarding the age certificate of thriller films and which age category they prefer. The feedback that I received was mainly of the age of 15 and possibly the 18 rating as they felt a thriller film should keep you in suspense and should also show the audience some quite graphic scenes as well. This gives me some indication of what type of film the audience would like to see, and helps me decide on what BBFC age certificate my film should attempt to be. Another question that I asked my focus group was regarding the main characters. Generally, the main characters in thriller films, and the majority of films in general include both male protagonist and antagonist, and I asked whether or not that would be something that they expect to see in thriller films. The response that I received was that I should use both protagonist and antagonist as males as it helps the audience identify them, despite them wanting more female characters in films. The use of male character helps the audience decide who they are supporting, whereas if there is a female antagonist for example, the audience are more likely to find the story more confusing as they are so familiar with the dominance of the male characters. I also asked my target audience whether or not they like films that have a plot twist at the end of the film, and completely twists the way to watch the film. The response that I received was that they do enjoy films that have a plot twist, as it makes them think about the film after they have left the cinema, rather than just leaving and thinking nothing more about the film. This type of film then engages the audience and becomes more memorable due to the ending. In my film I am going to try and do something similar to this. As my opening is set at the end of the film, I am going to have a plot twist that makes the audience look at the opening in a different way.