Audience Analysis

To help with the opening of our thriller I obtained some information, with the three other people who are also working with me to produce this thriller, from the general public to help me find out what people generally look for in thrillers. We made sure the results where fair and asked 20 females with 10 being over 20 and the other 10 being under 20, we did the same for the males and these are the results.

1) What is your favourite thriller?

It was hard to get an answer for this one as most people didn't really know the full meaning of the term thriller. However films such as Reservoir dogs, Kill Bill and Snakes on a plane scored highly for the males showing they prefer the more gritty action thrillers however the females also went for Kill Bill, Bourne identity and Seven, this shows the variety of audience a thriller has and therefore when making our thriller we must find a target audience we want our thriller to appeal to. This will make research easier and hopefully make the film more sucessful as we will have been able to include all key aspects for that particular target audience,

2) What do you enjoy most about thriller films?

These results show that overall women prefer more violent thrillers with added suspense and males mainly prefer action therefore when making our thriller we would need to combine these to make it appeal to a wider audience. These results where interesting as its more stereotypical to find men prefering violence therefore must remember not to be so critical on what we think an audience would like and use this information to help develop our ideas.

3) Do you prefer a male lead role or Female?

These results show that overall females dont mind who plays a lead role but also showing they would much rather see a male lead same shown with the male results therefore giving different thoughts on our femme fatale lead character being used in our thriller film and whether or not this is likely to appeal to our target audience. However with quite a high ratio saying they don't mind it is likely we will take the risk which most producers have to do when making a film.

4) Do you look for Ambiguity in a thriller film or a more give-away plot line?


These show that both females and males overall prefer ambiguity in a thriller film which links into females preferring suspense for question 2. It doesn't seem un common for ambiguity to be popular in thriller films as that is what thriller films are about, the idea of not knowing what will happen. Therefore if we where to continue our thriller further we would make sure our storyline was easy to understand but also not so predictable.

5) Do you prefer Modern day thrillers or the more classic thrillers?

Overall there is a higher percentage wanting modern day thrillers but with most who dont mind. It was mainly males wanting the more modern day thrillers as they prefer action which was found out in question 2 and it is the special effects and action which is seen in modern day thrillers. We won't be able to have the resources to put in the special effects seen in blockbuster films but will be able to add violence and action but also making it appear classic to try and appeal to our targer audience.

6) Do you like thrillers to be in colour or black and white?

There was a much higher result of people wanting thrillers in colour showing there is a much higher demand for the more modern thriller preferably with the more younger male. This is due to the better quality of film. People like to see colour in a film as it makes the film more appealing and easier to take in therefore we will film our thriller in colour.

7) Where do you prefer to watch thriller films?

There's a much higher demand for watching thrillers at the cinema than at home mainly due to the special effects and surround sound which generally makes it better experience, but there where a few people we asked saying they only liked going to cinema city as they don't like how commercial and expensive modern cinemas today are. It is likely our film would go to the independent cinemas such as cinema city due to its low budget however it would do better for the film and target audience we are appealing to with this film to try and make it in the blockbuster cinemas as the higher budget films are more successful.

8) What is your preferred length of a thriller film?

These results help give a standard idea of a preffered length showing the most popular is between 90-120 which would be useful if we where to make a full length thriller to give an idea of how long the general public prefer a film to be.