How can I make my thriller more appealing to my audience? - Primary Research

For my Primary Research I used the website surveymonkey.com to compile a short survey to see what people liked to see in films and what would make them watch it, only focusing on the thriller element in particular at the culmination of the survey. In order to get responses I advertised the survey on social networking site Twitter and directly sent a few relatives and friends the link to complete it. The site limited the survey to 10 questions, preventing any real-depth analysis, but from the questions I asked I can determine which aspects of thrillers people prefer and how to perhaps incorporate these into my thriller to make it more appealing. In total I had just over 30 respondents, which would pass for a small sample, but in order to get more in depth results and more reliable findings I would've needed perhaps a few more responses, but it is enough to draw some conclusions from the data.

My survey commenced with two simple questions to determine age and gender.


From these graphs I can see that the majority of my respondents were in the 15 to 24 age bracket, with a few older respondents too. These anomalies would be the family members I sent the survey to. Obtaining the majority I did was largely due to the placement of my survey on my twitter page, as most users that would see these posts would be in that age bracket. This is beneficial as the target audience of the film would likely be a younger audience but I have also obtained results for older demographics and therefore I could broaden my audience to make my thriller appeal to as many people as possible, but not broadening to the extent that I lose the attention of my target audience.

The next question determined my respondents favourite film genres. By including this question, I could see where the Thriller genre ranked as a standalone genre and could then see which genres I could incorporate into my thriller as perhaps sub-genres to increase it's appeal.

On the left is a chart to show my results. The Thriller genre ranked 4th out of 16, proving that despite the secondary research showing thrillers to be unpopular, the genre is still in favour with younger audiences. Ranking above of the Thriller genre were the Action, Adventure and Comedy genres, and just below Thriller, the Science Fiction genre. These results were more expected as these were the genres that proved to be more widely popular from the BFI's Statistical Yearbook. From my Secondary Research I found that thrillers that were predominantly another genre but also had elements of a thriller, such as Skyfall, The Dark Knight Rises and Prometheus, were more popular than a standalone thriller. From my primary research I can then determine that increase the popularity of my piece, it should incorporate another genre. I feel that if the Comedy genre were to be incorporated into a thriller then the effect would be very lacklustre, clichéd and overall not very effective, and so by having elements of action and perhaps supernatural science-fiction in my thriller it would be more popular overall.

My next two questions addressed the issue of how frequently my audience watched films and how, i.e. on what platform, they would watch them.

The first question would help me gain an understanding of how passionate my audience were about films, i.e. how likely they would be to actually watch my thriller, and so by asking this I can discover how I can tailor my piece to appeal to them more. It was quite an even split between very often, frequently and occasionally and therefore didn't really help me deduce anything about my audience, something I can comment on in my evaluation. I hoped this question would enable me to distinguish my audience further but it seems that everybody likes films to some extent. This question would be better being replaced with perhaps a more in-depth thriller-related question.
The next question was much more beneficial to me as I could compare it to my Secondary Research again. From the Statistical Yearbook I discovered that the demand for Online Services is growing, proved here by it ranking 3rd behind the expected most popular, viewing at the cinema or on DVD. As I can't place my film in a cinema, my piece will be available online on YouTube, which would be popular amongst this audience. I also found that 1/3 of my respondents download films, another potential way of distributing my film would be to make it available to download. Although these aren't the most popular, I do not have the vast budget needed to distribute through a cinema or on DVD. From my Secondary Research I determined that from age bracket and distribution statistics it would be best to distribute my film onto the internet anyway as this would mean it would be available to a much wider audience, most of whom would classify as my target audience between 15-24, for relatively no cost.

I then proceeded to ask which certification of film my audience most frequently viewed. This would help me infer how much violence or perhaps more adult content I should use and how complex the plot should be - both factors increasing with the classification.

Clearly the trend is my audience prefers films classified as "15" with a few going as far as "18" rated films and only one respondent chose U, PG, or 12A respectively. From this and my knowledge from my Secondary Research I can tell that my audience would prefer films with some violence, elements of suspense and tension, action and probably profanity. These are all aspects that would be included in my film to make it more appealing, but as I am only making an opening sequence it need to focus more on hinting at these aspects to draw the attention of the audience, i.e. building some suspense, minor action and creating confusion in the plot- "15" rated films often have complex, in-depth plots and these prove more popular, hence this is something we must acknowledge and attempt to incorporate. We need to limit the violence to not lose the majority of the target audience and stray into a slash and gore horror film of an "18" classification, and we can't not include these aspects as this would create a film viewed as perhaps dull and boring by our target audience who seemingly dislike films below the rating of "15".  This is not saying that they do not watch these films, they simply prefer "15" rated films and this is something I will make sure to draw from to make my thriller more appealing.

The next question I asked would help me to determine what I would include in my opening sequence to my thriller based upon what would make audiences watch films. First impressions of a film are very important and I wouldn't want to make my audience lose interest and would want to keep them intrigued and engaged from the offset.

The graph on the left details my results. All of my respondents thought at least one of the factors was important so this helps to show which element of the film itself is most popular with the audience. The top four answers were clearly Actors/Cast, Plot/Storyline, Trailer and Genre. Our task was not to make a Trailer and therefore I can discard this as being an important factor but I must consider that people would view the trailer, and go into the beginning of the film with high expectations for the opening sequence to meet. To make sure I make these aspects appeal to my audience I must ensure I make the appropriate decisions for each of these aspects. For instance, I must ensure I cast the right person to play the lead role, who will be able to sustain that role effectively and look suitable as well, something I will address in my details on Casting. Furthermore, as I had already inferred, plot was something my audience tended to prefer, so a good storyline is essential, perhaps with lots of background mysteries to be unveiled, plot twists and character enigmas all adding to the complexity of the plot. Lastly I must make clear parallels with and sustain the conventions of my genre, the Thriller genre, to maximise it's effect. By including certain conventions such as mise-en-scene, narratives and character details, my audience will enjoy the film more as it is something they would expect of the genre. However I think it is essential to avoid clichés and not conform to dull, almost standard storylines and instead create a unique twist on something to engage my audience.

I then proceeded to ask two questions where my respondents would not tick a box but would give text answers. These questions were "What is your favourite thriller film?" and "Who is your favourite actor of all time?". Although these questions might seem vague I can actually draw a lot from them. From the first question, "What is your favourite thriller film?", I can see what types of thrillers were popular amongst my audience. The most popular thrillers, i.e. answers that were recurring, were "Pulp Fiction", "The Dark Knight", "Seven" and "Shutter Island", with the others only being mentioned once. Both "Seven" and "Shutter Island" have elements of psychological thrillers and have similarities between them, in that they both involve some elements of a crime, or a fight between good and evil (also in "The Dark Knight"). This was good to see given that our group wished to do a psychological thriller involving the disavowal of a detective after he is driven insane by a case he could never solve. This brief plot detail draws inspiration from these films and the Primary Research has shown that they were popular, giving me an idea of what plot ideas will work and which ones will not. The second question further helps the decision of casting, as we can see what type of person we need to play the role. Obviously we can't get a Hollywood star to appear in our film but we can try to mimic their appearance or role they play in a thriller film. Popular actors were Heath Ledger, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks and Johnny Depp. Heath Ledger was well known for his role as the Joker in "The Dark Knight", and so it could be effective to create an estranged villain to star in our thriller. DiCaprio, Depp and Hanks were all praised for lead roles in thrillers, such as DiCaprio in "Shutter Island", Depp in "Public Enemies" and Hanks in "The Da Vinci Code". We can look to the characters appearances, style of acting, body language and other factors they may assume in these roles to get a better idea of the way in which our lead character will be presented to make him more popular. To conclude the survey I asked if the audience had a preference in gender for the lead role, and although 50% said they had no preference, 45% said "Yes, Male" and so this gives a clear idea that the lead role should definitely by a male. I could then incorporate thriller conventions such as the femme fatale concept or portraying women as vulnerable throughout the film to conform to conventions.

In conclusion, I can draw many aspects from my Primary Research to determine what I need to do when producing my opening sequence. It is important I incorporate as much as I can from what I have learned but recurring factors would suggest they are more vital. It is essential to have the right cast playing the roles otherwise the overall experience will be reduced for the audience. I also think it is important to limit the violence in my film. Regardless, I do not think there should be any violence in my opening sequence, I think this would be clichéd and perhaps dull and stereotypical, creating a wave of disapproving, "oh surprise-surprise" reactions from my audience. The threat of violence without violence is often scarier than just violence, and I want my thriller to engage my audience and make them think about and question what is actually going on in the opening sequence. I will do this by creating a plot full of enigmas, leaving lots of ends untied to leave the audience puzzled and wondering what significance the opening few minutes had towards the plot as a whole, as well as integrating typical thriller conventions such as mise-en-scene to create a tense and suspenseful atmosphere. When it comes to finalising the piece I must make sure other aspects such as music, editing and continuity are of a high standard to match the expectations my audience will have of the start of the film and to keep them interested in what is happening.