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.

How can I make my thriller appealing to my audience? (Secondary Research)

Secondary Research

The British Film Industry website has a Industry Statistical Yearbook, which details many film-related statistics, showing the top grossing films from the previous year (2012 in this case) which enables me to determine which thrillers were popular and hence how they appealed to the audience. I will use data from this Yearbook to determine ways I can make my thriller more appealing to my audience.

The "Genre and Classification" table shows the Thriller Genre to be 9th, ranked on gross profit. In 1st place was Action, with "Skyfall" taking 1/3 of all of the gross profit for that genre. One of the sub genres for "Skyfall" was the Thriller genre. In 7th place was Horror, with "The Woman in Black" being the best performing title for that genre, and once again this film also has the Thriller genre as a sub-genre. Also ranked above the Thriller genre was Sci-Fi, where the highest grossing film was "Prometheus", which would also classify as a Thriller. The highest grossing Thriller film was "Jack Reach". This shows that thrillers that combine other genres, including action, horror and sci-fi, are generally more popular than others. To prove this, no thriller-exclusive thrillers were present in the top 10 films for each age classification. The Statistical Yearbook showed that 12A classified films obtained the greatest gross profit, followed by 15 rated films. The top two films that were rated 12A were "Skyfall" and "The Dark Knight Rises", both classed as Action but also considered as thrillers. The 15 films were, according to the Statistical Yearbook, containing "stronger material" and more "adult-orientated themes",  and saw mainly comedies such as "Ted" dominate the table. Therefore, to make my thriller more appealing, I need to decide to what extent I will use action or themes of violence or more adult content to make it more appealing generally.

Moving on to consider gender, there is a notable trend from the past years data. For films that have a higher percentage of female viewers, no real thrillers are present in the top 8 films listed, instead there are more dramas and romance-orientated films such as "Twilight" and "Anna Karenina" and much more family friendly films such as "Nativity 2". By contrast, male dominated films include "The Dark Knight Rises", with a 64-36 ratio between males and females, and many action and horror films ranking above, that have the thriller genre as a sub genre, such as "Dredd", with the highest male viewing percentage of 74%, and "Prometheus". This indicates that male audiences tend to prefer action-orientated films with a lot of suspense and perhaps more violent scenes. Films with mixed ratios include "Skyfall", with a 55% male slight majority, and "The Woman In Black" with a 56% female majority. This shows that to make my thriller, in general, more appealing, they need to have some element of action in them. If it is too geared towards the female audience it may not be as popular, due to a lack of current popularity in that genre, whereas excessive elements of violence and action may deter the few female viewers that there could be. In order to maximize the appeal of my sequence I need to get the right balance of content to attract the greatest audience.

Next I will consider the audience itself; the age bracket and where they are viewing the film. Recently, we notice a decline in younger audiences going to the cinema, with the age bracket of 45+ being the dominant bracket in the graph in 2012, which could be due to, as the Yearbook states, "is likely to be due to the greater number of films being released with particular appeal to the older demographic, such as Mamma Mia... The King's Speech... Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel."

This Figure, taken from the Statistical Yearbook 2013, shows the distribution of people who go to the cinema to view films.

Notably, however, the 15-24 age bracket of popular films contains the greatest proportion of films in the top 20 and top UK audience. These include thrillers such as "The Dark Knight Rises" and "Taken 2".  Furthermore, the figure below shows how the gross film revenue for films was greatest from films shown on Television, exceeding Theatrical revenue by 500 Million (£), whilst there us an increased demand for online services such as Video on Demand. The link to make here is my thriller will be posted onto Youtube, an internet service, which is notably less popular than film on television, but actually will be available for a wider audience worldwide. The lengths of films on YouTube and television also differ greatly, with the average YouTube video lasting a matter of minutes, whereas on television films often run for a long duration of two or more hours, as if it was being watched in a cinema or on DVD. This is something I will need to consider. Also, the 15-24 age bracket is the most likely to be using the services of YouTube- linking this to the statistic at the start of this paragraph, making my thriller for the this age bracket would be more suitable for a release onto the internet.

From using the Statistical Yearbook, I have found that to make my thriller more appealing to my audience, I need to consider other elements to incorporate into my thriller, such as action, as that proves most popular with the audience I need to target - an age bracket of 15-24 year olds, as that is where thrillers generally prove more popular. This allows me to determine the extent to which I will create "dark" themes in my thriller, such as violence, mystery and most importantly, suspense, taking into account my research on classification. This will also help me to achieve a balance between the gender split of my audience, as I found thrillers were generally more popular with male audiences, but that females still watched them - so to maintain both audiences I must obtain the right level of content.

Using another source, www.rottentomatoes.com , I can take into account what the critics like and dislike also, as this can determine whether or not audiences will view films or not. Recently, they provided a 97% overall rating for "Gravity", a thriller incorporating elements of science, and 100% on "How to Survive a Plague", a documentary, showing that audiences prefer more sophisticated films rather than perhaps comedy films such as "Last Vegas", which also featured on the site, receiving a rating of  43%, with critics saying, "This is like the Hangover Part 43." Cast is an important decision to make, and high profile actors appear in Gravity and Last Vegas (G. Clooney, M. Freeman), but not to this extent in the film that received 100% on the website. Although any acting in my thriller must be of a good quality, this gives me reassurance, as of course I will not be able to obtain the services of one Morgan Freeman in my thriller, and this shows that it is not going to deter my audience. "How to Survive a Plague" also received reviews such as "A cinematically sophisticated documentary that actually finds a way to be an intelligent and admirable work of art in addition to its more overt sociological implications." This suggests further that audiences prefer these more sophisticated films, so I shall endeavour to approach my film consciously considering plot and avoiding making it perhaps predictable or repetitive to appeal to my audience.

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