Research into Target audience - Mss Miller

Above is the questionnaire my group handed out to 40 individuals regarding the thriller genre. We carried out this research for numerous reasons. The first being so that we could question

our target market on what they would expect to see in a thriller film, along side we asked them what their preferences are when it comes to watching thriller films and why they think this. Through doing so we have created pie chats so we can picture their preferences and adapt our own thriller to the majority of the target audience. Through the given feed back from the 40 individuals we are able to alter our original film ideas by asking open and closed questions we can alter our previous narrative to incorporate the new given feedback into our thriller. We asked 40 individuals oppose to a smaller or larger number for the following reasons. The sample which we questioned couldn't be too small to the point where not enough results would to be as valid to be made into pie charts for example if we only asked 10 people it may lack validity as it may not represent the wider target population making the results only apply to a small minority of the people we are trying to target. For this reason we decided that 40 people was appropriate as it would increase how widely the results given can be applicable for our intended target audience. Questioning more people made this even higher, although this number was appropriate as trying to get an even larger sample of people would be more time consuming, as well as make the analysis of the results take longer and more difficult to categorise due to the higher number f responses. As previously mentioned, my group and i will use these results in our opening thriller, and add elements that we think would fit our target audience directly catering it towards them with the aim of making it more appealing to their age group, hill doing so providing them with content that they can associate with real life with use of the typical codes and conventions of a thriller.

The first question we asked was the age of the individual, this was then compared with other ages that we received. It was found that the majority of the people that were questioned were in fact 18-20, the second highest result given was people aged 22+, shortly followed by the age group 15-17. The age ranges stated consisted of the overwhelming majority of those asked, which shows that our target audience is predominantly teenagers and young adults, generally being the older age group. 

From this I will take on board that the thriller we are making will need to be catered towards the older end of the teenage scale. As of this, I will discuss with my group what elements should be included to suit this band of people in regards to codes and conventions within the thriller genre. This is as their are certain conventions which are present through thriller films which appeal to the older age range. An example would be more blood and gore as they are not the vulnerable age group, this would assist towards creating a feeling that the older viewers would be able to handle without scaring them to much as they understand that it is not real life, this would make it more appealing to the target audience.

For question 2 we asked for the gender o those taking part in the questionnaire. It was found that the majority of those questioned were intact male, although a large number of females were still questioned. This could potentially demonstrate how the target audience we are catering our opening sequence of our thriller towards has a larger male to female ratio due to the numbers given.

For this reason I will take on board that the results achieved may be more cater able to the male sex, and for this reason the content we chose shall be more suited to men rather than women. My group and i may include more male appealing conventions from within the thriller genre in our sequence as this way we are leaning towards a s larger demographic of our target audience. An example of this could be making our sequence a crime thriller rather than a psychological thriller which the majority of women seem to prefer.

One of the open ended questions we asked was 'what is your preferable murder weapon that is used in thriller films and why'. The participants had a list to chose from which they were then able to elaborate on . We asked this question so that we could get an idea about the similar detail in the film and what they like to see. The top 3 were, blade, knife and vehicle. One of the participants said she wold like to see a blade being used as it is 'powerful and effective'. Having the answers so close together made it hard for my group to decide what weapon would be used. In the end we agreed that a blade would be the most conventional, it is also the most stereotypical of a thriller film which would make ours just as entertaining to watch.

In the research we asked, we also questioned our applicants on what type of setting they preferred thrillers to be located in, we gave them a list to chose from. The domestic setting was the most popular closely followed by an abandoned setting. This conveys that our target audience likes thrillers to seem more realistic as a domestic setting could imply a family home. This adds to the fear factor as the juxtaposition of a place your are meant to feel safe in can make the audience feel quite the opposite. The results from this question are one of the most useful because deciding on the location or setting of a film is the most important part if the setting or location isn't chosen with consideration of the audience it could potentially ruin the whole thriller making it less affective and less scary. Although a domestic setting was the most popular from the results my group have decided that a school would be a better fit for our audience this will also make it conventional as a school is also realistic so it should affect the audience in the same way.

In our questionnaire we asked what thriller films our target audience enjoyed the most out of a list given. We asked this particular question so we would have an idea of what theme and narrative our target market preferred. From this research we learnt that scream was the most popular this was understandable as it related to there questions asked for example our audience gave answers that they liked their thrillers to be based in domestic settings which may be a reason why scream id so popular as the whole of the opening sequence is based inside the girls house. As both of the two favourite films picked have quite complicated narratives we have decided to make our original narrative more complex, both films have a strange narrative where the characters do not know who the antagonist is or his intentions. This helped my group and I decide on how to portray the antagonist we wanted there to be and element of mystery and not give to much away. We asked why these were their favourites and they revealed it is because they do not know much about the antagonists until he is revealed which then helps the story line to make sense.

The next question we asked our target audience is 'which of the elements do you find creates the most tension' the candidates were then able to pick from the following 3; Lighting; sound; camera. From the results we identified that almost half of the people agreed that sound was the most tension building element. Sound is conventional to thrillers as it creates shock, suspense and surprise. This question is one my group found the most relevant, from these answers we are able to determine what our target audience find the most engaging. As this element was sound my group have decided to focus more on the sound element of our scene rather than lighting as the audience suggested that they do not really pay attention to it as much as sound. In my scene we will make sound a vital prospect including all the typical diegetic and non diegetic sounds heard in thrillers.

One of the last questions we asked was 'do you prefer to have the antagonist hidden identity' this was another simple closed question which they could answer yes or no. My group asked this so we could have inspiration of our own killer who's identity had not been talked about yet. The target markets involvement meant that we were able to determine what they liked the best and what involved them with the film more. 80% of the people we asked said they would prefer the killers identity to be hidden until the end as it creates more suspense and mystery. For our groups killer we decided to keep the identity hidden until the end so more tension is built for the audience which would make them more likely to watch it to the end to find out who the killer is without making them bored. 

The next question was about the gender role of the victim, although we already knew that the stereotypical representation of women was to be the victim we wanted to see what our target audience thought. We asked them if they would prefer to watch a male or female victim in the films they watched. The vast majority of the people questioned said they would prefer to see a female victim which is what we were expecting to hear as this is stereotypical in the thriller genre and would make it easy for the antagonist to target if she is a woman.

The last question we asked was 'what gender would you prefer the killer to be'. The results from this question would help my group decide one final characteristic our our thriller opening sequence. Our results showed that the majority of our target audience preferred to have a male as the antagonist which is stereotypical of the thriller genre. 75% of the people we asked said that they would prefer to see a male antagonist this is because they feel it would make 

After producing my box plots i have come to the conclusion that they were very usefull in the decision making process for our final thriller sequence, I interviewed our direct target audience in order to understand what we should include in our opening sequence, what will make our sequence more entertaining and suitable fro our target audience. In our sequence we will include a plot twist that will make it more entertaining so they audience will relate to it. I am using the Vox pops as proof for my questionnaire results. Vox pox is a simple way of filming an interview with members of our target audience. It was helpful and gave me an insight of what the public really thought about thriller films. It was more insightful than a questionnaire as it allowed the participants to develop their answers and ask questions if they did not understand questions. As one of my participants said sound created the most tension and our results from our questionnaire showed the same result, my group has agreed develop our sound to help create suspense and shock for our target audience.

In summary,I believe that conducting research into our target audience has helped me with collecting ideas to include in our short opening sequence, as i asked members of the public their own opinions on what they would expect in a thriller and what they would enjoy. This post was useful as it helped me create my own individual ideas and gave me guidelines on elements i was not confident about. Further it gave me an insight to what the public like and also gave me an idea on what age group our thriller should be focused on and what is conventional in that age group.