To begin with, personal questions such as age, gender and ethnic background are the opening questions to the questionnaire. These are high priority questions as the results are important in the process of distribution for the statistics give the producers an idea in which location their product will be accepted. The first question was: What age group do you fit in to? This showed some expected results with just over half of the individuals aged from 15-17. With the other categories of 18-25 and 25+ sharing this opposing value slightly, it shows that when promoting and advertising this product, items should be distributed in places with a high population of teenagers for example, shopping centres or around a college campus.
As part of the process of distribution, we will post our opening thriller sequence on YouTube.com. Statistics on a website called Social Media Statistics from July 2007 states YouTube.com has 258 million users, 50% visit weekly or more; more than 100 million videos a day are being watched.
Location choices when distributing can be narrowed down with the second question of: What gender are you? Again with the results showing just over half of the individuals being females. As they are the majority, depending on what elements teenage females answer to be particular enjoyable in a thriller, gives advertisers an advantage in knowing what aspects should be emphasised when targeting this group. This therefore suggests that advertisements should be distributed in places which young females are likely to attend. For example, in a woman’s magazine or even near places such as hair salons. This may be considered stereotypical; however, if successful it can also attract new viewers.
Question three explores the nationality of the person. We asked about ethnicity to see if preference in genres was affected by cultural background as well as seeing if any ethnicity enjoyed thrillers in particular.
Results show that cultural background has no effect as the results of the following question support this. How often do you watch Thriller films? The overall often viewing of thrillers shows nearly three quarters of the participants having particular interests in this genre. As we live in a multicultural society, this is an advantage as we now know we have a vast target audience.
With further investigation in order to find out what particular elements engage the thrill seeking viewers, we researched recently released thriller movies that have said to have a lasting effect on the audience. With our personal opinions on the recent films selected, we received some expected results from the contributors. In 2008, The Dark Knight directed by Christopher Nolan won two Oscars, fifty-nine awards including Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film and received another fifty-eight nominations.
The greater part of the chart shows that The Dark Knight was the audience’s favourite choice. In seeing this film myself, above all the other options, it would be my favourite also. My reason for this is that the codes and conventions were used in a dramatic and selective way. For example, as the film reaches the climactic point of action, the score music gets heavier, character movements become faster filling the audience with panic and close ups of subsidiary character’s expression’s as they fear the situation. Other codes such as sparks spraying off tyres as Batman drives upside a building and the powerful blast of a shot gun, all have an impact on the audience as they’re guaranteed to remember the vibrant visual effects against the dark background as well as the thunderous sound effects. To explore this area with more detail, we then asked the public what conventions they enjoyed seeing when watching a thriller movie.
This chart displays the results showing the favoured conventions with nearly 30% votes of suspense and action. This is useful to our group; however as we only have a two minute time frame, these conventions may have to be connoted instead of denoted. This is an advantage for us as the choice of location in a garage, I think, suggests action later on in the film which appeals to the 27% enjoying this convention. To attract the 29% that enjoy the suspense in thriller films on the other hand, we will use the effects offered on editing software called Final Cut Pro. This gives us an opportunity to create suspense through the low key lighting, use of colour and adjustment of score music. To find out the audience’s opinions of if their favourite conventions were presented in the recent films they had seen, we would then have the overview of what a successful thriller contains.
Results received in this chart show that the public’s favoured conventions are featured mostly in The Bourne Ultimatum and The Dark Knight which my personal opinion agrees with the audience. The Bourne Ultimatum features Matt Damon as the protagonist who is searching to solve the consistent enigma of: Who is Bourne? The fast pace and quick shots release energy from the character whilst effects such as explosions, gunfights and sprinting from one rooftop to the next create the genre amazing the audience with these attention grabbing techniques. The Dark Knight however conquers all when startling the audience as the mysterious visual style and theme impress the audience and sets the standards for films of the thriller genre.
As the chart shows 53% supporting single-strand narratives against the 47% which voted for multi-strand narratives, the insignificant difference between preferences left our judgement open to the decision of what type of narrative route to take. We finally agreed that The Missing Suspects would be a multi-strand narrative with the laws perspective on the investigation and the killer’s behaviour. To confirm that The Missing Suspects narrative outline was understood, we then asked the public their views on the script and synopsis.
On the whole, nearly three quarters of each pie chart shows that the narrative outline was understood and accepted in delivering an effective storyline. After researching the ways in which successful films have been categorised to the thriller genre, we wanted feedback on whether our product showed presented the codes and conventions of a thriller.
As 80% of the public confirmed that our narrative contained the conventions and themes linking to the thriller genre, The Missing Suspects has proven to be on the right track for producing a successful thriller. However, all films have to respect the restrictions created by the British Board of Film Classification. Therefore we asked the public what classification they thought The Missing Suspects should have.
This shows that the narrative storyline of the thriller was seen best suited to be certified an 18. This means whilst abiding to the guidelines of legal, protective and societal material represented, our thriller is viewed as suitable for adults only and may not be seen by anyone younger than this age. Consequences of violating these policies include disallowing younger viewer’s access and banning of the film from release in the area.
By distributing these questionnaires, our group have collected information on the ways in which codes and conventions are perceived as well as gaining feedback on The Missing Suspects narrative themes. We will take these results into consideration as we develop our thriller in order to produce a successful opening sequence and attract our target audience.
Alex Christian
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