Audience Survey: Thriller Genre

As a means of conducting some research into what people look for in thriller films, I conducted a Survey using Survey Monkey. In my survey, I asked questions to find out my target market and to find out what people look for in thriller films. Additionally, I asked questions to find out which forms of marketing they come into contact with most, and which forms of distribution they use to watch films. 

I asked ten people if they would answer my survey, and these were the results that I got:

Question 1

The first question I asked was to find out the gender of the person taking the questionnaire. My results tell me that 50% were male and 50% were female. This is important information to consider when deciding the target audience of my piece. This information means that I will make my film suitable for both genders.

Question 2

In used my second question to enquire the age of the person that was taking my questionnaire. From my results, I can see that the highest percentage of people fell under the 16-19 age bracket. This information is important as I need to make sure that my film appears to my target audience. Finding out that 16-19 year olds are the age bracket that most typically watches thrillers means that I will use this as the target audience of my film.

Question 3

My third question asked what thriller sub-genre people preferred. My results tell me that 40% of people prefer crime thrillers. This is closely followed by psychological thrillers and medical thrillers, which were both opted for by 20% of people. This tells me that I should be looking to make either a crime thriller, medical thriller or psychological thriller as these are the most appealing sub-genres and this will entice people to watch my film.

Question 4

In my fourth question, I asked what colour people most associated with the typography in thriller films. My results concluded that people mostly associate the colours white, black and red with the typography of the thriller genre, with white being the most associated, at 40%. These results tell me that I should make the typography of my film white, and possibly include some black or red. Perhaps, I will use white typography on a black background for the titles screen of my film.

Question 5

My fifth question tells me that people believe that cinematography, editing and music are all equally important in making thriller films effective, as they all totalled 30%. This question was very important as it reveals what my focus should be in order to make sure that my thriller is effective for the audience. The results of this question tells me that I should make sure that my cinematography is good by using a range of camera shots and angles to vary the footage and make it more interesting for the audience to watch. It tells me that I should make sure the editing is good by using a range of different techniques such as jump cuts and fades, and by using fast paced editing in dramatic scenes to build tension for the audience. Additionally, it also tells me that I should choose the music carefully so that it fits with the film and the scene well. I could choose music that helps to reflect the narrative of the story, and music that helps to create suspense in the audience to intensify their viewing experience.

Question 6

In this question, I queried as to what is people's preferred narrative of a thriller film. I found that murder was the most popular narrative at 30%, and this was followed by abduction, at 20%. I was surprised to find that a narrative surrounding romantic triangles tied with the popularity of abduction, by also achieving 20% of the votes. The results also tell me that 20% of people preferred other narratives that the ones I had mentioned. From these results, I should consider the narrative of my film to include murder, abduction or a romantic triangle, or perhaps, a narrative I have not specified, such as assassination. 

Question 7

The results of this question tell me that, generally, people believe the opening sequence of a thriller is importance to grab their interest in the film. This means that I will need to make my opening sequence of a thriller interesting and attention grabbing to make sure that the audience become engaged straight away in the piece, and so that it makes them want to watch the rest of the film. To make my opening sequence engaging I will make sure that I include lots of enigma codes that make the audience wonder what is going on, and will entice them to keep watching, in order for them to find out what did happen. 

Question 8

I included a question about what type of marketing that people usually engage with. The results told me that most people find out about new films through social media or through YouTube. This tells me that my target market are more in touch with digital forms of marketing, and therefore, I should look to use digital marketing for my film. Using digital marketing would ensure that my target audience would know about my film.

Question 9

Finally, I included a question to enquire which form of film distribution that people typically engage with. The results tell me that most people normally watch films using digital streaming services. This is fitting with the results of the previous question, as it tells me that not only are my target audience more in touch with digital forms of marketing, but also with digital forms of distribution. This tells me that I should look to use digital forms of distribution for my film, as this would mean it would be most accessible to my target audience.

Conducting a questionnaire has been very useful as it has helped me to decided on the target market of my film, and will help me with the production, marketing and distribution decisions for my film, too.