Findings/Results

Findings/Results

The method used for our thriller research was a questionnaire, which we handed to a group of alternative 15-19 year olds. We chose a young alternative label of people because this is our specified audience for our thriller. Therefore, it will benefit us to use the group of people so that we can find their values and aspirations of a thriller.

Firstly, our questionnaire started off by asking a question about specified genres with the options of psychological thriller, action thriller, gangster thriller and other. Our estimations of psychological thriller being the most popular were extremely accurate, as 75% found it to be the better genre of thriller. However, the option of ‘other’ was also a very popular answer, where people specified their favourite genres to be films such as film noir thrillers EG. Psycho. Furthermore, action thriller proved to be the less popular with a mere 5% of population. In addition, gangster thriller proved to be the middle way of these results. Therefore, our estimations were accurate and our thriller will appeal to our target audience greatly, which is proven in our research.

Secondly, we asked whether this audience preferred independent or mainstream thrillers, in reference to films such as Pulp Fiction (mainstream) or Elephant (independent). We found that the results were very close in finding. Many were not aware of the independent industry of thriller, but those who were chose this type of thriller. Mainstream over rode the idea of independent thriller. However, our film will still remain independent because we do not want to aim to a mainstream audience.

In addition, we found that special effects were not a favourite in thriller film. It is said to be unrealistic and somewhat cheap. Therefore, our film will not consist of special effects and will mainly consist of natural effects/lighting etc. This is due to the fact that ambient lighting was also seen to be a favourite in thriller films. This creates a more realistic view to the audience.

The characters in a thriller were seen to be the most important through our findings. However, camera work is also important to convey how the character is, along with the concept of the thriller creating the base of it. However, in our questionnaire our results showed that the characters were the most important aspect. Furthermore, both diagetic and non diagetic sound was popular within the audience. A mixture of both proved to be a good result for a thriller.

In addition, the location has a huge impact on the audience’s interest to a thriller. Many preferred a suburban city theme of location, whereas others were fond of the idea of a forest area. However, the other options proved to be less popular. A suburban city location proved that people prefer a busy unknown location to create a hectic atmosphere.

Overall, the audience’s expectation of a thriller is a bizarre and original concept, surrounding the idea of the unknown. This keeps the audience of edge whilst in company of the thriller and makes the thriller more realistic. Furthermore, this audience have a more open view of thrillers and prefer an independent based film.