Post-Production Audience

Questionnaire Results

Now that I have hosted my viewing and collected, collated and analysed the data

present in the answers of the questionnaires, I can share them with you! Enjoy!

Question 1: What do you expect to happen in the continuation of our thriller?

• When analysing the answers to this question, I found they generally split into these four areas; additional kidnappings, the girls being murdered, the Brownie Leader being killed in revenge and other ideas.

• The plot for my film was not fully defined, but it included all three of the detailed categories guessed by the viewers The fact that my audience could identify the direction in which my film was headed meant that I had set up a strong storyline in these two and a half minutes.

• In addition, considering how the opening title sequence to my thriller ends on a cliff-hanger, I had hoped it would be thought-provoking. These results indicate that my audience was able to develop their own interpretations and conclusions regarding the sequence, thus this is a success on my behalf.

Question 1: What do you expect to happen in the continuation of our thriller?

Question 2: Which shots created the most suspense for you?

When analysing the results to this question, I grouped the answers as many of them were the same. I view this as a positive result as this indicates that I have created a variety of effective shots, including some really strong ones and the audience have understood my intentions clearly. The vast number of suspenseful shots is also important as the main aims of our thriller are to build suspense and increase tension.

Question 2: Which shots created the most suspense for you?

Question 3: Was the use of the children’s lullaby effective in building tension?

Question 3: Was the use of the children’s lullaby effective in building tension? • I had hoped that this strategic choice of song

would help build tension in my film as when used correctly sound can be one of the best ways to create suspense. Therefore it was such a relief to receive this result, that the majority of respondents agreed that the use of a lullaby was effective, although I had hoped it would be higher. Therefore, I hope that with an older audience this will be appreciated more and agree that this helps to create an eerie atmosphere in the title sequence and the specific scenes the song is played over.

Question 4: Did the film’s theme reach you at a personal level?

If not for the fact that I knew this film was aimed at a very different audience to the one I showed my opening title sequence to and received the following results, I may have been very worried. However, my target audience consists of parents and volunteers in the Scouting and GirlGuiding movements and therefore I assumed it would be less effective on teenagers.

I am actually surprised that my film affected teenagers as much as it did, this was not a result I had anticipated. This is very important as my aim was to reach my audience on a personal, emotional level, rather than a shallow, distant level as some other thrillers do.

Of course, the people affected by this most will be those involved in the Girlguide or Scouting movements, either as directly volunteers or through children who attend either group – my target audience.

Question 4: Did the film’s theme reach you at a personal level?

Question 5: Do you feel the individual scenes were played for too long?

Question 5: Do you feel the individual scenes were played for too long? Having initially had a lot of extra footage that I then spent

hours cutting down in order to fit it into the 2-3 minute time slot, this was a big concern for me.

Therefore it was a relief to find that the majority (87%) of my audience believed the duration of time for which the shots remained on screen in my final piece were not too long.

Some shots were intentionally long in order to build tension, but nobody commented on this, which may indicate that they were too engrossed in the film to notice! An example of this is the silhouette scene, which was highly effective in creating suspense before her entrance to the children’s tent.

Question 6: Were having children as objects of focus more frightening than adults?

Question 6: Were having children as objects of focus more frightening than adults? This was the one fundamental question on which my entire

film is based. Therefore, the fact that 96% of answers were in my favour; children as objects of focus are very frightening. I believe this is due to their inherent innocence and therefore vulnerability. Considering how my film is aimed at adults, the fact that it scares students denotes that it will affect an older audience even more so!

If the results had been different, I would have seriously considered making drastic changes to my film, or in the least undertaken significantly more market research to ensure that my target audience appreciated the choice of presenting children as objects of focus as opposed to adults.

Question 7: Were the transitions between scenes conducive to the overall atmosphere of the film?

Question 7: Were the transitions between scenes conducive to the overall atmosphere of the film? Out of the many transitions available, Nicole and I had to

handpick the most appropriate effects to employ in our thriller. This was vital as if we were to use transitions that were not in theme with our film, this could have disrupted the overall atmosphere we were trying to create.

Therefore the results of this question are positive as they indicate we chose correctly, and of the 11% of responses that did not think the transitions contributed to the atmosphere, over half indicated that this was because they were indifferent to the transitions. I see this as a positive result because it means that the transitions did not detract from the film in their opinion.

Question 8: Can you recognise conventions of a psychological thriller within our film?

Question 8: Can you recognise conventions of a psychological thriller within our film?

Question 8: Can you recognise conventions of a psychological thriller within our film?Most readers commented on the fact that we included

an older stalker going after younger, vulnerable children, in addition to the authentic location, menacing music and low-key lighting. Other details such as the fact that our theme relates directly to an audience, and that certain areas of the narrative are not explicit were also picked up on, most impressively.

A total of 52% of viewers also commented on the fact that the stalker in our film was a woman, rather than the expected man.

I was really impressed that so many people picked up on and specifically mentioned the detail of the silhouette shot taken from inside the tent; not only does this mean that we have successfully included conventions of a thriller, but also that our film is so gripping audience members were well focused on it.

Question 8: Can you recognise conventions of a psychological thriller within our film?

I have created two charts to reflect the two parts to this question, the first shows the unanimous positive answer, that the conventions were clear to everyone, and the second, a more detailed description of what people saw.

Question 8: Can you recognise conventions of a psychological thriller within our film?The fact that my thriller follows so many

conventions of a psychological thriller means that it’s genre is easily identifiable. While I did challenge specific conventions, my audience could recognise those followed, important as if a film is too difficult to understand, people are likely to lose interest in it.

Question 9: Did you find the mise-en-scene effective in increasing the thrill of the film?

Question 9: Did you find the mise-en-scene effective in increasing the thrill of the film?Whilst all responses indicated that the mise-en-scene

was highly effective in increasing the thrill of our film, I found that an overwhelming number of participants found the convincing set and costuming was more conducive than the props were.

I am inclined to believe that this is because we did not stage a killing scene, and only included one scene that required the use of props that are directly thriller related, that of the Leader putting the girls to sleep with chloroform. I am therefore very pleased that audience members picked up on this in their answers.

Question 9: Did you find the mise-en-scene effective in increasing the thrill of the film?The audience’s recognition of the importance of

the mise-en-scene in increasing the film’s thrill is very important, especially considering the amount of time Nicole and I spent on it during filming.

I had to enlist the help of others in order that Nicole and I could construct our own set. This demonstrates the hard work we put into creating the perfect mise-en-scene, so I am glad this was understood and appreciated by the audience.

Question 10: What is your view on the use of titles in our film? Were the font and colour effective?

Question 10: What is your view on the use of titles in our film? Were the font and colour effective?For this question, I again categorised the answers I

received into four areas; font, colour, size, and position. I was pleased to receive very detailed answers to this question, which lead me to create the detailed table.

Overall the results were very promising, and despite the fact that some pointed out that they would have expected black or red for the colour and a bigger size, they still appreciated that the chosen colour, style, etc. was all very well suited to the film and were effective, as I had hoped.

One response even commented that the simplicity of our titles was a good thing as they did not distract from the action on screen.

And this concludes the presentation…

Due to the fact that, for the most of it, the answers to the questionnaires were positive, I have decided that I will not be making further edits to my opening title sequence as I do not

feel this is necessary.

Thanks for viewing!

By: Rachel Gibson