Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

I produced a questionnaire to allow our group to fully understand what audiences expected from our film as a psychological thriller. This thoroughly helped us as it

enabled us to work out techniques we could implement to convey our film successfully as a thriller.

I asked a number of people to watch our film The Unexpected to collate their views. I asked 20 people ranging from different ages for a varied collection of

opinions, so I could base my data on my findings.

Results of my questionnaire

I asked a total of twenty people to answer my questionnaire. These are the responses I came up with.

How old are you?

Ages

16 17 17

48

18

31

48

16 15 17

32

56

41

18 1721

24

15 16

46

Audience

Gender

Gender

MaleFemale

Male – 12Female – 8

What would you expect to see in a psychological thriller film?

Conventions0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

MusicViolence/action/deathLocationActorsCostumeSuspense/twist/story-line

What others films, TV shows would you associate with this genre?

Examples:• Chronicles• Pulse• Cellular• Se7en• Snakes on a Plane• Tokyo Drift• I Am Legend• Flashpoint• I am Number 4• Drive• Man on a Ledge• Inception• Chinatown• Dark Water• Heroes• Unstoppable• Transporter 2• Cradle 2• Blade Trinity• Shutter Island• Contraband

Are you a fan of psychological thrillers and explain your reasons?

Yes• Yes, because they get me scared.• I am, because I enjoy anticipating the coming events.• The scary music paired with intriguing characters with hidden depth and secrets makes me wonder about the human mind. They cause me

to think.• Location gets me scared, like in Shutter Island, the characters are isolated and causes suspense which I enjoy.• Psychological thrillers tend to include irrational thoughts which creates a tense atmosphere typical in a psychological thriller.• Psychological thrillers are very close to real life and are actually possible, something that gets in your head. Your worst fears. Making me

think.• They provide a lot of suspense and cliff-hangers to maintain the audience’s interest and attention, this will make sure they focus on the plot

at hand which gets them more involved as an audience.• I like thrillers because it keeps me on my toes so when it scares me, I get ready to run.• They are really effective keeping the audiences eyes on glued to the screen and keep the audience in their seats because psychological

thrillers usually engage mentally with the audience. • They juxtapose one’s mental state to ordinary life creating discomfort, and therefore adding to the suspense used in the psychological

thriller genre.• I enjoy thrillers as it makes me think. It makes me think about the situation and what is going on through one’s head. I enjoy films like this.• Yes because the plot is hidden, and so you are left in suspense during it. Making you think of what would happen during the rest of the film. • Yes, I prefer psychological thrillers as it has deeper meanings. You get to imagine what it’s like in that character’s head and what goes

through their mind as the plot unravels.NoNo because they are too close to real life, and make me think that what happened in it could happen to me or anyone else. It scares me.• No, because it seems slightly mental, the idea of that is slightly horrifying. Horror films and psychological horrors frighten me.• No, I prefer action films.• I would not pay to watch a psychological thriller as I feel they are not worth the money.• I would not watch a film as I feel it could ruin my mind, and make me go crazy, developing crazy thoughts such as the character in the film.• I don’t like thrillers because they scare me, and I feel that they could scar me for life.• I don’t like thrillers because I don’t get scared easily so I feel it is a waste of time watching one.

What do films require at the beginning to keep you watching?

• They need to grab your attention.• Keep you watching the film• Jam-packed with action• Misfortunate events, for example someone dying• Engage with the audience• Have a good titling sequence• Good musical score• Film starting before the title, allowed into the film creates a cliff-hanger, as they are waiting for the titling sequence to end before

the film starts.• Prequel of the movie• Flashbacks• Makes me want to see more• Makes me feel it is worth the money with special effects• It needs to have a bit of comedy, as funny films are what I enjoy, and so I know there’s more to come.• It shouldn’t unveil too much of the plot at the beginning. Otherwise I feel there’s no point in watching the rest.• Action or humour• Sexual scenes• More action and less dialogue, that always draws me in. • Mind-devouring scenes• Mind-blowing special effects• Killing or death scenes• Mystery murder• Letting you into too much of the plot and then holding back to make you wonder, and leave you puzzled and confused.

What is your favourite movie opening and why? • Inception - I like the way it starts with a man being washed up on a beach.• Black Swan as it clearly gives off what the film is about; ballet.• Titanic as it begins with very sad music, and it is about a real historical moment.• Avatar as it clearly symbolises to me that it is an action movie.• Titanic as it is my favourite movie, it’s familiar to me so it is my favourite movie opening.• Twilight as it begins with a narrator, introducing us to the film and setting the scene.• Mean Girls as it has someone narrating the story for us.• The Notebook as it resembles a film about love, which is light-hearted and simple to watch.• Psycho as it begins with that eerie soundtrack and the titles makes me think to myself: “What on earth is going on?”• Any action film as it stimulates my mind, with all the colour and special effects.• Any of the Harry Potter films, as I am a fan of the books; so immediately it captures my attention as I want to see

how they have acted it out on the big screen.• James Bond movies as they have usually have a little intro to the film or start with the titling sequence itself which is

iconic in it’s own right.• Films such as Edward Scissorhands, as they have famous actors such as Johnny Depp as the main role, which can

quite easily signify what genre the film is.• Films such as Déjà vu, which has a dual plot and the film goes back in time. This creates intrigue.• Titanic as it has beautiful scenery which draws me in.• Beastly as it seems quite dark and vivid, which makes me wonder why.• Pirates of the Caribbean as it has many famous actors in it and it is interesting to see them all working together.• Avatar as I had previously heard about the special effects incorporated in it before, creating interest from the media.• The Italian Job as it is a very iconic film, and begins very originally.• The Dark Knight is a good film ,as it uses chilling music and a dark colour scheme reflecting the storyline of the film,

which I enjoyed.

What thriller sub-genre do you prefer?

Sub-genre

PsychologicalHorrorSci-fiDramaActionPolitical

After reading the script are you able to identify which sub-genre our film fits into?

Identifiable0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

YesNo

Does the synopsis give a clear outline of the film?

Clear outline0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

YesNo

Is it obvious who is the hero and who is the villain?

Obvious0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

YesNo

Is it clear who is the protagonist and who is the antagonist?

Clear0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

YesNo

Which age certification do you think the synopsis and script is suitable for?

Age Certificate0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

12A1518

What are the weak elements in our opening sequence?

Weaknesses

CharactersSettingStorylineMusicDialogueEditing

Characters

Did you think our male character appeared sinister enough?

Did you think our female character appeared vulnerable enough?

Sinister

YesNo

Vulnerability

YesNo

Conclusion

From my research, I found out that males found our film more thrilling and appealing to watch, females enjoyed romance or comedy films and they did not accept our synopsis and script as something they would watch as readily as males did. People regarded our film as a 15 mostly, which is what our film will be classified under. This is also the typical classification used for a thriller, as represented in my Film Distribution research.

• New technology is changing the way people watch films with home and mobile film experiences improving all the time. The total size of the film audience in the UK in 2009 was an estimated 4.5 billion viewings with only 4% taking place in a cinema. Yet little is currently known about the patterns of film viewing outside of cinemas.

• The UK population is also changing and the film industry needs to ensure that it continues to serve the broadest possible audience.

• Older consumers have grown into a market force to be reckoned with. The amount of money spent annually by people over the age of 65 in the UK is thought to be £100 billion. The number of over 45s going to the cinema has increased as a proportion from 15% in 1997 to 30% in 2008 (one third of the record-breaking theatrical audience for Mamma Mia! was over 55). The proportion of older viewers is even greater on the free-to-air TV platform, with 40% of the film-viewing audience on the terrestrial networks aged over 55.

• Therefore even though we had previously aimed to set a target audience of 15-20 something year olds, we can see that we can generate a huge revenue from widening our audience’s age ranges. Our film could appeal to an older audience due to it’s socio-realism aspects and it could appeal to a younger audience due to the character’s ages, the storyline, and the modernisation of the film.

Heartthrob actorsAnthony Perkins as Norman Bates in Psycho

Ryan Reynolds in Safe House

Tom Hardy – Inception

Mark Wahlberg in Contraband

Brad Pitt in Se7en

We incorporated a heartthrob actor in our film to reverse the typical conventions of a thriller, of a middle aged unattractive man, and replace him with a young clean-cut attractive man. This changes audience’s opinions on who to judge and also subverts the typical convention of the white male as the villain, we replaced this convention with a black male.