Research into target audience - Miss miller

Research into target audience 

I carried out research to get a better understanding of my target audience befor we create the film, because it would give our group a berrer understanding of what the audience is looking for. We gave out our questionnaire out to 40 people to get a general answer, in my group we made pie charts out of the results to show the majority the answers that people choose. I will use my results to construct my film. For example using the most popular answers to make a film the suits the majority of our target audience.

We made pie charts showing to show the results of each question.

The first question we asked was their age, we thought this would benefit us when setting a target audience and age certificate on the film. From our results you can see the majority is 16-25, so the film we be aimed towards either a 15 or 18 age certificate. Therefor focusing on what 16 and over answeres were to our questionnaire was vital. By using their answers we could include aspects of a thriller sequences that they want to see in our production. Also because we are in this age bracket our ideas are going to more then likely be quite succesful in our production.

Our second question, what gender are you, was important to see the majority of either female or male watching our thriller sequence. In this case we had 75% male, although our film will be aimed at both genders, some aspects of the sequence may be what a typicall male would like to see in a thriller film. This is because our pie chart tells us that mostly males will be viewing our production.

The next question was what thrillers do you like and why, we gave our participants a option of four dirrent thrillers: 'The shinning' 'Saw' 'Insidious' and 'Other' this was an important question because from this we can see what narrative or aspects of a thriller the target audience prefer. The pie chart shows quite an even split but the shinning was most popular. Therefor our production may be influnced by this film, or because it was tight between saw and the shinnign, we may be able to mix the aspects of this films when we create our own production. In order for our target audience to enjoy our thriller sequence.



The next question asked was what type of sub genre do you like, this question was used to identify the most popular sub genre, as most people like a sub genre in a thriller film to keep it intresting. As a result of our pie chart the most popular sub genre was sci fi. This may lead to our production including a sic fi sub genre.

The sixth question we asked was, what do you expect in a thriller film? the options we gave were: death, possession, chase scene and other. The most popular answer to the question is death. Therefor my group plan to include a death, but we have been slightly unconventional as usually the antagonist is a male, but in our production the antagonist is going to be Bettie which will be unexpected, creating more shock and surprise which are vital conventions of a thriller film.

The next question was, what type of music do you expect in a thriller film? the most common answer was eery and second highest jumpy. Therefor during our thriller film we will ensure we use eery music, this will probably be when the characters are entering the forest, so that the audience get an idea that the forest is dangerous for the characters. This will leave an effect on the audience by putting them in suspense and the reason the second highest answer was jumpy, is due to that is what the audience will expect next.

Our next question was what do you think a good narrative is for a thriller film? the most popular answer was a sychopha on the loss. I think this is a typical narrative and is included in most thriller films. Therefor we will try to include it but with a twist. This is so that we ensure the audience can not guess who the antagonist is until the death is revealed. Bettie is not the average sychopha, she is very controlled and plans her killings therefor her friends do not notice that she is an antagonist. 

What weapons do you like to be used, was a question we included but i don't think will apply to our thriller film because bettie is a hannibal; which means she kills by eating people. The most popular answer was knife. We may have one character who has a knife on him which could lead to the audience thinking he is the antagonist. Therefor will lead to a bigger surprise and shock when it is revealed that Bettie is the antagonist. Shock and surprise are very important in making our thriller successful.

Our final question of the questionnaire was what would be a typical setting. The most popular answer was forest, which has had a massive influence on our film, as our whole production has been planned to be filmed in the forest. Our antagonist is to be unknown until the death of Kane, therefor we looked for a normal reason for a group of people to go into the forest. The best idea we came up with was walking a dog. Therefor i am going to walk my dog in the forest with a group of friends and Bettie will be included with the group of friends. Our target audience is our own age group and this to them will look like a normal day for a group of friends, therefor make the revealing of Bettie being the antagonist a massive shock, which is conventional to a thriller film.

In conclusion our questionnaire has helped my group to decide on different factors of our thriller film. The most useful question was the typical setting, as we strongly agreed with the answer being the forest. Therefor the questionnaire has assisted our group in designing a thriller film that should be successful. Also by conducting are questionnaire it gave us an idea of our target audience as 62% of the people we asked were 16-25 and we feel that they gave us the best feedback and therefor we will give our film a 15 certificate.