Survey Results

Thriller Questionnaire

 In the lead up to the producing and filming of our media studies film, we have created a questionaire which will be ansered by anonomous people to help feed our group ideas of what we could use in our short film. The questionaires were then done and tallied, to give different opinions and ideas to include in the opening of the thriller film.

1. 70% suggested a serial killer as the best antagonist.

2. 80% suggested that most thrillers are given a 15 certificate.

3. 80% said the editing should be quick and seamless.

4. 90% suggested that incidental music should be used in the opening rater than ambient.

5. 80% said the opening of a thriller should be fast paced.

6. 80% said they prefered a murder mystery theme over a gang crime theme.

7. 50% suggested that a thriller should be set in a city.

8. 50% was suggested for both the choice of a male or female protagonist.

9. 70% said that a thriller should be set in a present day time period.

10. 90% said that they like a twist in a thriller film.



Antagonist bar chart



With all of the votes tallied, we have a clear vision of how we will create our opening of a thriller film. We are still in debates of what type of antagonist we are going to have, between a gang leader and a serial killer. We will probably come to a final decision, before begin the storyboard.



Age Certificate Bar Chart



With most people suggesting that a typical thriller has a 15 age certificate, we may include some key characteristics which give a thriller a 15 age certificate such as; violence, guns, greusome images etc. With relation to the question about editing, we should make the transitions of scenes quick to build up tension within the scenes. The will also create high excitement within the audience.

On question 4, we learnt that most people would prefer to hear incidental music rather than ambient sounds. This works well for what have intended to do in our film, as we are going to start with  chase scene, so incental music works better than ambient sounds as it can create tension within the scene.

 

Graph to show what sounds people prefer to hear in a Thriller.

Graph to show what Theme a Thriller should be

Most people we surveyed said that our opening should be fast paced. This tells us that we shoud immediately start the film we an event which makes the excited, but also puts them on edge. Most people said they prefered a murder mystery theme over gang crime. Again we are still in debates with this topic, as this question is linked to the first question of the antagonist we are going to have. Again we will come to a final decision before storyboard.



Location Pie Chart

 

A lot of people also said they wanted to see the thriller set in a city or urban environment, which is ideal to what we have pictured our project to be. However, one result said it should be set in a rural area. This may be a good location aswell as crime is unexpected in the countryside.

The survey gave equal results on the gender we should have for the protagonist, so we are still discussing the gender of the protagonist, but it is likely that we will choose a male character over a female character.

The time period people wanted was a present day, which is what we originally planned for our film, so we will  stick with that as our time period. The majority of people said that we should include a twist. We may do this however, a twist is better usually at the end so it may not be included.

Graph to show what time period a thriller should be