Research into target audience - Miss Miller

We had carried out the research to find out what the audience that we are targeting wants. This was useful because due to the questionnaire we found out what our audience expect to see from thriller films, which then gave us ideas to incorporate it into our own opening sequence to make it as conventional as possible while also appealing to our audience. We asked 40 people in total because we wanted a wide range of opinions so that when we create our opening sequence it will appeal to a wider range of people.

From the first pie chart the group and I can tell that there are an equal amount of males as there are females whom took our questionnaire. This tells us that we should appeal to both the genders by having a lot of gruesome scenes for the males and have a female antagonist for the female audience. This will hopefully then appeal to both the genders and make a balanced film engaging our target audience.

From this pie chart the group and I can note that our main audiences lay in between the ages of 15-17 years of age. This means that we can't include sexual content as only people of the age 18+ are allowed to view it. However we are allowed to show violence, thus the group and I will try to include as much gruesome violence as possible for our male audience. We will incorporate this into our film by having our main antagonist kill gruesomely, thus engaging our 15-17 audiences.

From this pie chart the group and I can see that most of our audiences watch thriller films, thus meaning that we can rely on the following results as the audience know what they want to see from a thriller film. This also means that we should create an opening sequence of the thriller genre as most of our audience watch it. For our audiences that do not watch thriller films, we will try and integrate something different that will appeal to them. We will do this by having our main antagonist dress as a clown, this will appeal to them because it is something different and the phobia for clowns is very common, thus they are able to relate to the characters.

From this pie chart the group and I can confirm that most of our audiences prefer to watch films other than the listed few. This means that the group and I should aspire to create an opening sequence which is different and unique and not like the listed few, however also making it conventional to the thriller genre. On the other hand some of our audiences liked the other listed few which means that the group and I will include elements of the other films, for example, we will attempt to make our opening sequence as gruesome as Saw's opening sequence to appeal to the audiences whom like the Saw franchise. This will then appeal to our audiences because it will be similar to other thriller films, however with our little twist to it.



When analysing this pie chart, the group and I were able to confirm that most of our audiences prefer the antagonist to use a knife as the weapon of choice. We will then incorporate this into our opening sequence as the antagonist will be chasing the female victim down the street with a knife. This is conventional to the thriller genre because the antagonist uses a weapon, which inflicts slow but excruciating pain. However some of our audience also want the other weapons to be used by the antagonist so the group and I thought we could have the antagonist use the other weapons too, however not as much as the knife.


From this, the group and I can confirm that our audience prefer to have the antagonists identity hidden from them, this may be because they enjoy the build up of tension and suspense. The group and I have then decided to have our antagonist wear a clown mask to cover his face keeping him unknown to the audience. This creates an enigma which is conventional. This also keeps the audience questioning  who is under the clown mask, this will then keep them engaged.

Our audience prefer to see a female victim, this may be because they are stereotypically portrayed as being weak and vulnerable. Thus, we will attempt to have our victim a female, as the antagonist has pictures of females on his wall while he obsesses over one in particular, Making it his goal to see her. As the female victim had the overall vote, we will make the antagonist target many females, in order to satisfy the audience because it is conventional to the thriller genre to have a damsel in distress/victim.

From this, the group and I can infer that our audience would prefer the location to be set in an abandoned house as it is isolated and favours the antagonist. We will incorporate this into our opening sequence by having the antagonist chase the female victim into an alleyway and knocking her out, leaving her in an abandoned dark room, which is completely isolated leaving the victim cornered and vulnerable. This will be conventional to the thriller genre because it leaves the audience feeling sympathy towards the female victim, which also makes her character more relatable. We will try and film our sequence in an abandoned house, however if this is not possible we will try and create an isolated dark room.

Most of our audience want to see an enigma in our opening sequence, which can be seen in the pie chart. The group and I will attempt to do this by having the antagonist wear a clown mask to hide his identity. Hopefully this will keep the audience questioning who the person behind the mask really is and if they have met them yet. This is conventional to the thriller genre because it keeps the audience questioning whom the antagonist is for the whole film, this makes the audience want to watch the film to the end as they badly want to find out who the antagonist is.

From this pie chart the audience equally want to see all four of the elements, surprise, suspense,shock and tension. The group and I have decided we will integrate all four elements into the opening sequence, for example we will have a build up of suspense through the suspenseful music which is being played over the female victim trying to escape from the antagonist. All four of these elements make the thriller genre because they are there to engage and excite the audience.

The purpose of my vox pops were to allow the audience to answer the questionnaire orally this meant that they gave their opinions fluently which meant that whatever they said was the first thing that came to their  minds. Also another reason i did these vox pops were to allow the audience to answer the open questions fully and in more detail, this is because when people answer questionnaires they tend to shorten down their answers, however by doing the vox pops they answered them in detail. This is also very helpful for the group and I because it means that we were able to receive more complex and in detail answers which gives us more opinions that could help us to improve our opening sequence.

To conclude, I found the Vox Pops very useful and helpful for my group as it allowed us to get an insight of what our audiences think in a lot of detail, this is useful because it lets us know what we need to change and what the audience thought was good about our questionnaire which then let us make vital changes to make our opening sequence as entertaining and conventional as possible. The group and I will try and incorporate every point that was being made by our audience, we will do this by re evaluating our opening sequence and including the elements which the audience would like to see. Ultimately this will make our opening sequence appeal to our 15-17 year old target audience. If i had to re do the task again i would make our open questions more complex so that when our audience answers them by doing a Vox Pop they can answer the question in detail which overall helps both the group and I, and the audience.