Pre-production contribution - Target audience analysis (Questionnaire)

 1.     What are your expectations of thriller openings?

Springs into action ( ) Calm/slow ( ) A bit of both ( )

2.     Where do you think are the most appropriate places to film a thriller?

Domestic settings ( ) In an open environment ( ) Out in the open ( )

3.  Out of the following thriller genres, what genre is your favourite thriller?

Horror thrillers ( ) Crime thrillers ( ) Psychological thrillers ( ) Other ( )

4.     Do you expect there to be a lot of dialogue involved in an opening of a thriller?

A lot of dialogue ( ) A bit of dialogue ( ) A minimal amount of dialogue ( )

5.     Do you expect there to be a soundtrack playing over the acting in the opening of the thriller?

Most of the time ( ) Sometimes ( ) Not a lot ( )

6.     Do you expect credit sequences to be ...

Over the character acting ( ) Over a blank ( )

7.     Do you expect thriller openings to be ...

Complicated ( ) Simple ( ) A bit of both ( )

8.      Do you expect thriller openings to keep you guessing about the storyline of the thriller? If so, why do you think thrillers do this?

Yes ( ) No ( )

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9.     What do you expect thriller openings to have in them?

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10.   Do you expect thriller openings to be character driven/related?

Yes ( ) No ( )

11.   Do you expect thriller openings to have ... (tick more than one, if you want)

Complicated characters ( ) Characters having a hidden past ( ) A lot going on (character wise) ( )

12.   What do you think thriller openings are mostly focused on?

Characters ( ) Locations ( ) Dialogue/soundtrack ( )

Due to the feedback we have received from the questionnaire we carried out, we found out that people expect thriller openings to either spring into action, or have a slower tempo to them, in which in our thriller opening we will try to include both elements, as we will have a phone call at the beginning of our thriller opening (which will be a calm/slow tempo), and then we will jump to a faster tempo, as Aaron Cochrane (Dave Stone) goes into the house.

Furthermore, we found out that people think thrillers should be filmed in open environments, however, we believe thriller openings are most effective in domestic settings, in which our thriller opening is going to be predominantly based in a domestic setting. Moreover, we also found that people enjoy watching psychological and crime thrillers, as they keep the audience interested into what will happen next, in which we will attempt to have psychological and crime elements in our thriller opening.

Our questionnaire on thriller openings also helped us find out that people expect there to be a minimal amount of dialogue, in which our thriller opening will consist of a minimal amount of dialogue because we think this is most effective, as from our initial viewings of films, such as Narc, they have been extremely effective without giving away too much of the plot with the use of dialogue. In addition, we also found out that the sound element of thriller openings should consist of a soundtrack, in which our thriller opening will consist of natural sound, along with a soundtrack to create mystery, tension and suspense.

From our initial viewings of films and thriller questionnaire, we have found out that credit sequences are most effective when they are displayed over characters acting, in which we will display our credits over characters acting. However, we will have our production company and title of our thriller opening on a black screen, as we think it is eye catching and would be most effective.

Moreover, we have found that thrillers are character driven, in which characters are used to create tension, suspense and mystery, as they are the main focus in thriller films. Our thriller opening will be character driven as we will try to keep the audience questioning what our characters will do next.