Audience Research

Audience Research 

I asked 20 different people about different aspects about thrillers, such as what their favourite sub-genre of thriller is, what they would prefer to be the opening sequence for a thriller, and what they as an audience look for when it comes to what interests them in a thriller. 

Q1) What would interest you the most for an opening sequence?

1. Suspicious/abnormal character and camera shots
2. A chase scene where action is already taking place
3. A plot driven, dialogue focused sequence  

The results to the right clearly show that 50%, which is the vast majority of people I used in my primary research preferred to have choice 1 as part of the opening sequence to my thriller. They gave their reasons behind picking choice one, and they believed it's because they believe thrillers to not be too focused on action, but more about build up and ambiguity of the characters and plot in general.

Q2) What type of thriller is your preferred sub-genre of thriller? 

1. Horror
2. Action
3. Psychological 
4. Science Fiction

The second bit of primary research results show that the most popular sub-genre is the psychological thriller, such as Seven, Silence of The Lambs or The Shining. It was close between psychological and horror, and in reality, they are both quite similar sub-genres, just horror are completely focused on scaring the viewer, with no real attention to plot or character development

Q3) What key aspects do you associate with any normal, conventional thriller?

1.  Suspense/Ambiguity
2. Action
3. Tense build-up
4. Having antagonists and protagonist 

 

The final question I asked and it's results are shown to the right, where the results conclude that the people i questioned have a preference towards associating thrillers with suspense and a sense of question, as well as tension throughout it's entirety and build up. From this. I know understand what it is people may look for and like in any thriller.

 

In conclusion, I have learnt from my gathered primary research that a thriller audience typically likes there thrillers to be mainly focused on suspense, with a hint of psychological thriller included, in order to keep the viewers attention, to keep them intrigued and guessing about the thriller, and also to engross them into the movie as by generating suspense and ambiguity, they as a viewer can't take their eyes off the screen.