Questionnaire and Target Audience Research- Miss Frisendar

Analysis of Questionnaires and Target Audience Research

My group carried out a questionnaire with a range of questions about Thriller films. We asked 20 people to get different opinions on what makes a good Thriller, what kind of iconography has the most impact during a Thriller scene and what they would want to happen at an opening of a Thriller to make them want to carry on watching. We done this so we could get some ideas for our own Thriller and so we know what people would like. 

In our questionnaire we asked a number of quantitative questions to provide us with data. One of our questions was 'What is your preferred location for a Thriller film?' The options we gave were: Prison Cell, Forest, Garage, House, Orphanage, Rural/Urban place, Dark Alley and other. From our research we have found out that peoples preferences for locations in Thriller films are in an Orphanage or a House with a Rural Area coming in at a close third choice.  The top choices are both our choices and not their own which tells us that we are aware of what people like in a Thriller. This tells us that people prefer the locations to be more realistic so they can relate to it themselves, therefore we can include this evidence in our own Thriller opening. 

Another question we asked in our questionnaire was 'Out of these conventional forms of Iconography which do you find the most effective?' Options we included were: Lamp, Knife, Mirror, Rope, Gun, Dolls, and a Mask. Our results concluded that Masks were a top favourite with Rope being a close second choice. These results have came out of a the Quantitive questions and allows is to be more aware of what the viewers like being included in Thrillers and therefore we can include this in out Thriller to enhance their experience while watching it. 

We also included Qualitative questions in our Questionnaire to produce more data. From the Qualitative data we found out that the most popular Thriller film is The Strangers, from this we are provided with information that the viewers are fans of shock and suspense films and also like the fact that the antagonist has a hidden identity which links in with the previous question and that the preferred Iconography was a mask and also the fact that the viewers like suspense, enigma and unexpected twists included in the film. Another aspect we found out was that the most popular sub-genres are Crime, Horror and Psychological Thrillers which can give us more ideas for our Thriller opening and we have a better meaning of knowing what to include. Finally another fact we found from our Qualitative Data was that people like there to be either a murder or a chase at the beginning of a film to grab their attention and make them want to keep watching, this again provides us more information that we can include for our opening Thriller scene so we can make it full of shock, suspense and surprises to grip the viewers. Another fact we found out was that viewers also like there to be a type of sound during the film to create a climax of tension and suspense again to make them hooked this is also good for us as we now know we need to include sound to create the same effect.