AS Thriller Evaluation - Question 5

HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

Camera Interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_vp-uHWQ-c

Primary research was essential for my production because the research collected consisted of information which would be helpful for our group as we asked the public a series of questions using a questionnaire.   This was essential because it helped us as group decide on the best target audience; without knowing the target audience, I wouldn’t know who we would be aiming it to and knowing that type of thriller to create.  

We researched various thriller films focusing on one element of the conventions.  I did a series of blogs analysing mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing styles, sound etc.  Doing this research helped us get a better understanding of why a certain element would be used in a film and what type of effect; it would have on the audience.  It also helped convey our own understanding of thrillers overall. 

I did research on the history of thrillers and what made the thrillers successful.  This helped to get an understanding of what other films were like in previous years and that other films got inspiration and took the ideas and involved in their own films.

I also did research on film certificates; this research was done to help to get an idea of what the different film certificates were like and what kind of things the film had to involve to get that specific film certification by classification.  I carried out research for the certificates of U, PG, 12, 12A, 15 and 18.

I carried out secondary research on narrative theories; this helped us have an idea of what type of theory was more similar to our own narrative.  It provided us to research about three different theories from Vladimir Propp’s, Aristotle and Todorov.  We wanted our thriller to be realistic for our audience, so we followed the idea of realistic events leading up to equilibrium.

We carried out a source of primary research; this research involved making a questionnaire consisting of open and closed questions for the public to answer about thriller films. 

This secondary research helped to plan our film because without the research we wouldn’t have made a successful thriller.  I had to plan what to include, to get the best results for the audience.

The primary research helped to find out who our target audience was going to be.  Without knowing the target audience, we wouldn’t know what kind of things to film.

I took editing ideas from scream 3 including timing of shots and straight cuts to suggest a change in location because these editing styles were conventional to the thriller genre and would have an effect on the audience. 

I took inspiration for mise-en-scene from Shutter Island and scream 3 because we used the idea of the car park and the low key lighting from Shutter Island because it added an eerie atmosphere.  

I got inspiration of sound from Halloween as it consisted of the diegetic and non-diegetic sounds as well as the on-screen and off-screen sound because without these sounds everything would be different. 

I took inspiration of cinematography from Saw and Halloween, as they consisted of various camera shots such as point of view shots in the film Halloween because it added a sense of mystery.  Another camera shot, we took the idea of the establishing shot because it lets the audience know the location of where the action will be taking place.

The research of the film certificates helped to plan what type of thriller opening sequence I wanted and knew what types of things to include for that certain age certificate being for fifteens and over. 

The primary research was a big help when planning the film as this helped us decide on what we should aim the target audience to be in our thriller.   The questionnaire consisted of open and closed questions, to get a range of different answers both detailed and straight forward. We took on the generalisation of the results of the questions.  I took the idea that a lot people liked the suspense and the feeling of being scared when watching a thriller and tried to incorporate that into my thriller film.  I also took the idea of making sure that it was going to be cliché because we didn’t want it to be too predictable.  I took the idea that they liked the effect of the music, as this also played apart on how it made them feel.  Knowing that the general age asked was 15+, we decided that our target audience would be fifteen and over.  My primary research inspired my thriller as it consisted of answers which included answers from the public and I was able to generate my idea from the popular answers of what type of thrillers to use.  The questionnaire consisted of open questions which was able to produce quantitive data which means that more detail could be involved in my results.  The closed questions consisted of possible answers next to tick boxes, this was able to create quantitative data, so it was easier to gather statistics and get a visual of what answer was more popular.

Overall, the primary research assisted with planning what our target was going to be and what would be best to include.  The secondary research was a big help when planning the thriller because it provided us with essential information to make the thriller opening sequence.