Primary Research - How can I make my thriller appealing to my audience ?
Using the website Survey Monkey.com I developed a survey that will aid my primary research as to how to make my thriller appealing to my audience. After collecting my results a sum of 21 people replied to my survey out of the 21 people asked 61.9% were male and 38.1% were female. From these responses my results from my survey are going to be heavily influenced by a male audience.
The age group of this selected demographic ranged from 15 to 34 year old's with 90.5% of people asked were between the ages of 15-24 and only 9.5% of people asked were between the age group of 25-34.
From these responses my results from my survey are going to be heavily influenced by a 16-24 demographic however this may not be a cause for concern since I am targeting this audience, I will be able to achieve a clearer idea as to what this audience wants.
When asked "what is your favorite thriller" the sub-genre psychological thriller was the most popular with 76.2% of my audience voting ticking the psychological box, second with was action thriller with 38.1% of audiences ticking the action box. Finally in joint 3rd were the spy and crime thriller sub-genres with 9.5% of people ticked these boxes. From these results I have discovered that the psychological thriller genre is the most popular among my focus group therefore to appeal to this audience I should include many themes and conventions of this genre in my thriller such as looking at the theme of the human mind and an internal conflict characters within this genre have with it. Perhaps by including this narrative device in my thriller I can add more depth to my characters as well as my narrative. I.e. my protagonist of my thriller suffers from hallucinations that may or may not be real or my protagonist is a suffering alcoholic and my thriller title conveys this by looking at the psychological aspects of this alcoholism. Likewise with the action, crime and spy genres as these top 3 genres can be held as a basis for the development of my thriller as I can pick successful genre conventions from these genres and implement them into mine, i.e. the fast pace of action thrillers with the intense crime based mystery of the crime thriller genre.
Furthermore when questioned on "What elements do yo think are important to the thriller genre?", the choice characters was selected the most with 66.7% of people ticking the characters box. The element "Mystery" followed as 2nd choice with 47.6% whereas in 3rd was the element of visuals with 38.1%. From these results one can establish that characters clearly play a large role in thrillers according to my audience, therefore it would be wise to create and develop strong and believable characters for my thriller to appeal to my audience. Secondly I will take in account the 2nd and 3rd top picked options to appeal to a wider range of my audience.These options were mystery and visuals. However I will prioritise these elements in my thriller , i.e. my first target to appeal my audience would be to create good characters, my 2nd one being to create a strong mystery within the narrative and finally my 3rd target would be to create a stylised piece so that it is appealing to my audience visually.
However when question on "whether they believed plot twists add depth to narrative?" 100% of people asked answered yes to plots twists adding depth and believed that this narrative device further develops the plot. Therefore to appeal to my audience it is recommended that I include such a device to appeal to my audience, however due to time restrictions, i.e. we are only filming a 2 minute opening to our film, the inclusion of a plot twist will feel rushed and may lack the hook this device usually has if done right. To substitue I believe the inclusion of a basic hook such as ending just before conflict is about to take place, may serve just as well. On the other hand if the restriction did not apply I would include this device to appeal to my audience.
After asking my audience what was their favorite thriller the thriller title taken appeared the most out of my responses. Reasons behind this choice were generally the fact that Liam Nesson was in the film whereas others responded with people liking it because of the characters, narrative and action. The obvious option to appeal to my audience would be to cast Liam Nesson in my film, however due to budget limitations this is not possible, however by casting someone like Nesson or developing my protagonist in a similar fashion to Nesson's character in the film taken, I will be able to appeal to my audience. Furthermore according to one of the responses below it says what they like about the film were it's "story" and "characters"; this further justifies my previous point on focusing on characters and narrative to appeal to this audience. In terms of action I believe by including it in my thriller but keep it fairly minimal I will be able to appeal to my audience since the film taken itself is known for its action scene and is clearly a favorite among my audience. However by making action minimal in my thriller it allows me to to focus on a deeper narrative which wont be drowned by violence, thus allowing me to cater to my audience successfully. In addition from looking at the general response for why people liked their chosen thrillers these responses ranged from "The plotline", "depth narrative and plot twists", "character development" and "the action and intensity". So from these quotes one can justify the inclusion of a strong narrative with strong characters and action to appeal to said audience since clearly these features are what make these films enjoyable to said demographic.
According to the graph below when asked "Where do you prefer to consume film the most out of these two mediums?" 76.2% answered cinema whereas 23.8% of people asked answered the internet ergo it is apparent that more people in my audience prefer to watch their films online therefore to appeal to my audience and to
actually capture my audience it would be wise to market my film and show my film in the cinema contrasting from previous conclusion from secondary research. However there is still an audience that consumes film online and due to limitation marketing and showcasing my film in theaters may not be practical, to get around this, one could suggest using viral marketing through social networking sites like Facebook to catch the attention of my audience directing them from these sites which are known to be used by my target audience onto a site like YouTube where it would be ideal to show my film.
Finally when asked " Do you like thrillers that challenge the viewers sight, i.e "hidden clues within each shot that eagled
eyed audiences can discover?" 90.5% of audiences answered yes where as only 9.5% said no, ergo according to this graph a majority of my audience enjoy film "Easter eggs" that challenge the viewers eyes so the inclusion of this feature in my thriller justified as according to the graph a majority of my audience would find this very appealing. To implement this feature I propose using small and subtle clues for example how in the film v for vendetta how the letter v is hidden in almost every frame of the film, perhaps I should adapt this in my film but instead of little letters include things like dates and numbers which forebode an event in my film or even well known lines from other works of literature and work around these lines to make them link in with an event in my film.
Conclusion
After reviewing my data it seems that to make my thriller appealing to my selecting demographic narrative, characters and action will have to play a large role in my film although action may be minimal as it will both me and the audience to focus on a deeper and enjoyable plot. In addition psychological elements and visuals, this includes Easter eggs will have to play a large role as well to capture my audience. Finally to actually gain audience it would be recommended that I showcase my film in theaters however due to limitations I will substitute this with viral marketing on social networking sites and feature my film on YouTube.
