Audience Research

This is a vox pop we made to find out a bit more about the audience preferences. Most respondents  said there was a need for suspense in thrillers and also a need for the characters to make sense within the context of the film and add to the plot. This allows us to have an honest opinion of the audience and help as in targeting their needs.

Treatment

Noor-El-Ein comes from a Muslim background with a strict up bringing. Though Noor had a strong faith and strict morals, evil did not fail in grasping her soul. One winter evening, whilst she is walking home from the mosque, she gets involved in a car accident and is severely injured. She gets rushed to the hospital were we learn that she has damaged her hypo campus. Whilst still unconscious, Noor has a dream in which she can see flashes of images of those evils that have been prohibited. She wakes up confused. Due to her hypo campus being damaged, her old memories have gone resulting in Noor unaware of the difference f right and wrong. She keeps getting the same dream over and over again and unknowingly sets off on the wrong path. She starts involving herself in antisocial behaviour and even gets a boyfriend. She eventually gets kicked out of  her out of the mosque. Noor is confused since she doesn’t remember taking part in anything bad due to the damage done to her brain. Her parents cannot take the embarrassment that their daughter has put them through and they kick her out. Noor is now very confused, a few days later her boyfriend breaks up with her, and not being able to take the pain, she murders him. The next day she goes to meet him and finds him dead. At this point she realises  that something is wrong. Noor is now alone, and now its up to her to find out who killed him even though she did and doesn't want to accept it. Every time she tries to remember what happened her anger takes over and she kills someone. Will she be able to work through the mystery of her life? Or will these questions only lead to more closed doors? 

Product Research: The BROKEN

 

 

Analysis of Trailer

 

Camera Work : The camera work has been used very effectively in this shot. we see a female character lying in a bath tub. The camera is slowly zooming into the face of the female character, this suggests thought and focus.

Mise-en-Scene : The female character is lying in a bath tub with is white, the colour white reflects the innocence and purity of the character, however, behind her we see a dark grey wall, this colour carries strength and mystery and suggests some kind of negative attributes, such as mourning. The rough grey clouds almost act like clouds that are going to 'rain over her'. We can make such judgements also because of her facial expressions, and the scar and stitches across her forehead. We imagine her to be in some kind of deep thought related to the scar.

 

The on her forehead is very deep which suggests pain, the fact that it is on her forehead suggests that maybe she has had something revealed to her which caused her mental pain, or maybe she has learnt something which has left her in shock. Also it seems like a there is a shadow behind her since the colours look mysterious.

 

 Camera work and Editing : Whilst the camera is slowly zooming towards the female character who is lying in the bath tub, we suddenly are greeted with a montage of short takes. the fast pace of the shots and the fast cuts suggest some kind of past memory, and so we realise that the women is thinking back to a party where everyone is holding a toast. we have now been introduced to two more characters, a male and a female whom which the women sees in her flashback.








 

Audience Research

 

Questionnaire

 

 

How Old Are You? :
 

The first question that we asked our audience is there age, this is one of the key aspects of research required when carrying out audience research, this is because age can have a big impact on likes and dislikes. Though our sample of 30 people are not representative, we still managed to get something feedback from as many different ages possible.

 What Gender Are You? :
 

The second question we asked our audience is their age, again with this we tried to get our feedback to be reasonably proportioned because gender also affects what kind of film someone would prefer, such as romantic movies are usually aimed at women and action adventure movies are usually aimed at men.

What Ethnicity Do You Belong To? :
 

The next thing we asked our audience is what ethnicity they belong to. This is very important when researching for anything, this is because different ethnicities have different cultures. Therefore the cultures of certain people may influence what kind of product interests them. As you can see that we tried to get a whole variety of different ethnicities so we could learn about choices of films from all kinds of perspectives.

 

On Average How Many Times Do You Go To A Cinema In A Month? :

 

 

Since we are researching films, it is important to ask our audience how many times they go to the cinema to watch a film, yes its true some people do watch films on Blue-ray and DVD at home, however the purpose for this is to see how many people would actually go to the cinema to watch a new release. we saw that only 20% don't go to the cinema at least once in a month, meaning that 80% go at least once. we also learnt that the majority of these people were of a young age. One main reasons behind making a film is for the money, so in order for our production company to make a blockbuster film, we need to reach for an audience that is most likely to watch our film in the cinema when it first releases, and since the majority were between the ages of 14-27, that is the age group that we will be aiming for when making our thriller.

 

What Is Your Preferred Film Genre? :

 



Whilst researching our audience, it is important that we also look at what genres are most popular, as you can see from your results that their is a mixture. The highest percentage belongs to Rom-Coms and Action-Adventures which are both hybrids, whilst the lowest belongs to Historical. Even though Thriller movies did not have the highest percentage, they still had a percentage of 13% which is still a significant amount. Whilst speaking to some of our interviewees we learnt that even though Thrillers were not their favourite film genre, they still did watch a lot of them and found them very intriguing.

Have You Ever Watched A Thriller? :

 

 Since we are making a thriller, it is important to know how many people have actually watched a thriller movie at any point of their lives, as you can see the majority said yes they have.

 

What Is The Most Important Aspect Of  Thriller Film? :

 

The final question that we asked our researchers was what they felt was the most important aspect of a thriller. We asked them this question so could analyse how well our audience knew the genre and to see what they thought gave a film the thriller aspect. We had a lot of different answers but most of our respondents told us that the main aspect of a thriller is suspense, without suspense a film cannot be called a thriller, this is because the idea of the film 'thrilling' the audience is through the suspense that holds the audience at end. However, our respondents also told us that without a good narrative, the suspense is meaningless. Suspense only works in a film due to is storyline, if it is clichéd and simple, it is very hard to include suspense, and even if we do, it may not be as effective. Other respondents also told us that without a good setting and characters, including suspense is very difficult. This is because good actors are required to take on these roles, for example, if an actor fails to act out something correctly, the audience will lose interest and get bored. Also intriguing settings are also a key aspect of showing suspense, and also using the setting wisely and unexpectedly. 



Angels and demons

This Ron Howard film,captures the conventions and the many features in a thriller. It is a sequel to the $224 million film, the Da Vinci Code. Just like the Da Vinci Code, it is an adaptation of thriller fiction writer,Dan Brown's trilogy. This I story is set in modern Rome to go with whole idea of religion vs science as it also includes elements of science. This idea is becoming an increasing modern convention of thriller ls as more films are beginning to use this plot.
By watching this movie, it gives me more ideas as to what to include in my film apart from the normal obvious conventions which disengages the audience.

Product Research- Black Swan.

Black Swan 
I haven't watched this film but this trailer really intrigued me. The trailer really builds up into a crescendo, as it was subtle and implicitly shows that it is a thriller.

Editing and Camera
The fast paced editing near the end really captured my attention because it adds to the disorientation of the viewer. The close ups of the protagonist's face allow the audience to see the change in her mental state. This combines well with the increasing pace of the editing to show her growing confusion. Another close-up that was interesting was this hand-held one that helps to create a sense of paranoia around the protagonist.

Mise-en-scene
This shot is interesting because of the way the light and her outfit creates a sense of innnocence being surrounded by darkness - a conventional theme in thrillers

Narrattive and Themes
The story line also can immensely help with our piece as it explores something similar to split personalities and again involves the human mind etc. The trailer uses the right amount of generic conventions to me, as it uses dark lighting when needed, breathing sounds add to the effect of helplessness and despair.
Conclusion - elements to consider:
Dark/dim lighting.
Crescendos/ tension building
Fast paced editing/ closeups of random objects to distort views
Panting/breathing
Hanah Eltaher 12.4

Product Research: When a stranger calls.

Having already seen this film, I would say that trailer is much better than the actual film. The build up of tension and suspense was going all the way through it. The major problem with it is the way the characters are not very convincing. The choice of generic conventions are very obvious, the typical story-line of the 'curious babysitter who goes to investigate instead of doing as she was told'. What I liked about the trailer was the long periods of silence which adds to the tension and fear. It also makes things ambiguous because the audience can't hear what's going on. Mise en scene aspects are the dark lighting, implying danger and mystery.
The cuts are fast paced, and distorted, however you can see they clearly link, this makes the thriller more generic as it's mysterious.
There are also many close ups, which we can use in our piece to show each character's expression and how they react to parts of the film. In this trailer the main protagonist is faced with many dramatic events, and the audience will be able to see this clearly.
Hanah Eltaher 12.4

Product Research- Identity Film Poster

This movie poster is interesting because of the images in the foreground. The hand represents a person, presumably the main character, the fingers represent the many people this character can be or the people the character meets. This allows us to make a connection between the title of the film and the image. The base of the hand is person screaming, this gives an idea that it's a thriller film without even watching it. This again is relevant to our own piece, because we will be developing the idea of split personalities and finding yourself psychologically. This film poster suggests that this can be all within the human mind, and can have many ways it can affect people. What I disliked about the poster was the tagline at the bottom, seems to generic almost gives the story away.
Hanah Eltaher 12.4

Product Research: Seven Film Poster.

This movie poster is relevant to our thriller as it seems show split personalities. The emotions with red lines through them seem very generic as they could represent names of victims being killed off etc. The main characters faces seem sinister, and Brad Pitt's face appears to be edited using film noire, this shows the character in half light side, and half dark side, implying that this character is neither good nor bad. This film poster is helpful for our group because we can use some ideas from it, to recreate our own. I liked the way the seven emotions relate to the name of the film, this makes sense to an audience as all link together. What I didn't particularly like was how generic the film poster looks, it almost looks too typical.
Hanah Eltaher 12.4

Unbreakable

I worked my way through another M. Night Shyamalan film: Unbreakable, which really engages the audience through its fantastic visuals, camera angles and effective sound used.
The visuals of this film is shown through a broken glass which links in with the themes of death and loss and also blood as the the glass breaks and the pieces are scattered everywhere. The names of the a actors and actresses are seen through the broken glad which sets the tones for the film. It also uses a striking ray of light through the title 'UNBREAKABLE' with a black background to symbolise danger.
In the trailer, the voice of the characters engaging in conversation which overpowers the shots been shown as it is giving background information adds the thrill and tension to the whole film.
One thing M. Night Shyamalan does well in his films in the thriller genre is that he engages or tries to engage his audience right at the beginning of the film by shooting at different angles, using appropriate lighting, visuals and sound to create a lasting effect on the audience.

The Sixth Sense

M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense presents the main character as a little boy just like in a lot of thrillers and also horror movies which children as they're vulnerable and are easier to get the audience to empathise with them. This quickly engages the audience. Just like most thriller, every 'event' happens at night time when everyone seems vulnerable as it is the end of the day. It is also a physiological thriller hence links in with the mind and how it works. This makes the evening the perfect setting and atmosphere to create the most tension and suspense.
What this film does well is it uses the main character to portray the main themes and ideas. It also uses the older characters through their fear of the dead to captivate audience as old people are meant to comfort the children. This adds the thrill and fear to the film.
All the above adds works well and links into the film's plot.

Silence of the lambs

This Jonathan Demme thriller is about a top student at the FBI's training academy whose analyses of serial killers lands her a special assignment that will change her life forever. What this film does well is that, the opening of the film misleads the audience in the sense that it we are first introduced to a female character (Jodie Foster) who seems to be running from something, but as the scene develops, we realise she's training and works or the FBI. This technique engages the audience at the first glance. It then uses the orchestral non diegetic piece which contrasts the whole plot of the film to show represent the female character as perhaps the hero in the film. It also uses natural lighting outside and then uses higher lighting in the FBI building to highlight it as a safe area. It also shoots it from a low angle to show its superiority. It also visually shows themes i.e. hurt,agony and pain which is unusual in a lot of genres.
Overall, this movie is works wells as it uses effective conventions such as dramatic lighting usually low key lighting etc to create the an effect on the audience.

Paranormal Activity

 

 

This Oren Peli film is a classic psychological thriller which explores the supernatural and things that are just out of the norm e.g ghosts. A lot of thriller conventions are used to create the suspense and the tension needed,in order for the movie to be captivating and in the audience's interest. Above is the trailer of the movie which doesnt necessarily highlight the these conventions but show and highlight some of them. The dark lighting which is used represents darkness and the gothic theme some thrillers like to capture. Also it uses a lot of special effects to get the audience intrested in the film such the foot drag: where the female character is dragged by a robe but the person pulling the rope is wiped on the screen therefore gives the scene ghost like and sinister feel. This film is very different from other thrillers, as the two man characters shoot the film almost the whole film. They film themselves doing day to day activities and the camera is placed at an angle where the audience are able to see everything that goes on in the scene and this where all the special effects happen. This film is similar to others as it uses a lot of special effects, low key lighting and appropriate sound.

Overall, this film explores the different conventions in a thriller and also uses effective techniques to engage the audience.

Types of thrillers and examples

To start of my product research, I looked at the different types of thrillers and directors in order to to get a wide range of thrillers to choose from.
Some types of thrillers I found where:

• Action Thrillers: Batman: The Dark Knight Rises,Die Hard,Inception,James Bond films, Speed, The Transporter, and the Jason Bourne series.
• Crime Thriller: Pulp Fiction,Reservoir Dogs,Se7en,The Godfather, and The Killing.
• Erotic Thriller: Devil in the flesh,Body Heat, Bound,Body Double,The Last Seduction,Basic Instinct, Dressed to Kill, Color of the Night, Eyes Wide Shut, and Fatal Attraction
• Horror Thriller: The House Of Wax,Saw series, Psycho, and Silence of the Lambs.
• Techno-Thriller: Firefox
• Psychological Thriller: Paranormal activity, Seven,M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense and Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley.
• Supernatural Thriller: Stephen King's Carrie and M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable
• Political thriller: Seven Days in May, The Day of the Jackal, and The Manchurian Candidate
•  Disaster thriller: Deep Impact, Earthquake, and Armageddon.
   

The DaVinci Code

The DaVinci Code

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Hunted

The Hunted - Drama series on BBC1

The Hunted is an Action Thriller

 

 

First thing we notice that the main lead is a female, this is subverting the generic conventions of action and thrillers as we would expect the main protagonist. However, what this drama does exceptionally well at is, not only does it show Sam Hunter (the female lead) as the strong and intelligent hero, but it also takes the generic convention of the 'damsel in distress'. Though she may be the hero, she is also seen to be the victim which fulfils its convention.

 

 

Product Research- Inception.

Inception is a thriller, it uses most of the major generic conventions, it sets the concept of being a thriller automatically. Inception involves action and violence. It includes many close ups extracting fear and shock from the actors.
Hanah Eltaher.

Product Research- The hand that rocks the cradle.

The hand that rocks the cradle is a spectacular thriller film, that uses all the generic conventions of a thriller film. The setting is overly friendly, and makes it seem suspicious and mysterious. The music used is overtly cheerful using chimes etc. There are many over the shoulder shots which imply dialogue and conversation, could be an element of conflict. The trailer introduces a happy image of 'perfect' family, implying a settled life,  and it uses the typical idea of an 'intruder', that comes in a has an impact on the characters.
Hanah Eltaher.