Audience Research

1) What elements of a thriller do you think builds the most suspense?

The statistic signifies that people think music is the best way to build suspense in a thriller, so if we will put in a lot of focus on the music in order to give the film more of a thrilling impact and appeal to the targeted audience. This also tells us that dialogue will have less of an impact and so we will not use much dialogue, if any.

2) Does the music in your opinion, make a thriller more intense?

This signifies that our target audience appreciate to have more thrilling music in a thriller film as it makes it more intense, using this information it will help us to create a better thriller that includes specific elements that appeal to our target audience. As some of the participants said that they do not like music in thrillers we may include parts of silence, which will create suspense and also appeals to the audience.



3) What type of characteristics would you associate with a good thriller?

The questionnaire identifies that our target audience prefer to have male and female characteristics in a thriller film, this will help us to decide the story of the film and the characters included. To make our thriller more successful we will use this and include male/female characters in our film instead of those with non-human characteristics. The feedback shown that this is because the audience can relate to the film more and so it is more believable.

4) Do you prefer supernatural aspects to a thriller or more real situations?

This question signifies that more people think that real situations work most effective in thriller films and so we will include real situations with human characters and will not include any supernatural aspects in our thriller film..

5) Therefore, in accordance with the graph, it is demonstrated that film goers would rather have an ordinary person as the hero. This is mainly due to the fact that the audience believes they can relate more to the storyline and characters. Some people said that it would be better as it would make it more ‘real and believable’. Therefore in our thriller, we shall use an ordinary person as our as our central character.

 

7) What camera angles are most effective in thriller films?

These results will help our thriller film to be more successful as these will help us to decide which camera angles we will use more than others. The statistics identify that our audience prefer to see more panning shots in a thriller film as they are most effective and these are what we will focus more on to please out audience and raise the success and enjoyment of our film.

12) 92.5% of people questioned, would rather see dim lighting than bright. It was said that dim lighting sets the scene for a thriller and is associated with danger and fear. Others stated that it adds to the ‘mystery’. Therefore will shall film in dark or with minimal lighting to provide our audience with suspense and tension.

13) When asked what sound is most associated with a thriller, top three answers where: 32.5% said footsteps, 25% breathing and 17.5% heartbeat. From these results we will include the top three sounds in order to build the most suspense for our viewers.

 

15)

When asked, most people would rather not have vocals in the non-diegetic sound and sound with vocals. Due to these results, we shall not use any vocals in the non-diegetic sound, because film goers stated that it took away attention to the action that was about to take place.

 

16) It was found that people would rather the murderer was unexpected than expected character.  Therefore in order to appeal to our target audience, we will be having our hero to also be the killer, in a psychological twist that will both shock and disbelief the audience.

17) The graph shows that Red and Blue was the most popular colour choice of the audience. Due to red being the most popular choice by film goers, our title shall appear in red and the colour will have connotations that signify when a significant event it about to happen.

18) Jaws was the most popular film closely followed by Seven. As Jaws has long slow cuts in comparison to Seven in order to build tension, we shall also make our opening with mostly slow intense shots. However as Seven was the second most popular choice by film goers, we shall also introduce some fast pace cutting of images that will take place in the characters flash backs.

19) The majority of the people asked had another least favourite film than the ones listed. Due to this, the techniques we has observed within these films we shall incorporate into our own opening, because it demonstrates they are affective as more film goers did not dislike the films. For example we shall take fast and slow cuts highlighted in Seven and Jaws. And dim lighting witch is present in Disturbia.

20) Most people preferred to have simple typography compared to fancy typography. So in order to satisfy our target audience, we shall use simple text for our graphics, that is easy to read and clear to see.

 

21) Most people surveyed were 16-19 year olds which is most useful for us as our target audience is 15. Therefore, it is valid for us to aim our thriller to meet the things that have been picked on the questionnaire as the majority of the people questioned where from our target audience, therefore the film will appeal most to the people we intended it for.

22) More males were questioned than females. Due to this, when creating our thriller, we must take into consideration that some aspects made due to the answers may not always appeal to females as well.  This is more a problem where answers have been dramatically different such as question 20) as most females choose ‘fancy’ and most males choose ‘simple’. Therefore for us to use simple writing only pleases half of our target audience.

Character Outlines

Character Overviews

Eric

An elderly man, 68 years old, has one daughter aged 30 and a dead wife.  Eric used to work in the filming profession, but retired three years ago. Now, during his spare time, Eric has one joy of playing golf. He lives in a small town where he and his family have always lived. His childhood was not a pleasant one, his father was often in a hospital for the mentally ill and so when he was away, young Eric would have to graft in order to bring home money for the family. Growing up seeing his father locked up, and drugged up, Eric vowed to never allow himself to disappoint his family.

Anonymous Man

He is always dressed in very dark and dull clothes. He has a very steady hand and is a skilled artist. His emotions are never apparent; he is always alone and has no one to speak to. He never speaks and is very clever and cunning. His actions are very dangerous and often end up in death. His victims never hear him coming. Moreover   knowledge of crime scene investigations allows him to cover his tracks really well.

Daughter of Eric – Sophie

Sophie, medium height with long red hair.  She always wears her pyjamas around the house. She works as a nurse in a children’s ward. She works by the side of a local charity called Vision of the future. Due to her busy life style and long shifts, she doesn’t often see Eric nor does she have time for a male companion. Living alone, she often retreats to bed after her long shifts. She was extremely close to her mother, however Sophie surprisingly appeared to have lack of emotion when her mother pasted away.

Wife

She had long hair that she often dyed it to a golden brown. Her blue eyes had a sense of a loving a nature, demonstrated by her caring actions towards all her family. She was the person everyone would feel like they could turn to in a moment of need. Her hobbies were keeping the garden tidy and presentable and loved joining local competitions.  Unfortunately at the age of 66 years, she suffered with a brain tumour for six months and sadly died.

Story Boards

Disturbia

Narrative:
The structure of the opening sequence to Disturbia is linear, so all the events happen in order. In the begining the audience are shown two males fishing, their body language and language suggest that they have a good relationship.
In the middle,

Codes & Conventions:
Concealment is included in this opening sequence, as a blank screen, this adds tension. Partial vision is also used, as the drivers view is what we see.
A peaceful and calm river is shown in the begining, however this turns into a dangerous place, this is known as Transformed City.


Camerawork:
An establishing shot of the rivers and mountains, this gives the audience an ideal of their environment. Shot-reverse-shot is used in the opening sequence, a close up of the father's face, then a upside down shot of the son's face, this shows the relationship between them. A mid close-up of them fishing as father talks him through what to do again demonstrates close bond. As the truck is approaching the car a point of view shot of the son is used to increase the involvement of the audience and makes them feel as they are part of the incident.
During the car crash there are shots which are portray an unclear image, this emphasises how fast the event happened and how disentoriated their thought patterns were.



Mise-en-scene:
In the opening scene, the character's language and body language shows a good father and son relationship, this suggests that they are very close to each other.

Sound:
Diegetic sound is used as of the dialogue at the begining. The non diegetic sound in the opening sequence is the calm soothing music, this supports the happy relationship between the two. The music changes during the sequence, it builds in tension as he gets out of the car and then suddenly stops as there is a close up of his face of shocked emotion. The music builds up the tension to keep the audiences attention, it changes again to emphasise the sadness of the death of his father as it slows down.

Editing:
The editing is fairly slow, this emphasises a calm atmosphere. However, when the car crashes the timing of theshots become much more frequent and sharp in order to build tension.

Graphics:
During the opening sequence, a black screen is shown with voices, this adds to the suspense as it takes away knowledge of who is speaking and what they are doing. At the end of the sequence there is a black backdrop with the title of the film, 'Disturbia'. The word comes towards us from the back and ghost-like letters expand outwards as the letters get further out, it then turns into a bright white screen before fading into the actions. The white capitals on the background, is simple and easy to read.

Red Eye Opening sequence analysis

Narrative:
The narrative structure is linear, this is flowing and helps the audiences understanding of the plot. The opening shot is a panning shot of family photographs, this instantly gives the audience an idea of relationships of the characters in the film and also a relationship between the audience and the characters. As we are first shown a shot of a young woman, this suggests that she is one of the main characters in the film and that we are meant to be on her side. Later on we are introduced to a conversation between the hotel receptionist and to regular visitors to the hotel, their reservation cannot be found, and so further stress and complications are added to this scene.
In the taxi her father calls her in the middle of another conversation so he is put on hold, this adds more complications to the scene.

Codes & Conventions:

The opening sequence includes several codes and conventions such as The question answer model as the audience do not know what is in the box, concealment because the audience do not know who stole the wallet, partial vision is included as we are not shown the faces of the thieves and Transform City.

Camerawork:

The camerawork that is used creates suspense as of the type of shots and camera angles, like the several close ups of photographs and of the fathers belongings, these shots also provide background information of his family. A shot reverse shot is used in the hotel to show the conversation more clearly and to identify who is talking and who is listening.

Mise-en-scene:

The weather in the opening sequence conveys the females stressed situation, as the weather is stormy this may also be used to portray events that may happen later in the film (pathetic fallacy). Also the angry taxi driver and the angered man in the queue convey the stress of the situation. However there is a sense of safety in the airport of all the people that are around her, this may suggest that later on she will become unsafe looking for help.

Sound:

There is non-diegetic music used that is gains speed which increases the amount of suspense and it comes to the end of the opening credits. The music is pounding which may also signify a heart beat or excitement. There is also diegetic sound used, such as dialogue, the sound of the plane and thud of when the wallet gets stolen. Diegetic sound is heard when she is on her way to the airport, there are sounds of vihicle horns and screeching of cars.

Editing:
The editing in the opening sequence is fairly fast paced between conversations, this may be to convey the
confusion of the people having the conversations and their thoughts.

Graphics:
The graphics used for the credits are black on white to highlight them, and are in a typewriter style font. They are also centre placed and are big and bold, and fade into the background, this may be symbolic of planes which is what the film is about.