We decided to have our target audience as teenagers to young adults. We did this because they are the largest age group to watch this genre of film. Also our characters are set as this age group so it would be easily related to them and make the impact of the storyline even more so. There isn't a certain gender that we have aimed at as having a mixed gender gives a wider audience range.
To help decide our target audience we sent out a questionnaire and then with the results we decided the best age, sub-genre of thriller and main setting.
This is what our questionnaire looked like it was straight forward and appropriate to what we needed to find out. As well as a questionnaire I researched the typical conventions and features of a thriller to help contribute to being as successful as possible.
For example:
*its purpose is to thrill the audience.
*It uses elements such as suspense, tension and excitement this is to effect the audience's emotion a few examples would be: anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and/or terror.
*Adrenaline-rushing, gritty, rousing and fast-paced.
*Cliff hangers, red herrings and plot twists.
When we got the results of the questionnaire back the results showed:
1. How old are you?
15-25: 6 26-36: 0 37-47: 4 48+:0
2. Gender:
M: 2 F: 8 O :0
3. What is your favourite film Genre?
comedy - 7
Action - 2
Thriller - 1
4. What are your interests?
5. What scenery for a thriller is most thrilling:
Wood: 8
Old house: 2
River Bank / Dyke:
Normal house / school:
6. Do you enjoy thriller films?
Yes: 6
No: 0
Not always: 4
7. Yes or no would you prefer to see a male or female lead in the thriller?
Male: 1
Female: 2
Either:7
8. What is your favourite thriller if you like them, if you’re not a fan what is the most famous thriller you know of?
Dracula
The Bone Collector
Spiders Web
Phone Booth
Hunger Games
Pulp Fiction
Shutter Island Orphan Amityville Fight Club
9. What is your occupation?
school: 6
Commercial bank manager
Free lance Equine Instructor
Teacher Assistant
Tesco's employee
10. How many films do you watch a month roughly?
0-2 : 2
2-4:
4-6: 6
6-8:
8-10+: 2
How did this influence my Final piece?
My research influenced our filming and ideas for my thriller opening as we wanted to see; the best gender for the main character for a thriller, the most effective scene to use, what all the best known thrillers are and what they have in common.
These thrillers all have the theme entrapment and luring their victims in with a twisted game. In these thrillers they have mind games and unexpected out comes. With our thriller opening we will be going along with the theme of a mystery, where you won't properly see the abductor. With this in mind we will also be looking at the woods and open spaces to give an idea of being in the middle of nowhere and a struggle to escape. We are also looking at rating our thriller at a teenage target audience so 15+ but due to the content in our opening we would rate the film at a 15. Our thriller terms follow the BBFC’s guidelines which are appropriate: At 15 violence may be strong. It should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury, however, and the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. Easily accessible weapons may not be glamorised.
There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence (for example descriptions of rape or sexual assault in a courtroom scene or in victim testimony) but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.
BBFC :
15 : No-one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a ‘15’ rated DVD. 15 rated works are not suitable for children under 15 years of age.
This screen grab is one of the first shots of our thriller and is of the stalker. I chose this as, the stalker who is the villain is hooded and mysterious which is a typical convention of a thriller and something our target audience would expect to see. We shot this directly behind the stalker as if the audience are following the stalker which is ironic as the stalker is following the girls. The effect of following the stalker is that the audience see the stalker’s story as well as the girls this in effect leads to the climax.
In this close up shot of the two main girl characters, you can see them in their own environment which is the bedroom on the bed talking. This screen grab shows the age of the girls and shows how naïve and innocent they are. We shot it at a sideways angle so you could see the girl’s full emotion and body language. This gives the audience a clear perception of the girl’s characters and a small insight of what might happen. This then leads onto the ‘shock’ when there is a plot twist.
We used a lot of long shot to show our characters in their environment for the effect of the intense moments which is another convention of a thriller. This close up is of the two girls being trapped in the stalkers house. Here your emotions are pushed as you watch the door slam and from the audiences perspective it's like they could help them as the girls are reaching out for help. With this shot we filmed the girls saying help as they tried to drag themselves out the door towards the audience. As they get move towards the camera, the camera moves backwards and just before they reach the door the door slams shut. We shot it at a direct angle as if the audience are standing at the door.
This long shot is of the stalker following
the girls, from the stalker's shoulders upwards are cut off so you can't see
their face. This in effect keeps the stalkers identity hidden and so keeps the
audience intrigued with the mystery of this thriller. When we shot this close
up we purposely shot it at an angle for the effect of the mystery. It is also
quite daunting as the setting is quite normal which brings it close to reality
and normal life. We were going to keep the natural sound of the stalker walking
through the leaves but we later decided to put a narration of one of the girls
instead. 
This cut away/ mid shot of the stained glass swallow window on the front door and the light is when the girls are trapped in the house the light is on the is switched off suddenly. This effectively creates suspense and a questioning in the audiences minds about what happens to the girls, what does the light switching off mean and are the girls still alive? It symbolises danger when the light is switched off as we as humans use light as a safety to see or as a comfort in the dark. When the light is turned off it implies that the girls are in danger because they are now in the dark and the shadow of the swallow.
Through our questionnaire we found out that the audience out of four choices the top two were an old house, which we got as we used a Victorian house, and the woods, for this we went to Clipsham where it is wide and open spaced and there is a wood which follows onto expected convention.
We used a current and modern sound track the instrumental version, so the lyrics don't distract the audience from the film.
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