2. Market Research - Poll
One of the ways I addressed my target audience was by
creating and distributing a poll to people of the age I
planned to aim my film at, asking which sub-genre of
thriller is most frightening to them. The options from
which they could make a choice were mystery thrillers,
erotic thrillers, crime thrillers and psychological thrillers.
Most of the responses (56%) indicated that psychological
thrillers were most frightening. This was positive because
my original intentions were to create a thriller with a
psychological twist.
This was having a female antagonist, who was actually
someone her victims were close to and trusted prior to her
attacking them.
3.
4. Open Discussions
Consulting family members and friends of the age group
my film is aimed at taught me that a cliff hanger is the best
way to thrill my audience.
For this reason I ended my open title sequence open
ended, left for the audience to make conclusions over. I did
this by holding off on informing the audience of the
Brownies’ wellbeing at the end of the opening title
sequence, thus causing the viewers to conjure up their own
ideas as to what happened and will happen in the film to
come, and enticing them to continue watching.
Appealing to my audience directly enabled me to fulfil the
wishes of my audience will hopefully help attract them
towards my film.
5. Open Discussions
The conversations I held with potential viewers also highlighted the
importance of suspense in my thriller to me.
As a result of this, I increased the suspense within my film through the way in
which I filmed and the decisions I made during the editing process. This
involved tense music, cuts and transitions to suit the atmosphere in the film at
the precise moment of movement from one shot to the next, and of course,
creating suspense with the content of the shots.
The mise-en-scene played a huge part in this, such as the low key light that
acted as a backlight to create a silhouette effect on the Brownie Leader as she
walks towards and enters the Brownies’ tent.
The dialogue and characters’ actions were also effective, as mystery is created
and tension heightened when the Leader prevents the Brownies and thus the
audience from observing what she is carrying in her bucket, the chloroform.
The antagonist’s quick, sharp response tips the audience off to the fact that she
is lying, but keeps them from finding out what she is hiding until later on in
the opening title sequence. Keeping information from the audience enabled
me to create plot twists in my film, which increases the suspense within it and
will hopefully keep my audience watching.
6. Market Research - Survey
In a survey distributed to my target audience, I asked which
specific matters are most thrilling to them. This generated
a number of different responses with a common theme of
realistic scenarios. Basing the storyline of my film on true
facts encourages me to believe that my is likely to be
successful as it appeals directly to my audience’s desires.
This survey also taught me more about the type of audience
I should be aiming my film at and what they saw to be a
good thriller. It was as a result of this research that I
decided to involve a stalker in my thriller, i.e. the Brownie
Leader, as many responses said they find this thrilling to
watch.
7. When asking members of my
target audience what about
thrillers is most frightening
to them, these were the
main kind of the responses I
received…
8.
9. Advertising
My thriller will be advertised in various ways in order that I may reach out to as
large an audience as possible, the conclusion drawn being that the more people
see the advertisements, the more people pay to see my film and therefore it will
generate more revenue.
Posters advertising my film on billboards and the sides of buses are of the best
ways to appeal to my target audience; they reach many potential customers,
informing them of important details such as the film release date and cinema,
etc. This form of advertising informs potential consumers out about on their
busy day of our film.
Advertising this way requires attractive posters that will be appealing enough
that bystanders will, as a result of seeing them, decide to go to the cinema, to
see my thriller.
Despite the fact that producing a high quality trailer can be expensive and time
consuming, it is crucial that I have an effective one as this allows people to
make prejudgements about my film as a whole and essentially entices them to
make the decision to spend time and money on viewing my film.
10. Advertising
Trailers on television stations may be considered a better way to draw my
audience in, however, there is less chance that these will be seen by my
target audience as they have to be watching the right television station at
the right time in order to catch them, and are more expensive to produce.
Advertising with a trailer in cinemas before other films of the thriller genre
is another great way to attract my audience. This enables countless people
attracted to films like mine to discover it and gain a taste of what my film is
like; these consumers are much more likely to go see my film as they have
already expressed an interest in it.
Advertising on YouTube with trailers before similar videos, the third most
popular website internationally, would gain my film a huge amount of
publicity. This is a quick way to compel scores of potential consumers to
watch a trailer of my film. The expected result of this form of publicity is
for my target audience to become curious and visit a cinema to watch my
film in its entirety.
