A2 Media - Audience Feedback by SA and MR

1. PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLERS
QUESTIONNAIRE - FEEDBACK
By Sara Avramovska (SA) & Monisha Roy
(MR)

2. ■ Myself (Sara Avramovska) and Monisha Roy (MR)
have gathered our group of participants ( 100
participants however not all at the same time) within
our media classroom and handed out this
questionnaire. We have displayed a few short films
we have found on YouTube in order to help our
audience answer the questionnaire more effectively
and reliably. We have displayed around 3
Psychological Short Thriller films we found as well as
any that our audience required to re-watch such as
the Black Swan or The Butterfly Effect movie scenes
therefore the feedback will not be based only on one
particular short film we had chosen but rather a broad
range.
■ Here are the 3 Psychological Thrillers we had
displayed to start of this session:
https://youtu.be/pLwDhH0I2Io
https://youtu.be/_9MPydNcxao
https://youtu.be/pwvECOFJwFo

3. What are you favourite psychological
thriller movie? (Please List 3 below)
• Black Swan.
• The silence of the
lambs.
• The game
• Psycho
• The Ring
• Saw
• Cube
• Paranormal Activity
• Insomnia
• Panic Room
• Requiem for a dream
• Frozen
• The Woman in Black
• The Butterfly Effect
• Sleep Tight
• Red Dragon
• The Broken
• The Hunter
• Identity
• Hide and Seek
• Fracture
• What lies beneath
• Hannibal
• Awake
• Trauma
• Don’t say a word

4. What intensifies your experience of watching your
favourite movie? (Psychological Thriller) Why?
BELOW ARE SOME EXAMPLE ANSWERS:
• ‘’The intense interplay of emotions and internal conflicts between characters
(actors). It intrigues my attention or the audiences attention and keeps my or their
eyes glued on to the screen, and I believe that if the actors play their role effectively,
I will defiantly watch the film ’’
• ‘’ I feel as if sound Is extremely important. Usually you don’t notice it while watching
the film as you are entirely engaged within the film to a point where the cinematic
field, or cinematic aspects rather, are almost unnoticeable, It feels like real life
experience. However once we were shown the short films by Sara and Monisha, and
asked this question I realised the importance of sound especially how well it is
synced with what's happening within the film. It creates a sense of movement, a
sense of reality, as if you were in the film yourself!’’
• ‘’I feel drawn to emotion from the music within Thriller films or any films in general. It
advantages and mimics the visual image’
• ‘’Dim and Mysterious lighting.’’
• ‘’ Dialogue kept at minimum. I dislike it when the tension and suspense is build up
and then the characters speak. Its just distracting, kills the mood and focus. It
irritates me.’’
• ‘’I enjoy supernatural figures in psychological thillers and the realistic makeup. It
emphasises the sense of realism and puts you in the shoes of the character that has
to face a particular supernatural situation, engaging you as the audience to face the

5. What aspects/elements of Psychological
Thrillers do you dislike?
Most of our participants struggled to find an answer for this
question, the few feedbacks that we have gathered are
simply related to sound issues, lighting and unclear camera
movements therefore as a group we will aim to do our best
to achieve an effective and efficient quality of filming and
editing the final product. We aim to research furthermore
into these aspects of cinematography such as on how to
use the tools of Final Cut Pro as none of our group
members have used it previously. Either myself (SA) or MR
will conduct this research on CONSTRUCTION - Editing
Final Pieces (Movie Poster, Film Review and Short FIlm
Scenes).

6. What intensifies your experience while watching psychological thriller?
Beneath are a few examples of the feedback we have collected from both gender participants:
• Salma: ‘’ I personally enjoy the miss-en-scene the most because some Psychological Thrillers have
realistic makeup and it builds a sense of excitement and an adrenalin rush.’’
• Jake: ‘’I think I enjoy the story-line mostly, as the conflict between the characters, or rather the
protagonists emotional and physical conflicts are quite relatable in some cases… and I feel rather
intelligent watching the storyline of psychological thrillers as it gives me the privilege to figure out the
story or what's going to happen next! ‘’
• Shukria: ‘’ The non-diegetic music intensifies the experience due to the increase in heart rate and
blood pressure. It gives me Goosebumps…and the build up to climax really does excite me’’
• Khizer: ‘’Story-line. A sensation of being in that specific situation presented within the film. A sense of
realism and ideology is presented as a conflict in most psychological thrillers therefore it intrigues me
as an audience member.’’
• Kane: ‘’ Intriguing and Compelling if the tension is great…if its damn right’’
• Zayn: ‘’ I enjoy the development of the character and the theme of perception presented through the
realistic mise-en-scene such as casual clothing attires. Also the lighting within psychological thrillers I
believe contributes immensely to the build up in tension if done right. Dim Lighting can honestly keep
me on the edge of my seat as I really have to pay close attention to the scenes in order to fully
engage in the storyline and usually the murderer, or whatever the creature, jumps out! I love that
feeling at that exact moment!’’

7. Would you prefer if the protagonist was around
your age? (Please Circle One)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Male Female
Yes No Does not matter
As displayed on the bar chart on the left hand side,
majority of our questionnaire participants of both
genders did not object or oppose weather the
protagonist was indeed around their age or not as
56% have circled ‘’Does not matter’’. However 37%
has said ‘’yes’’ they prefer the protagonist to be
around their age and 7% preferred if it was not. Due
to this myself (SA) and (MR) at this point in our
coursework believe that our protagonist within the
movie should be around our age therefore it is
effectively relatable to our target audience ranging
from ages from 15- 28, however since the majority
did not mind, our protagonist can be relatable to all
ages. (Scientifically Sleep paralysis is experienced
by every individual at some point during their
lifetime.)

8. Would you prefer if the story line unfolded
quickly or gradually? Why?
4
6
15
19
31
25
MALE FEMALE
Quickly Gradually Does not matter
Since the majority of the
participants have answered with
‘’does not matter’’ our group is
accustomed with the opportunity
to choose weather we would like
our film story-line to unfold
quickly or gradually. At the
moment as a group we have not
yet decided on which we would
proceed to use, however we will
discuss this matter altogether
along with Ella Ponting once we
have drafted our script.

9. Would flashbacks intrigue you in a psychological
thriller? If so why?!
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Male Female
Yes No Does not matter
As you are able to identify from the bar chart we have conducted,
the majority of both genders (female 30% & male 28%) are indeed
intrigued by flashbacks presented within psychological thrillers.
The reasoning behind their choices is displayed below:
Notice: (Please note that we have rephrased the feedback from
our participants in order to conduct their opinions in shorter
terms.)
• Flashbacks develop the audiences understanding of the
character and the psychological trauma they are experiencing.
• Character development is
• Flashbacks reveal emotional and physical information
throughout memories, as the character experiences the events
in the present time throughput the visual image presented
within the camera frame .
• Adds structure to the narrative while also developing the
backdrop to the storyline of a film.
Myself (SA) and Monisha Roy believe that we should in cooperate
this experience of a flashback within into our story-line due to the
positive feedback received, however we believe we must conduct
further research into this particular aspect of cinematography in
order to gain in-depth knowledge therefore we contribute this
aspect effectively. Our research can be found below this
PowerPoint or link will be provided for guidance.

10. Regardless of your answer within in the previous
question, would you prefer if flashbacks were presented
in: Black and White, Colour or It Does Not Matter
(please circle one)
0
5
10
15
20
25
Male Female
Color Black and White Does not matter
Both male and female genders responded with similar
feedback on weather they enjoy flashbacks presented in
ether black and white or in colour. 21% of the male
participants preferred if the flashbacks are presented in
colour where as 23% preferred the presentation of black
and white. 20% Female participants preferred colour,
where as 21 enjoyed black and white. As you can gather,
this information demonstrated that both genders had
diverse opinions on the choices, therefore we have
decided that once we have shot the flashbacks scenes,
we will edit the using Final Cut Pro while cooperating both
of the options within our personal film, and display both
scenes to a large group of audiences to gain an in-depth
understanding on which is more effective and which we
will display as a final piece of our coursework in order to
please our audiences. This information will be collected
and analysed within further questionnaires.

11. Would you prefer if the villain/monster is presented through realistic
make-up (Picture A) or perhaps cartoonish (Picture B)?
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Male Female
Picture A Picture B
As you can gather both of our 44% female
and 36% of male participant preferred the
realistic Picture A choice rather then the
Cartoonish Picture B. The reasoning behind
this is displayed below:
• If the makeup is realistic, it intensifies the
experience of the audience off screen as
sleep paralysis is a real
disorder/condition.
• Intrigues the audience with its vivid and
clear image.
• Contributes to the build up of
imagination.
• Builds anxiety.
• A sense of realism can make the
experience rather vivid.
• Originality.
• Thrill-seeking.
• Increased heart rate and blood pressure
can feel the sinister presence off-screen.
• Excitement.

12. What is your worst fear?
• Sleep Paralysis. >>>> Both of our fears 
• Arachnophobia (fear of spiders)
• Claustrophobia (the fear of small spaces)
• Aerophobia (the fear of flying) >>>> Sara’s Phobia 
• Thanatophobia (the fear of death)
• Hemophobia (the fear of blood)
• Xenophobia ( the fear of the unknown)
• Nyctophobia (the fear of darkness)
• Anatidaephobia (the fear of ducks) >>> Monisha’s Phobia! 

13. Are you aware of sleep paralysis?
(Please Circle)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Male Female
Yes No
As you can tell by the conducted
research, there are 33% of male and
31% of female participants that are
unaware of sleep paralysis and we
believe that put storyline could bring
awareness and avoid immense
psychological traumas in those who
have or may have experienced this
disorder. More on why we have
chosen to do sleep paralysis can be
found through our entire blog.
(including target audience in gender,
age, sleep paralysis related research
etc.)

14. If not, would you still be interested in watching a
short film based around this topic?
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Male Female
Yes No
As you can observe, majority of the
participants would still be interested so
Yay! Thumbs UP!    … however
we will still aim to intrigue and
persuade all of our participants to be
apart of the final product
display/viewing therefore we can
gather contrasting impressions and
observe weather we have alternated
the opinions of those who were not
entirely interested in watching the
short film.