The document analyzes the results of a questionnaire about thriller movies. It found that psychological thrillers like The Dark Knight and Inception were the most popular among respondents. The majority preferred themes of suspense, mystery, tension and confusion in thrillers. Most respondents also liked cliffhangers in openings and felt plot was the most important element. Therefore, the document concludes that incorporating psychological elements, suspense and a cliffhanger opening would best appeal to the target audience.

1. INTRODUCTION
THE AIM OF OUR QUESTIONNAIRE IS TO IDENTIFY WHAT APPEALS TO OUR TARGET
AUDIENCE WHICH ENABLES US TO GAIN IDEAS FOR WHEN CREATING OUR
THRILLER OPENING SEQUENCE. WE STRUCTURED OUR QUESTIONNAIRE FEATURING
8 CLOSED ENDED QUESTIONS AND 2 OPEN ENDED QUESTIONS.

2. CLOSED QUESTIONS:

3. ARE YOU MALE OF FEMALE?
13
13.5
14
14.5
15
15.5
16
16.5
Male Female
GENDER
As the data conveys, there were a total of 30 people which took part in the questionnaire; 14
male and 16 female. Although there is only a difference of 2 between the genders, there are still
more female participants than male which means this questionnaire could possibly be biased.
However, if there was an equal amount of females and males such as 15 each, it would make
the results more fair.

4. HOW OLD ARE YOU ?
0
5
10
15
15-19 20-24 25-30 31-35 36-40 40+
AGE
This data shows that 14 participants which took part are between the ages of (15-19), making it the majority. The second highest
age group is between the ages of (25-30) as 5 people between this age group took part in the questionnaire. On the other hand,
the remaining age groups have a very low number for example, only 1 person which was between (20-24) and (40+) took part in
the questionnaire, making it the minority. Moreover, only 2 people which were between the ages of (31-35) and (36-40) took
part in the questionnaire, making it 7x lower than the majority. As there are not an equal amount of participants for each age
group, this could possibly make our results biased as we don’t have a clear picture of what other age groups are looking for
within a thriller opening. Therefore we should have an equal number in order to make it more fair.

5. What is your favourite thriller movie ?
FAVOURITE THRILLER MOVIE
0
5
10
15
The Dark
Knight series
Seven Shutter Island Inception Saw series Other
FAVOURITE THRILLER MOVIE
Using this question, we were wanting to know which type of thriller film appeals to the audience in order
to understand which kind of storyline people prefer. As the data reflects, ‘The Dark Knight series’ was the
most popular choice amongst the films, taking up 36% of the votes with ‘Inception’ following second with
32%. However, 3% of people picked ‘other’ making it the minority. Both, Inception and The Dark Knight
series are of the psychological sub genre which is beneficial as this is the sub genre we set out to use for
our thriller opening and we are now aware that our audience also prefers this sub genre. However we are
also aware not to base our thriller opening on storylines such as ‘Seven’ or ‘Saw’ as they took up small
percentages such as 6% and 10%.

6. Which of the following would you like to
see in a thriller film?
34%
13%
3%13%
30%
7%
Supsense
Tension
Humour
Confusion
Mystery
Protagonist vs Antagnonist
The majority of people that took part in the questionnaire preferred a thriller film to feature ‘suspense’
which took 34% of the vote however with a difference of 4%, ‘mystery’ was second with 30% of the vote.
13% of people both equally had picked ‘confusion’ and ‘tension’, making it the third most popular. The
top four picks such as ‘suspense’, ‘mystery’, ‘tension’ and ‘confusion’ are themes which are featured in a
psychological thriller which is what our film focuses around. On the other hand, ‘protagonist vs antagonist’
took up 7% making it the second lowest however, ‘humour’ was the lowest at 3%. Therefore, we will avoid
containing humour into our thriller opening.

7. What thriller sub-genres most appeals to
you?
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Horror Psychological Action Supernatural Crime
SUB-GENRE
Next, we wanted to know which type of sub-genre people were most appealed to. As
the data conveys, the ‘psychological’ sub-genre is the most popular at 40% with the
‘supernatural’ sub-genre following second at 27%. This is beneficial for us as our
opening is both of the psychological and supernatural sub-genre, which is what our
audience appeal to. On the other hand we will avoid containing an action or crime
theme to our thriller opening as they had very low percentages at 6% and 10%.

8. Do you like film opening to have cliff
openers?
24
6
4
Yes
No
Not sure
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
CLIFF OPENERS
24 (70%) of participants would like for a film opening to have a cliff opener. 18% said no however
12% were unsure. As the data shows, the majority of people would prefer to feature a cliff opener
within an opening therefore we decided to incorporate one in our thriller opening in order to
create more suspense and build up more mystery which is what our audience is looking for.

9. What do you think is the important key to
a thriller?
0
5
10
15
Sound Plot Lighting Clothing/props Setting
MOST IMPORTANT KEY FEATURE
The ‘plot’ within a film was seen as the most important feature of a thriller as 14/30 people had picked it.
However the remainder of the features such as clothing/props, setting and lighting all equally gained 13% of the
votes, making them the lowest. However, sound was seen as slightly more important however not as important
as plot at 14%. This data shows us that we need to make sure that the plot of our film makes sense and
corresponds to the sub-genre we have chosen as it is what the audience prioritises. However it informs us that
we should also keep the remaining 4 features in mind too as they are also seen as important.

10. Do you like a film to build up tension and
suspense?
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Yes
No
SUSPENSE & TENSION
As the data reflects, it is evident that the majority of people which were asked in this
questionnaire prefer a film to contain tension and suspense. On the other hand only a small
percentage which is 10% of people which disagreed. Just as 90% of the audience, we also
believe that suspense and tension is an important feature of a film, especially of psychological
thriller. Therefore we will feature this theme within our thriller opening by adding cliff openers
in order to keep the audience interested.

11. Would you prefer a male or female as a
protagonist
Male
80%
Female
20%
Male Female
As the pie chart to the left suggests, the
participants of the questionnaire prefer a male
protagonist rather than an female. In film today,
it is very common for a male protagonist to be
featured and it is becoming to be seen as the
norm. This is evident throughout our data as
although 53% of the participants of the
questionnaire were female, the majority of them
prefer a male protagonist. However, we are
subverting the conventional stereotype and
featuring a female protagonist within our thriller
opening in order to make it more diverse.

12. OPEN QUESTIONS:

13. What setting do you feel is best for a
thriller?