2. QUESTIONNAIRES
Within our group, we decided that questionnaires would be a good way to find out many aspects of our film,
for example, what the characters should wear, what they should look like, what the audience expected to
happen, and where they expected the action to be set.
One of the questions that we asked the audience in our questionnaire was:
"What would you expect the villain of a thriller film to be wearing?"
The results were:
These results tell us that the audience were expecting the villain of our film to
be wearing casual clothing. This was taken on board when planning out the
mise-en-scene of our film.
This helped us to attract the audience's attention as we were taking ideas that
we had gained from them on board when planning the film.
This was taken into consideration and used in our thriller as
the villain's mise-en-scene shows casual trousers and a
hooded jacket.
3. MISE-EN-SCENE SURVERY
As well as using a questionnaire to retrieve results from our audience, we also did a survey, that would allow
audience members to share with us what else they may expect from our thriller film.
This would help us through the planning process as it mean we were able to refer back to the survey, and take
into consideration what the audience had said, and use this to include features in our film.These surveys were
asked to 20 people and included 5 questions. One of the questions asked in our survey was:
"What sounds did you expect to hear in a thriller film?"
The main answers to this question, and the majority vote was:
"Loud screams and deep breathing"
This survey showed to be very helpful and useful when it came to producing our film, as well as during the
editing process. This allowed us to determine when and where these noises could fit into our thriller film, and
in what context they could have been used.
We decided to use deep breathing when the victim was being held down with a gun to her head by the villain,
as it showed the fear and tension that she felt at that moment in time, this would also help to thrill the
audience and leave them in anticipation, as well as creating an uncomfortable atmosphere for them.
Screaming was used when the victim first walked back into her office and was grabbed and throw back by the
villain, this was also used to create tension in the atmosphere for the watching audience.
4. FEEDBACK
We also received feedback from our classmates after explaining to them how we would plan our and show
our film. This was in the form of sticky notes and was very helpful to us, as they would give us a taste of what
an audience would feel about our film.
5. Many things arose in this peer feedback that needed to be clearly thought about.
For example, the area in which it would be set. When it came to filming and
planning out our film, we needed to make sure that this was very clearly shown to
the audience, so that they were not confused through the duration of our
opening scene. We made sure that we did this by showing an establishing shot
towards the start of the opening sequence, showing the offices where the action
was set.
Another point that we gained from the peer feedback was the fact that it would
not be clear who each of the characters were due to no names being said.
Therefore, when it came to filming the office scenes in our thriller film, we made
sure to use many of the characters names, to show who was being interviewed,
and who they were talking about.
6. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we decided that all of the feedback that we received, both from our
peers, and other audience's via our questionnaires and surveys, were very helpful
and gave a great important contribution throughout the planning process.
Many of the thing said by the audience were useful and were used in our final
piece, for example:
The use of black and white
An indication to where the action would be set and the area
An idea of what the villain would wear
Tension and suspense in the atmosphere
The names of characters being said aloud.
By using these things, we were certain that we would be able to have a successful
thriller opening that would attract an audience as we used what they had asked
for.
