The document discusses research conducted into the thriller genre and target audiences for thriller films. It provides definitions of thrillers and explores their history and various subgenres. A questionnaire was administered that found the target audience to be males and females in their late teens who prefer suspenseful, mysterious trailers and posters that do not reveal too much of the plot. Respondents indicated they most want to see thriller films for their intriguing storylines and feelings of suspense they provide.

1. Research Ashleigh, Becky, Scott & Claire.

2. Definitions – noun 1. a person or thing that thrills. 2. an exciting, suspenseful play or story, esp. a mystery story. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/thriller << in the context of a film, a thriller would entail an exciting suspenseful and mysterious plotline with the intention to thrill. The difference between the genres horror and thriller is that a thriller film is more psychological and makes the audience have to think more then horrors, furthermore a horror film contains more gore then a thriller film and usually has a less gripping storyline.

3. The thriller genre was first introduced in the 1920’s with Harold Lloyd's comic, Safety Last. Although the first motion picture was a in the early 1930’s with a German film called M. One of the most famous film-makers/director was Alfred Hitchcock who helped to create the ‘modern day’ thriller film. Hitchcock's filmography includes such famous movies as, ‘The Birds’ ‘Psycho’ and ‘Rebecca’ although Hitchcock began with the silent film ‘The Lodger’ in 1926. ‘ Hitchcock's films often placed an innocent victim (an average, responsible person) into a strange, life-threatening or terrorizing situation, in a case of mistaken identity, misidentification or wrongful accusation.’ http://www.filmsite.org/thrillerfilms.html Research

4. Sub-genre or thriller Action thriller Conspiracy thriller Crime disaster thriller Disaster thriller Drama thriller Science-fiction thriller Horror thriller Erotic thriller Legal thriller Medical thriller Political thriller Psychological thriller Rape and revenge thriller Religious thriller Spy thriller Techno-thriller http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(genre)

5. Target Audience To obtain a reliable target audience, we created a questionnaire on the subject of thriller to help us to determine a specific target audience. The questions were sent to a variety of individuals so that the result was not biased. We also asked questions relevant to trailers and posters as to have more research to help us when we plan our film.

6. Results from Questionnaire, Gender Male Female Out of the 73 responses we obtained we could determine that more females answered the questionnaire then men. Showing that females tend to take an interest in the thriller genre from this result.

7. Age 10 – 15 16 – 20 21 – 30 31+ We received a variety of different age responses, but the age range with the most responses was the age group 16 – 20 years of age. Showing us that thrillers appeal to the elder teens.

8. Favourite film genre? Here we asked our interviews what their favourite film genre was so that we could see how popular the thriller genre actually is. From our results we found that the most popular film genre was comedy, which is because this can appeal to nearly everybody and does not have a many barriers when focusing on target audience, depending on the type of comedy. Whereas thriller got a 11.11% overall, therefore being the 4 th popular which is still quite high up. Giving us a better chance to use this genre as our own because we already know it is quite popular. A) Comedy B) Action C) Sci-fi D) Romance E) Thriller F) Adventure G) Horror H) Fantasy I) Western J) Other

9. How often do you watch films? A) Once a Month B) Twice a Month C) Once a Week D) Twice a Week E) Three times a Week + We also wanted to know how often people watched films so that we could analyse if they are film lovers or just the occasional film watcher. Most people watched films once a week which is an average amount to watch films showing us that the people who have answered the questionnaire are general public and not phonetics.

10. Through what media do you view films the most? A) Cinema B) Rental C) Internet D) TV E) DVD/Blu-ray We then asked the audience about the way they viewed films the most which resulted in DVD/Blu-ray was selected as the most popular, followed by TV telling us people prefer to watch films at home, as it requires less effort and possibly cheaper. This could help us when advertising as it can tell us we need a good marketing scheme when selling the DVD.

11. Do Thriller movies appeal to you? We know that the majority of people who answered our questionnaire were interested in thriller films and that they appealed to them as the results have shown.

12. Which of these thrillers have you seen? A) Hannibal B) Sin city C) The Dark Knight D) Psyco E) Panic Room F) Se7en G) Room 1408 H) Other We wanted to get an idea about the types of thrillers that had already been viewed by the people who answered our questionnaire. We found that ‘the dark knight’ was the most popular which could be because it has many subgenres such as, Comic book adaptation, action, psychological.

13. What would you rate the films in the previous question? In terms of how ‘Thrilling’ they are. This is the ratings people gave the films from how thrilling they thought they were, you can see from these results that The Dark Knight is the most ‘thrilling to its audience.

14. How do you find out about films the most? A) Posters B) Billboards C) Trailers (Cinema) D) Trailers (TV) E) Trailers (Online) F) Magazines G) Texts/Email alerts H) Word of Mouth I) Other To help us with our marketing we wanted to find out about the most popular way people found out about films, which according to our results was trailers they saw on TV followed by Trailers at Cinema. Telling us that people seem to find out about films from trailers as they are more visual and give more information about the film then other methods, which is further shown from the least popular way which was billboards.

15. What attracts you about a thriller film in particular? A) Storyline B) Actors C) Feeling of suspense D) Feeling of Fear E) Producers/Directors F) Reputation G) Prequel According to these results about what attracts them about a thriller film, we know that it is the storyline and the feeling of suspense. We have taken this information into mind when writing our plot synopsis to make sure that the plotline is interesting and keeps the audience thinking, we will also make sure that the film keeps the audience in suspense throughout.

16. Would you prefer a thriller trailer to be… Suspenseful Mysterious Reveals information/Plotline Dramatic Scary When we asked what the audience likes to see in a thriller trailer the results showed that they preferred a suspenseful and mysterious trailer rather then a dramatic, plot revealing trailer. So from this we know not to reveal to much plot in our trailer and make sure that it suspenseful. As this attracts the audience the most.

17. When you see a film poster, what is the first thing you notice? Characters Title Slogan Director Images Colours Other When researching about the film poster we found out that the first thing an audience notice is the images on the poster, telling us that these must be striking and make the audience want to view the film through the gripping images and then followed by a title that stands out.

18. Do you prefer… Teaser Trailers Full Theatrical Trailer Not to see the Trailer at all From this we found out that the preferred type of trailer was a teaser trailer shortly followed by a full theatrical, this is because people prefer to have some detail about the film before they see it but not all because they do not want the films plot to be revealed.

19. Overall Conclusion From our research we know that our target audience will be both genders in their late teens, as we believe this would appeal to them the most. We know from this research about what our film needs to contain to be a successful thriller trailer. It mainly needs to be suspenseful, mysterious and have a deep and twisting plotline we will do this by using the codes and conventions of a thriller film (shown on another document) We also know that the poster must have images that attract the audience as this is what they notice first along with a catchy title to also attract them as this is what they noticed second. We also know that magazine is a way that people find out abo0ut films so we need to make sure that our magazine cover attracts the audience again through images but without revealing to much of the plot at the same time.

20. Thank you for viewing our slideshow on the research into the genre thriller and the target audience of thriller. =)