Questionnaire

I decided that in order for me to gather more information on thriller genre and what people look for in a thriller movie and trailer, I should hand out a questionnaire based on the genre to 10 willing participants.

I began my questionnaire by asking each participant their age and gender. The reason I asked these two personal questions is because I wanted to determine the target audience that thriller genre appeals to most, therefore allowing us to decide what age group we should aim our movie towards. From my ten participants 50% were male and 50% were female, I purposely did this so that I could determine my results fairly. From these ten participants 5/10 were aged 17 and 5/10 were aged 18. The reason I kept the ages in the same region was because this is the target audience we want to focus on, so its there opinions and views that I want to take into account.

My next question was a basic question asking what type of thriller movie they prefer with four possible answers to chose from (action, supernatural, paranormal and sci-fi). The reason I asked this particular question first was because I wanted to get an idea of what type of thriller is most popular and which is least popular. My results are as followed:

From looking at the bar chart above I can see clearly that the two most popular types of thriller were paranormal which 40% put as their favourite and action which 30% put it as their favourite. I can also determine the least popular thriller genre which in this case was science-fiction were only 1/10 people put it as their favourite.

The next two questions were open questions; this means that they allowed the participants to write their own answers without any options. The two questions consisted of asking what you expect to see in a film trailer and what they expect to see in a film poster. Some of the answers I received consisted of immediately knowing the genre, star appeal, short, fast, intense clips, release dates, action shot from movie and gradually building intense music.

I followed this by asking what attracts them to see a film, with four possible options (word of mouth, trailer, star appeal and box office draw). The reason I asked this question is because it is important that I know what attracts an audience to see a film, so that I can include this in my trailer, poster and magazine front cover. The results are as followed:


From the results it is obvious that trailers are what attracts the majority the people to see a movie, with half of the participants choosing this option. This is important to know because it shows me that our trailer has to be good enough to make the audience want to see the actual film, as this is what acts as the main form of advertising for the movie itselfs.

My next question was another open answer question asking the participants to write 2 things that make a good thriller movie. The reason i chose to ask this question is because it will allow me to gather a few initial ideas of what people in our target audience look for in a thriller and what makes a good thriller. Some of the feedback given including things such as a good majority of suspense, the unknown and even a unexpected twist.

I bought my questionnaire to a conclusion by asking for a final question "name two of your favourite thriller movies". The reason i asked this question is because i wanted to find out what thriller movies have done well, whether there is common occuring favourite thriller and what genre of thriller was most popular. Some of the movies people wrote down included films such as paranormal activity, the shining, the unborn and pyscho.