Secondary Questionnaire About Thrillers

I have conducted a second questionnaire to further delve into what people want from a thriller. I have listed the questions below in the order I asked the questionees.

What do you want to feel when watching a thriller?

What is your favourite thriller?

What made it your favourite thriller?

When watching thrillers, what usually makes you jump?

How much does the opening matter to you?

What made you want to go and see it?

Where was the film set?

The results from my questionnaire were too sparse to put into table form. Instead I will sum them up in the report below.

When asked what they wanted to feel when watching a thriller, the most popular answer was for them to feel excited. This is what I predicted would be the most common result, as that’s what thrillers are all about, excitement and adrenaline. This excitement can come from various sources commonly found in thrillers such as deploying a bomb just in time, general edge of the seat entertainment. Several people wanted to feel a sense of anticipation, a “will they make it or won’t they?”-esque feeling. Fewer people said they wanted to be scared, but more of a quick jump/shocked feeling which one would receive from a thriller, than a horrified feeling which they’d get from a horror.

After asking ten people their favourite thrillers, I received 9 different results, listed below. Also below are their reasons for it being their favourite thriller.

The Godfather (part one) - “Overall incredible film. Not one part of it was lacking, plot was excellent and the actors were perfect for their roles.”

Pulp Fiction - “The film’s easily quotable, and it’s unconventional in that it’s not in chronological order and it follows three storylines.”

“The film is funny but not in the way a film normally is. The dialogue is amazing.”

Inception - “The cinematography is exceptional and the film lives up to the hype.”

The Dark Knight - “The film draws you in and the music/acting is spot on.”

Fight Club - “The hidden meanings and plot really made the film.”

Taken - “The action scenes were incredible and there’s so much suspense.”

Reservoir Dogs - “It’s not a typical crime/thriller, it’s much more real and pure.”

Sin City - “It’s amazing to watch in cinemas, due to the violence round every corner.”

V for Vendetta - “The mystery conveyed by the main character along with the storyline is amazing and keeps you wondering.”

From the above list I can see that many of the classic thrillers are amongst the people’s favourites. These are made up predominantly of new-age films such as Inception and The Dark Knight; however they stretch back to the mid 90’s with Pulp Fiction and 70’s with The Godfather. This shows that although new age films may be people’s films of choice as they are what they will have been exposed to, many classics are still amongst the favourites due to their popularity at the time of release.

When asked what would make them jump, the unanimous result was that a sudden movement or something appearing on the screen accompanied by a classic high-pitched note would scare people the most. Another result was that excessive amounts of blood/gore would make people scared/jump; however this is more frequently found in horrors than thrillers, possibly suggesting viewers sometimes it hard to distinguish between the two and classify movies into each genre. Two people said that a sudden gunshot when everything is quiet would make them jump, again relating to suspense and tension; two key elements to thrillers.

The classic response to the question of the importance of the opening ten minutes to a film is that it’s the most important part of the film, as it sets up the audience’s expectation and lets them know what they’re in for, and this is what my results shown. However, there were several responses saying that the opening, although important, does not totally determine their view of the film, because many films change and develop in the following scenes. Only one person said it would determine whether they continued to watch the film or not, going as far to say they would not continue to watch if the film was not up to their expectations. Although this is only one person, I will need to make sure the opening is as strong as it can be.

When asked what made them want to go and see the film, I received an array of various answers. The majority said they wanted to see the film after viewing the trailer; many specified further, saying they were attracted by the action in the film, the actors, the director’s previous work and the general outline of the plot/story. Some said they saw other forms of marketing such as posters they saw at bus stops, on the side of buses, on billboards etc. They also specified further, saying mainly the same reasons. One person was influenced by a friend who asked them to come along, so the film’s popularity was spread by word of mouth.

The location of almost all of the films were said to be in cities or industrial areas. The only anomaly was the answer from the questionee who saw Inception, where the location was in somebody’s dream. However inside the dream, the location was a city. Although this is what my questionnaire shown, this does not accurately represent the entire of the thriller genre. If my questionnaire ranged to more people, the results would have shown a much more diverse range of locations.

From this questionnaire I can see the many different concepts and ideas people have when thinking about the thriller genre, and I will attempt to create my film with the preferences of my target audience in mind. However I will need to ensure I do not over-complicate the opening and cluster it with too many different viewpoints.