Genre Survey

I created a genre survey so that we could get a greater understanding of what various audiences expected from a thriller genre film. I asked a total of 50 people to take part in the survey, i aimed to gather an indication as to what direction we could take with our production as essentially the audience is the key to our production. I asked a total of 9 questions:

1. Male/Female
2. Age Range
3. What age range would you think a thriller genre mostly appeals too?
4. What draws you in to a thriller film? E.g. The music, Action, plot etc...
5. What Sub-thriller genre are you most drawn too?
6. What setting would you typically find within a thriller film?
7. What sort of characters would you expect to see within a thriller film?
8. Within a thriller film what aspect builds tension most?
9. What was the last thriller film you watched, and how did it build tension in the best way?

Questions 1, 2 and 3 gave me an indication as to the different target audiences that were given me feedback and the target audiences that were most intrigued into the thriller genre. I created question 4, 6 and 7 as open ended questions so that i could get a wide level of feedback as to what actually brings viewers into thriller films, and what draws them into a thriller film. i hoped that due to the open ended questions it would make us get a greater understanding of the thriller audience as we may have picked up on something that we had never of thought about. I got a great level of feedback. It was obvious from the large number of people that agreed that the plot and characters must capture them immediately and last through the whole period of the film. as well as this it was widely thought that the music must create tension throughout the film. The survey also suggested that location was key and i had received a large proportion saying that a location that an audience can relate too, have a sense of familiarity will create great amounts of tension as well as this grim, dark, mysterious, eery and hostile locations were also well mentioned.

Question 5 suggested that viewers of thriller genres have a varied taste in the sub-genre they preferred watching for a thriller film. Action and horror thrillers came marginally top just above psychological and drama thrillers in the most preferred, which was then followed by sci-fi then crime thrillers. although it was clear that everyone has there own favorite, it showed how the most appealing seemed to be action and horror.

As a group we were adamant that within our production it was vital that we created tension, this would be key in creating a great thriller. On questions 8 and 9 i received some great feed back as to what the audiences felt about tension. An overwhelming majority said that music was the main attribute as to creating the sense of tension. It was also taken into account that Acting, Lighting and Setting were also key contributers in creating tension.

Thriller soundtrack survey

This is a video presentation of the survey and research I conducted into thriller music. Unfortunately, I couldn't show the complete results from the 25 people I asked but does contain interviews and what we aim to do to create suitable and memorable music for our opening sequence. I also understand the sound and video quality isn't good as the responses were filmed on my mobile phone, due to the fact that is was the quickest option for me and the interviewees. I will in future use a professional video camera supplied by the school.

Suitable non copyright music

Using non copyright music has plenty of drawbacks as it means you will have to find a way of getting non copyright music and ensuring that it matches your sequence well. But I think by doing this it adds a sense of originality to scene. Also when making your own music you can ensure the music will meet the demands of the audience.

. The easiest way to ensure that the music you have uploaded onto your opening sequence is by simply creating your own this way it makes the music original and interesting as it is a never before heard piece , which may gain extra attention when watching the opening sequence. Also by doing this you can create music that suits your sequence perfectly.

. Various artists tend to allow you to use their music but only with their consent. Also they may have certain conditions when allowing you to use the music. Like Moby he allows you to use his music but you cannot change one thing about the song this makes it difficult to find a piece of music that will suit your opening sequence perfectly also by doing this it isn’t as creative and may waste time waiting for a reply. Although by using an existing artists music the audience will be able to identify with the music easily.

.Websites such as www.royaltyfreetunes.co.uk offers a wide variety of non-copyright music. The music is original but does consist of a payment. This can be from £499 for the entire package or up to £50 for the album. The other fault with doing this is that the music may have been used before so it doesn’t add the originality to the sequence.

Preliminary task

This is our preliminary task. We chose a thriller genre for this task as we wanted to gain experience to what we can acheive on our main task. By having a thriller genre, we twisted the brief slightly by showing a character walk into a room whilst also having shots showing the room with a kidnapped character inside. This worked effectively as the unique idea we had created original connotations.

Research into 30 similar media products

I researched opening sequences from a range of genres to gain more understanding and knowledge into how to make our sequence look proffesional and stylised. I also researched 10 thriller opening sequences to understand the forms and conventions commonly used in thrillers and also how we could develop and challenge these.

20 film opening sequences

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Ryans OS draft

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Research into similar media products

research on opening squences

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By researching previous opening sequences I gained a lot of knowledge about the key features which are vitally needed to make my opening sequence look professional. I researched plenty of different genres of films as they will include different conventions to ensure the sequence compliments to the genre of the film. Once doing this i began to research more into the genre i have chosen for my film. By doing this I found the most effective ways to ensure the audience’s attention is fully focused on the film. For example the sound is ambient this creates a lot of tension so I used this idea when creating my opening sequence.

About us

MARJ Productions is the AS Level Media group that consists of: Matthew Wright, Alex Barham, Ryan Malster and Jade Smith. Our aim is to create an exciting, vibrant and original title sequence for a fictional film that will grip movie-goers. We commit to working hard to excel in our production and already took a large amount of research before starting our creative project.

Matthew Wright

Unfortunately Matthew has left the course due to unforseen medical circumstances.

Alex Barham

Creative and hardworking, Alex is an ideas person in the group who strives to make the group stand out with detailed work and a tendency to think outside of the box.

Ryan Malster

Skilled and experimental with a video camera, Ryan is the member who like Matthew, aims to correct any errors and makes sure everything in production sticks with the term thriller, so we can keep with the target audience and the intended narrative.

Jade Smith

Great with a video camera and hardworking, Jade delivers fresh ideas that beats the audience's expectations and communicates deeply with audiences to understand what the group needs to do in order to make the production perfect.