Audience Research - Interviewing sixth formers on their opinions of Thrillers.

Felicity and I interviewed sixth formers in our school, ranging between the ages of 16-18, to find out their general opinions on thrillers, and what film is their favourite, to see whether it is a thriller film or not. 

From these interviews we can see that all of the students tend to have the same views about what conventions are in a thriller. They all say that a thriller should have suspense, plot twists and a good story line. 

Audience Research: Film Listings - Jessica Fernando

 Richmond in the evening this is because of it genre be A Most Violent Year is a US thriller, set in New York City in 1981, in which a young businessman tries to establish himself in the heating oil distribution business without resorting to crime.


 A Most Violent Year is being viewed at the Odeon Cinema in Richmond in the evening this is because of it genre being a thriller, it's most likely to be watched in the evening, but not too late as it's age certificate is 15.


An ex- government operative is wrongly accused of murder and is forced to go on the run as he tries to track down the true killer and clear his name.

Taken 3 is being viewed at mid day, this is because of its age certificate being 12A, young children are less likely to be at a cinema watching a film, therefore the film is being played early to fit its age certificate.





The Imitation Game is a Thriller which centers on the English mathematician and cryptographer who helped crack the Nazi's Enigma code during World War II.

The Imitation Game is being shown in the evening at 6pm, its age certificate is 12A, the viewing time isn't very early but its not too late either, this means young children can gp home early, rather than late, if it was to be shown at a later time.

IMDb - Jessica Fernando

Nightcrawler, 2014  - Crime/Drama/Thriller 

Budget: $8,500,000

Opening weekend: $10,900,000

Gross: $32,098,401

Taken 3, 2015 - Thriller/Action

Budget: $48,000,000

Opening Weekend: $39,201,657

Gross: $66,969,880

The Imitation Game, 2014 - Biography/ Drama/Thriller 

Budget: $14,000,000

Opening Weekend: $479,352

Gross: $52,343,900

Gone Girl, 2014 - Drama/Mystery/Thriller 

Budget: $61,000,000

Opening Weekend: $37,513,109

Gross: $167,122,875

Women In Black 2, 2014 - Drama/Horror/Thriller

Opening Weekend: $15,027,415

Gross: $15,027,415









With this research, I have learnt various things about the thriller audience. Firstly, very successful thriller movies, like the ones above have a very large budget, therefore are able to do more things for their thriller to be successful. however for our thriller opening we wont have such a large budget like these hollywood movies, instead we'll have a very low budget to use, even so, our thriller could still be successful.
Secondly, the above thriller films show that the opening weekend is very large this shows that the audience of these thriller films is very in to the thriller and that these thriller movies are very popular because they went to see it in the first couple of days of release.

Audience Research- FDA

The Imitation Game (Tyldum, 2014) PG

 Budget  
$14,000,000  
Opening Weekend
$7,932,292 (USA) (10 Jan 15)
 Gross
$35,362,000 (USA) (10 Jan 15)
$66,446,547 (Worldwide) (10 Jan 15)

This film has been very successful as in the opening weekend it already made more than over half of the  films budget.



A Walk Amongst the Tombstones (Frank, 2014) 15
Budget
$28,000,000 (estimated) 
Gross
$20,830,290 (USA) (28 Sep 14)
Weekend Gross
$4,192,785 (USA) (28 Sep 14) (2,714 Screens)

This film was not as successful as 'The Imitation Game' in the opening weekend. A reason for this could be because it was only for the ages of 15 and above whereas 'The Imitation Game' was open to a wider range of ages.

 The Equalizer (Fuqua 2014) 15

Budget

$55,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend

$34,137,828 (USA) (28 Sep 14) (3,236 Screens)

HUF 34,878,750 (Hungary) (28 Sep 14)

Gross

$100,454,738 (USA) (12 Dec 14)

$64,236,992 (USA) (5 Oct 14)

$34,137,828 (USA) (28 Sep 14)

$191,254,738 (Worldwide) (12 Dec 14)

$860,421 (Portugal) (12 Dec 14)

This was again a very successful film and even tough the age restriction was 15 and above it still made more than half the budget in the opening weekend.

Lucy (Besson 2014) 12A
Budget
$40,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend
$43,899,340 (USA) (27 Jul 14) (3,173 Screens)
HUF 68,739,731 (Hungary) (10 Aug 14)
€536,316 (Netherlands) (3 Aug 14) (82 Screens)
PHP 57,530,074 (Philippines) (10 Aug 14) (122 Screens)
Gross
$125,480,625 (USA) (28 Sep 14)
$117,756,000 (USA) (31 Aug 14)
$97,354,000 (USA) (10 Aug 14)$79,539,975 (USA) (3 Aug 14) 
$43,899,340 (USA) (27 Jul 14) 
$126,663,600 (USA) $458,863,600 (worldwide)

Lucy was the most successful film out of all of them as the opening weekend made nearly $4,000,000 more than the budget of the film. Again this could be due to the fact that the viewing was for a wider range of ages.

 

 Gone Girl (Fincher 2014) 18
Budget
$61,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend
$37,513,109 (USA) (5 Oct 14) (3,014 Screens)
HUF 39,167,770 (Hungary) (5 Oct 14)
Gross
$37,513,109 (USA) (5 Oct 14)
$167,238,510 (USA)
$338,819,589 (Worldwide) (12 Dec 14)
$365,438,510 (worldwide)
$198,200,000 (Non-USA)
$843,673 (Portugal) (12 Dec 14)
€4,206,655 (Spain) (2 Nov 14)

Gone girl was a very successful film even though it was for adults. The film made more than over half of the films budget. A reason that this film was more successful than the film that were 15 age restricted could be because people around the ages of 18 and above are more likely to go to the cinema more often.

Audience Research- Certificates

U (Universal)
4years and above.
Mild bad language e.g. 'damn' and 'hell'.
No overt focus on sexual behaviour.
Mild violence.
Brief scary scenes.
Some moments of emotional stress.
Films send out positive messages.

PG (Parental Guidance)

Suites for ages above 8 years old.
Show challenging issues in life e.g. bullying, bereavement or racism.
Mild bad language e.g. 'shit' 'son of a bitch'.
Sex references are unlikely to be shown.
Mild violence.
May be references to drugs.

12A (cinemas)
Requires adult to accompany any child under 12 to view the film.
12 (Retailers)

No child under the age of 12 can buy a  film with the certificate 12.

Films may include some strong language e.g. 'fuck'.
May be some discriminatory language e.g. racist or homophobic terms.
Sex may be discreetly portrayed.
May include nudity.

Moderate violence.
Weapons may present.
Sexual violence may be implied e.g. rape.

Dangerous behaviour may be present e.g. drugs and suicide.

15

Only children over 15 can view these films.
Strong violence.
Frequent strong language e.g. 'cunt'.
Sexual activity and nudity.
Drug taking.
Brief scenes of sexual violence.
Discriminatory language and/or behaviour.
Strong threat and horror.

The dangers are that some teenagers may be influenced by what the watch e.g. drug taking, suicide, self harming and hanging.

18

NO children are allowed to view these films.
Adults can watch, buy and rent.
Very strong language.
Sexual activity and violence.
Strong horror.
Strong blood.

Real sex scenes.

Discriminatory language and behaviour.
Strong and detailed sex scenes.
Strong, crude and explicit sex references.

R18 is a special and legally restricted classification primarily for explicit work of consenting sex or strong fetish material involving adults.

Only adults can view these films at specially licensed cinemas.

From all of this research we have decided as a group that the right target audience for our thriller will be of the ages 15 and above. We decided that this would be the best age as we think our film would include violence and very strong language that wouldn't be suitable for ages under 15. Furthermore we thought that the ages 15 and above would be more likely to understand our film and find it interesting and shocking whereas younger ages may feel uncomfortable and scared when watching. 

Thriller Plots

Taken (2008)
This film is about a a young girl who goes to Paris and gets kidnapped. Her father who is an ex CIA agent then goes out on a mission to find her. On his journey he has many encounters with  people who have had involvement in kidnapping his daughter and because of this he ends up killing most of the people and eventually finds his daughter.

Divergent (2014)
This film is about a community which is divided into factions, to create equality or so it seems. On the day of the faction test the main character finds out that she has no faction and is in fact divergent. The plot follows on where she has to overcome obstacles while keeping her secret. The reason she has to keep that she is a divergent a secret is because they are unnatural and will be killed if found. Near the end of the film she finds out that she is not the only divergent and ends up saving all the community of people from the villain.

The Shawshank redemption (1994)
The story line of this film is that the main character Andy finds out that his wife has been cheating on him, so he decides to get very drunk with the intention to kill his wife and her lover but when he arrives at his house they are already dead. However the police do not know who killed them so Andy gets wrongly convicted. The story line then continues to tell us about Andy's time in prison and how he escapes.

 

Conventions of a Thriller- Felicity Bearfoot-Fallon

Felicity Bearfoot-Fallon

Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960)

From watching the famous 'Shower Scene' from the Thriller Psycho, I can straight away see the gradual build up of suspense and mystery, which are vital qualities for a thriller film. The scene starts off very calm, as we see a woman go about her everyday life. As the scene continues, the audience are left on the edge of their seats as the non-diegetic music provides a gradual build up to the main part of the scene. The music starts very calm, while we see the woman at her desk, looking stressed by the way she acts as she sighs and rolls her eyes whilst doing work. As she going into the bathroom and closes the door, the music stops. This immediately gives a clear indication that something is going to happen as we see a contrast in mood. From this point onwards, there is little to no sound, apart from the diegetic noises such as the door shutting and the shower. The suspense fluctuates as we see a dark shadow started to emerge behind the curtain while the woman has her back to it. The camera gradually zooms into just the shadow, leaving the woman out of the shot, so as an audience we feel as if there if nothing we can do except wait for the moment something drastic happens. This keeps the audience focused and intrigued. Next thing we see is the shower curtain being pulled back and a man with a knife attacking the woman in the shower. To add to the shock of it, sharp high pitched sounds have been put in place to scare the audience, as well as diegetic sounds of the knife hitting the woman's skin. This frightens the audience and gives us a chill as its the moment we have been waiting for.

 

The Sixth Sense (Shyamalan, 1999)

This film starts with the opening credits ( director, producer, director of photography etc.) in a plain font on a black background with non-diegetic eerie music being played. As the credits are shown the music gets on louder while following onto the next scene. This gets the audience ready for the scene about to take place. We next see a light bulb gradually appear in the corner of the screen flickering, making the audience wonder what will happen next and adding a sense of mystery, but the audience may feel they need to prepare themselves in case they are scared by what is about to happen next.

White Bird in a Blizzard ( Gregg Araki, 2014)

Before we are shown the opening credits, this films starts with the mother lying on her daughters bed at 5 in the afternoon, and she looks hung over and tired. The daughter walks in questioning her mum, but her mum just walks out looking confused herself and says she needs to get dinner started. This immediately confusing the audience and already adds a sense of mystery. After this a voice over of the main character is played saying "I was seventeen when my mother disappeared". This tells the audience what happened, but leaving us with the mystery of how it happened. Then the opening credits are played whilst there is quite calm happy music in the background, which doesn't conform to the typical thriller genre opening, providing a contrast to what the audience would usually expect, leaving us wondering what will happen.

 

Thriller Genre Research - Elona Doci

Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960)
From watching the shower scene of 'Psycho' i have noticed that there is always suspense built before anything actually happens. So for this particular video it begins with very high pitched music but the lady just normal writing a letter. however the music fluctuates and goes high then low and then eventually stops as the women flushes the paper down the toilet. When the music stops it gives the film a more naturalistic feel to it and you don't expect anything to happen. However whilst the women is taking a shower we slowly see a shadow appear behind the shower and then a very loud high pitched screeching noise kicks in and the killer pulls back the curtain with the knife held up. This is very dramatic as it goes from everything being very calm and normal to a rush of sound and movement which catches the audience by surprise. Furthermore the close up of the women mouth when she scream further emphasises the danger and adds to all the chaos thats going on. After the killer leaves the music begins to calm down and then we see the women fall and grab the shower curtain. at the very end we see the close up of her eye that then zooms out so we can see her full face, through this shot we can see the tragedy that has happened and because of the tear drop she lets out we know that she was in shock and that it was a painful death.

The Sixth Sense (Shyamalan, 1999)
In 'Sixth Sense' the opening sequence starts with all the titles in white with a black background (the actors, directors, producers, editing crew and other people who were involved with the creation of the film) this already sets  very dark and gloomy feel to the film which may suggest to the audience that the film may be scary. Furthermore to set the tone of the film from when the titles begun there was mysterious music playing in the background this further added to the dark feel and throughout the opening sequence the music fluctuated in sound from high to low. This is a great way to set the mood for a thriller film as it can make us feel on edge and scared.

Taken (Morel, 2008) (Megaton, 2012) (Megaton, 2015)
The reason that the 'Taken' series was very successful not just as a film but a thriller was because it contained action throughout the film and kept us engaged at all times. The editing of the film was a key aspects to making this film successful as they had to include quick cuts, especially for when there was a lot of action during the fighting scenes, this allowed for the audience to experience the chaos but to also see all the action. Through the editing and camera shots we as an audience were able to feel like we were part of the action and it really kept the film flowing nicely. To build up tension for the fighting scenes music was also added in which started at a low volume and then increased when the characters were becoming angry and when  fight scene would occur. This was really effective because just as in 'Psycho' and 'Sixth Sense' the music allowed for the audience to know that something major is going to occur and it really built up the tension in the film but also for the audience.  

North By Northwest (Hitchcock, 1959)

Although this film is over 50 years old it is still a very good thriller. This particular film is all about mistaken identity. The reason this is a good thriller is because it is not like the thriller we watch now. From the very beginning of the film starts off with music that doesn't really build much suspense but it still dramatic and this is due to how loud it is. Furthermore when the title come up they always slide in and out. From the very beginning of the film the main characters name (Roger O. Thornhill) is mentioned a number of times; this allows for the audience to know who he is from the very beginning. However we see in the scene in the restaurant how he is wanting to ring his mother but he raises his hand up at the same time a waiter is asking for George Kaplan, because of this he is kidnapped by three other men thinking that he is George Kaplan! This is a great opening to a thriller film as it already sets a sense of suspense as to why the men are kidnapping him. 

Research: Thriller Genre - Jessica Fernando

Psycho (Hitchcock,1960)

The thriller Psycho (Hitchcock,1960) has a shower scene from the film in which it is one of the most famous scenes in cinema history. Psycho was filmed in black and white, this made the film more scarier than it would have been in colored images, which created a thriller effect to the film. The scene starts off when the women is sitting down writing in her notebook, this scene created an innocent atmosphere, which links to the calm music being played at the background. However when the women rips up the paper in tiny pieces it created a dramatic atmosphere, the  music played at in the background adds to this atmosphere. The music afterwards stop and all we hear is the women having a shower, the fact that its silent creates an intense atmosphere, as we feel like something is going to happen. The camera then turns to the shower curtains in which we see a dark shadow of a person coming towards the women, even though there is no music playing and all we hear is the shower it makes the audience look away as it gets scarier. As soon as the person opens the curtains, scary, dramatic, horrific music is played as we see someone with a knife, the music makes the audience jump even though we knew that something was going to happen like this. The women starts screaming as she is getting stabbed, which makes the audience feel bad and grossed out by hearing the noise when the person is stabbing her. At the end we see the blood in the bath tub which shows the danger and the evilness. The women then falls to the floor in which the camera zooms out of the women's eyes as she lays there, which created one of the best thriller scene of all time. starts with

The Sixth Sense (M. Night Shyamalan,1999)
The opening of the thriller film Sixth Sense (M. Night Shyamalan, 1999) begins with titles written in white letters with a black background with the use of spooky intense music playing throughout the whole opening of the film, the use of a dark background and the music makes creates great suspense as the music is playing slowly and the titles and credits are being showed at a slow pace as well. The music started of very low and then started to get louder, this is a great start to the opening of the film as it already sets the genre as a thriller, this therefore makes the audience feel scared, before any action has taken place.

Taken (Pierre Morel, 2008, 2012, 2015) 
Critics have applauded Pierre Morel for success with the thriller trilogy of Taken due to the fact that it creates suspense towards the audience. Throughout each film there is a lot of action for example in Taken 2 there were speeding cars and Americans in danger, but the only ones truly taken for a ride is the audience, this is because the way that it was filmed is almost like we were in the action ourselves, which makes it interesting for the audience and creates suspense. The music itself in Taken was very creative to make sure that the audience knew what was going to happen, for example when there was fighting there would be dramatic music being played in the background, also when something sad would happen there would be calm sad music playing to fit the scene. 

Thriller Research - Shannon Tobin

From analysing thriller movie trailers and extracts, I have discovered that one of the main conventions of a thriller movie is suspense. Every trailer and extract I watched managed to create an intense amount of suspense for the audience viewing it. The trailers and extracts would manage to do this by giving away a piece of the plot and making the viewer want to discover the entire story.

Sound plays a big part in building this suspense. In every single extract and trailer I watched their was music cleverly used to place the audience on the edge of their seats.
For example; from the classic Hitchcock film 'Psycho', the use of the classic and memorable music that plays whilst the lady is being stabbed is a great way to create an intense atmosphere.


Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960)

Another example of a thriller that I analsyed was 'The Sixth Sense' (Shyamalan, 1999). The opening sense of The Sixth Sense was done in a very clever way. The use of music was very subtle but still managed to build suspense, without the audience even realising. The use of the camera work and mise-en-scene in this opening was fantastic at building suspense. When the light comes on at the start of the action, this shot is a great way to keep the audience of the edge of their seats. The brightness grips the audience right from the start. This carries on when the audience then sees the woman walking down the stairs in the background. This simple shot creates suspense in such a simple way. The audience is left asking so many questions; what will happen next, who is this woman etc. Near the end of the opening scene, when the woman and her husband enter the bedroom, their is a close up shot of broken glass on the floor where the window has been smashed open, and the use of the silence where the audience can only hear the phone line beeping creates immense suspense and is a great way to keep the audience gripped.

The Sixth Sense (Shyamalan, 1999)

Another brilliant example of an amazing thriller is Law Abiding Citizen (Gary Gray, 2009). What makes this such a great thriller is that fact that mystery and tension is kept throughout the whole film. Right from the very start the audience is gripped and left asking questions. The lack of knowledge about the main character leaves him a mystery to the audience. This shadiness of the main character is very eerie and this is what builds the tension throughout the whole film. The unique and extremely clever storyline is also one of the key elements that makes this film such a great thriller. The audience never knows what is going to happen, or how Clyde (the main character) has managed to do such things. The amazing plot twists keep the audience constantly interested and wanting to know what is going to happen next. I personally feel that Law Abiding Citizen is one of the best thriller films (and films in general), because it is so clever and always keeps the audience wanting to know why Clyde has done certain things, how he has done them and what he is going to be doing next.

Law Abiding Citizen (Gary Gray, 2009)