Thriller Audience Research Results

Interviews

What is your expectations of a Independent film?

Matt: Not that good because the actors are lower class and are not known. There is also not enough advertisement.
Beth: Lesser known actors and locations.
Izzy: No special effects used, storylines that deal with factors that mainstream films don't, and rising actors.

What is your expectations of a Mainstream film?

Matt: Good because special effects are used, known actors and SFX.
Beth: A higher budget is used and more stereotypical features.
Izzy: A common storyline and famous actors (well-known).

What is your preferred genre of thriller?

Matt: A noir thriller.
Beth: Psychological thriller, it plays with the mind.
Izzy: Noir Thriller.

What attracts you to watch thriller films? What doesn't?

Matt: The trailer has to be good, making the audience want more.
Beth: The plot has to be unique and hasn't been done or seen before. It also has to be well lit, as I saw a film before that had a good plot and storyline, but you couldn't see what was happening.
Izzy: The excitement of a thriller. Although they can sometimes be excessive.

What location would best suit a thriller?

Matt: A Basement in a old rundown mansion or old prison.
Beth: A claustrophobic/coffined space or dark space.
Izzy: An old empty warehouse.

What type of characters fit into the thriller genre?

Matt: A young, curious, innocent character who ends up getting caught up with the evil character. And the evil character who has two sides to him.
Beth: The villain that holds the storyline. The victim that goes along with the villain's idea or is stalked. There is also the innocent victim, this is usually a women character who is the femme fatale.
Izzy: The femme fatale and the stalker like villain.

The results I have gathered show that there are stereotypical views towards mainstream and independent films, where Matt's expectation of a independent film is bad because the actors are less known. While his expectation of a mainstream film are high because the actors are known and special effects are used. This shows that Matt sits very much in the mainstream audience group. Whereas the other results I got for the first two questions are very much from a all round film viewer, where they understand about the films they are watching and do not judge them based on money and popularity.