Audience Research
I made and handed out a Questionnaire to a range of different age groups and genders to find out what the preffered and most popular reading is for the Thriller Genre; and to find out how my production would be the most successful. I asked 16 people wha they found their favourite type of Thriller's to be: I found that some of the results I got, I had to challenge to make our piece radical; but we also decided to take on board most of the decisions that the audience research revealed, as we wanted it to still be liked. I made it anonymous so that it was un-biased and a fair result.
On the left is an example of how it were answered, and what questions I asked my audience. On the right are my results:
Secondary Research
The NRS (National Readership Survey) created a categorisation method known as ABC1. This method focuses on the demographics of social classes; which is useful as it means that we can decide as a group what demographic we should focus on, and how we can appeal to that target audience.
Even though our production is radical, we still use the conventions of a Thriller genre; and use theories such as the 'male gaze' and 'binary opposites' that will attract a more mainstream and young audience. Result show that in 2006, an estimated 29% of all UK adults were in grade C1, making it the most populous class; which means that we could try to focus on their needs to appeal to a wider audience.
However, as we are targeting a niche audience for our hybrid of a Thriller, we decided to look at mainly B/C1 as it is a mainstream audience but still appeals to a variety of people. On deciding which target demographic profile we are targeting for our production, we will then be able to plan how we would advertise our film, e.g. bus stations for teenagers as they commute to places, airing adverts on certain times etc.
