Institutional Research

Institutional Research
After doing some in depth institutional research we have decided to choose 20th Century Fox as our main production company, as it is proven that they have had much success over the years since they were founded in 1935. Over the past 78 years they have helped create many well-known thriller movies which is yet another reason that we decided they were the best company for our movie.

With this great amount of experience, they have produced many fantastic films such as Prometheus, X-men and Die Hard which are all esteemed films, which adds to the reasons for our choice as we know that their skill and understanding of the film industry would allow them to be able to help make our film just as incredible as those previously named.

As for the distribution aspect of our film we decided to choose Lions Gate Entertainment as our main distributor as they are a rather new company which gives them an edge compared to the older companies as they have newer ideas of how to get their films across to the audience and distribute it a more innovative manner.

Lions Gate Entertainment is part of a vertically integrated organisation as they own several separate divisions including Lions Gate Films, Lions Gate Home Entertainment, Lions Gate Music and Publishing and Lions Gate Television. With this in mind, it will be very significant for the distribution phase of film as it may allow them to promote our film on a much larger scale as well as allowing the film to be available in various formats such as the cinema to DVD’s which would increase its popularity and our income.

This company has also had some major previous successes including films such as The Punisher, Abduction, The Expendables and American Psycho, which have all had large amounts of fame with help from Lions Gate Entertainment, which is was an important aspect whilst deciding the distribution company. These films that are named are also thriller films which is significant as they follow the ideas of our film, so we know that this company is more than capable of doing a good job distributing this style of films.

Preliminary Task

Audience Profile

Audience Evaluation

Audience Research Evaluation 
For our questionnaire we asked 15 questions to 30 different individuals and from those 30 people, 1/3 were males whilst the rest were female. This may not seem fair, however we have taken this into account and are aiming for a mixed gender audience as this would reach to a wider base, therefore there’d be more people interested. From the people we asked, only three people were aged outside the age bracket of 15-19 which gives us a better understanding what younger audiences prefer which will give us more ideas, however we will consider other ages as well above 15-19 as the thriller genre appeals to more than younger people. As 80% of our potential audience watches films regularly, this ensures that the opinions we are given are more reliable as they have previous knowledge of films that interest them. When asked what thriller sub genres they have previously seen, the results were very close with action being the most seen with 22%, whilst our chosen sub genre, crime came third with 20% which does not sway our initial decision to chose crime as there is still a large audience who would be interested. This s proven with the next question as the interviewees stated their favourite sub genres and crime came second with 27% just under action with 30%. This indicated that their responses can be quite accurate as they can give better opinions on what attracts them to this style of films. The main reason behind their decisions is because they find these films exciting, which 33% of answers agreed with. This was followed by the fact that they also find the films either action packed or full of suspense, which we could incorporate into our opening. As 5/6 of our potential audience have previously watched crime thrillers, we are sure that the feedback we receive for this sub genre will be reliable rather than false. According to the interviewees, plots that include murders and the bad guy getting caught are the most popular and expected so this gives us ideas of what to base our work around. The most preferred sounds include loud, tense and spooky noises as they help to create more tense atmospheres, which is what they want so we may incorporate the same sounds to appeal to the audience. The ideas for the protagonist character were rather close with 42% suggested to use police officers whilst 32% preferred detectives, however the antagonist character was rather conclusive as 16 people believed that having an escaped con as the bad guy was the best idea, therefore this gives us a better idea of what people to use and adds to the plot. Weapons were considered the most iconic props in the sub genre as over half o the people we asked agreed so we will attempt to incorporate these as much as possible. There were mixed views on camera movements as the results were close, however the most preferred shots were close ups and establishing shots so there will be important during our planning and filming. Finally the editing was considered, which also produced rather close results but the best were slow motion editing and fast cuts, which we will also add to our introduction.

Questionnaire Results

This shows that the majority of people we asked were females, however we will consider this when creating our work to make sure that it is not biased.  

This chart substantially shows that the main age group is between 15-19 compared to the others, therefore this may be our target audience as we know more about them.

This chart shows that the majority of those we asked watched films often so the feedback is more reliable.

 This pie chart shows that the most Thriller subgenres are watched evenly by the people we asked so their opinions are reliable as they already have an insight into the genre.

From the information that I had this shows that crime and action thriller are most popular for the audience that we asked

This graph shows that the main factors that appeals to the interviewees is that they are exciting, action packed and full of suspense, so we may incorporate these elements in our work.

This graph shows that 5/6 of our interviewees have previously watched a crime thriller which shows that their feedback will be reliable and not false.

This graph shows that the best plot for crime thrillers according to the interviewees consists of murders and then the antagonist getting caught, probably by the protagonist, so we may consider this during the production and filming of our work.

Loud, spooky and tense sounds are the most preferred by the people we asked for a crime thriller so this will help us choose our sounds for the intro.

By using those preferred sounds the main atmosphere that is created is a tense one, which will be idea for our thriller as it will keep the audience watching. 

According to our potential audience, police officers and detectives are their main ideas for a protagonist which aids our initial ideas of using police officers. 

Escaped cons and the apparent ‘helper’ styled characters are the most popular in crime thrillers according to our interviewees which again confirms our initial ideas of using an escaped convict.

Weapons were the most preferred props for our potential audience, which indicates that we may need to include some forms of weapons in the intro.

This graph shows that camera angles were rather important in creating correct atmospheres as the results were close however, close ups and establishing shots were dominant so this shows what we should include during out filming. 

Yet again these results were close, yet slow motion editing and fast cuts were the most preferred among our potential audience which gives us an idea of what to do during the editing stage.

Audience Questionnaire

1) Male/Female

2) Age
15-19   20-24   25-29   30-34   35+

3) Do you watch films often?
Yes/no

4) Which of these thriller subgenres have you seen?
Crime- (e.g. Dark Knight)
Psychological- (e.g. Black Swan)
Conspiracy- (e.g. The Bourne Ultimatum)
Spy- (e.g. Skyfall)
Action- (e.g. Die Hard 4.0)

5) Which of these subgenres are your favourite, name two from above

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6) What do you like about them?

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‘CRIME THRILLER’

7) Do you watch crime thrillers?   Yes/No

8) What plot do you expect from this subgenre?

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9) What music/sound do you expect of this subgenre? 

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10) What atmosphere does it create? 

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11) What hero characters do you expect from this subgenre? (Circle 2)
Police officer
Detective
Family Man
Business man
Ex-military

12) What villainous characters do you expect from this subgenre? (Circle 2)
Old man
Escaped convict
Single male
Ex-military
The helper (villain)

13) What sort of props do you expect to see?

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14) What types of camera angles do you expect? (Circle as many)
Long shot
Low angle
High angle
Close ups
Extreme close ups
Establishing shot
Extreme long shot
Mid shot
Canted shot

15) What types of editing do you expect? (Circle as many)
Slow motion
Fast cuts
Straight cuts
Jump cuts
Fade to black (Fade out)
Fade In
Flash backs
Flash forward

Crime: A Definitive Guide