Primary Research (Jakob)

Once we had decided on the genre of our film, we felt that the next step was to conduct some primary research. We created a questionnaire to find out what our audience associated with psychological thrillers, and alaso what they liked and disliked about the genre. In addition, we put in a few questions that were directly related to our opening in order to help us with our own project.

We received a total number of 21 responses aged between 16 and 56. Thirty eight percent were male.

The interview
After looking at the questionnaire responses we realised we had a lack of males from the higher age category therefore we decided to interview someone who fits into this category, Mr Gilkes.

The Facebook Group
In order to reach a wider spread of results we created a facebook so that we could get our questionnaires completed efficiently by various people (Not just those in our 6th form). The facebook group also provided an area for people to give their general opinion or comments.

THE GENRE

What do you think of when you read the phrase ‘psychological thriller?
Intense paranoia, messes with the mind, dark, weird, disturbing, mind playing, jumpy, gripping, music and dialogue creates suspense and tension

How Often Do you watch Psychological thrillers ?
Rarely = 10 Sometimes = 6 Often = 4 Never = 1

What Do you like about Psychological thrillers ?
Storyline = 9 Issues = 7 Characters = 5 Camera Angles = 3
Other = relates to real life, construction, psychological effects, theatrical dramatisation

What do you not like about Psychological thrillers ?
Story = 9 Confusion = 8 Issues = 2
Other = characters unbelievable, being made jump

Our storyline incorporates nearly all of the things people associate with psychological thrillers, for example intense paranoia, messing with the mind, jumpy and gripping, dark, and with music and dialogue creating suspense and tension.
Because it is only an opening, the storyline in our film cannot be very drawn out our explicit but we feel the part included is strong. In addition our film focuses on characterisation, an aspect that people cited as important.

THE STORYLINE

Do you prefer a simple storyline with chronological events or ones with twists?

Simple = 2 twists = 19

Do you find flashbacks effective? Why?

Yes = 15 No = 3

Why = help establish sequence of events, easier to understand, further depth, good to know characters, enables audience to look at the past, builds an idea of what is to come, allows tension to build towards the end

What time of day is most predictable in a psychological thriller ?
Morning = 5 Afternoon= 2 Evening = 7 Night = 11

Our film does not have a simple chronoligical storyline. We wanted to include flashbacks, and after looking at other films and discussing ways for us to do this, we have instead inserted crime scene photographs into our film which have the same narrative effect.

We plan to film during the daytime, subverting people's expectations of the genre and adding to the unnaturalness of the scene. In addition this would make filming easier as we could, for the most part, use natural light.

CHARACTER AND TITLES

What gender and age would you most empathise with in terms on main character
Male = 7 Female = 14
<16= 20 =" 11" 25=" 5" 30=" 2" 35 =" 1">

Do you prefer films with one word titles or longer
One word = 15 Middle = 5 Longer = 3

Although most people said they would emphasise with a female lead, most people were also female. People tended to say they would emphasise most with a character of their own gender, and as we feel a male character would seem more likely to have killed someone, we are using a male main character.
Most people would also emphasise most with a character their own age, and as our target audience is between about 16 and 24, that will be our character's age. Furthermore, it will create a sense of innocence and vulnerability contrapuntal to the blood on his hands.
The title of our film is as yet undecided, but chances are we will go with our audience's preferences and make it one word.

Our narrative

What do you expect to see when you go into a public toilet ?
Graffiti, wet muddy floor, broken toilet seats and doors, dark , dingy, glass everywhere, grimy mirrors, cold looking, cracked mirror, metal sinks, not much lighting, soap if lucky, bland, advertising, toilet roll everywhere, smell.

What do you expect when you think of a mental illness?

Hallucinations= 10 Paranoia = 6 Anger = 2 Depression =7

Other = mood swings, memory loss, incoherent speaking.

this links to our narrative as one of our main scenes is inside a public toilet, and we wanted to make it to be clearly a public toilet. What's more, by using or finding a place with all or most of these conventions, the horrible, dingy conditions will be emphasised.

We also want it to be clear that our character has a mental disorder. We are including Hallucinations, paranoia and anger in our opening. The ways we will portray these things on film can be found in our blog, 'Psychological Disorders'