Questionnaire Feedback Analysis

Question 1 – What is your age range?

I had chosen to put this question primarily to see what types of people were undertaking my survey and the sort of ages I had. By adding this question I could see if I had a varying age range and something that would increase the reliability and validity of my results. The results I gathered from the question were my age range and the majority of ages that took my survey. Here is the data that I extracted from my survey collection of data and input into Microsoft Excel and formulated this table.

As you can see from the graph I had a majority of participants in the 16-30 categories however I did have participants from other age ranges so the results are more valid and reliable than that of a single age bracket. The age brackets themselves are also 15 years in separation which leaves room for variation throughout the single age bracket.

Question 2 – What is your gender?
Question 2 involves another generalised question to find out the statistics of the participants in my survey. This question was basic and allowed me to see if I had an even mix between males and females doing my survey. This way there was no bias nature towards female orientated answers and that of male orientated answers. This like question 1 increases the reliability of my entire survey.

Here is the doughnut graph I created in the same process as the rest. The split difference between 14 males and 19 females that conducted my survey, this was possibly as close to an even split between the two as I was going to get. This question like the first question doesn’t help me to make decisions about what to or not to include in my thriller opening sequence.

Question 3 – How often do you watch films?

This question was added to find out background information to the people taking part in my survey and how often they watched films so would be more suitable to answer my survey. In contrast I could see how the people that didn’t watch films often might be intrigued and persuaded to watch more, therefore this data is also necessary. Below shows the graph I created.

This graph shows me that throughout the people taking my survey the majority watch films either once or more than once a week (Red and Green segments). This puts my results again in high validity as to they are people that have seen films and are knowledgeable enough to know about whether the film is good. On the opposite end of the spectrum the people classified under the purple and light blue segments which represent the once a month and more than once a year categories. These peoples input is beneficial to me maybe more so than the others as it gives me the opinion of none film lovers and what they feel could be done to make films more appealing to a wider audience something I will be looking to do with my opening sequence.

Question 4 – What’s your favourite sub-genre to be coupled with a thriller?

Question 4 is the first question that really finds out information that will be directly beneficial to me and my decision I make. This questions looks at what type of sub-genre the audience would like to see in my thriller whether that be from action, SciFi to comedy something that is vital to me and a reason I included this question in my survey.

The genres I used in the categories were what I though main different genres. This pie chart allows me to see that there are a certain few genres that are high scoring and higher percentages in the audiences mind. For example Action, Horror and Comedy are the three biggest areas of the pie chart with other genres coming in comparably below that like Psychological, Dramatic and Romantic. I can see from this clearly that if I want my thriller to be attractive to the public then I should follow the information provided to them. I can go for a Horror or Comedy style picture however I feel the best genre with the basic plan I already have would be action.

Question 5 – What is your preferred opening sequence style?

Question 5 was incorporated by me as a way of seeing how I could deliver my idea across in a way which the audience would be appealed by. This question is a main focus for my survey and I from this question I would take into account the information and make a decision on what I film goes best with my idea and also the results from this question.

It’s clear from this graph the results were heavily in favour of the setting of the scene. This is roughly kind of what I had predicted before distributing my survey. This was also the general direction I was going to aim towards anyway as it’s one of the conventions and characteristics of a thriller opening sequence. However I’d like to push these I still feel to make my film successful it should abide by some of the normal codes. The idea I have started to think about will also fit with the setting of the scene, something which is also obviously popular with the audiences.

Question 6 – How would you prefer the opening sound to be?

This question was aimed directly at sound and is the first part of the sequence of the questions on sound. I was unsure when I was thinking through ideas in my head as to how or whether to use sound or not so I added this question to get an influence from the possible audience to my film.

From the bar graph that I’ve created from the collated data, shows that the combination of all of the sound styles was the most popular with 18 out of 33 preferred this sound. This has altered my decisions that I have made, and I’m now taking into account this way to portray sound in my opening sequence. This answer that was chosen is a generalised answer and something where I can happily chose between any of the answers.

Question 7 – How would you prefer the musical genre?

This question is a crossover from the last question and designed to allow me to see what style of music if I incorporated it into my opening sequence would be most preferred by the audience and the general film loving public.

This bar graph shows clearly that there is a majority towards the classical, orchestral music being played during the opening scene compared to that of rock, rap or pop.  This is what I had roughly estimated from my initial idea as it would fit with my plan. I want the opening scene to be more relaxed and to involve a twist rather than a fast action paced start.

Question 8 – What is your favourite film?

I included this question into my survey as a general question to see how the public felt about films and what was memorable to them in their eyes. By not wording the question specifically to thrillers it meant I could see in general what they like: if I’d asked for favourite thriller then they’d have had to think and made a decision rather than the first thing to pop into their head.

The answer that6 I received from this question were written down so I was not able to formulate a graph to represent the data however I have used the data and inputted it into this list and then I can research into and look at the different films chosen and reason why they were memorable to the audience. Some of the films that were chosen by the participants included:

·         Pulp Fiction (1994)

Genre – Thriller, Crime

Director – Quentin Tarantino

Budget - $8,000,000

Comments – It was good that someone thought this was their favourite film as its also classed as a thriller and something I can look at to see how they have maybe started off the film or what is done throughout that makes the film so memorable.

·         Taken (2008)

Genre – Thriller, Action

Director – Pierre Morel

Budget – $25,000,000

Comments – This film was chosen three times and is highly important because like Pulp Fiction it’s a thriller and something I can again look at and see what has worked well especially seeing as its come up three times in my results.

·         The Sentinel (2006)

Genre – Action, Crime, Thriller

Director – Clark Johnson

Budget – $60,000,000

Comments – This film is a Thriller and is a fast action paced style of film something that is a convention throughput a thriller. I would look at this answer and take into account that films that are remembered by the audience are fast paced high octane thrillers.

·         Other Answers were:

·         V for Vendetta  (2005)

·         Top Gun (1986)

·         Vanishing Point (1971)

·         Cast Away (2000)

·         Inception  (2010)

·         Seven Pounds (2008)

These answers can also help me with my planning and brainstorm as I can see what they have done to make them memorable to the audience. I realise that even though these films might not be under the Thriller genre I can still see the general pattern and direction that they have gone and how they have conducted and produced the opening sequence linking to the second part of the question (Question 9 below).

Question 9 – Do you have a memorable opening sequence to a film? (If yes please specify)

This question was aimed at getting inspiration for an opening sequence idea and what things are memorable to the audience or what they felt worked well. The question was worded so that the participant could chose weather they had a memorable opening sequence to a film, as I wanted it to be a genuine favourite sequence not a thought up answer.  In response to this question out of the 33 that took part in my survey I gathered 15 yes’s. The answers in which I gathered where not of entirely thriller genre however I wanted this as I feel that similar bridges can be drawn from other genres as many cross over in films. Some responses I got that I conducted further research ion where:

·         Book Of Eli (2010)

Genre – Action/Adventure

Director – Hughes Brothers

Budget – $80,000,000

Comments – When this opening sequence was chosen as memorable by the participant I had a look at it and have decided to do my ‘opening sequence analysis’ on it. Although the genre to this film is not a thriller it does still possess a lot of the characteristics of a thriller opening sequence. I can see how this is a memorable piece and one I can look to for inspiration for my own opening sequence.

·         Memento (2000)

Genre – Mystery, Thriller

Director – Christopher Nolan

Budget - $5,000,000

Comments – This film’s opening sequence has helped me with my own planning and ideas and has allowed me to see another popular well-loved opening sequence and how it is created and try to mimic or expand on the areas it worked well in.

·         Gladiator (2000)

Genre – Action, Drama

Director – Ridley Scott

Budget - $103,000,000

Comments – This film’s opening sequence is again not a thriller genre however a similar is with it being high octane and suspense building. This is something I can look to incorporate into my own thriller and try and add different dimensions from other thrillers as well.

·         Some other answers included:

·         La Haine (1995)

·         Twilight (2008)

·         Step Brothers (2008)

·         Son of Rambow (2007)

·         Lion King (1994)

·         Romeo and Juliet (Baz Luhrmann's) (1996)

All of these answers can help me to see what to and what not to do in my opening sequence. I can take the positives from some of these and discard some ideas I might have if they seem to obscenely wild compared to these popular opening sequences.

All of this information from my survey can be used to either think, create or incorporate new ideas and advance my own ones already.