Wednesday 1 April 2009

Research on Thriller Openings

Before I started to film my own Thriller opening I researched into existing Thriller openings which have been successful, on the website www.pearlanddean.com, this showed me the successes of Thriller films such as 'The Departed' and other Thrillers.

Pearl and Dean showed a breakdown down of the audiences these Thrillers attract and the other films with similar genre and similar filming techniques.

'The Departed'
Age Gender
4-6 0% Male 64%
7-11 0% Female 36%
12-14 0% Class
15-24 28% AB 28%
25-34 38% C1 33%
35-44 11% C2 20%
45+ 23% DE 19%
The Departed
This is the breakdown given by Pearl and Dean, showing the majority of the audience would be Male, with a 64% and interested ages ranging from 15-34 with near 50% due to the understanding and the nature of the film. Pearl and Dean compared it to Gangs of New York, with very similar ranges of audiences, which show that Thrillers tend to be more appealing to the Male generation from the ages 15-38.

Another Film researched was a film named 'The Strangers' and typical thriller/horror, however this was more appealing to women, which showed a 60% appeal from women and 40% from men. This may be the case because the lack of male actors and the majority of female actors with female issues, such as pregnancy is involved and family life.

'The Strangers'
Age Gender
4-6 0% Male 40%
7-11 0% Female 60%
12-14 0% Class
15-24 74% AB 29%
25-34 13% C1 26%
35-44 0% C2 14%
45+ 13% DE 31%
The Strangers
Again there is similar Age ranges, with the majority of the audience being between the ages, 15-24 appealing to the young ages, due to horror elements and the thriller sequences.

Another film analysed was Alfred Hitchcock's 'Vertigo' a old Thriller, however I have studied the opening of this and is very appealing to the 18-30 Age range, due to the nature of the film, having understanding of Thriller and Criminal Thriller conventions and because of how in-depth the film is. However, the time period the film was released the audiences interested in the film would be different to the modern audiences today. I used the website www.imdb.com, this was useful in information on how well this particular thriller did in cinema and what audiences were attracted.


It was a popular film, and was re-released in the 90's and is now considered a masterpiece in the eyes of film critics because of the conventions shown and the use of camera shots. 

Mothman prophecies was a very similar film also with it being a blockbuster, it mixed up genres between Sci-Fi, Thriller and Fantasy which attracted a female audience with 58% being the majority. In addition the Age ranges are similar again, which is reflected on the previous films researched, all ranging between the ages 15-24, and the Thriller conventions attract the younger generations.

'Mothman Prophecies'
agegender
4-60%male42%
7-110%female58%
12-140%class
15-2463%AB27%
25-3418%C126%
35-448%C229%
45+ 11%DE18%



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