Demographic/Psychographic Profiling

A demographic is a customary method of audience research, conducted by film producers to see what audience their film should appeal to so they can set up advertisement campaigns. Demographics split a potential audience into different classes, depending upon on what they do for a living. This gives a producer a simple template as to who they should target and what their advertising should appeal to, but also depending on the context of the film. Demographics do not include everyone however and do not go on how much money is made but how it is spent. Demographics split the audience into six different classes;

A - Higher management, bankers, lawyers, doctors and other professionals

B - Middle management, teachers, creative designers and media designers,

C1 - Office supervisors, junior managers, nurses, specialist clerical staff - white collar

C2 - Skilled manual workers, plumbers, builders – blue collar

E - Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers

F - Unemployed, students, pensioners and casual workers

By using these demographic classes, producers are able to home in on a niche audience depending on the film, for example, a comedy could be targeted to psychological thriller could be targeted to those in classes A, B and C1. 

A psychographic is similar to a demographic, but assesses the behaviour of an audience by personality traits and attitudes. It goes further and also assesses their viewing and spending habits. Psychographics are split between seven categories.

Mainstreamers
Domestic or conventional and favour value for money family brands. SEEKS SECURITY.

Aspirers
Materialistic and orientated to image and fashion, younger people. SEEKS STATUS.

Succeeders
Strong goals, confident, brand choice on self-reward, typically professional. SEEKS CONTROL.

Resigned
Rigid and authoritarian values and are typically older people. SEEKS SURVIVAL.

Explorers
Energetic and individual, has value for being different and adventure. Young demographic. SEEKS DISCOVERY

Strugglers
Alienated and disorganised and has few resources beyond physical skill. Attracted to alcohol and drugs. SEEKS ESCAPE

Reformers
Wants freedom of restriction and personal growth. Socially aware. SEEKS ENLIGHTENMENT.

These are also important for a producer when deciding on what audience to market their film for.

By Thomas Beal

Questionnaire Results

1. What colour would you mainly associate with a thriller?

2. What iconography (props) would you think a thriller would have in it?

3. What setting would you associate with a thriller?

4. Do you think murder is too common in thrillers?

5. In a good thriller, do you think it’s better filmed at midday or dusk?

6. Do think the idea of having an unknown character as the criminal is a good idea?

7. Do you think flashbacks would work well in a thriller?

8. In thrillers, what do you most expect to happen?

9. What film stars would you associate with a thriller?

10. What is your most favourite thriller of all time?

1.       Red, black and white,
Red and black.

2.       A weapon, knives or a gun,
Female victim to add to the appeal to pity.

3.       A deserted town or empty fields,
A desolate location, really isolated and makes the character look completely alone, like abandoned buildings or woods.

4.       Yeah it can be, but its good if you don’t know who did it,
Yes but it makes the thriller interesting and engaging.

5.       Dusk is more suspense building,
Midday’s more normal; so it could be used to show a massive movement away from the equilibrium.

6.       Yeah
Yes it would keep the audience engaged to the film and introduce and enigma to the story.

7.       Yeah they would,
Yes it’d open up answers to an enigma.

8.       Someone to be in trouble,
A question to be presented and it be answered over the course of the film.

9.       Leonardo di Caprio,
Robert de Niro.

10. Seven
Cape Fear

By Thomas Beal

BBFC Research

BBFC stands for the British Board of Film Classification. It classifies films into categories depending on the age they believe the film is suitable for, and will judge the classification on whether the film contains material that some audiences would find distressing. Such material would include, strong language, violence, gore, scenes of a sexual nature, threat and drug use.  

 Thrillers are most commonly rated 15 or 18. This is because thrillers often use material such as violence, gore, threat and strong language, and it will depend on how aggressive the material is to determine whether it would be an 18 certificate. Our thriller is going to follow this common thriller trait as thrillers of certificate 12 or below often aren’t adult enough for a primarily adult or teenage audience.

By Thomas Beal

Preliminary Task Video

This is our preliminary task video we created, it took us 2 hours to film and edit. We used the cameras we were provided and therefore the quality was not what we expected. The editing was pretty simple and only consisted of cuts, match-on-action, fades and continuity editing. During our time filming we found that its actually pretty difficult to get the correct shots and get them how we want them. We did infact use two doors in one part of our preliminary. We used the first door, then realised the room had people in it, and we wanted an empty class room. When we found an empty class room, we realised that it had a sign on the door.


In conclusion, we found our preliminary successful and also helpful. With the mistakes made we learnt and therefore know not to do the same in our main thriller.


By Charlie Head

Preliminary Post-Production

When editing our preliminary task, I found that the editing was pretty simple and the clips were nice to work with. I had never used Pinnacle Studios before to edit with and did encounter a few problems when editing. At the beginning and end of our preliminary, I wanted a fade to go in to show it was ending rather than the audience expecting the conversation to proceed on. On Pinnacle I wasn’t able to find out how to do the fades along with the hour I had to edit the clips.

I took our edited piece of work home to add fades and music with a different software I was a little more familiar with. The fades in my opinion worked well and did what I wanted them to do. I googled non copyrighted music and found a good website. The website had over 100'000 songs so I went for the first one I came across, which worked pretty well with our video.

The Match-on-action was fun to do, as seeing our video come together and flowing well was a good sign. The match-on-action was effective as it was almost as though we used 2 cameras to film with, one, one side of the door and one the other side. The cuts were successful and us as a group were pleased with them.

There is one part which we were quite disappointed with and that was when 'Tom' was about to sit down. He walked into the room, went to sit down as he was still fidgeting, it cut to him sitting perfectly still. If watching for the first time as an audience, it would possibly go un-noticed, but if being watched by critics, it was very noticeable. We learnt from this as we now know if we are going to have a cut, we cut from where we left off, and possibly look over the clip before filming the next clip.

By Charlie Head

Preliminary Production

While filming our preliminary we encountered many problems in the hour we were giving with the camera. Some of these problems turned out in our final preliminary video. One of the main issues you can notice is the sudden change of classroom. This was because the free classroom we was going to use was suddenly used by another class half way through our filming.  We managed to get over this problem though as up to this point we had only filmed up to the classroom door.  We could then change class hopefully without the audience noticing. This is shown when the close up of the door doesn't have a name on it before Tom enters it but in the next scene in the it does.


Another problem was the battery life of the camera. As we had forgot to charge the camera up prior to filming it run out of battery near the end. Because of this we had to change camera by swapping the tape inside which took up valuable time we needed. This was one of the key year 13 notes we had forgot about but we will now certainly keep in mind for the future. One of the key shots we had filmed we actually decided to take out in the end. This was when Tom walked into the camera which would then suddenly cut behind him as he carried on walking in front of the camera. This was because it didn't come out as good we thought it would and we thought it could mislead the audience and could even confuse them. We didn't have enough time to correct this scene so decided to leave it as it was. This was a good decision in the end as the original cut was simple but worked just as well. This deleted scene is another camera shot we would consider to use in the future while filming our thriller.


We filmed plenty of footage, more than we actually needed. This was because when editing we could decide what footage works the best and what doesn't when its put together. This was another helpful year 13 tip. When filming our thriller we will try and acquire our own camera. This is so we can spend as much time as we need instead of having to borrow one as there is only a limited amount.


By Christian Sheen        

Preliminary Pre-Production

We talked through many possible initial ideas to begin our planning to the preliminary task. We knew we had to keep the storyline simple, but wanted to experiment as much as possible with camera angles, different shots and editing techniques. We also wanted the task to look good, and so we knew we would have to shoot more than what we would actually need, and even shoot completely different angles that may not be included.

To plan our preliminary, we decided to put our ideas into a mind map, and from there, we took our best, most practical ideas and storyboarded them, giving a sketch, and details of shots, angles and mise en scene. There were compulsory shots that had to be included in the preliminary, including match on action, abiding to the 180 degree rule and shot reverse shot. When we storyboarded the preliminary, we made sure that all compulsory shots were to be included in the film.

180 Degree Rule

The 180 degree rule is essential in filming. It lets the audience understand direction and movement of characters, and does not get them confuse them as to where they are going. By breaking the 180 degree rule, it looks to the audience that the character is now going the opposite way, but in some films this can look good. The rule should only be broken with good reason and context to the film.

By Thomas Beal

Title Sequences

Title sequences are vital in all films, but particularly thrillers. The opening sequence of a movie should set the scene, and so in a thriller, even the opening credits should present forward a question, that entices the audience immediately. Also, key manes, production teams and famous actors are mentioned, often to entice audience's further if a character is played by their favourite actor. 

The thriller film Se7en has a good example of a good opening title sequence. It reveals very little of the storyline to the film, but doesn't leave the audience bored but forces them to ask the question of why the character is blotting out parts of texts or eyes of an unknown person.

Key names are also mentioned, for example the opening title is "New Line Cinema Presents", showing the audience that the film has been made by a bag cinema company, and is likely to be a big budget movie. Also the font is mysterious, presenting a mysterious vibe for the film, and also has an edgy feel, also presenting an element of danger or aggression. When actor's names like "Brad Pitt" are mentioned, the screen turns black with his name left in white, again with the edgy effect on the font. This entices the audience with a big, household name to star in the film. These household names are also credited before even the title of the film.

By Thomas Beal 

Qustionnaire

1. What colour would you mainly associate with a thriller?

2. What iconography (props) would you think a thriller would have in it?

3. What setting would you associate with a thriller?

4. Do you think murder is too common in thrillers?

5. In a good thriller, do you think it’s better filmed at midday or dusk?

6. Do think the idea of having an unknown character as the criminal is a good idea?

7. Do you think flashbacks would work well in a thriller?

8. In thrillers, what do you most expect to happen?

9. What film stars would you associate with a thriller?

10. What is your most favourite thriller of all time?

By Charlie Head

Initial ideas

Our initial ideas were all different by a lot. Our first idea was a man walking down an alley way and as he was getting closer, he would have a flashback. We thought this was too short so we came up with some sort of psychological thriller ideas. We thought we could have a man walking anxiously through a field and thinking someone is behind him. As he gets further into the fields, he walks faster and faster.

With this, we linked the two together and came up with an idea of a man running through a field and he collapses and gets abducted. Once he wakes up, he comes across some photos and while looking at them, has flashbacks. He then comes to see a CCTV camera in the corner and starts panicking knowing that someone is watching him.

We want our thriller to fit the thriller genre, so we decided to have some iconography that fits the genre of a psychological thriller. We had the flashbacks along with a knife. We thought this would fit well with the genre and also give the impression that our genre is noticeable and not hidden.


By Charlie Head

Film Influences

When initially thinking of ideas to base our thriller around, we each came up with a range of thrillers that inspired us in many ways. By discussing these we began to work with each other and come up with ideas that can make our thriller original. These films appealed to us the most because of the dark and gritty feel they had and the dramatic twists they had. The sub-genres of these are mystery, psychological and crime. We are most to use these genres because our demographics show that that these genres mostly aim at our target audience and would work better rather than other sub-genres such as a political thriller would. We also believe that these are the most popular and interesting sub-genres to work with. 

Here are a few sub genres of thrillers we came up with: 

 By Christian Sheen

Year 13 Talk

Year 13's came in to our media lesson to offer us advice, tips and hints on filming our thriller and the proper preparation needed to make us ready for filming. They gave us simple points of what to do and what to not do, and what is good to include to make the thriller look professional and to get us good grades. The talk was a helpful insight and showed us clearly what we need to do. Points they made include:

- Get permission for the location at which you wish to film,

- Plan everything thoroughly before going to film,

- Be original with the idea of your thriller, don't do something that’s been done already,

- Use correct iconography; make the film look believable with props, costume and character, i.e. not using a water pistol as a prop,

- Film as soon as possible to have time to work on the blog, editing and evaluation,

- Avoid dialogue in the film, makes it look unprofessional,

- Distribute the work evenly,

- Don't make the blog solely written, upload videos and use other means of posting,

- Take photos of location,

- Be prepared for people letting you down,

- Be consistent and make sure the film has continuity,

- Think through the storyline of your film,

- Film more than you need to.

Having been given this talk we have been given vital tips and advice to make the filming process easier and to give us an idea as to how to film and prepare the best way possible, by people which have already done it and have the experience.

By Thomas Beal

Codes & Conventions of a Thriller

By Thomas Beal

Preliminary Storyboard

Mood Board

These codes and conventions of a thriller that we thought up as a group, we feel are represented in the following films in our mood board.

·         A thriller is always dark

·         People hurt or killed

·         Guns or weapons are often used

·         There are often injuries

·         There is always a cold dark place

·         The weather is always bad cold dark and often raining

·         It is often set in a rough place with poor living conditions

·         People are often scared and unhappy 

·         Crimes are often committed therefore there are :

-          Police

-          Ambulances

-          Detectives

-          Forensics

-          Fire brigade

-          Prisons

-          Criminals 

·         Sometimes illness

·         Costumes often dirty and ripped tattered and torn clothing

·         Often  suffering  for  family and friends

By George Hick and Christian Sheen