Thriller audience expectations

As a group we all decided to look at a different genre and then ask people of different ages and backgrounds what they expect from said genre, I am looking at the thriller genre. I came up with a few questions to ask people to get a general over veiw of what people expect from the genre and a film from that genre. Once we had the idea of what people expect from the genre we can decide if this genre is one we would be able to achieve.

1. What genre of film areyou most likely to go and see?
2. Would you go and see a thriller film?
3. Name 5 things you expect to see in a thriller film
4. What certification would you expect to see from a thriller film?

These are the questions I asked 6 people to get an idea of what people expect from their films.

Maxine Saltmarsh- 49

1. Drama
2. Yes
3. violence, relationships, tension, chase, fear
4. 18

Kevin Saltmarsh- 49

1. Thriller
2. Yes
3. Car chase, guns, suspense, female interest, darkness
4. 15

Grace Gillard- 6

1. fairy/children
2. No
3. running, scary men, scared, dark, acreaming
4. N/A

Amber Polley- 17

1. Horror
2. Yes
3. Creepy themes, death, isolation, suspense, darkness
4. 15

Natalie Saltmarsh- 21

1. Rom-Com
2. Maybe
3. Fear, Running, Isolation, Darkness, Death
4. 15

Del Toogood- 56

1. Action
2. Yes
3. Chase, Male Villian, Suspense, Relationships, Fights
4. 15

From all of the answers given I can see that thriller isn't commonly the film that people would automatically go to see but most would be willing to see one. It is obvious that thriller films are aimed at older audiences as everyone said that a thriller film would be at least a 15 and when I asked the young person she didn't really have an idea what a thriller film was. From this I can see that usual conventions people think of when it comes to thriller films are, low key lighting (signified as darkness) a sense of suspense and some form of chase, be it a car chase or having a chase as an ongoing thematic convention. I think the opening of a thriller would be a good thing for us to do as it will be quite easy to build up suspense through editing and location and low key lighting is something we can easilly achieve. I don't think we would be able to create a successful chase but as we are only creating the first two minutes its unlikely that there would be a chase in there so we wouldn't have to worry about that.