Thriller Audience Research Proposal

To better understand and prepare for making my thriller film opening i shall conduct some audience research, this involves giving a number of people a questionnaire to fill out to find out what they think about indepandant and mainstream films.

What i aim to find out:

1) The audiences expectations for independant and mainstream films.
2) Whether they prefer independant or mainstream films. And whether people who have interest and/or consume art prefer independant films over mainstream.
3) How the audience prefers to consumes their films, for instance the cinema or on DVD.
4) How many people the audience members usualy watch films with.
5) What sub-genres of thriller the audience prefers, for instance psycological, action, crime, or conspiracy thrillers.

Possible ways to gather infomation:

1) Put on a private screening in my own home and invite people to watch different films and discuss their thoughts.
2) Hand out questionnaires to people and gather their findings.
3) Online poll

I expect to find what the majority of people expect from both mainstream and independant film, which ones they prefer and why they prefer them, i think that the majority of the people will prefer mainstream films over independant films and gravitate towards action and crime thrillers because they can offer a more intense viewing experience because of the larger budget size. This is becase most people like to watch films for the spectical rather than the plot because it provides a form of more unconditional entertainment which does not require strong emotional engagement, i think this because most audiences in my opinion go to watch films for the thrill and as a "laugh". I also expect people who have some interest in art will on the whole prefer independant films to mainstream films, i think this becuase people who connect with art are more interested in the emotional, and social elements, rather than the thrill.

Screenings in my area:

1) At my cinema i can expect there to be about 65 films over a weekend.
2) There are 9 films being exhibited currently in the cinema.
3) there are a number of films that are being screened three or more times. These include Avatar, Wolfman, and Edge Of Darkness.