Target Audience Research Analysis

Survey Monkey

1. Please enter some basic details below

• By entering specific details, such as their address, I was able to gain insight into their regional identity. I was able to come to the conclusion that all lived in ‘England’ around the area of ‘Surrey’, in ‘Banstead’, ‘London’. This shows me that my target audience are primarily in the London area of England.

2. How old are you?The ages ran from 14-56. Therefore, the range of the ages is 42, and the

average is 28. This tells me that my target audience are primarily young adults.

• From this graph we can see that there is an even amount of males and females. 50% males, and 50% females tells me that my target audience is a mix of genders. Therefore, my film would do good to address issues that affect both males and females.

• 33.33% answered saying they were at work. On closer inspection I found that this percentage counted for the older members who my survey reached.

• 16.67% answered saying they were at secondary school. I found this percentage to count for the younger members who my survey reached.

• The last 50% said they were at college. Therefore, they were between the ages of 16-18.

• This showed me that my audience are primarily young adults currently partaking in college. However, there is still an older and younger demographic around.

• When asked whether or not they watched short films I found that they were split down the middle, as 50% said they did, and 50% answered no.

• This is interesting as it seems I must shape my short film to be more intriguing and accessible than short film have been in the past.

• 50% said they watched 1-3 hours of short films per week, whereas 66.67% said they didn’t watch short film during the week.

• However, I found that one person had chosen both answers, so I took this to mean that when they do watch short films in the week it is between 1-3 hours, but sometimes they don’t watch short films in the week.

• In conclusion, the primary amount of time they spend watching short films per week is 1-3 hours.

• For the people who answered yes to question 5, the primary amount of short films consumed per week is 2-4.

• This question formulated an interesting response. You can see from the graph that 33.33% consumed short films from DVDs, 50% from the internet, 16.67% at the cinema, and 16.67% other. However, no one said they consumed short film at festivals.

• Comments for these answers were given afterwards. People consuming short films from the internet said it is because ‘it’s quick’, another said that ‘some of the best short films i’ve seen have been on Youtube’-this response shows the individuals ability to search and find short films independently, but also the lack of exploration, or the lack of knowledge, of such sites as Vimeo. People who said they consume short films from DVDs said ‘it’s the easiest’.

• 66.67% said they did prefer certain genres, but 33.33% said they did not hold preference. This shows that double the amount of people who said no said yes, telling me that my target audience primarily have specific genres they look out for.

• Preferences fell to : ‘action as they keep my attention and always have something going on in them’/‘comedies and action’/‘comedy, because they make me laugh which keeps me interested. Drama because some dramatic short films i’ve seen have had great, realistic performances’/‘indie films by up and coming young writers and directors as they are usually interesting and quirky’, and ‘anything besides social realism’.

• This showed the diverseness amongst the people, as some are more mainstream viewers liking ‘comedies and action’, and others are more indie’ viewers preferring ‘up and coming young writers and directors’.

• Once again there was a 50/50 split, with 50% saying they preferred certain issues and themes, and 50% saying they did not.

• One individual responded saying: ‘I like I like themes that address themes that address the issues within the issues within society e.g. sexism, society e.g. sexism, homophobia. These homophobia. These interest me because interest me because short films can address short films can address these in a way that a these in a way that a big audience could pay big audience could pay attention to, and do it in attention to, and do it in such a way that the such a way that the audience realise the audience realise the problems of modern problems of modern society.’society.’ Another stated Another stated that they like that they like ‘films ‘films which either make me which either make me laugh/make me feel laugh/make me feel good or scare me.’good or scare me.’ And And one last person said one last person said that they like films that they like films which addressed issues which addressed issues in an in an ‘eccentric way’.‘eccentric way’.

11. Have you seen any of these short films?

• For this question I made a list of around 10 short films, and allowed the participants to answer either yes or no to each short film, depending on whether or not they had seen it.

• The list of short films were as followed: About A Girl, The Most Beautiful Man In The World, Wasp, Gasman, Nought, Black Button, For The Birds, Doodlebug, and The Sheep Thief.

• I found that nobody had seen any of the last five in the list, however, 1 in 6 had seen Gasman, Wasp. The Most Beautiful Man In The World, and About A Girl.

• This tells me that the majority of the audience are not educated in short film.

12. What other short films have you seen?

• There was a range of answers for this question. One said ‘Antonio’s Breakfast’, another said ‘If Heterophobia Was Real’, and ‘The Tea Chronicles’. A third person said they had seen ‘Asdf on Youtube’-this is a more mainstream type short film for the more common audience of Youtube, showing this person’s lack of exploration towards indie films. A last person stated they normally watch short film on ‘C4’ such as Wheels, and Amelia and Michael.

• This tells me that although a large amount hadn’t seen such short realism films as About A Girl, and Gasman, they had still watched short films.

13. Out of the short films you have seen, which had the biggest impact, and why?

• One individual stated that ‘Wasp’ had has the biggest impact on them because Andre Arnold ‘brings something new with every single film she makes’, it was ‘original’, and ‘poetic’. This tells me that this person is well educated as they are using a wide vocabulary, and know about the director.

• Another said ‘If Heterophobia Was Real because it makes you realise how harsh society is on homosexual people, and heterophobia is just a made up concept. It made me realise even more than I already had that the world we live in is full of inequality and it had a big impact on me in this way.’ I can tell, by the use of such strong vocabulary as ‘harsh’, that they are passionate about these sort of issues showing the ‘inequality’ in the world.

• In conclusion, there are well educated, and passionate members of the audience.

14. How can the short form be added to or developed to become more interesting to

you?• For this question I got a good variation of answers. One person stated that ‘Characterisation

could be worked on. Usually we are introduced to a most unimaginative cast of bland characters. I also think the working class context so many of these films are set against are repetitive’. This tells me to work out a way for characterisation to be developed over the short period of time available, and to be more ‘imaginative’ and socially diverse in my class and statuses.

• There was an interesting answer that opened the issue of the lack of knowledge of short films in a mainstream audience. They said that there should be ‘more advertisement’ for short films. Another also said that the they should be ‘more accessible in main stream TV’. Therefore, the lack of advertisement for short films has meant the lack of knowledge of their existence for mainstream audiences.

• Another answer stated that they would like more representation of ‘older people, but not pensioners’. This could be addressing the lack of in-between in representation usually in these types of films, as there is normally either young representation or old representation.

15. What attracts you to short films already?

• There was a clear pattern within these answers, telling me that most were attracted to short films because ‘they are short’. But also the ‘directors making the films’ sometime attract them, probably because they have made other, good films.

• This tells me to keep my short film short enough to hold attention.

16. Have you heard any of these short film-makers?

• For this question I gave a list of around 7 film-makers. These included: Brian Percival, Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan, Tom & Charles Guard, Lynne Ramsay, and Andrea Arnold.

• 1 in 6 had heard of Brian Percival, Andrea Arnold, and Lynne Ramsay, whereas the majority had heard of Ridley Scott, and Christopher Nolan.

• This once again tells me of the lack of knowledge of short films and film-makers, as the more mainstream film-makers like Christopher nolan are known by more than more independent film-makers like Lynne Ramsay.