Survey Results

When looking into my target audience and the social groups most likely to view my product, I found it essential to question their gender. My results showed that the majority of those who responded were females; this influenced some of my decisions as I feel that I must now aim to appeal to a more masculine audience (having already gained the attention of female speculation). I will do so by including a male character/interviewee in which will hopefully feel more relatable to a male audience. I will also try to remain on track with the portrayal of homeless hardships rather than focusing on a 'sob story' that typically appeals to more female emotions.

By asking the target audience their age, this gave me an understanding of what content to include within my short film, e.g. due to the majority of respondents being within the age range of 15-20 and below, I know that I must not classify my film with anything above a 15 rating as this would result in the loss of half of my audience. I have chosen to rate my film as a PG as I want to enable as many different age categories as possible to watch my product; I am refraining from categorising it as a 'U' due to the fact that some of the plot may appear distressing or upsetting for younger and more vulnerable viewers, however none of the content will be explicit.

I found it to be quite interesting to find out whether my target audience preferred feature films or short films; the results showed that the majority of those who took part in the survey preferred feature films. I was not shocked by this outcome as I, myself, also prefer them in comparison to shorts. This is most likely due to the awareness surrounding feature films due to more prominent advertising and accessibility.

After finding out that feature films were more popular, I wanted to further understand why the survey participants selected this answer and whether or not I could apply these preferences within my own work. Unfortunately, due to my low budget and student status I am unable to glamorise my casting through the use of celebrity features; I am also unable to distribute my film through a cinematic industry, however plan to make it equally as accessible by sharing the link to my product via social networking and making sure the settings are set to 'public'. 

Having had very little experience with the consumption of short films myself, I decided to question whether my audience had watched any short films previously; it came to my attention that majority had, therefore informing me that they may be familiar with the typical codes and conventions. Just over 20% had never seen a short film before, which has inspired me to follow many of the traditional expectations of this form of media.

When ask what genre of short films they had previously watched, I found that documentary/educational style films were quite common; this means that I can continue with my chosen genre with confidence and feel more assured that it will appeal to my audience. 

I was also interested in seeing what technical aspects of short films appeared most appealing; I felt that I could build upon and therefore develop these areas in order to suit the interests of my audience. I found that the use of hidden meanings and inspirational/motivational messages were most dominant, therefore influencing my choice of narrative as I do not wish to introduce the main theme until the second half of the sequence. 

Due to wanting to make a documentary style film focusing on the topic of homeless, I decided that it would be beneficial to look into whether or not this topic would appeal to my audience. The results showed that both social media and homelessness were very popular topics of interest, therefore suggesting that my storyline (as shown via my storyboard) will engage the attention of the viewers.