Audience Questionnaire - Results

The first question asked was used in order to find out and classify the gender that is most interested in short films.  It is important to know the target audience as varying genders and audiences based upon stereotypes have different ideas and opinions on films content. Establishing the most predominant gender also is important as viewing the answers of the questionnaire influences the overall content. The questionnaire highlighted that the largest proportion of the audience are female, with the ratio 7:6. This information also details that males are also a predominant part in the viewing of short films. With this knowledge, the content and themes of my short film can be based around the female stereotype in order for them to relate to the film successfully. These results must also be kept in context as only twelve people carried out the questionnaire and the films audience is statistically much larger than this.

Age is an important feature to consider when producing a media production, especially a short film in which the content and themes are crucial to its success. Age is also a representative of how a product should be advertised and marketed.  Nine out of the twelve people who answered my questionnaire are aged 16-25 signifying that this is the most important age category to consider. It reinforces the form of marketing that could be undertaken. An example of this is advertising online, on websites popular with this age group.  Twitter, Facebook, Livejournal are all forms of websites that could successfully market the film. It is also an important concept to consider the life experiences and interests of an audience. Taking this information into account by product will quick cut with interesting shots and narrative in order to keep them involved with the film.

In order to find out the preferred genre of a short film, the questionnaire used a multiple choice answer system but allowed those partaking to rate them on a scale of 1-10. This allowed a fair perception to be created and detailed how effective and important certain genres are to an audience. The most popular genre was drama; this is a stereotypical choice for females but is also a broad genre. The boundaries used within the drama genre are flexible and reinforce the importance of creating a thrilling narrative and content. The second most popular genre was action.  Along with the drama genre it enforces the importance of movement, tension and strong emotions within a piece.  The third genre is order of popularity was horror. Horror is stereotypically a genre related to masculinity. This also represents the development of gender and how stereotypes are not always correct. Horror has basic concepts of needing tension, a threat and a protagonist and it also works in tangent with other genres an example being supernatural. These results show the importance of featuring these genre’s within my work as well as the conventions from each form that a vital in order to make this short film successful. It also represents genres that are not popular such as comedy that are not important to my target audience.

Discovering which is the most popular method of viewing a short film is important in the advertising process of the piece as well as making it sure it is uploaded to the location most likely to be viewed. The standard method for watching a short film is to view it via a computer using sites such as Youtube and Vimeo. Viewing films in this format allows them to be seen by a large proportion of people globally as well as offering the chance for repeat viewings due to no fee being exchanged. This makes the film more accessible for the audience. The second most popular answer was other. When asked to specify, the response showed that viewing short films through mobile devices was common, examples given included mobile phones, iPod’s/mp3’s and tablet devices. Making a short film for this format means it would require the ability to be downloadable in formats used by these devices as well as being of a high quality format so that visual content is not lost if it needs to be converted. Taking these factors into account during the production of my short film, will mean that it is accessible to the audience it is focused on as well as allowing it to be viewed simply.

The question “Are you aware of the conventions of a short film” is crucial in establishing how the audience interact and understand the content they are viewing. It is also representational of the quantity of short films the audience may have seen before, if they recognise the codes used within them. The results from the questionnaire revealed that over half of the twelve people asked did understand and could recall some of the codes used in a short film. Knowing this information allows for the codes to be used subtly or developed within my production. It also conveys the fact that the audience have previous knowledge of the style of a short film and will understand the methods used within it.

The final question asked was about how often they view short films. Knowing this information meant that it would represent exactly the audience for a short film. The questionnaire detailed that a large majority of teenagers have previously seen a short film, which is important as it supports the category I decided to make this short film for. The most popular choice was that they view a short film occasionally. This means that the production would be viewed by the age group it targeted. The second most popular answer was watching a short film at least once a week. Though this in enforces that short films may not be watched as frequently as the feature length counter parts but that they are an integral part of people’s viewing and that there is an interest in their production.

The fifth question asked within the survey was in place in order to discover what other interests the audience hold. The genre’s and themes of the programmes they watch may not always necessarily be linked but it gives a representation of their social class, their education and passions which are important to take into consideration when producing a short film.  It also means that an intertextual references that could be made, are in formats that the audience would recognise. The following are some of the answers to the question posed.  The similarities highlight the important concepts and traits that my short film should posses if it is to interact and interest the audience.  The results from the questionnaire cannot be deemed accurate for this question as some participants named more television shows and films than others.

Television:

-          Waking the Dead

-          Silent Witness (x3)

-          Criminal Minds

-          Bones (x2)

-          Blackpool

-          Sherlock (x6)

-          Doctor Who (x9)

-          Torchwood (x6)

-          Being Human (x3)

-          House (x4)

-          QI (x7)

-          Only Connect (x3)

-          Have I got news for you (x5)

-          Miranda (x4)

-          Being Human (x3)

-          Mock the Week (x5)

              Film:

-          Secret Window (x2)
-          Harry Potter Series (x7)
-          Inception (x5)
-          Saw Franchise (x2)
-          Sweeney Todd: The demon barber of fleet street
-          Nightmare on elm street (x2)
-          Donnie Darko (x5)
-          Severance
-          Edward Scissorhands
-          From Hell
-          The wizard of Oz
-          The sword and the stone
-          Coraline
-           Atonement
-          Psycho (x2)
-          Dracula
-          Sherlock Holmes
-          House of Wax
-          A clockwork orange