The document discusses research conducted on the target audience for a short film project. A survey was administered to 27 people to understand opinions on short films, favorite movie genres, thoughts on cliffhangers, what is enjoyed about short films, and how often short films are watched. The majority favored comedy as their genre, did not like cliffhangers, enjoyed the intensity of short films, and almost never watch short films. The filmmaker aims to create an intense thriller/mystery with a cliffhanger ending and understands the challenges given audience preferences. Research was also presented on attracting a target age range of 15-30 who typically enjoy the genre due to its adrenaline and mystery elements.

1. I N D I A - R A I N H A R R I S O N
Stage 2
research + experiments

2. Primary Target audience research
One of the research methods I
chose to help with my film is a
survey with a different range of
audience members. One of the
questions I asked within the
survey was what peoples opinions
on short films were. I had a total
of 27 people answering my
survey, one of them skipping this
question with no answer. Under
54% said that they though short
films were ok; none said that they
didn’t like them. Over 34% said
that they did like short films, the
rest saying they had never seen
one.

3. Primary Target audience research
The second question asked in my survey
was what peoples favourite movie genre
was. 44% of the vote all said comedy,
this was the majority of the public
answering with comedy. 11% aid horror
/ thriller which is the genre of film I
have chosen to conduct, this was the
third most popular opinion. The three
least popular (with one vote each) were
Sci-Fi, Mystery and Action / Adventure.
My movie is based between the genres
of Thriller and s little mystery, these
weren't the most popular genres of film
via the audience members answering
the survey, however there is an
audience willing to watch the film once
production and editing is over .

4. Primary Target audience research
For my third question in my survey,
I asked my audience if they liked
cliff hangers at the end of movies.
The majority of votes went on keep
the movie going until the end with
no cliff hanger and depends what
sort of movie it is. As my film is a
thriller / mystery movie, I wanted to
have a cliff hanger at the end of it so
I could create that thrill and
intensity when watching, wanting to
leave my audience asking questions
and wanting more when the movie
ends, however only one member of
my audience enjoyed cliff hangers in
movies, meaning that it isn't a
popular ending for movie watchers.

5. Primary Target audience research
My fourth question aske was what
people enjoyed about short films, the
majority vote going to the intensity of
them which is helpful towards my
film as I'm hoping to keep it intense
the whole way through up until the
end. The second most popular
answer was the storylines that short
films have to offer, helping with my
movie as I feel my film is a good
storyline but takes a little thinking to
understand the plot and understand
what is happening during the movie
as there could be several different
ways of viewing the story depending
on how the viewer sees the film.

6. Primary Target audience research
The final question asked was how often
people watched short films. This
question is important to any movie
director as they need to know how
audience members will watch their film,
even if it is of a new genre or length. The
majority answer was almost never,
however a close second is monthly,
showing that my audience don’t always
choose to watch shirt films, however
every few weeks / months they do
choose to sit and watch short films. I
had two respondents say that they
didn’t watch short films, however once
my own once mine is finished editing
and has been viewed by the public, I’m
hoping they enjoy it and choose to
watch short films more frequently.

7. Secondary Target audience research
As my short story is a thriller, it attracts audiences of both genders, usually between 15-21
year olds. I have found within my research that young adults prefer thriller movies as they
enjoy the intensity of the plot. Males prefer thrillers as they enjoy the intensity and
adrenaline they get when watching them, females enjoy thrillers as they enjoy questioning
the plot in their minds and trying to figure out what happens next throughout the film.
Young people also enjoy thrillers because of the way they are left shaken up after watching,
one of the movies I am comparing my own to, Shutter island, received over 8 stars on IMDb
for the plot twists and throughout and leaving the audience hanging after every scene.
Thrillers are seen as a very popular genre amongst young people as the like to thrill seek.
They enjoy watching movies that make them jump and squeamish as they enjoy the
adrenaline it gives to them when the movie is over. They also like the mystery effect it has on
them, making them question what is happening within the film. Once the film ends, they
enjoy finding out the plot twist and remembering back through the movie to find out how it
all worked out.

8. Identify target audience
My target audience would be teens from age 15 to adults around age 30. I feel
my audience will enjoy the plot twist of my short film and figuring out how the
girl got in the room and how she gets out. There are several plot twists within
my movie, some that make the audience really use their minds as to how to
figure out the mystery of the lonely girl. Audience members will have to use
lateral thinking in order to watch my film and figure out the plot of the story.
The reason the age restriction is so high is because thriller movies are
considered too much for the younger teens, therefore 15 is a god age, however a
13-14 year old could watch under adult supervision. I wouldn’t consider my
movie scary, but I would say there are parts the audience would be made jump.

9. Audience appropriate content
My movie would be rated as a possible PG-13 due to the ending and parts of
the film making audience members jump. I would like to include taped u
windows ad markings on the wall, however due to location of where I would
be filming I wouldn’t be able to include those, therefore I may have to
improvise and use green screen or pictures on the wall as opposed to drawing
on the physical wall. My character would have to wear all black and have dirt
patches on her face and hands, with her main accessory being a notebook
containing a tally chart of how many days she had been in confinement.
Given your idea generation and
your audience research, what
sort of content would you define
as the appropriate. Consider
issues of taste, certification
[BBFC might be a good starting
point for this], etc. Look at what
you’d like to include and what
you are allowed to include.

10. Production techniques research
Research potential production techniques you might want to use or feel would be most appropriate – these can be related to camera, editing,
story, sound, etc
You should look at a minimum of 3 related products in your research.
You should collect clips/still images/how to guides/etc that might help you. When watching scenes from films, etc you could also ask potential
target audience what they think.
You will need to add extra slides!
With each technique you should assess whether you can use it or how you might employ or why you may want to disregard it completely
The program I would se to edit my movie would be Adobe Premier as it is the
easiest program to use when editing. For the camera I would use my own G7X as
I find it easier to use as I use it often and understand the functions on it. I could
keep the sound simple, using creepy background music with occasional creeks of
floorboards and the dripping of a tap. I would also include music that creates
suspense at the end of the movie. Because of the genre of story I am wanting to
create, I will have to look at some dramatic / thriller type of short stories, one
that comes to mind is Michael Jackson’s Thriller as he has the short story at the
beginning of his music video, which I feel is quite close to my idea for my short
story. I will also Google and look at other short stories that are similar to my own.

11. Shutter Island (2010)
Shutter Island is similar to my product that I have
created as Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Marshall
Teddy Daniels, is living his life as almost a lie. He has
convinced himself that he is a detective here to find a
missing patient when in reality he is the missing
patient. His partner is in on the situation, as well as
other doctors and nurses. This film is very similar to
my own as Daniels is trapped within his own mind,
telling a story he has made up in his head, with other
doctors going along with the plot in order to keep him
sane. One of the characters he uncovers in one of the
hospital wings is trapped in solitary confinement also,
the set similar to how I would have my own. Therefore
I will take ideas from this scene in the movie to help
with designing the set for my film. I liked the idea that
DiCaprio’s character was trapped inside his own head,
hence why I chose this film to compare to my own.

12. Black Swan (2010)
Black Swan is a like to my short movie also as the main
character, Nina, is seen to be trapped within her own
mind throughout the movie. She has a standard that
she wants to live up to and cant. Once she is given the
role of the swan queen in the ballet of The Swan Lake
there is more pressure placed upon Nina to the point
where she is making herself ill. The reason I like the
plot of this movie is because of Nina being trapped
within her own head, I feel tat is one of the outcomes
that could be considered for the ending of my movie.
One ending I would like my audience to consider at the
end of my movie would be that my main character is
trapped within her own thoughts and cant escape
them, hence why everything in the room she is trapped
in is in darkness. The reason why the note is slid under
the door is because doctors are trying to get through to
her and the only way they can do that is to go along
with how her brain is working and incorporate the note
into her thoughts so she makes it a part of her reality in
her head.

13. Dunkirk (2017)
Dunkirk is also very similar to my movie sequence as
the main plot of the movie is being trapped either on a
beach, ship or in the water. The soldiers in the movie
are trapped on the beach of Dunkirk trying to get
home, this is similar to my film as my character is
trapped within her own mind with no escape. The
difference with this film in comparison to my own is
that these men aren’t trapped inside their own head,
rather they're trapped inside a reality they want to
escape. The similarities with this film and my movie is
that my character has escaped a reality she doesn’t
want to live in, similar with the soldiers in this film as
they’re trying to escape something that is real that they
don’t want to be in.

14. C A M E R A / E D I T I N G / A U D I O E X P E R I M E N T S
B E P R E P A R E D T O A D D E X T R A S L I D E S
Experiments

15. Filming - Process
Within my draft film we used the college equipment, including camera,
tripod, recorders, batteries and memory cards. We selected a
specifically quiet section of college to film our movie, so we would have
few interruptions and could film efficiently meaning we could edit our
shots together with plenty of time to spare to add any extra sound
effects we may have needed. In order to edit our shots together with
sound, we used Adobe Premier to create the film and downloaded
sounds and music from YouTube.

16. Reflection
During filming our draft film, we worked well and efficiently with
each other. As we were a group of 5, we decided to film 2 of our
ideas and choose between us which we were going to edit for
ourselves. Before we added sound to our now finalised films, we
were given an existing scene from a movie with no sound to add
sound to ourselves so we could practise downloading the sounds /
music from YouTube and converting them to be able to place in our
films once editing was completed.

17. editing - Process
 Discuss the tools and processes used in your experiments – use screenshots to illustrate your process
When editing my draft film, I used a program called Adobe Premier
(and if editing at home, Final Cut Pro X) and I edited several
different sequences with each shot to see how everything fit
together, thus giving me the chance to see how each shot fit well
together and where. This also gave me chance to change some shots
and sequences round so I could see which would fit better for a
short film.

18. Reflection
What elements of your experiments will you include in your final product?
I will definitely be using Adobe Premier when editing my film, as it is
a program I am familiar with and I feel is the best when editing
footage together. I’ll use the same editing tools, i.e. razor blade to cut
shots, selecting tool, cropping feature etc. when I edit my movie.

19. audio - Process
Within making my draft film, we had to cut out any audio used
during filming in premier and insert our own from either the
internet (YouTube) or create our own using sound recorders. We did
this by looking up sound effects via YouTube, copying the link and
researching YouTube to MP3 converting tools on safari. Once
downloaded, we dragged the sound effect / music from iTunes to
premier and inserted the sound effect / music where necessary
within my film.

20. Reflection
I will definitely include the process on how to include sound
effects and music into our films, whether that be by downloading
from the internet or using a sound recorder to record the
appropriate noises / sounds needed. As we had to use ambient
sound in our draft films, I'm going to carry on with these types of
sound effects in my actual film so there are legitimate noises going
on with the action happening within the film.

21. Constraints on production
As my film is filmed mainly indoors, I will have to make sure that I use
the same room or else the staging of everything wont make sense if I
change rooms halfway through, so I will always have to make sure that
the room I choose is one that is empty most of the time. Another issue
could be running out of time because of shots that weren't filmed
correctly or again, not being in the correct room so the film flows
consistently. The lighting is also an issue as I will need to use a space
where there are n widows or very little light being able to get through.
The final issue could be that if any piece of equipment were to be broken
or damaged I would need to cover costs of the damage I caused to that
piece.