2. To know your audience is the main aspect of making any
creative product. The process of constructing my own short
film has given me awareness to how cinema and what we
see on screen solely relies on the audience it is targeting.
The continuous collection of audience feedback is crucial
when making a film or creative product as moving away
from the audience’s wishes could be detrimental for filmic
success. From learning this throughout my A Level Media
Studies course I have developed my skills in obtaining
effective audience feedback and can now gather
information to construct a fitting product.
3. Pre Production – Quantitative Data
Before finalising our narrative, we crafted questionnaires which
we handed to 50 of those within our target audience margin. In
doing so we were able to evaluate our target audiences interests
and preferences in terms of film. We found that the majority of
the questionnaires were filled by females and were aged 16-18.
We found that the platform in which our audience was most likely
to watch short films was online, therefore we thought the
premiere would be most suitable on YouTube. Furthermore, the
result showed that the audience saw the ideal length of a short
film to be 7 minutes and so we aimed to keep it at 7 or above as
they stated any lower would be too brief. In addition, the majority
stated they would prefer a happy ending a route we chose to
take with having Sam and Ellie reunited. Moreover, the audience
said they would always prefer a non fictional storyline and so we
tried to keep our story as realistic as possible. A more interesting
point was discovering that the audience would empathise with a
female character more than they would a male , this was a major
point in deciding on our protagonist .
4. Pre Production- Qualitative Data
As well as our questionnaire, before finalising our narrative we
felt it was necessary to hold short interviews with those in and
around our target audience bracket. All the interviewed said they
could instantly make the connection to the genre from the script.
A lot of participants also thought the plot was easy for adults to
relate to as there were characters they could see adult
perspectives from. Additionally, they some of the interviewed
were parents themselves and found it an ‘interesting approach’
to a parents biggest fear , losing your child. The moral was also
a distinctive feature in the plot according to the answers given as
many described it as “following the heart” and “living life in the
present”. All of those we interviewed said they liked the sound of
the plot and would not make any alterations just “to be careful
when casting”. The protagonist was described with similar words
with a lot labelling her as “independent” and “emotional”. There
were interesting responses for a name for the film with many
making reference to the father daughter relationship rather than
that of Ellie and Sam’s. A lot made reference to seeing ‘The Fault
in Our Stars’ and therefore we knew that the film would be
something they would interested in as it was of a similar nature.
5. Post production- Quantitative
After the premiere of our film we gave the attendees a short
questionnaire to complete to get their first hand opinions
immediately after watching it. The most present age group at our
film screening was 16-18, a clear indication of how our pre
production research was effective in gathering an estimated
target age group. Out of 30 people 27 were female which also
corresponded with our pre production information of how women
were more likely to be interested that men. Again, alike said in
pre production research we found that 91% said that they
enjoyed the film. Similarly, the added narration was an aspect
only recently added due to feedback on the lack of explanation
to Ellie’s mother’s death, we found that this to the audience was
an effective feature in adding information to the film. The
questionnaire also showed us that the majority of the viewers
found Ellie’s character relatable, an aspect we were concerned
the audience would fail to grasp. We also found that all
participants were aware that the genre was a romantic drama.
6. Ancillary task: Film Poster
Before constructing the film poster, my project partner
Emily decided it would be beneficial to research different
layout styles for the poster in which she would then decide
on the most appropriate design. After consulting 12 peers
she finalised her decision on a design and state that
without the audience feedback she would find it difficult to
make a decision on one layout as there were aspects of
each she felt would be suitable for the target audience. In
doing so, alike a real editing team Emily was able to pick
certain aspects that the criticisers thought were the
strongest and create one design that met all of these
requirements in order to make the product more
successful.
7. Ancillary task: Film Review
Similarly, as it was my role to create the film poster I decided it
would be first beneficial to do some research into the
conventions of film reviews. From this I found audiences engage
more with visual information rather than overpowering text. The
next stage was to create multiple layout options and present
these to a selection of individuals who all decided upon features
they felt were the strongest on the designs. After creating my
product I was then able to present it to 10 different people and
interview them based on the final product. This was a colloquial
yet effective method of gathering my readers thoughts and
opinions on the final page. This would be found in any editing
stage of reviews or interviews and editors would go through all
aspects of the piece making links to target audience and
assessing whether the product really meets these demands.
8. In conclusion, the different styles of audience research
carried out within the process of making my short film really
determined how successful our product was going to be. It
defined the audiences expectations and demands for a film
of this nature and allowed us to construct a product with in
depth reference to what information our audience had
given us through quantitative (questionnaires) and
qualitative (interviews) data.
