The document discusses research conducted for a short film about time travel. A survey found that the target audience prefers action, comedy and sci-fi genres and a mix of endings. Most would find a 1-2 minute film about time travel interesting. Research on similar sci-fi films found the target demographic is 15-30 years old. The film would likely receive a 12 rating due to some violence but no profanity or sexual content. Examples of short films were analyzed to identify production techniques to employ, such as camera shots and special effects. Camera and editing experiments were also conducted to prepare for the actual short film.

1. STAGE 2
RESEARCH +
EXPERIMENTS
Your name here

2.  I had asked around 10 people some questions related to the short film that I am planning on
making, and judging from the results that I had received from the questionnaire, I have found out
that my Target Audience is a mixture of genders (there is no majority and even though male has
less compared to the others, it’s balanced out given some of the less appropriate responses
within the other section). The majority of my Target Audience watch films every couple days,
meaning that they would be quite likely to be ok with watching this compared to those who rarely
watch anything.

3. Action Comedy and Sci-Fi are my
Target Audiences favourite genres,
some of the responses included
when asked why included them
being ‘interesting’, ‘funny’ and
because they had ‘good effects’. This
helps me as it shows exactly what
they want the short film to be, so I
can alter it in order to suit their
needs.

4. They prefer a mixture of endings rather than
purely good or purely bad, this helps me as
it means that the majority won’t really mind if
either ending happens, and because it’s
resetting, they get to see both the good
ending to this and the bad ending within the
short film.
They also believe that a short film should
last between 1 to 2 minutes, this helps me
when planning out the film as I can plan it
out to last somewhere between 1 and 2
minutes (for this however it is going to be
set to being a minute long).

5. Most of my Target Audience would be
ok with watching a short film that has
something to do with Time Travel, this
is good for me because it means that
people would actually be ok with
watching the Short Film, and I don’t
have to change the entire plan in order
to suit the Target Audience.
The majority of them believe that the
concept of resetting would be
considered Sci-Fi more than it would be
Fantasy, however while I personally
believe that it can be a mixture of the
two genres, it is more likely going to be
more of a Sci-Fi setting rather than a
Fantasy Setting.

6. With the last question, a lot of them didn’t put the answers that I was expecting
for this, however because of the poor wording of my question, I have found out
that a lot of them either put the generic things, or are just putting stupid or
depressing things…

7. Research viewing figures, sales figures, demographic and psychographic info. Look up article,
features or stories related to your potential audience
Sci-fi Films are generally some of the greatest films ever made, having classics such as Star
Wars, The Matrix, and Alien.
Film Reviews
Star Wars 100%
Terminator 94%
Alien 97%
A V A T A R 84%
Star Wars Demographics
A V A T A R DEMOGRAPHICS
Sources: RottenTomatoes, YouGov, IMDB,
Judging from the demographics of both Star Wars and Avatar,
the usual Target Audience for these films are quite young, likely
around the ages of 15-30, however if the demographics of films
such as Terminator and Alien were included as well, then it
would probably be between 18-35 because of the Age Ratings
of the latter films.

8.  Judging from the responses that I’ve obtained from the Primary Research, and the Secondary
Research, my Target Audience is around the 15 to 30 area, mixed genders, and are in the B,
C1, C2 Demographic. However I would probably say that my Short Film would be a ‘12’ rated
film because of the violence shown within it, as while there is some slight gore shown with
someone being sliced across the chest (at least in the concept), and apart from that there is
nothing that really pushes past the ‘12’ boundary, as there’s no profanity and no sexual humour
within the Short Film.

9.  The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is an organisation that mainly analyse Films in
order to see what classification the film should be given. They use these classifications in order to
determine what exact rating a film should be given. There are many different ratings that a film
can be given, including ‘U’, ‘PG’, ‘12A’, ‘12’, ’15’ and ‘18’. Whether it is a ‘U’ rated film or an ‘18’
rated film the BBFC will go over the types of content in order to determine what rating a particular
film should be given. For example a film with a lot of (realistic) violence or sexual content would
be considered an ‘18’, however having ‘cartoon violence’ and hidden references to certain topics
would help push the rating down to something like a ‘PG’ or a ‘12’.
 The reason for these certificates is that they are needed in order to effectively segment the films
based on what they contain. For example a ‘U’ rated film will be extremely kid friendly and will
contain almost no violence; a ‘PG’ film will be slightly more violent and can contain extremely mild
references or horror. A ‘12’ rated film will be quite violent and will likely have some mild sexual
references, as well as one or two cases of mild profanity. A ‘15’ rated film will have a lot of
violence (not necessarily graphic), the sexual references will be quite common and there will be
mild sexual content hidden within the film. An ‘18’ rated film will have a lot of violence in it that can
be graphic, and the references will be common, with sexual content also becoming more
common. This is also the rating that a lot of horror films get because of the violence contained in
them, the blood and gore factor, and the various deaths that would likely come from a film like
this.
 From my research I would probably say that my Short Film would be a ‘12’ rated film because of
the violence shown within it, as while there is some slight gore shown with someone being sliced
across the chest (at least in the concept), and apart from that there is nothing that really pushes
past the ‘12’ boundary, as there’s no profanity and no sexual humour within the Short Film.

12.  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

13.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4REFN_tt9E
 Emergence is a 60 Second Short Film about a man trying to run away from the
corruption that is multi-billion dollar companies and the advertisements that they
forced upon the average viewer.
 What I liked about it was the slight use of special effects used in order to
emphasise what ends up happening to Cole as the corporations catch up to him,
the constant switch between Medium and Long Shots was also quite impressive,
with some switches to close up being merged within the same shots as he runs
closer to the camera, letting the audience sometimes see how frightened he is
through his expressions, and how determined he is to get to get away from the
corporations through his postures.
 With the usage of different camera shots, I may be able to get away with something
similar to what this short film has done, as in the end even though the ‘transition’ is
quite smooth, in the end it is technically still the same shot, with the content inside
it moving closer in order for it to ‘switch’. However, the special effects used, whilst
still possible, will be a lot harder to try, especially if it is something more
complicated than a static shot, however I will try and use some special effects
using the clock needed in the short film in order to simulate the Reset.

14.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jKJphgTfis
 Time Warped is a Short Film about a young inventor who accidently brakes his
portable time machine and travels through random points in time, such as a Post
Apocalyptic Era and the Dinosaur Era, until he eventually is able to find his way back
home.
 What I liked about this film was the Special Effects used, such as the effect used when
travelling through time, as well as the CGI Models of a T-Rex and a Futuristic Aircraft).
This had helped to complete the feeling that he had actually travelled through time,
rather than just having a desolate setting or an open field, the use of off screen
diegetic sound helped as well, especially with the second location when he’s being
shot at in the forest, as the use of this helped to signify the danger he was in even
though there wasn’t anyone in sight, it helped create that feeling without having to use
multiple people within the same shot.
 Just like with Emergence, some of the special effects used, whilst still possible, will be
a lot harder to try, however with this short film there are a lot of special effects I won’t
be able to try and replicate with the limited resources that I’d have (such as the T-Rex
and the Aircraft), however the teleportation through time is something that I may have
to try and use since this is something that I will need to include in order for the
narrative to work properly. With the use of sound, I will likely need to use some sound
effects in order for it to work properly, since it’s unlikely that anyone is realistically
going to allow themselves to be injured in production, and having a sound effect used
for the time travelling could also help just in case special effects don’t work as well as
intended.

16. EXPERIMENTS
Camera/Editing/Audio Experiments
Be prepared to add extra slides

17.  We had to create a short film around a minute long in preparation for our
actual short film. For the experiment we had to create a short film involving
3 students with a collision involved, and in order to separate ours from
everyone else’s work, we changed the story slightly from someone running
because they were late into them running because they pushed someone
else down a flight of stairs.
 This experiment was mainly done in order to get us used to using several
different kinds of shots for our main project. In this one we used several
Close Ups, Medium Shots, and Long Shots in order to make the
experiment look somewhat more professional (spoilers: it didn’t work).

18.  All that I can say that I’d include in my final product compared to
this is that the same variety of camera shots would be used, as
well as the same equipment and possibly the same people
involved in it (minus myself as I was the worst part of the
experiment)…

19.  After having finished the filming, we had edited the experiment using
Adobe Premiere, essentially what we did was add the separate clips to
the timeline and used the razor tool where we had to get rid of
unnecessary footage, for example any talking before the start of the actual
scene or if there was a pause before starting. And whilst the clip is
dragged into the timeline, the original clip is still useable, meaning that in
the event that something went wrong with the editing, the clips are still
useable and the editing of that particular clip would just be restarted.
 This was done in order to get us more used to editing and putting together
a Short Film, as while we have had some experience prior to this, it was
more so for an advert and an advergame rather than a Film.

20.  I guess technically all of this could be included in the final
product, as this was mainly trying to make sure that we were
improving in terms of our filming and editing skills, in which case it
has.

21.  As well as having to create an experiment for a short film, we also had to
practice adding audio onto a pre-existing clip, in this case we had used a
muted clip from ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and added audio captured from a
‘microphone’ (don’t know name of the actual device). With any audio that
we didn’t capture, it was either music taken from YouTube or sounds that
were Royalty-Free and thus useable without any consequences.
 After all of the Audio was recorded, we used Adobe Premiere in order to
merge the audio with the ‘Shaun of the Dead’ clip, this enabled it to be
merged in a professional quality that made it look like the audio was in the
scene to begin with, rather than being separate pieces.

22.  I would personally like to reuse some of the audio pieces for my
Short Film, however these would only really be used if extra
sound effects need to be added to the Film. For example if there
is a piece of music that would be fitting for what’s happening at
that point of the film, or if there’s a particular scene that needs a
sound effect that can’t be replicated during the actual recording of
the scene.

23.  Essentially because of the time constraints, this means every second of production will
be needed and thus any more constraints such as if anyone is Ill or away it will need to
be taken out of my own time in order to fix.
 As well as that there isn’t much equipment to be used (only a camera and a tripod), for
the most part we can only film on college grounds, and even if those could be avoided,
there’s the matter of possible clashes with the other people involved, as they could end
up having to do something else when they’re needed for the filming.
 As there is essentially no budget and not much time to make this, it would essentially
mean that any special effects used would either have to be made using After Effects or
Photoshop, or they would have to be cut out entirely, which would somewhat damage my
short film as it will need some sort of special effect at least for the Reset, otherwise the
whole idea doesn’t work as well as it should.