In this slide-show, I look at the target audience of short film and assess who I will be aiming my own short film at during production.

1. ShortFilm Target Audience

2. Who arethe target audiencefor short films?
Short films are really produced with two groups of audience in mind; unemployed
students who are seeking to secure a future in the film industry and successful
professionals who are already in the film industry and are seeking new talent.
Demographics
The latter group who are already successful in the industry would be within the A to C1
demographic. Their reason for watching these short films might be to find a new director,
producer or writer to work for their production company.
On the other hand, the demographic of students who, yes, are unemployed but, are most
likely from an A to C1 upbringing, would be using these short films for inspiration towards
their own work.
In general, however, the target audience for short film are those with a background in
media. This is simply because of the fact that most short films are distributed online and
so those who take an interest in online media would have the product more readily
available to them.

3. Psychographics ofshort film audience
Psychographics
Short film naturally attracts an audience with similar psychographics. The psychological
criteria, interests, attitudes and aspirations of those whoa re interested in short film are
completely different to those who are exclusively interested in mainstream film. Short film
tends to attract:
‘Succeeders’ – people who like to think they are in control, are powerful and ambitious.
These are the people who have acquired a successfully powerful position in a company and are
seeking fresh talent to drive the wealth of the company upwards.
‘Aspirers’ - people who strive for a bigger and better lifestyle.
Young filmmakers, leaving university or college with an aspiration to make films and become
successful in the industry that they value so highly. These people are self-driven, motivated and
passionate.
‘Individualists’ – people who do not quite fit into any specific social group, the fly on the wall,
someone who has an individual mind-set and wants to express themselves.
These people are the complete opposite of the target audience for mainstream films show in cinemas.

4. Studiedshort film’s targetaudience
Little Horses – This short film, directed by Levi Abrino, is packed full of heart. It tells the story of a
father who is being pulled apart from his son by his ex-wife’s new fiancé. He goes to extreme
measures to show his love towards his child by buying him a pony.
The film’s audience would be largely white and middle class, of an A to C1 demographic. We would
see that it would be most popular with students, parents and successful industry workers, however the
target audience for this short film is vast. No matter who you are, what your ethnicity, politics, sexuality,
this film is hitting you hard in the chest. The protagonist Dave is so well written that anyone is able to
empathise with the way he feels threatened by new fiancé Mark and his desire to win his child’s
affection. The story is grounded and the epiphanies are minor, making the film widely relatable and
enjoyable.
Heavenly Gate – Directed by Chris De Krijger and Mischa Dols is a dark comedy in which an
overweight, middle aged man dies by slipping in his kitchen and before he ascends to heaven, he is
given the opportunity to re-play one of his memories. He chooses the first time he is sexually intimate
with his young girlfriend, however, he gets to replay this scene as his overweight, middle aged self.
This film is comical due to the fact that the protagonist is so un-kept and ungainly, the audience are
perturbed by his demeanour at the beginning of the short film but then as the young girl tries to
become more intimate with him, we begin to like him more for his reservation.
The target audience for this film is very similar to that of ‘Little Horses’. The quirky feel to the film and
uncomfortable but intelligent humour attracts an A-C1 demographic.

5. Who is the targetaudiencefor ‘after hours’?
We are producing our film with the target audience of students and industry officials in mind.
We hope that our quirky and heart-felt plot-line will be inspirational to those who are interested
in filmmaking but will also be of such a high standard that it could possibly attract successful
workers in the industry who may show interest in our directing, editing, writing and producing
skillset.
The demographic for ‘After Hours’ will be between the standard A to C1 typically white and
middle class social group as this is whom we are representing within the text. In some ways,
our short film will mostly be targeted at women, despite the fact that our protagonist does not fit
the typical Hollywood actor trope. I say this because Don Walters shows a great deal of
typically feminine character traits which are idealized in female psychographics. Don shows
deep levels of affection as his main priority is his daughter; he cooks her pancakes on the
morning and he is sad when she has to go to school.
Moreover, Don also holds a more feminine demeanour towards Rick Stoker. Jealousy towards
those who are more successful and more attractive than you is one of the stereotypes held to
female characters in media.
In fact, Don holds a very small amount of typical male attitudes, the only time his manhood
shines through is when he is in the school alone and he decides to satisfy himself through
basic games, sport and self challenge. Nonetheless, even in these scenes we view more
boyhood in Don than manhood, this makes his more appealing to women than men.

6. How willwe measure the success of appealingto
our target audience?
There are a few ways in which we can measure our product’s success in appealing to our
intended target audience. One way of checking this is by uploading our video to YouTube
and assessing the comments and analytics of the video. This will tell us the percentage of
gender, age and location that have viewed our video and it will also let us know how long
each demographic watched for. This means that we can assess whether our film was
more engaging to a male or female audience.
Alternatively, we can also set up a private screening of the short film with friends and
family from our area and afterwards give them a questionnaire to fill out which will assess
our product. This is a fair and honest review of the film which will inform us on the
success of how far we managed to appeal to our intended demographic.