Digital Audience Research: Evaluation

10 People took my survey, which

contained ten questions.

Question One

This question was designed to attain basic knowledge about this demographic, namely if a correlation existed between age and demographic. I was expecting the digital audience that this survey was addressing to mainly comprise of younger people who, generally speaking are the more technology savvy of the two. This question does indeed imply this, as the vast majority of people taking the survey were 20 or under. As such, I must treat the audience I am addressing in this survey as a predominantly young adult directed one, and all further answers are to be treated with this consideration. The minority of people who are 30 or under are still arguably a younger audience, therefore it is safe to say that this audience is a young, perhaps more technological audience than I mightve received through my paper based questionnaire.

Question Two

Of course, gender is an important area of consideration when conducting this survey. I therefore asked this question, with the hope of receiving a fairly balanced range of men and women, and although there was 20% difference between them, I believe these responses are fairly balanced. It must be considered that due to the fairly limited number of participants, a correlation in gender is hard to find and with that in mind, this response is fairly pleasing. There is indeed a slight balance of genders, meaning that this audience is not exclusively constraint to genre, which is rather useful, given the usually sharp divide between the two in terms of demographic. Perhaps this audience is more closely united through a love of film? Although a future question determines this, this response does beckon the possibility of representing both genders in my work, or at least representing themes and issues that affect this genders, more universal themes.

Question Three

Yr 11 Under

Sixth- Uni

As my audience are mostly a young adult audience, I could already assume that the most common responses would be either high school or student. Indeed, I am right. What I find particularly useful about this response is that the majority of people who answered this question were students. This young adult audience is can be assumed as somewhat older than the average high school pupil. Perhaps some of these students are also media students, which could imply something about this audience as film fans - perhaps also watchers of short films. This is, with retrospect, a mistake I made in this survey: not asking if they were studying media or film studies - although perhaps it wouldve created a kind of bias in the answers, seeming as they would not be representative of the short film consuming public as a whole, merely representative of those very familiar with the genre.

Question Four

I phrased this question as a means of hopefully discovering one unifying factor which my audience all could agree on, and this is the most important one. That they are film fans. Indeed, every person who took the questionnaire are avid film watchers, therefore my young adult audience is also a particularly filmic one, meaning that even if they are not particularly familiar with short film, they may still enjoy consuming the medium.

Question Five

Through this question, I now know that the majority of my audience are watchers of short films, and do so monthly. I may now assume that this audience are bigger fans of film than the average film watcher. This now makes me able to seriously consider this audience as a demographic for my short film, given that these young adults are consuming short film texts.

Question Six
Everybody here has watched at least 3 Short Films in the same genre as my film. This suggests that my audience perhaps would be interested in my film given that they appear to have consumed similar products. To gain a more rounded response, I mightve included short films from other genres, to see whether or not people also consume those types. Two responses however, on the why section, listed the film Doodlebug as one theyd watched a film outside of the Social Realist genre.
Responses to the why? section of the question were answered adequately by two people. Several responses listed another short film theyd seen, and one discussed the short film that had the greatest impact without specifying the short film in question. They described their chosen film as interesting and good therefore that response is not particularly of much use. However, the two acceptable responses I did gain where indeed useful. One participant listed About A Girl as having the most impact on them. They explained the issues that it represented as being very real and that we as a public may be unaware of. Mentioning the issues explored within the film perhaps illustrates a wider understanding of Short Film and their agendas, which in the context of About A Girl was presented in a shocking way. The eloquence with which they present their response suggests their intelligence, which is the general audience I am looking for: those who are passionate about film, and are accustomed to the study of film, which perhaps this participant is. The second response highlighted The Most Beautiful Man in The World as having the most impact for the ability to be so simple, yet cause such controversy. I like this response, as it seems to underpin a positive aspect of Short Film as a medium: it can leave a big impact. Perhaps as an audience, this is what can make Short Film in general more memorable, and I may be able to harness this in my short film.

Question Seven

This question was designed with the purpose of attaining whether or not the audience would be interested in the genre of my film, Social Realism, whose closet counterpart on this list was Drama. I could already tell that my audience were consumers of the genre, due to the types of short films they were watching. However, this question would determine their knowledge Although it is disappointing that this question was not answered by one person (for whichever reason) It is good to see that the most popular genre for viewers to consume texts is drama. Unfortunately, no attempt of explanation was made to answer the why aspect of the question, which I acknowledge as a limitation of the digital medium of questionnaires: there is less emphasis on finishing the entire questionnaire. Despite this, however: one rather irrelevant comment was made by a participant, which simply read Social Realism. Despite the comment not actually specifying why they liked the genre, I still find this comment to an extent useful. It demonstrates that this audience or at least a fraction of this audience - are aware of the Social Realist genre. This does at least demonstrate some awareness of the genre that many of them have experienced in the short film.

Question Eight
Although it is somewhat annoying that the responses are so levelled in this context, the qualitative data collected in this question is substantially better than the previous two.
The first response I gained from this question stated that they were interested in Short Films that dont involve poverty, by this, I assume that the participant is referring to British Social Realist texts having a specific focus on the working classes. Though they do not specify their interests in a less general sense, I am aware that the over representation of the working classes is becoming commonplace in British Social Realism, and in a sense I could respond to this by subverting this convention. Two responses both stated their interest in coming of age teenage stories. As I have established, this demographic is generally a young adult one, and therefore it is understandable that they may enjoy films about their age group. We may see these kinds of stories in the short films that participants have consumed in the list I made in Question Six: Love Me or Leave Me Alone, for example. Although my short film is not particularity similar to this one, both ideas revolve around Teenagers, and the teenage psyche. Another response specifies mental illness, child neglect and violence as themes they are interested in. They feel as though these issues in society are underrepresented, and therefore should be raised in order to gain a wider understanding of them. The idea of Social Extension ma y very well be one I could delve into and perhaps will do if I choose not to have my film revolve around the working classes. Perhaps I could also strive to explore issues specified here, although I feel it is important not to pander to the requests of one single person, rather I feel it is apt to take their overall message into consideration. Finally, a participant stated their interest in issues and themes surrounding loneliness and isolation, and the consequences of this getting an insight into the human condition. This participant appears to be interested in ideas farther reaching from specifically British Issues. Once again, the response is rather eloquently contrived, and the ideas they present are rather sophisticated in nature. Although only a few responses on this questionnaire are this way, it is still somewhat reassuring to know that this audience are to some extent intelligent film watchers, which in a se nse what is needed for someone to enjoy and find meaning in a short film five minutes in length. Whilst the responses this question gained cannot all be catered to specifically, It has given me a good idea of the kind of issues and themes my audience may be interested in especially Teenage ones, given the young adult banner which represents this demographic.

Question Nine
The purpose of this question was to establish what makes participants watch short films. The half of the responses I gained for this question revolved around their length. Four responses simply stated the length 'and one elaborated that they do not take up much time, supposedly as opposed to feature film. This is probably the main selling point for short films: a much less time consuming cinematic experience. As the most obvious response to the question however, it is also the most generic this factor of appeal unites all short films, therefore I cannot derive anything useful from it. The other half of my participants all gave more individual answers. One similarly stated time as a source of attraction, though commented on how filmmakers tackle big issues and themes within the short time frame. Another response also made reference to time, stating that it is the feeling of watching a feature film in a less time consuming way. Although this section is similar to the responses above, it goes on to outline the experimental and interesting results which occur because of it. The technical advantages of short film over feature film are also evident in the other three responses to this question. One participant states their interest in mise-en-scene and artistic elements employed in the film, and how they illustrate messages in a very short amount of time. Another response reads very similar, they interesting how short filmmakers tackle big issues and themes within such a short time frame. and finally one response states their interest in Short Film as a stylistic achievement rather than a narrative one. Looking at these responses, it appears that this as short film consumers are interested in innovative, technically engaging and daring Short Films. This would respond to Milgroms instructions to be ambitious, suggesting that indeed audiences do appreciate experimentation within short film. I am therefore inclined to harness this kind of ambition for my short film. In addition, it may be an idea to attempt to tackle a big issue or theme, as not only will it evidently draw in an audience, it will raise the stakes within my film what I am aiming to achieve is a balance of technical imagination (as far as my zero budget limitations enable me to do so) and a pertinent, relevant story.

Question Ten
This question was aimed at identifying several negative aspects that consumers identified within short film, and through that I could respond to these in my short film. Two responses to this question admitted their uncertainty, one commenting that they believe the format is being used very well and one response simply stated exhibition, thus rendering those responses useless. A popular response to this question was that Short Film should work towards better social extension. By this, one participant elaborates British Short film to Branch out from the working classes. Indeed, Social Extension has been identified as a pivotal aspect of British Social Realism, and its focus on the working class has in a sense turned into something of a hindrance to this goal. Another user states that a wider social representation would be good as it would be able to relate to more people. Therefore, I am going to make it an aim to represent a social type outside of the working classes, a group of people who it appears have become too conventional of the Social Realism genre to feature. Another response which appeared twice in the questionnaire was that of technical expansion. One user said that it would benefit from experimenting with their technical limitations in order to separate it away from feature film. I think a wider range of editing techniques and art direction could be experimented with, as technology allows the film maker to try new things. Says another participant. The first response is perhaps too ambitious for a zero budget filmmaker, as it essentially proposes the challenge of creating a tone which is both outside the cinematic nature of feature film and also different to the televisual feel of other short pieces. However, the general message appears to advocate the use of imagination when composing the piece, and this is not outside tangible grasp. I could of course use the technology that is available to me in an inventive and interesting way, therefore supplying this demand somewhat.