Audience Demographics

audience demographic/ target audience
Almost every media production that is made relies on audience research prior to production and during production.

Fatal attraction famously changed its ending following a test run with a pilot.
http://fanedit.org/8486/

Snakes on a plane famously involved their target audience by allowing them to make decisions about music, dialogue, etc.
http://boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2006/08/13/camptastic/

We need to understand our target audience- and plan to create something that appeals to them. We mus therefor in our groups conduct audience research throughout the production process of our film.

We could do this in the form of video vox-pops, audio vox-pops, we could set up online questionnaires or surveys.

Who is our target audience? we need to create a detailed profile (age, gender, interests, tastes, region, career, etc).

Once we've don't this we need to look at them in more detail. Like there:

* film viewing habits
* what genres they prefer and why
* what films they saw most recently/ their favorite films
* whether they watch short films (if they don't, why don't they?) remind them about virals which can often be short films, DVD extras, youtube films, animations, etc.
* where they watch them (i they do watch them)
* sow them examples of short films and posters and ask them to say what they like nd dislike about them
* can they tell you about any posters that stood out to them
* what radio stations do they listen to- or film magazines do they read.

What makes a good short film?

After literally minutes of researching "what makes a good short" i have come to the conclusion that their are no rules to guarantee you can make a good short, however their are things you can do to try and get the best out of your short film.

A brilliant and original idea.
Easier said than done i know, but having an original idea is vitally important, especially in short films when you have to convey your message and any underlying subtexts within a short space of time, honestly if you can't come up with an brilliant and original idea that makes you say "wow" theirs not much point in continuing with it.

Make it art.
Short films are about expression and not making money so they should be wholly about getting a message across in an artistic fashion rather than shrouding it with conventions that are used in feature length films to churn out profits.

Keep it professional and well produced.
There's no point in having and excellent idea and ruining it by shooting and editing it really shoddily, a painter wouldn't paint his masterpiece on a substandard canvas, so treat your short film as your work of art and keep standards excellent throughout.

Shark bite! Storyboard