q3

1. What have you learned from you audience feedback? Criteria Question Three

2. What target audience research did I do? Overall I conducted three different sets of target audience research. 1- Initial Online Research 2 – Surroundings Research 3 – Short film and Knowledge Research.

3. Initial Online Research This research was made up of : A questionnaire with eight questions. Sent on the social networking site Facebook. Contained closed and open questions. Contained links to three short films which were watched before answering the questions.

4. The three linked short films. These are the three short films I linked at the beginning of my questionnaire. About a Girl : Cubs : The most beautiful man in the world :

5. What did I conduct the research for? I conducted this initial to research to find out what my target audience understood/thought/used of short film and the genre social realism. I conducted the research on the social networking site Facebook as I believed this is where the majority of my target audience spend their free time, hoping to attract more feedback from the people I wanted it from.

6. What did I learn from my Initial Target Audience Research? As not many people replied to my questionnaire I learned that my target audience used Facebook more for leisure and relaxation rather than completing work related activities as the site is accessed more during people’s free time.

7. What my questions led me to. After the three shorts were watched I asked the first question : Taking all of the three shorts into account, did you enjoy them as much when watching a feature film? The majority of people asked No that they did not.

8. What did I gather from this? From this and the fact not many people replied I learnt that my target audience may find watching short films less relaxing than watching a feature, for the simple reason that short film requires the audience to thinkabout what they are seeing more than a feature film, which usually is more of a passive activity.

9. My second question Next I asked : Which out the three short films did you like the most? Why? The majority of people that answered said the The most beautiful man in the world was their favourite out of the three shorts. People justified their choice with comments such as: ‘imagery and shots stay in my head’ ‘Visually interesting’.

10. What I gathered from this. From these answers I gathered that my target audience enjoy short films that have shots that stand out and that are visually engaging. The short film The most beautiful man in the world has many wide shots and close ups that come together in a way that leads the audience to want to know more. This point I kept in mind when making and creating my short film.

11. The third question. The third question I asked was : Which out of the three shorts kept you the most engaged? Why do you think this is? For this question the majority of people answered Cubs. The people said they chose this for these reasons : ‘fast paced and gripping’ ‘hooked till the end because of the tense atmosphere’ ‘good storyline’

12. What did I learn from question three? From this question I learnt keeping the audience engaged with high stakes and tension is important to making a successful short film. This question has taught me that fast cutting between shots and a good storyline is a good way to keep the audience engaged through a short film. This lead me to some key editorial decisions when creating my short film.

13. What did question four teach me? The next question was : Which out of the three shorts kept you the least engaged? Why do you think this is? Here About a girl and The most beautiful man in the world both received the most answers. Comments with these answers were : ‘took too long to get to the point’ ‘did not show me much storyline’ ‘the clever ending does not make up for the less engaging beginning’.

14. What I learnt from question four. From this question I have learnt that my target audience prefer films that engage them from the start. By having the storyline start from the beginning and the short film not run for too long. This again I took into account when creating my media product.

15. Question five. This question I asked was : Did you understand the story in each of the shorts? Which ones did you understand? All of the people I asked here said Yes that they did understand them all.

16. What did I get from the answers of question 5? From this question I took away the knowledge that my target audience group understand the story of shorts well. That they can think into a film and find the meaning. This therefore told me that my target audience group will understand my short to some extent if I correctly follow the codes and conventions of short film and the genre social realism.

17. What was my question number 6? This next question I asked was ‘ Which of the shorts displayed the most important issues?’ Each of the short films I linked to this questionnaire received two answers each. That is two people thought About a girl had the most issues, two people thought Cubs had and two thought The most beautiful man..did also.

18. Question six, what did the question obtain me with? This question obtained me with the knowledge that my target audience have mixed views on what they believe to be important issues. Some think that teenage pregnancy is while others think gang culture is. This I thought about while creating the themes and issues for my short, as I wanted to choose issues similar to these which my target audience have been around in order for them to understand and find them important.

19. Question Seven. This next question was ‘Which of the following definitions of social realism do you understand the most’? The definition from the website ‘Wikipedia’ received the most answers which as ‘Social Realism, also known as Socio-Realism, is an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts social and racial injustice, economic hardship, through unvarnished pictures of life's struggles; often depicting working class activities as heroic.’

20. However the definition from the website Artlex also received the second most answers ‘A type of realism which is more overtly political in content, critical of society, marked by its realistic depiction of social problems.’

21. What did these answers tell me? The answers from this question equipped me with the knowledge that my target audience have an idea of what the genre social realism is. No one answered no or I don’t know. This I kept in mind during the creating my media product, that the majority of my target audience would have some idea of the genre in my short film.

22. The last question, Question 8. This last question in this questionnaire was ‘Would you pay to see a film similar to this format (short film) or genre?’ For this question there were two most popular answers. They were maybe and no.

23. What I learnt from this last question. From this question I learnt that the majority of my target audience would not pay to see a short or a social realism film. This could be due to a number of different factors, such as their enjoyment, the percentage of illegal downloading etc. When creating my media product I kept this in mind. I would make sure my short film would be viewable online or at least on DVD so that my target audience would be more likely to see the product and watch it.

24. Surroundings Research What was this research made up of? 23 questions. On paper. Manually handed out and received. Contained mainly open questions.

25. Why did I conduct this questionnaire? I conducted this second questionnaire research to find out about my target audience’s surroundings, now and past/what they think of my short film and feature film/how they watch film and how often./their opinions on film. I decided the conduct this research manually in order to gain more replies. This was due to what I learnt from my last questionnaire.

26. What did I learn from this questionnaire? Many people replied to this questionnaire. Therefore I learnt that my target audience are more likely to reply to questionnaires when they are given to them manually, in a work environment. This could be due to their frame of mind when at school.

27. The first two questions. These two questions were ‘What gender are you?’ and ‘How old are you’. For the first question there was almost exact even balance of answers between the gender female and the gender male. This I did purposefully to gain both gender’s answers in my target audience.

28. For the second question the majority of people answered in teenage years such as 17, 16 etc. Only one person answered with ‘Middle aged’. This I also did purposefully in order to gain as many answers from my target audience age group as possible.

29. Question three and four. These two questions were linked together. Question three was ‘Which area do you live in?’ All of the answers were from inside of Surrey, such as Carshalton, Hooley etc. This was effective by where I was, but I wanted to mainly see what my target audience around me answered.

30. Question four was ‘In your own words, how would you describe the area you live in?’ The majority of the people that answered described their area as ‘Average’. This led me to thinking what type of issues and themes had my target audience been exposed to where they live. For example an area described as ‘bad’ could have more crime and perhaps gang culture. This main answer however led me to think that my target audience live in areas which may see a whole range of issues and themes as it is in the middle of the scale.

32. Questions five and six. These two questions linked together in same way the two previous questions had. Question five was ‘Which area did you grow up in?’ The majority of the people that had answered currently live in the same area they grew up in.

33. These answers tied in with question six which was ‘In your own words, describe this area and what influence that it has had on you.’ The majority of answered that Yes their area has had an influence of them. With these answers their description words were different to each other, such as ‘rough’ then ‘small, quiet’. This led me to the conclusion that with my target audience I am looking at their backgrounds provide an amount of influence to their lives and perhaps their opinions.

35. Questions seven and eight. Question seven asked my target audience ‘Do you enjoy short film?’ The majority of the people said that they do sometimes. The next most popular answer was Yes. I concluded from this question that the majority of my target audience can enjoy watching short films.

36. Question eight then was ‘Do you have a favourite short film? If yes which one?’ The most popular answer given to this question was Yes. The most popular shorts that were people’s favourites were ‘About a girl’ and ‘Soft’. I learnt here that my target audience like short film, mostly shorts that have a teen protagonist and current issues. This I took into account whilst creating my short film.

37. The next two questions: question 9 and 10. These two questions went hand in hand. Question 9 was ‘Have you ever seen a social realism film? Example Half Nelson, Last Resort, This is England’. And question 10 was ‘Was it a worthwhile experience? Or if no would you be interested in watching one in the future?’

38. What I learnt from Q9. What I learnt from Q10. From this question the majority of my target audience said that they had seen a Social realism. This question equipped me with the knowledge that the majority of my target audience had an idea of what social realism films are about and what their style is like, leading them to hopefully being able to understand my short film to some extent. My target audience here mostly said that watching a social realism film was worthwhile for them. But the small percent that hadn’t said that they wouldn’t watch one in the future. This question obtained me with the knowledge that some of my target audience perhaps took on the genre social realism as not enjoyable , if they were not prepared to watch one if they had not before. But then again the percentage that have said it was worthwhile. This I took into account and while I created my short film I made sure there were constant conventions of social realism while also making the steaks high for the protagonist to keep the member of my audience who have no seen social realism on edge and hooked to watching.

40. Questions 11 and 12, what did I obtain from these questions? These two questions related back to the previous question. Question 11 asked ‘If yes to either parts why?’ and Question 12 asked ‘If no to either parts why?’ For question 11 people answered saying ‘They were relatable’ and ‘enjoyable’. For question 12 people answered saying ‘appears dull’. From these justification answers from both questions I concluded that my target audience see social realism films dull maybe compared to over genres, but when some members of the audience watch them some relate to the genre well and therefore enjoy them.

41. What did I learn from question 13? Question 13 was ‘Are you interested in feature film?’ For this question all of my target audience group said yes. With this question I concluded that my target audience obviously like feature film.

42. Question 14 and the knowledge I gained. This question asked ‘Are there particular issues and themes that interest you in either short film or feature film e.g depression, disability, teenage pregnancy, romance.?’ The majority of the answers said Yes. This lead me to conclude that my target audience have favourite tastes when it comes to films.

43. Question 15 and 16. Question 15 was ‘How regularly do you watch short film?’ The majority of answers said more than a month. This led me to conclude that my target audience do not watch short films regularly, making the format a rare thing. Question 16 asked my audience ‘Where do you watch film?’ Most people said that they watch film at home, either on the internet or on TV. This I took into consideration when creating my short film, as the internet was a place where many members of my target audience watch film. This meant that I would distribute my short online as well as on DVD.

44. What did the questions from 17 to 18 tell me about my target audience? Question 17 asked ‘Do you watch any type of film online?’ The majority answer was that people watched short film online. This tied in with the consideration I made with the previous question about loading my film onto the internet so that more of my target audience could and would view it. Question 18 asked ‘How often do you watch film in the cinema?’The majority of my target audience said that they watch film sometimes in the cinema. This again tied in with the two previous questions as this question gave me the assumption my target audience do not go the cinema often and therefore my short film would be more likely to watched online.

45. Question 19 This question asked ‘Do you rent DVDs regularly? Or have you ever?’ Most of my target audience said no to this question. This question I took into consideration again when deciding how to distribute my film for maximum viewing. I decided with a combination of previous questions with this one that I would upload my short to the internet so that it would be viewed by more members of my target audience.

46. Question 20. Question 20 asked ‘What is your understanding of the social realism genre?’ There were two most popular answers for this question, they were real life and themes and issues based. From this question I got the conclusion that the majority had a good understanding of the genre social realism as the majority of the people answered with a convention of the genre. Only two people said they didn't know. This led me to thinking that my target audience would understand the genre of my short film well, even if to a certain extent.

47. Question 21 and 22, what did I learn? Question 21 was ‘What do you understand by the term short film?’ Most people answered that the length of the film is what they mostly understood of the format. This led me to the understanding that my target audience have simple knowledge of the format I was using but still enough about it to watch the format. Question 22 asked ‘How long would you expect a short film to be?’ The majority of people said between 5 and 15 minutes. This I used when creating my short. If my target audience took that a short film is between 5 and 15 minutes that my short would need to be to in order to encourage them to watch my short and think of my media product as a short film.

48. Question 23 This last question asked was ‘Does the length of the film affect its impact on the audience or their enjoyment/appreciation?’ The majority answered saying yes, some saying if a film is too short then it is hard to understand. This, along with the previous question made me consider the length of my short carefully. If my media product was too short then my target audience may not have enough time to understand my story and themes and issues in my short film.

49. Short film and Knowledge Research This research was made up of: Two parts. 1: had 6 questions. 2: had 10 questions. On paper and therefore handed out manually. Answers were heard back verbally. The answering process was recorded and edited into a video.

50. Why did I conduct this last questionnaire? I conducted this research in order to see how much my target audience knew about the main issue of my short/what my target audience thought about my short/to see if my target audience understood my short. I decided to gain answers from this research from my target audience verbally to create discussion about my short as a whole to measure its effectiveness.

51. Part one: What did I get from these questions? Question one asked my target audience ‘How would you yourself define a learning difficulty?’ The majority of my target audience answered ‘a different understanding/learning style’, none of my group members said the didn’t know. This told me that my target audience had some idea of what a learning difficulty is and therefore they would understand that main issue when presented in my short film.

52. Question two of part one. This question was ‘Do you feel/think education establishments are aware of learning disabilities? If so, are they aware enough or doing enough’? All the members of my group answered Yes. This led me to understand that my target audience would perhaps be interested in the friction between the theme of education and the issue learning disability in my short film, due to how different the situation is to this question.

53. What did I learn from question three? This question asked my target audience ‘In your opinion what are the most telling symptoms or features of this certain disability?’ The main answer given to this question was ‘Unable to cope’.This answer I felt supported the main issue in my short film as the protagonist in my short shows signs of this in the bunking of this lessons and hiding from this teacher, giving me a positive feel about my target audience’s reaction to my short film.

54. Question four of part one. This question asked my target group ‘Do you feel that learning disabilities are noticed by the media (TV, Film, Print media, Radio, Internet)?’ The majority of my target group answered Yes, while the second most popular answer which was separated by one point said No. From this question I concluded that my target audience have mixed feeling about how noticed the issue is by the media, which in turn could lead them to thinking my short film is different from others or just like many other form of media.

55. Question Five. This question was ‘Do you know of any films that represent and explore into this learning disability? If so is the representation successful?’ The majority of people answered that No they don’t know any films like this. However the few people that answered Yes, said that the films were successful at representing this issue. This led me to conclude that my target audience may not have been exposed to many films with the same issue as mine, perhaps making my short attract my audience.

56. Question six the last question in part one. This last question asked my target group ‘If a learning difficulty was to be represented and explored in a film setting what do you think are the important things for the filmmaker to pay attention to?’ My target audience group mostly answered that the ‘Struggles’ of the characters should be presented the most. This led me to feel that my short film had successfully tackled my target audience’s view on what I should have focused on through presenting the struggle of my protagonist throughout the short with the theme of education.

57. Part two: What did I get from this last part of questions? After watching my short film from beginning to end the first question in this last part asked my target group ‘Did you feel that the character Toby is represented well in relation to this mild learning difficulty?’ The majority of my target audience answered Yes to this question, leading me to conclude that my protagonist was represented correctly in my audience’s eyes.

58. Question two: what did I learn? Question two asked my target group ‘Does the short correctly build tension as it goes on?’ The majority of people said yes that my short does. They commented saying things like ‘hiding from the teachers during a dangerous time’ made them answer yes. From this I learnt that I had correctly built tension from the majority of my target audience through my story and other things.

59. Question three and four of part two. Question three asked ‘How well do you feel the short film engages the audience?’ Nearly all of the people in the group said that the short engaged them well. This led me to believing that I had correctly engaged my target audience through different devices in my media product, making me learn that what I got from previous research was correct. Question four was ‘Is the protagonist of the short clearly shown?’ All of the target group said yes to this question, saying things like ‘we follow him’ , ‘he is mainly focused on’. From this I concluded that I had made my short well, in the fact that I used what I learned from my book research correctly.

60. What did the two questions five and six obtain me with? Question 5 was ‘Is the setting/environment of the short film represented correctly? Authentically?’ All of the people in my group said yes to this question. This led me to conclude that I had correctly presented an education environment in my media product, achieving a sense of verisimilitude. Question 6 asked ‘Is there a sense of realism throughout the piece?’ Like is the previous question all the people in the group answered yes. With this question I concluded that my media product had successfully presented a convention of my chosen genre: realism.

61. Question 7 and 8. Question 7 was ‘Did the short film keep you guessing as it went on? Was the short predictable?’ With this question the majority of people answered that yes the short kept them guessing. This led me to conclude that I had successfully achieved the edge-of-your-seat feeling I wanted to create with my short film. Question 8 asked the group ‘How did the end of the short film make you feel? Undecided, confused etc?’ The majority of the group here answered with the feeling of emotional. From this question I took the conclusion that I had taken the audience in with my media product to make them feel for my protagonist, suggesting the short was engaging.

62. The last two questions 9 and 10. The question 9 of part two was ‘What do you think Toby (main character) choose to do in the end?’ The majority of the group answered saying they thought he took the help from the teacher. This was interesting as I had left my short on a cliff hanger, but I took from my group’s response that the short had led up to a positive end. The last question of part two asked ‘Did the short film end well? If not know would you improve it?’ All of my target group here answered yes to this question and no body stated any need to improve. From this last question I concluded that I had successfully created an interesting ending, which the justified the story well.