Target Audience (Planning/Research)

We investigated our Target Audiences for short films, but unfortunately the case with short film is that the information regarding the demographics - ethnicity, gender, age and class, and the seven psychographics - were difficult to find because short film as a subculture of film is a niche, however the flip side of this is that the information regarding the audience that watch short film is going to be very specific. In Layman's terms, information on short film audiences are hard to find because not many people watch them, but when we do find information it's rich and gives us great(er) insight.

What we found in the information regarding the audiences is interesting.

They are of specific classes, and the average audience member of short film will most likely be in one of these classes:

• A
• B
• C1

As we can see, it's relatively limited to the top 3 demographics classes - however a large quantity of these audiences are composed of students which may explain the demographic better. This is because students are more exposed to short film as it is seen as a modern movement, and they will be more educated on it. This links to the age of short film audiences, most of them will be young due to fact that they are students, as well as the fact that short film is advertised through social media such as YouTube, Tumblr and Twitter - which is what younger people or generations are used to. They are also performed at social clubs for adolescents, such as Youth Centres and Art Cinemas. An example of one close to us is the old fire station that was renovated to become an arts centre.  This is not to say however, that older generations of people don't watch these films. They are just a much smaller percentage of the audience, however again linking to education they may be brought to it through general interest or due to the fact that their line of work is dictated around Media and Film. We can also assume word of mouth and association plays a part in this too, where audiences will bring friends and family along. 

The ethnicity of the audiences are mainly Caucasian - however this can be explained by a simple Geographical hypothesis. Short Films are much more prevalent in the West, e.g. Europe, America. Though these continents are multicultural for the most part, the largest ethnic demographic are Caucasians. Short films do not get much exposure either in relation to Box Office movies, thus the niche of demographic. 

The gender split of the audiences in short film is mainly 50/50, however in instances of it being edged more towards one sex it is usually towards females. This is because statistically females make up a larger percentage of Art colleges and courses - short film is sometimes seen as an artistic expression, therefore there is a larger probability if given enough exposure a short film can have a significant female audience.

The Psychographics of Short Film are:

• Succeeders: This stems from the fact that short films can provide a pathway for directors and people with an aspiration to do well in their line of work to achieve higher positions in the industry.
• Aspirers: Linking to the succeeders, aspirers could be freelance filmmakers or students out of college/university looking for a chance to succeed in their line of work and to break into the industry.
• Individualists: Individualists are separate and individual thinkers that are distanced from the majority or crowd. Because short films themselves are a niche, this gives individualists a chance to associate themselves with a minority group. Individualists also go against the trend and is seen as containing "Maverick Thinking", which is practically where original ideas are being implemented into X film. This can be seen through films such as The Gunfighter and Black Hole.