Paper Based Questionnaire: Analysis

Ten participants from the same school took my questionnaire, consisting of nine questions, the majority of which were quantitative. There questions were very simple, therefore the answers they were invited were simple: I only really needed a general picture of this demographic, given how I had studied a similar age range in the making of my introduction last year. Question One: What is your age range, (e.g. 40-50)?
12 10 8 6 4 2 0 0 to 10 10 to 20 20 to 30 30 to 40

This question was designed to give a very broad overview of the kind of demographic my film could be aimed at. Nine out of nine participants were between the age of 10-20, indicating a general teenage young adult audience. I will therefore view each question answered from here as coming from a young adult demographic. Of course, it is important to bear in mind how varied the individuals in an age range can be. My forthcoming quantitative questions will attempt to pin down this audience further. Question Two: Where do you live?
3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0

This question was an easy means of establishing which social backgrounds my participants came from, and despite there being a clear variety of locations, these are all places of a similar, middle to lower middle class locations. Perhaps Purley and Wallington, being London boroughs, are also somewhat working class. With most of these locations being in

surrey, however, it is perhaps safe to assume that the majority of these participants hail from a middle to lower middle class background. Question Three: What is your gender? Male: Seven Female: Three Most of my participants were male, indicating that the majority of my responses come from a male perspective. I will not explicitly categorise responses into male and female , given how vague splitting demographics into gender is. Still, however, I may take gender into consideration when comparing possible differences in responses from males and females. Question Four: What is your professional status? Every participant who took my questionnaire said that they were a student, therefore indicating an educated audience of sorts. As I handed all the questionnaires out in a sixth form centre, I may assume these students were all studying at A-Level or B-Tech, adding validity to the former statement. This is rather a promising end to the more general audience background type questions. These participants, I feel it safe to say, are teenagers in higher education. Question Five: Are you an avid watcher of film? Yes: Nine No: One This is a very simple question: merely to establish whether or not participants would consider themselves big fans of films or not, and by the results it appears that they do. Maybe some of these participants are media students themselves, which would give them a good knowledge of film. The responses to this question add to the information I have been provided with by the former four questions: that these people are reasonably educated young adults. Being avid watchers of film distinguishes them as a promising demographic, and perhaps this is the line which I can follow as a possible audience: educated young adult film watchers. There is, of course, a distinction between avid feature film watchers and avid short film watchers. The next question hopes to distinguish the former from the latter. Question Six: How Many short films do you consume per month?
10 5 0 0 1 to 3 3 to 6 6+

This question has provided me with a promising result. All of my participants claim to consume at least one short film on a monthly basis. This tells me that these participants are aware of the short film format and tend to interact with it. I now know that this demographic is at least interested in the medium, therefore can go more in depth on the subject with a number of qualitative questions (question eight and nine).

Question Seven: What is your preferred means of consuming short films?

8 6 4 2 0 Cinema DVD Internet

This question was used to establish how these people consume the short films they watch. The vast majority of responses consume short film on the internet, I assume due to its being free, and many video sharing websites such as YouTube hosting high quality short films. To respond to this, I may share my short film on such a website so that an audience like this may consume it. Question Eight: What do you like about the short film format? This is the first qualitative question I asked, to see which aspects of short film I could exploit in my own product to appeal to such an audience. The responses were unsurprisingly veered towards the length of the films. One response simply read the length, though others commented far more effectively. One said that they can tell such a powerful story in a short amount of time, with another saying that it allows for a great deal of ambiguity, the latter response perhaps helping to explain what makes short film powerful. This relates to what another response stated, that they have stronger hidden messages that make your audience think. The length, one participant states, keeps you engaged, helping characters develop better. Another participant likes the length as you can watch one after the other and compare them with relative ease to feature films. It is difficult to compare these points of view, as each point of view adds a reason regarding their liking for short film, not making the other any less valid. Looking at these responses, I will try and adapt my product accordingly: to make a short film of a slight length, with a strong emotional impact. Question Nine: What do you think could be improved in the short film format? These responses were far more varied, with many participants having differing opinions on how the format could be improved. One commented on the advertising, saying that stronger advertising could gain a larger audience for short film, another similarly stating that more advertising was in order, the former producing a far clearer argument. Perhaps I could take this on board when I come to making my preliminary tasks, using advertising effectively. One commenter stated the need for original ideas, which I believe link well with the comment of two other participants, who stated that social extension was necessary for the development of short film: other social classes could be represented other than the lower classes. I have been thinking this myself, and therefore feel it necessary to extend my film from the working classes. Finally, two participants expressed the wish for short films to be more exciting, with one response stating the need for more

themes set around what is happening now, by which I assume they mean making them. The other response said films need to be made more exciting by fitting more in the short length, Again, I feel it is important to apply these ideas to my product, specifically as they have addressed issues in the short film format that I too have noticed in short film. Conclusion Looking at these responses, I can see that this demographic have a good knowledge of short film, especially in the final two questions, they have been able to apply it proficiently. Given the more detailed, informative responses I gained from my digital questionnaire, I am inclined to make my primary demographic serious film fans, rather than specifically young adults. They would, however, make a very effective secondary audience.

Sample Questionnaires