How can an audience be targeted?
An audience can be contacted in many ways, it could be the old fashioned way through a movie poster or a more modern way like a teaser trailer on YouTube, but probably the most effective way of reaching audiences in 2016 has to be though social media platforms such as Facebook. The reason social media platforms have such success at reaching people is the vast number of members on these sites, Facebook has more than 1,000,000,000 accounts, more than 100,000,000 people use Instagram every month and Twitter has 313,000,000 monthly active users. This means that with only a few shares from people, a site can be seen by Thousands of people in a matter of minutes.
Other more traditional methods of reaching out to audiences are still effective which is why they are still used today. Movie posters are probable the most common method of advertisement, although nowadays the posters are mostly only shown on cinema buildings and on social media sites they still can reach a large audience as they are usually placed in strategic positions where they will be seen by allot of people. Another traditional method that is still used allot today is a trailer for the film. They only used to be shown before the screening of other films meaning movie goers would see trailers for other films that they may like to see. Trailers are still shown before films but now they are uploaded to social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook and promoted heavily by the production studios.
With reaching out to audiences though social media and the web, the best plan of action is to make a Facebook page, Twitter account, Instagram account and a website then share the Facebook page and other accounts via personal accounts and get friends to share the pages too. Using hashtags can also be helpful for getting exposure too because the people searching those hashtags will be searching for stuff similar to your page. Social media platforms also allow you to promote material like images of production, posters, behind the scenes videos and teaser trailers that will intrigue audiences and create hype around the release of the film.
Initial idea for unit 13 and the style
The film that I wan to create is a short coming of age film. Its a story of a quirky introverted photographer who meets a girl. The story shows only the ending of there relationship and the events leading up to there meeting. The film is shot in portrait and this odd cinematography style represents the main characters quirky personality and relates to the characters mutual hobby, photography. The style of the cinematography will have influences to French new wave cinema with conventions such as jump cuts and unconventional framing in conversations between characters. I feel that this style is suited to my film because the entire film is about breaking the rules and that’s what French new wave cinema was all about when it was created.
I want to make a coming of age film as its the kind of film that I like to watch meaning I’m more passionate about making a coming of age so the film will be better. I also want to make the film in portrait as there are very few films shot this way.
There are other films that are the same style of mine. One example is a student film by a director called Charles Power, its similar to mine in the sense thats its a quirky well shot short film involving two young photographers with minimal dialogue.
Where the film could be shown?
As my film is an art film thats quirky and different to others it will appeal to a certain type of audience. The audience it will attract would be other film students and people who like art and art films, for this reason I think that my film could be shown at some independent cinemas where there audience will pay more for watching an independent art film rather than another blockbuster that was the same as the last. Another place where my film could be shown is at festivals, they are a great way to get small production films shown to a large audience making it more well known. Some of the festivals that I could submit the film are, UK Film Festival (£20 submission cost), Aesthetica Film Festival, Glasgow Youth Film Festival and BFI Future Film Festivals. If my film receives good feedback from audiences I could submit it to short student film competitions like, My Rhode Reel, CineMagic and Raindance film festival. After the film has been shown in independent cinemas, festivals and competitions I could upload the film to YouTube and Vimeo to help it reach a wider worldwide audience.
YouTube and Vimeo analytics
Here are the Vimeo analytics for the short coming of age film Viewfinder.
The average time people stayed watching the film for was 2 minutes 22 seconds. I think this is because there wasn’t anything to hook them to watch until the end. I should include a plot device that makes the viewer want to watch until the end to find out the entire story. It was veiwed 406 times, this isnt many but the film didnt have any tags on the video so it would be hard for people to find, it had the words a2 short film in the title which could deter people from watching if hey know its a student film. The film also didnt have a social media capaign to share and premote the film on. To ensure mor epeople watch my film I shoud premote the film on social media sites such as Facebook. I also should add relevant tags to the video to make it easer for people to find on YouTbe and Vimeo and I shouldent put that is a student film in the title so people dont jusge the film before they see it. 77% of people whop veiwed the film was male, I should make my film more appealing to men as they are the largest audience. Most of the veiws (91%) were froom the UK. This means that short coming of age films are popular in the UK, I should deffienetally haver the film in English so my target audience can understand it.
Audience
I’m going to produce a short abstract film about a young quirky photographer. I think that this film would appeal to film and art students around the age of the characters (16-25) as they would be able to relate to the characters in the story. I conducted an online survey to find out weather my idea about the audience profile was correct. It was.
All but one response was either in the 15-17 or the 18-21 age category and 17 out of the 26 people claimed they would watch my film and a further 6 said they might watch it they just needed more information first.
I also found out in the survey that these kind of people like the genre Coming-Of-Age the most.
This means that I will have an audience for my film. Based of the other results from the survey, out of the people that said they would watch my film the audience will be in the age range of 15-21, probably be female, live in the UK, they enjoy short films and enjoy emotional films.
Focus group
From my focus group I’ve found out that a short film will keep peoples attention for 1.5-2 minutes to hook them into the rest of the film so I will make the start of the film very engaging. I also found out that people do like films in the Coming-of-age genre because they are very relatable to normal life.I found that they do like the unconventional way of telling the story and experimental filmsas they are interesting, although the film shouldnet be too long and to arty ads this could be seen as pretentious. I also found out that the length of the short film should be around 8-10 minutes so I will make the film around 8 minutes so it will keep peoples attention for the entire length yet still have enough time for character development and to tell the story. The focus group saidn that the way fo telling the story so the end of the film is at the start is a good way of telling the story because the audince knows the ending of the relationship will come eventually so feel sad for the characters in the rest of the film and this adds more depth to the film.
Crowd Funding
Crowd funding is a method of fundraising that involves asking a large audience (i.e. the internet) for a donation, these donations add up to the amount you need. Crowdfunding has become increasingly more popular since the introduction of the internet since larger audiences can be reached. Popular crowd funding websites include, Go Fund Me, Kickstarter and Indigogo. Crowdfunding can help anyone who needs to raise money for anything, weather it be a film or a holiday. Its a good way to raise money when there are no other easier methods of getting funding.
The popular crowdfunding site Indigogo released statistics about the campaigns on there site last year. https://go.indiegogo.com/blog/2015/10/crowdfunding-statistics-trends-infographic.html
- 30 day campaigns are the most successful.
- ‘42% of funds are raised in the first and last 3 days of a campaign’s duration.’
- ‘Sucsessfull campaigners add 12 new perks after launch’
- ‘The top 5 contributing countries for these 100k campaigns are the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Germany.’
All Statistics are from the Indigogo website –https://go.indiegogo.com/blog/2015/10/crowdfunding-statistics-trends-infographic.html
Here is the success story of Zach Braff’s fundraising campaign to raise $2,000,000 but the target was beaten and he raised $3,105,473 to make his film. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1869987317/wish-i-was-here-1/description
Some more crowd funding statistics – https://stephenfollows.com/film-crowdfunding-kickstarter-statistics/
Above is a link to a kickstarter campaign for a short coming of age film that’s relatable to mine. The campaign raised over $51,000 and shows how a successful short coming of age film like mine can be well funded through a crowd funding campaign.
In the past few years more independent productions are going down the crowd funding route to raise the funds to make the film. The reason is because m ore and more independent films are being mad thanks to the accessibility of technology, this means that studios and companies are investing in a smaller proportion of films being made because there isn’t enough money to go around. Independent productions then turn to the public asking for money in return for small items, credit in the film and invites to events because there more likely to get some money from this than from a studio.
One of the reasons people donate to a film fund through crowdfunding is that they are promised small items or opportunities by the producers of the film. They are usually offered gifts like t-shirts and DVD’s and if people donate more money they are offered things like props and skype sessions with the director and a credit in the film. For donating allot of money sometimes opportunities like being on set or a ticket to the premiere are offered.
Commissioning
There are some commissioning opportunities for shorts. The BBC has a short film commissioning program. http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tv/articles/entertainment-bbc-three
They fund shorts and new-form films with a wide variaty of cattagories, Factual, Comedy and Entertainment, my film would fit under entertainment. They fund £1,000 per 1 minute of planed film. The film can be up too 30 minutes and as short as you want, the lenght is what you think the film warents. There target audience is 16-35 year olds, they dont want it to be for children or family films which means that my film falls within there criteria.
What I’ve found out.
For the social media campaign, I found out that the best platform to promote on is probable Facebook as its the most commonly used social media site and it allows for sharing videos, polls, photos and comments. When researching places to publish and distribute the film I found that the best place to get the film to a wide audience is to post it on a video internet streaming website such as YouTube or Vimeo. I also found out that I could also distribute my film to allot of people in my target market who want to see student films through film festivals, festivals such as Aesthetic in York. I will need funding for the full film and I found out that the best way to raise the money will be through crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indigogo and the one I will use its Indigogo because if you don’t reach the full target you can still keep the money you have raised. When I conducted the focus group primary research I discovered that Coming-Of-Age films are some of peoples favorite genres so that bodes well for my film as more people will like it if its in the genre that they like. I also found out that people get bored by the first 1.5 – 2 minutes of a film so I need to make the proof of concept under 2 minutes and I need a hook to keep the audience watching at around the one and a half minute mark. I was also told in the focus group that people think the film needs to be about 8 minutes long and not any longer than 10 minutes. This is to allow for character developments but make sure that its not too long. I will make the film about 8 minutes long off of this recommendation.
Henry Rees 
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