2013 Post 16: Why make a short film? Who is the target audience?

I have read both Articles 'The long history of short films' and 'Short Films That Launched Big Names Telegraph', in both the articles it explains why short films have been made and the purpose they have been made for, for example the public want to be enetertained at what they view. The first films were presented to the public in 1894 through Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope, Edison produced films that contained information about celebrities, royal processions, travelogues, current affairs and scenes from everyday life. Here are a few reasons why short films would have been created and this would have then developed films from being watched and would have gained a large reputation with the public.

 

The articles given to me to read were very helpful and have made me think more about who our target audience will be for our short film. This is because we want to get as many viewers for our film as possible and the genre must also be very popular with the public. Therefore we must create a film that teaches viewers about grooming and the stages followed by a groomer; this will create a large audience as they’re being entertained by watching the film whilst also receiving useful information about groomers that can happen to anyone at any time.

 

In our group we have thought about who would be the audience so that we can target our audience effectively and understand the best ways to distribute it. Previous research into our film helped us to establish the genre of film we were making but also the age certificate. My group decided the certificate should be for ages 18+, this is because the film needs to be understood and ages below 18 wouldnt understand the film, the film contains information that can help parents prevent there children from becoming in danger.

 

There are many distribution methods that can be followed and distributing the film well will receive a lot of attention from the media and public. The film can be spoke about on social network sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or Bebo to get more reputation, this will also give the public an idea of what our film is going to be about and why we have made this film for the specific audience chosen. We also know that ages from 18-40 are mature and by watching the short film produced by my group they will care for younger children more and be a lot more aware of their children’s safety.

 

Film festivals happen all around the world to promote short films to inspire people to create films that have a meaning behind them. A very known festival is Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival (Bristol, UK) and is the UK’s longest running competitive short film and animation festival. At festivals like these short films have been made because people enjoy creating short films with the use of editing and recording, there films will also get judged by experienced professionals and the public audience can also give feedback to the producers of the film. Festivals like these can promote films through advertising there short film to their target audience, and festivals like this one would help promote and give experience to younger generation.

 

The films that I have looked at are all averagely between 5-10 minutes long, this gives us a short amount of time to create a short film packed with information about our chosen topic which is grooming. When considering that we have a time of 6 minutes for our short film we need to think about making the script to as much detail as possible, keeping scenes short but effective giving a simple story across to the audience so it’s easy to follow. The effect that we want on our audience is to realize how crucial grooming can be and to make the audience realize how easy grooming can be done. By doing this it will make audiences more aware of their child’s safety and will give information about how stages of grooming can work.