| Who is the Audience? |
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| Dan Lyon | |
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Page 1 of 3 There are three main reasons why a film fails to reach a significant audience. The filmmakers fundamentally did not care whether or not the film reached a significant audience. Or, the filmmakers produced a film that fell short of the expectations of the intended audience. Or, the filmmakers produced a film that would have met the expectations of the intended audience, but they either marketed it poorly or to the wrong audience – or both. These three reasons: lack of interest in commercial viability, failed production, and poor distribution are fatal for a film.
What’s the lesson here? Everyone, at every stage of the project – from outline through to release in all media -- must correctly identify the paying audience for the film. If you’re a writer, director or producer you may now be thinking, wait a minute… isn’t it the distributor’s job to identify the audience and figure out how to entice them to spend money on my film? Wrong! Positioning the film for an audience begins with the creative team. It is impossible to attract funders (public and private – the latter includes distributors) unless the creators have an audience in mind throughout the development of the project. Positioning statement – why you need itAt certain stages of development (the packaging stage in particular), funders, including Telefilm Canada, request a preliminary marketing plan. As stated in Telefilm’s published guidelines, the preliminary marketing plan should identify:
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