No market for first time filmmakers?

Earlier this year we spoke to big and small screen techno-thespian David Hewlett about his feature film debut A Dog’s Breakfast and his wily wagging of the ‘long tail’ to tell folks about it. David and his team recently appeared at the Cinequest Film Festival with their movie, and the experience prompted David to pen these thoughts about some of the practicalities of making movies for first timers.

Having had a number of fascinating conversations with filmmakers over the last few days (I should say at Cinequest in San Jose. Great fun and a real film fan festival), I thought I’d try and put our thoughts down for the benefit of those considering taking the leap into feature film making.

The thing that I noticed was that a lot of first time filmmakers had completed films and were now looking for a market. That may sound obvious, I mean, we were at a film festival after all! What struck me was that this approach is the complete antithesis of the standard business model! I know that some of you may shudder at talk of the “business” of “art”, but I still think that it is worth mentioning here.

When people start a business (which, no matter how you look at it, is what you’re doing when you make a film!) they usually work with some kind of a business plan. This is where I lose half of you I’m sure! I don’t necessarily mean a formal written business plan with “Executive Summaries” and all those eye-glazing, mind-numbing business school details. Even if your company is just a concept in your head, it usually centers around the commercial promise of your business idea. And one of the most important aspects of even the most informal business plans is examining the market. Who are you going to sell your product or service to? Are there other companies doing the same thing? Will the market cover the start-up and operational costs? The bottom line being: Are there enough people out there willing to pay for your product or service so as to sustain your business?

When it comes to first time filmmakers I am alarmed to see how many times their intended market is the last thing that they consider! In many cases filmmakers were struggling to figure out who their market was, and even if they had a market, long after their film was completed. Films require huge amounts of time and money (certainly time anyway!). Attempting to figure out who your market is after your film is complete can have dire consequences on the rest of your career.

I’m not saying that filmmakers should give up on personal or off-beat films, or go to Hollywood’s extremes of trying to offend no-one and appeal to everyone. However, I do believe that they should at least explore their market potential before they start those cameras up. As far as I’m concerned, the earlier you consider your audience the better. Start with the script and follow it through into the making and marketing of the film. There are huge markets for smaller, niche films out there.

Again, I am certainly not trying to silence first-timers with films dealing with anything outside of the “norm”. I love interesting and challenging indie films, believe me… because I fit into many of those niche markets! For example, if you’re looking to sell your movie, it’s a good idea for the cost of making a film to be proportional to it’s market. If you don’t know who is going to want to see your movie, how can you budget accordingly? In a way, the less you spend, the more edgy and risky and personal you can be. Keeping your film’s audience in mind will allow you to be much better prepared for getting it seen once it’s finished.

Nobody likes to pigeon hole their film, but the reality is at some point you need to be able to tell people what section of the video “store” (please tell me you’re not still going to the video store?!) your movie is sitting in. This can be a pretty good rough indicator of your market. The genre allows you to look at similar films and budgets and compare them to your own.

With our first film A Dog’s Breakfast we looked at the Stargate audience I had from acting in the show, and tailored the script to suit that crowd. It became a more “family friendly” black comedy and I like to think a better film because of it! We even had a secondary audience that we felt would be made up of “pet-nerds” like myself. I looked into the number of people visiting Stargate websites and got some idea of DVD sales, television viewers and convention attendance around the world. A Dog’s Breakfast was sold not just because MGM liked us and the film. The film sold because when we went in to talk to MGM about it, we had a very clear marketing strategy and a solid audience in mind. MGM were not only able to quantify the film’s market, they were already intimately familiar with it!

I’m not saying that we’re super-geniuses (well, my producer Jane might be, that’s why I’m marrying her… that and she’s very pretty ;-). I see a lot of big Hollywood directors making movies purely to appeal to the biggest audience possible. I’m certainly not advocating that one should go to that extreme with indie film, unless money is all you’re worried about, and if that’s the case, what are you doing in independent cinema!? I’m just saying that it is so important in the exciting rush of setting out to make a film, not to forget to start with the end in mind… your audience. They are the ones that are going to buy the tickets. They are the ones that are going to sell your movie with their word-of-mouth. And they are the ones that give you the satisfaction of seeing people enjoy your own unique vision.

For this and other commentary from the Hewlett-sphere (tech, TV, content-making and more), visit www.adogsbreakfastmovie.com