Film Courage: How does a filmmaker figure out who their audience is?
Jon Reiss, Filmmaker, Author, and Media Strategist: I think there are certain tried and true ways which is a lot of times filmmakers find out at film festivals. I think you should have a sense of who your audience is when you’re making the film or even before you’re making the film. Not to say that should necessarily affect your creativity, but if you’re making a film and you’re specifically wanting people to see it, you should have a sense of who your audience is when you’re making the film. You should think about ways to make the film that will enhance that audience engagement or maybe have that audience want to connect and watch the film.
Part of it is brainstorming it within your team. Then the easiest thing is to talk to someone like me. I would even say that brainstorming it within your team and then consulting someone who has some experience with this like me is probably a good idea.
I’m a big proponent of not having festivals be the first time your film is screened in front of an audience. Anyone who does that to me is I think it’s crazy because if you’re making your film for an audience, why wouldn’t you see how an audience reacts to it before you distribute it? To me festivals are distribution. From those audience screenings that you’re doing you can also get a sense of who your audience is and you can even poll people in your audience. When I recommend filmmakers do audience screenings, it’s not only to see how the film is working, but half of the questions are marketing questions:
-Getting a sense of how that person liked the film;
-Asking them questions about what kind of person they are;
-Asking them (in the questionnaire) who do you feel is the audience for this film?
That’s just expanding your brain trust to a wider net of people. They might come up with ideas that you hadn’t thought of.
Film Courage: Would you recommend someone actually attempt to rent a theater…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
Film Courage - Empowering Creatives 