Lesson 4 - Developing a Marketable Idea
When you're thinking of an idea for your screenplay, always start backwards and define the audience and what you want the movie to accomplish. In this lesson, we'll show you factors to consider when developing an idea.Lesson 4 - Developing a Marketable Idea
Developed by Jason Tomaric, FilmSkillsABOUT THIS LESSON
As a creative people, we're flooded by interesting ideas for movies all the time. But are those ideas marketable? Will an audience want to see them?
Movie making is one of the most expensive and time-consuming art forms, and before you embark on months, even years of work, it's wise to research the potential audience for your movie. In this lesson, I partnered with Emmy and Academy Award-winning writers, studio executives, and screenwriting professors to reveal dozens of tips and tricks to determining the market for your story concept.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
- How to find the balance between art and commerce
- How to determine what the market wants
- How to speak to your audience
- How to shave thousands of dollars off your production with a few simple script tweaks
ABOUT THE LESSON AUTHOR
Jason Tomaric
Director, Cinematographer Los Angeles, CaliforniaJason J. Tomaric is an Emmy, Telly, and CINE Award-winning director and cinematographer of four internationally-distributed feature films, dozens of national television commercials, music videos, and the largest film training content library in the world, published author of 8 books - used in many top universities, and creator of AccuSkills.com, an industry-changing learning management platform.
Jason has worked in Los Angeles and around the world in over 20 countries. His clients include Disney, NBC/Universal, National Geographic, McDonald’s, Toyota, Scion, Microsoft, and Paul Mitchell, with narrative work screened at Sundance, Slamdance, and South by Southwest film festivals as well as on Netflix and on all broadcast networks.
Jason has taught and/or guest lectured at some of the nation's most prestigious film schools including UCLA, Columbia College, John Carroll University, Kent State University, San Francisco State, University of Notre Dame, and numerous film festivals.
Jason has written eight industry-defining books, all sold in bookstores, and used in film schools around the world. The American Society of Cinematographers hails Jason's books - "There are no wasted words in Tomaric's tome, which concisely summarizes each facet of the director's craft. It's difficult to think of a step in the process that Tomaric fails to address."
Jason’s DVD training series on Hollywood film production have trained filmmakers in over 40 countries, with distributors in Europe, Hong Kong, New York and Australia.
In 2010, Jason launched FilmSkills, which combines the world’s largest film training video library with his proprietary learning management system. Adopted by 47 universities within the first year, FilmSkills is now the leading industry-standard training solution for motion picture and television production.
In 2015, Jason launched AccuSkills.com, an industry-changing learning management platform that bridges the gap between academia and industry.
CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS LESSON
Alexa Amin
Executive Editor, Studio System News, and Former VP of Development, Sony Pictures AnimationAlexa Amin is Executive Editor of Studio System News, after having worked as a feature film studio executive since 1999. She most recently served as Vice President of Production at Sony Pictures Animation, where she shepherded OPEN SEASON 2, CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS, and THE SMURFS, which grossed over $500 million worldwide. Prior to Sony, Ms. Amin was Vice President, Production for New Regency/20th Century Fox, where her films included Mr. & MRS. SMITH, THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX and ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS, which also grossed over $500 million worldwide. She was honored as one of the industry’s rising young stars in The Hollywood Reporter’s Next Generation to Watch. Mrs. Amin is actively involved in educational causes, including Communities in Schools, Milk and Bookies and Determined to Succeed. She was born and raised in Los Angeles, received her B.A. in English from UC Santa Barbara, and currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and 2 sons.
Andrew Davis
Director: "The Fugitive," "Code of Silence," "Chain Reaction," "Collateral Damage," and "The Guardian"Born on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, Davis has directed several films using Chicago as a backdrop. He is the son of actor Nathan Davis and Metta Davis and the brother of musician Richard "Richie" Peter Davis co-founder of the cover band Chicago Catz and Jo Ellen Friedman.
After attending Harand Camp of the Theater Arts and Bowen High School, Davis went on to study journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It was not long before his interest in civil rights and anti-war issues converged with his growing interest in film-making. Davis was mentored by acclaimed cinematographer Haskell Wexler with whom he worked on Medium Cool and began his film career as a cameraman on blaxploitation films like The Hit Man, Cool Breeze and The Slams in the 1970s.
His first feature film as a director was the semi-biographical story, Stony Island. Davis has gone on to direct such films as The Fugitive, Under Siege, Above the Law (both starring Steven Segal), Code of Silence, Holes, The Package and The Guardian.
Davis also directed the cutscenes for the videogame Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory.
Chris Huntley
Academy Award-winning creator of “Scriptor," and co-creator of "Dramatica"Chris Huntley is an Academy Award-winning software developer and Vice President of Write Brothers® Inc. Chris is also the co-creator of Dramatica®, an acclaimed theory of story and the basis of the popular Writer's DreamKit™ and Dramatica® Pro software. Chris regularly teaches workshops and classes on story structure and development.
While an undergraduate in Cinema Production at the University of Southern California, Chris created several short films, including the award-winning animated short, “Daddy’s Gone a’ Hunting,” which was chosen as the short film screened before the world premiere of the George Romero film, “Dawn of the Dead.” After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Cinema Production, Chris worked for several years in the film industry.
In 1982, Chris went into business with fellow USCinema alum, Stephen Greenfield, and formed Screenplay Systems Inc., now doing business as Write Brothers® Inc. Together they created Scriptor™, the world’s first professional screenplay formatting software, for which they won a 1994 Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. They went on to produce other award winning, industry standard software, such as Movie Magic® Budgeting and Movie Magic® Scheduling, Dramatica® Pro, Writer’s DreamKit, Movie Magic® Screenwriter, StoryView™, Word Menu® and more.
As co-creator of the Dramatica® story theory, the co-author of “Dramatica: A New Theory of Story” (1994), and co-developer of the Dramatica® Pro and Writer’s DreamKit™ software, Chris has spent thirty years working with narrative theory and its practical application.
Today, Chris splits his time working as Vice President of Write Brothers® Inc. between design work for new products and overseeing day-to-day business affairs. Chris also spends a fair amount of time giving workshops in story development in the U.S. and abroad.
David Freeman
Writer, "Street Smart," and "The Border"Working as a writer and producer, David Freeman has written and developed scripts and other properties which have been bought or optioned by Columbia Pictures, MGM, Paramount, Castle Rock, Buena Vista Television, Atlas Entertainment, Hearst Entertainment, and many other major film and television production companies. He's a long-standing member of the Writers Guild of America.
Jeff Ulin
VP of Worldwide Distribution, LucasFilm; Former Senior Executive at Paramount Pictures, Universal StudiosJeff Ulin’s background includes being a media executive, attorney, lecturer, entrepreneur and author. Half of his 20+ years in the business were spent at Lucasfilm, where he headed worldwide distribution for all markets (theatrical, video, TV, online), managed franchise sales for Star Wars and Indiana Jones, and oversaw the release of the last Star Wars film Episode III. He has also served as a senior studio executive, helping manage Paramount and Universal’s overseas video distribution venture; co-founded and ran as CEO animation studio Wild Brain, where he created Disney’s pre-school hit Higglytown Heroes; and navigated the convergence of digital media at Silicon Valley’s most renowned law firm (Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati), where he served as Of Counsel. Based in the San Francisco Bay area, Jeff currently works as EVP of Autumn Games, sits on advisory boards of media start-ups, and teaches the class Media & Entertainment: Economics, Policy, and Strategy at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. He is the author of the Variety-endorsed book The Business of Media Distribution- Monetizing Film, TV and Video Content in an Online World (Elsevier/Focal Press, 2009).
Jeff is a graduate of Harvard University and The University of Chicago Law School, and a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
John Anderson
Los Angeles-based screenwriterLos Angeles-based screenwriter
Ken Dancynger
Author, “Broadcast Writing,” “Alternative Scriptwriting,” and “The Technique of Film and Video Editing and Writing the Short Film” Ken Dancyger is Chairman of the Undergraduate Department of Film and Television, New York University, one of the leading programs in Film/TV in the United States, and a past president of the University Film and Video Association. Has also taught various film courses in the United States at Boston University, Emerson College, and Clark University and in Canada at Sheridan College and York University. He has edited a number of his own productions for film and television and is a screenwriter of numerous documentaries and dramas for film and television. In addition, he has been a director, production manager, producer, story editor, and script consultant for various films. He is the author of Broadcast Writing, Alternative Scriptwriting, The Technique of Film and Video Editing and Writing the Short Film (Focal Press).
Michael Emanuel
Independent Film Producer, actor in over 200 national television commercialsMulti Hyphenate, Michael Emanuel is the Star/Producer of the MTI/REDRUM distributed, multi-award winning film titled "LUCKY". A familiar face and quintessential 'EVERYMAN", this award winning actor/producer/writer has appeared in numerous feature films, television shows and hundreds of national TV commercials.
Xander Bennett
Writer, “The Colour of Fear,” and Author of “Screenwriting Tips... You Hack"Xander Bennett is an Australian screenwriter and author. He is a former Hollywood script reader, who divides his time between Los Angeles and Sydney. Bennett is best known for his laconic advice about the practice of screenwriting, shared daily in a blog called Screenwriting Tips... You Hack, and for a book of the same name.
Bennett has written for television, videogames, role-playing games, and comics, and is the author of a graphic novel. He wrote educational comics for Pan Macmillan and worked on Ghostees, a small browser game for BakedOn Entertainment, which hasn't been released yet. He has written tabletop RPG books for The Le Games (Unorthodox Pirates), Highmoon Media (The Song of Roland), and Dogsoul Publishing.
He lived in Vancouver during 2008, where he did some freelance journalism and copywriting, and worked as a quality assurance tester for Electronic Arts Vancouver. In 2009 he moved to Los Angeles for a year to attend the UCLA Professional Program in Producing. While there he worked as a reader for a minor production company. Bennett administers an online script reading service, Hack Notes.
He is managed by Madhouse Entertainment, Los Angeles.