Screenwriting : Today's Wish and Creative Tip by Laurie Ashbourne

Picture Your Audience Often we writers create stories that we ourselves would go to see, or at the very least, they have a personal relevance to us. The industry has its own set of reasons why movies go into production and that is rarely a personal one, it’s a business decision determined by genre and potential market share – even devout independent film producers have to show the potential ROI based on comps in their financial projections. This is the business end of show. The disconnect that prevents a lot of material from getting made (which is way more frustrating to writers than it is to producers) is when a script forgets who the audience is. When writing, even if it is a personal story that you just have to get out, remember who your ultimate audience is. This goes for everything from technical components of the script (writing unfilmmable action blocks) to whether the events are clear or the content speaks to them. Imagine, your movie’s premiere and the story has been kept under wraps, the projector breaks and the audience commands you to stand up and tell them what the story is. As you look into the crowd of expectant faces, you will undoubtedly cater your telling based on responses. If you had to visit an elementary school and tell a story, you would hopefully be more animated and speak to what matters to children of this age than you would if visiting a college to tell a story. Speaking to the audience is a genre issue and a ratings issue -- yes but it's also a content/expectation issue. A PG family comedy is different from a PG romantic comedy. Both comedies, both PG. But the audience is vastly different because expectations are different. Rom-coms are essentially date night movies, family comedies are well, family get together movies. It’s a good idea to go to filmratings.com and familiarize yourself with what calls for a particular rating. This matters to the producers because certain ratings are more bankable and also make sure you are serving the genre by studying the genre -- but to get to the content/expectations part, you have to study your audience. Big studios do audience tests all the time, especially when a lot is riding on the film. Advance screenings very often force filmmakers to edit, or even shoot new scenes based on audience response. If you can’t imagine telling an audience your story, find an ear of someone who you think would pay to see this film and read your script to them. I guarantee, there will be points that you have to clarify along the way. Picture your audience, in underwear is not required but whatever floats your boat. Have a great week everyone.