Blogs on Independent Filmmaking (2)

Michael D Sellers is a former CIA operative whose credits include 18 films since 1991. He is also CEO of Quantum Releasing, which as of 2008 handles worldwide distribution for approximately 50 films. A quick look at his blog site and I found interesting nuggets on issues such as the need for “marketability” versus “playability”. All useful stuff to know when building your production. Here's a snippet:

First, if you think about it — a film has to in the first instance sell itself as an idea. Meaning — we all go see a movie because the idea of that movie is attractive to us. That’s “marketability” — the ability of a film to attract an audience into the theater. The most common aspect of markeability is cast — if you have a Brad Pitt movie, it’s marketable by definition because it has Brad Pitt in it....



At the indie level, festival acclaim comes into play, and reviews count, a MySpace buzz matters. But in analyzing the film from this aspect — the entire point is to answer the question, “Can the film attract moviegoers into the theater”?

”Playability” is the analysis of what happens to that audience once they are in the theater. Never mind what got them there — what is their experience once they sit down and watch the movie. How well does the movie “play”? Will it generate favorable word of mouth? Will it catch the fancy of reviewers?