Who is your audience?

WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE?

By

Rob Tobin

Knowing why you want to be a screenwriter is important, and there are one or two or a million other things you need to know in order to become a commercially successful screenwriter. These include script formatting, writing technique and theory, how to pitch, whether and how to enter screenwriting competitions as a way to further your career, how to obtain agents, the role of social media in networking and marketing your scripts, the realities of “big” Hollywood versus those of indie production, distribution, whether to sell your script or to produce it yourself, art versus business, using script consultants, and on and on and on. All the things that you, as a quiet, dedicated artist, probably do not want to have anything to do with.

It may seem overwhelming, because it IS overwhelming. You know what’s not overwhelming? Being that quiet, dedicated artist, sitting in Starbucks with your laptop writing yet another script that won’t sell because you want to be a screenwriter and not a businessperson. Businessperson? Well, you do know that the film business is a… well… business, right? There’s money involved? Bottom lines? Business plans, profit and loss statements, and… gasp… sales?

There, I said the dirty little word: sales. Bottom line: you can avoid being a salesperson, or you can sell your script. It’s your choice. If you think someone else will sell your script for you, I’ve got a parcel of land in the Florida Everglades I’d like to talk to you about. Oh, and there’s a bridge on that parcel of land too -- it used to be in London…

Look, I know you all just want to get to the part about improving your writing. And we’ll get there, I promise, but there are a million books out there on writing theory, including a couple of my own, and a lot of them are based on a false assumption, one I’ve seen repeated over and over even on major film and screenwriting sites and in bestselling screenwriting books and by major Hollywood figures who should know better (and probably do): that if a script is good enough, it’ll get produced. No matter what. Quality alone will see it through.

It’s not true. The producer fairy will not break into your house, find that brilliant script, sprinkle it with fairy dust and whisk it away to the studio exec who is anxiously waiting to greenlight it.

As horrifying as it may seem, quality is rarely the factor that will get you your first screenplay sale or your first writing assignment. If it were, you could lock a brilliant script in a safe in Al Capone’s basement and Geraldo will find it and, with a film crew taping, open the safe and discover it.

Ain’t happenin’.

Even the term “good script” is relative. If a script is so brilliant that it sings to you as you read it, but it sucks on screen, or perhaps cannot be filmed at all because it would be too expensive, or the technology to film it is not there (as was the case for many years with James Cameron’s “Avatar”), is that brilliant script really so brilliant? If a script is brilliant but is about a subject matter or in a style that an audience simply will not pay to see it, is that really a “brilliant” script?

On the other hand, if a script reads like crap but ends up making $500 million at the box office, was it really a crappy script? Well, yeah, but…

Take the “Twilight” series of films. The writing in those films is mediocre at best. But they are absolutely brilliant scripts in a marketing sense, and that’s because the novelist, Stephenie Meyer, is a marketing genius. She knew what audience she wanted to reach, and she crafted a set of stories that were so perfect for that audience that the teen and tween girls who bought those books by the tens of millions pretty much had no choice in the matter. They had to buy those books. And of course once they got hooked on the books, they were a guaranteed audience for the films, which is why the producers paid Ms. Meyer a small fortune for the film rights.

What did Meyer do? She set aside any kind of political correctness and addressed the realities of being a teen female. A teenaged girl wants to date and to be protected by a bad boy, one who will love her but never lose that bad boy aura. Perfect solution: a vampire, a sexy teen vampire (even though he’s actually hundreds of years old) who is madly in love with the teen girl but who remains dangerous and exotic and unpredictable and, well… bad. And her protector. Her bad boy.

Then Meyer made the hero of these books not just a girl, but Every Girl, the typical isolated, “different,” self-conscious, insecure, average looking, introspective, moody and perhaps even mildly depressive person that so many real-life teen girls are. So the audience of isolated, “different,” insecure teen girls had someone they could strongly identify with. The girls who paid to see those films and read those books really WERE Bella. And by watching the movies, and reading the books, they got the dangerous, sexy bad boy… sort of.

In the end, then, Meyer allowed every one of the teen and tween girls in her audience to feel as if they were Bella and that Edward was their knight in bloody armor, their ultimate bad boy who kicked everyone’s ass and yet swooned just for them.

Then Meyer went so far over the top that it’s stunning – stunningly effective: she got TWO dangerous, exotic bad boys and had them fight for the girl!!! You can say what you want about this analysis being sexist and playing on stereotypes, but films like “Twilight” and “Titanic” are proof of the power of pandering to exactly those kinds of stereotypes, at least the kind of stereotypes that actually have a basis in reality. Sexist? Absolutely. Effective? You be the judge – or rather the box office has already been the judge.

Brilliant. Great books in terms of characterization, theme, and narrative style? Hell no. But “good” scripts? Well, did the scripts identify and reach a large audience? Wow, did they ever. Did they make the filmmakers, studios, and distributors massive amounts of money? Again, yes. Look; brilliantly written books that depend on the genius of the author’s narrative style and “bon mots,” rarely translate well to the screen.

Comic books translate well to the screen. 

Commercial novels translate well. 

“The Avengers” will make a thousand times more money than Chekov’s “Cherry Orchard” or Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” or Pearl Buck’s “The Good Earth” ever will, even though comparing Marvel Comics to Shakespeare or Pearl Buck should be a hanging offence.

It’s part of what you need to know, guys and gals. There is critically good writing and then there is commercially good writing and seldom do the two meet. When they do, it’s called “brilliant” writing (“Forrest Gump,” “As Good as it Gets,” “Good Will Hunting,” “Casablanca,” “Princess Bride” “Terminator 2”).

This is an important point, one of the most important things to consider before you actually start your writing. And it harkens back to the first question we asked: why do you want to be a writer? If it’s to make a positive difference in the world, to create literary brilliance, to become the next Hemingway or William Goldman or Lawrence Kasdan, that’s cool. Good for you and good luck with that. Though remember, the guy who wrote “Big Chill” and “Accidental

Tourist” also wrote “Star Wars” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” 

If your goal, however, is to reach the largest possible audience, that isn’t necessarily incompatible with the first goal of literary excellence and social or moral significance, but it does entail a conscious awareness of and commitment to what makes something commercially viable. And there is no better example of the commercial aspect of screenwriting (and novel writing) than the “Twilight” series and the manner in which Meyer identified, studied, and then pandered shamelessly and in a totally sexist and totally effective and profitable manner to her audience.

So the next question you need to answer before starting your screenplay or perhaps before starting the rewrite of a screenplay that you haven’t been able to sell, is: who is your audience?

This is a crucial question. If the only audience you have is you (“I write what I want to watch”), then it’s entirely possible that may be the only audience you’ll ever have. The good news is it’s easy to reach that audience and when you do reach it, you’ll reach 100% of it. The bad news is that that audience has already guessed the ending of your movie.

So. Who is your audience and how do you reach them?

I wish I could tell you the answer to that, but you’re the only one who really knows who you are writing for or at least who you want to write for. If you are writing for yourself, creating what you want to see, then at least try to generalize that – which part of you are you writing for – the little kid that lives in all of us and wants to see “ET?” The sensitive girl who wants her prince charming and it’s okay if he happens to be a 300-year-old vampire? The frustrated middle-aged father who wants to watch movies about someone his age dealing with old age sex and marital tension and wishes his wife looked as good as Meryl Street does at that age? Or maybe a guy who finally realizes that dream he has spent a lifetime failing to achieve and gets to step out of the dingy boxing clubs and into the limelight and the ring for a shot at the title?

Not knowing who your audience is, is like starting your vacation trip not knowing your destination. Sure, it may turn out to be fun and you may even reach a destination of some kind, but if you do it’ll be pure luck, a bit like that old story about setting a million monkeys in front of a million typewriters and eventually writing “Gone With the Wind.”

So, answer this question for yourself and for your career: who am I really writing for, and how do I write most effectively for that audience? Actually, it might work best to phrase it this way: “what stories, genres and characters would be most appealing to the audience I want to write for?”

The answers will of course vary wildly, at least as wildly as the top ten movies in any given week. Even the same audience will be receptive to wildly different stories. This week “The Expendables” is vying with “Hope Springs.” I’m not sure you can get any more different films, and yet both very successfully target older audiences.

Now that you know (or will figure out) who you want to write for, our next installment will talk about how to sell those scripts of yours.

Great writing to all of you. Please continue to support Ben and Talentville – he’s a good guy and it’s a great site. Support each other too. 

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Rob Tobin is a produced screenwriter, published novelist ("Jo-Bri and the Two Worlds" and "God Wars: Living with Angels", available on Amazon.com and iBookshelf), author of two screenwriting books ("The Screenwriting Formula" and "How to Write High Structure, High Concept Movies" available on Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Google, bookstores, etc.), a former motion picture development executive and book editor, graduate of USC's prestigious Master of Professional Writing program, husband, father, Canadian, and he lives an extraordinarily happy life in Southern California. He is available for writing assignments at scripts@earthlink.net. Visit his website at robtobinwriting.com or surfcityfilms.net.