Choosing the best film genre for your target audience is not a simple task. You need to consider various factors, such as your creative vision, your budget, your market research, your distribution channels, and your feedback mechanisms. In this article, you will learn some tips and strategies to help you make informed decisions about your film genre and format preferences.
Before you decide on a film genre, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your film. What is your message, your theme, your tone, your style? Who are you trying to reach, and what do you want them to feel, think, or do after watching your film? How do you measure your success, and what are your criteria for evaluating your film? Having a clear and realistic set of goals will help you narrow down your options and align your genre choice with your vision.
Once you have defined your goals, you need to research your target audience. Who are they, where are they, what are their demographics, psychographics, preferences, and behaviors? What are their needs, wants, problems, and aspirations? What are their media consumption habits, and what are their preferred platforms and formats? How do they discover, access, and share films? What are the current trends, gaps, and opportunities in the market? Researching your audience will help you understand their expectations, motivations, and challenges, and tailor your film genre and format accordingly.
After you have researched your audience, you need to explore your options. What are the different film genres and subgenres that you can choose from, and what are their characteristics, conventions, and advantages? How do they relate to your goals, your message, and your audience? How do they fit your budget, your resources, and your skills? How do they affect your production, distribution, and marketing strategies? Exploring your options will help you compare and contrast different film genres and subgenres, and identify their strengths and weaknesses.
Once you have explored your options, you need to test your assumptions. How do you know that your chosen film genre and format will resonate with your target audience and achieve your goals? How do you validate your ideas and hypotheses before you invest too much time, money, and energy into your film? How do you collect and analyze feedback from your potential viewers, collaborators, and stakeholders? Testing your assumptions will help you verify and refine your film genre and format choices, and avoid costly mistakes and surprises.
Finally, you need to adapt to changes. How do you monitor and respond to the changing needs, preferences, and behaviors of your target audience and the market? How do you keep up with the latest trends, innovations, and opportunities in the film industry? How do you update and improve your film genre and format choices based on new data, insights, and feedback? Adapting to changes will help you stay relevant, competitive, and creative in your film genre and format decisions.
What happened to story? It too should suggest a genre and it might be the most affective way to reach the audience. Target audience, their genre preferences, goals etc. are all critical. Likely even related to the story you want to tell. But surely story plays a critical role here?
I personally feel, in this new world of films it’s not mandatory to adapt to a specific genre or genres. The new Academy Award Winner “Everything Everywhere, All at Once” was mentioned as ‘swirl of genre anarchy’ by The New York Times. The genre tradition of movies is keeping evolving into diverse sensibilities. The ultimate intention of a maker is to make a film that reaches to target audience. But, measuring the potential of target audience is also complicated nowadays. The content reaches to different audiences (out of target) through streaming platforms and induce versatile results.
As a science fiction writer (as well as other genres) and producer, I try to an audience to feel like they are directly involved with the marketing aspects of a film. As a matter of fact, about 20 years ago, I was given an opportunity to write a “Marketing Research Concept” for a documentary about a new genre of music called “Unwrapped”. Anyway, our producer (whose credits included Under Siege 2, Pretty Woman, etc) said he liked the idea was interested in collaborating with me on it. Later on, maybe a year later, I’m watching CNN and the Anchor announced that Apple had decided to use Joe S. Starr’s (my) strategy for a new initiative. So I use the same basis of that concept to explore very effective audience interaction & inclusivity.