The method
Four stages. Fourteen steps. The first six happen before the money is committed, and they are the six that save it.
This is the whole process, published. You can run it yourself with the Blueprint, or have us run it stage by stage. Either way it is the same fourteen steps in the same order.
Validation
Genre, audience and buyers, established and tested before the money is committed.
| # | Step | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Establish the Movie's core genre | Easy |
| 2 | Test the genre against established genre rules | Easy |
| 3 | Establish the Movie's core audience | Easy |
| 4 | Test the audience assumption | Medium |
| 5 | Establish the Movie's core distributors | Easy |
| 6 | Test the distributors' demand for it | Hard |
Producing
Holding the film to the specification the validation work produced.
| # | Step | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Produce that Movie | Hard |
Audience testing
The film tested with a real audience, and the campaign built from what they said.
| # | Step | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | Test the Movie with a recruited audience | Hard |
| 9 | Test the Movie with a focus group | Hard |
| 10 | Screen to press and industry creatives | Medium |
| 11 | Create the Movie's marketing material | Medium |
| 12 | Test the marketing material | Medium |
| 13 | Collate the evidence and make it presentable | Medium |
Market execution
The film taken to market territory by territory, and the deals closed and accounted for.
| # | Step | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| 14 | Execute — take the film to market | Hard |
Where the money is actually saved
Steps one to six cost about three weeks and a few hundred dollars of advertising. They are the only steps that happen before the budget is committed. Everything from step seven onwards can improve a film, position it and sell it — but it can no longer change what the film is.