Stage one
Validation
Genre, audience and buyers — established and tested before the money is committed.
Steps one to six of the method done for you.
The six steps
Each step produces a result: validation, or needs change. Either way you learn something while it is still cheap to act on.
| # | Step | Difficulty | On its own |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Establish the Movie's core genre | Easy | $100 |
| 2 | Test the genre against established genre rules | Easy | $1,500 |
| 3 | Establish the Movie's core audience | Easy | $500 |
| 4 | Test the audience assumption | Medium | $1,500 |
| 5 | Establish the Movie's core distributors | Easy | $500 |
| 6 | Test the distributors' demand for it | Hard | $1,500 |
$5,600 taken one at a time. $4,500 as Stage one packaged together.
What you get
Five documents, and the evidence behind each of them.
A genre statement and comp table
What the film is, in the terms a buyer already uses, with the comparable titles named.
An audience definition, with the test results behind it
Who the film is for — and the evidence that those people exist in usable numbers, rather than an assertion that they do.
A tiered buyer list
Named companies, tiered, with the specification column complete — what each one buys, and what it would need your film to be.
A response log from approached buyers
What happened when they were actually asked. Interest, silence and refusal are all findings, and all three are recorded.
A written recommendation
What we would do next, and why. Including, when the answer is not making the film in its current form.
Why this is the stage that matters
Steps one to six are the only ones that happen before the budget is committed. Everything after them can improve a film. Only these can change what the film is.
What this credits into
The full $4,500 comes off Stage two. If you go on to Producing, it is $18,000, or $13,500 once this stage is credited.