Screenwriting Tip: Know who you’re writing for
Hollywood obsesses over target demos. The “demos” part is short for demographic group. Therefore a target demo is a specific audience a movie studio or TV network is aiming for. Think about it: 18–30 year-old males are considerably different in terms of their life experience and interests than 50+ females.
We may tend to think of ‘children’ as… you know… children. That’s not how Hollywood perceives them. Rather they break them into sub-groups: 2–5, 6–8, 9–12 [Tweens], 13–18 [Teens]. They then divide those sub-groups into smaller groups defined by gender and race.
As a screenwriter, you may not think like that. You may be prone to assertions like, “The story I’m writing is for everyone!”
Hollywood has a term for that: four quadrant. That refers to four audience groups: Males under 25, Males over 25, Females under 25, Females over 25. Pixar has spun gold in producing four quadrant movies. So it is possible to target a wide audience.
More often than not, however, movies have a more narrowly defined target demo.
This is a business way to think about the question, who are you writing for.
A more creative and helpful way for a screenwriter to approach the subject is this: Put a face to your target audience.
Think about your story and imagine the type of person who would be most likely to want to see it on screen. Press yourself to be specific. Are you writing your story for this person:
Or this:
This:
Or this:
I know a professional screenwriter who when working on a script searches for a photograph of a specific face, then tacks it up on her desk, a visual reference to remind her who she is writing for.
I’ve done that, too. An additional benefit I’ve discovered: The image of that face makes the process of crafting a story more personal. I am aiming to entertain this person, not some fuzzy demo group, but an actual human being.
Emerging out the other end, if we write a script that has a specific target demo in mind, that should make your script an easier sell to a buyer because they can see the potential audience, and they know the script will be an easier project for the marketing department to promote.
So when you write your next spec script, make sure you know who you’re writing for. Who is your target demo. And even go so far as to identify a face who represents the person you are most trying to entertain.
Know who you’re writing for.
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