StephenFollows.com - Using data to explain the film industry

StephenFollows.com - Using data to explain the film industry

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How do film professionals pick their projects?
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I use data to understand how the film industry works and then share that to help filmmakers get their films funded, shot and seen.
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How do film professionals pick their projects?

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Stephen Follows
Mar 09, 2014

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How do film professionals pick their projects?
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This is the seventh of ten articles revealing the results of my survey of 1,235 film industry professionals. More details of the survey and my methodology can be found here and for any questions or clarification please contact me.

Key Findings - Project selection

  • The quality of the script and the concept are the most important factors when deciding which projects to work on.

  • The strength of the cast matters less than the script, the concept, the talent of the director and the reputation of the producer.

  • The two least important factors were both based around data; namely performance of similar films and trends within the industry.

Scale used

Respondents were asked to rate each factor on a scale of 1 to 5, which was described as such…

  1. I don't care

  2. Not very important

  3. Mildly important

  4. Very important

  5. Incredibly important

How do film professionals pick their next project?

The results indicate that the script and the idea are the most important factors. Possibly surprisingly, the cast are not one of the top factors.

film professionals How important are the following elements in deciding which projects you work on

Breakdown by sector

How important are the following elements in deciding which projects you work on

Breakdown by budget level

How important are the following elements in deciding which projects you work on

About the survey of film professionals

The survey involved 1,235 film industry professionals, all of whom have attended at least one of the three major film markets (Cannes, Berlin or AFM) within the past five years.  I asked questions on a variety of hot topics including piracy, the appeal of 3D, gender, and how optimistic industry professionals are for 2014. More details of the survey and my methodology can be found here and for any  questions or clarification please contact me.


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I use data to understand how the film industry works and then share that to help filmmakers get their films funded, shot and seen.

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