Film Victoria to hold screen audience summit
Film Victoria will aim to show content makers how to connect with their audience this September, hosting Australia’s first screen audience summit in Melbourne.
The announcement:
Film Victoria is convening Australia’s first audience summit for screen practitioners. Arresting Audiences, for producers, screenwriters, directors and script editors, will explore the importance of connecting with audiences, and how to best use that connection to make great content.
Acclaimed television writer/producer Jane Espenson, best known for her work on BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, and marketing extraordinaire Winter Mead, a key player in the GLEE Superfan online phenomenon, have been announced as headline speakers.
The fact that Film Victoria sees a need to lecture Aussie filmmakers on how to connect with an audience confirms everything I’ve suspected for a decade! We have a shocking tradition of funding being provided for films that are more about someone’s artistic ego or ‘cultural worthiness’ than about entertaining a large number of people.
This actually looks like an interesting gig and well worth $75. I reckon we’ll get some lively debates between film/tv creatives and research folk about Instincts vs. Insights and how market research kills creativity/risk taking etc, just as we observe in the advertising world. What I’m most interested in is audience research that actually helps to avert a box office or tv ratings disaster … we don’t tend to hear these stories much, as usually drown out by the sound of creatives whinging 🙂