Pick a Niche, Any Niche

Pick a niche market? But I don’t even have a script yet. I haven’t even decided on a genre. Why pick a niche market now?

Well, the two most important aspects of a successful film are: 1) having great material before you start production and; 2) picking a clear niche market to attack.

Why? Because this niche market is easily identifiable and, therefore, less expensive to attack. You can find and communicate with an audience in a niche market inexpensively through social media, influencers, Facebook groups, email and other forms of inexpensive marketing. On top of that, you can approach this market to help you fund the film through crowdfunding.

There are two examples that come to mind. The first is Range 15 (2016), an indie comedy centered around the US military and apocalyptic zombies. Nick Palmisciano, who produced and acted in the film, is a former Army Ranger. He invited a number of military veterans to act and take part in the film. He approached the military and veteran community (niche market) through crowdfunding to help financially support the film. His goal was to raise $350,000. But within a week the film had raised over $1 million. Not only was this a windfall for the film’s budget, but he also developed his initial audience for the film. It is my understanding that the film has generated over $3 million in revenue to date.

The other example is Heel Kick (2017). The producers of this mockumentary about professional wrestling did a good job of selecting a large and motivated niche. As you may know, fans of professional wrestling are rabid, and they came out in droves to support this film. Again, the producers used this niche market to raise money to help distribute the film and build their initial audience at the same time.

Army & Coop? It’s centered around ice hockey. Again, players, parents, and fans of ice hockey are all rabid. We can identify the members of this niche market very easily in social media and connect with them much less expensively than a broad market.

Pick your niche market, let the members of that market help fund the film, and then sell the film to those same members as well as others. This is the new model of independent film-making.

Next week I’ll talk about how important it is to have good or great materials before you get

started.

Army & Coop trailer: www.armyandcoop.com