[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Key Takeaways:
Shaked Berenson on Market-Driven Filmmaking
*Market-First Strategy: Successful development begins with identifying market needs and distribution goals before creative work starts.
*Reverse Engineering (Z to A): Projects should be “back engineered” from the end goal rather than following a traditional linear path.
*Sustainability over Hobbyism: Commercial filmmaking requires a focus on financial viability and “end goals” to support professional salaries.
*Deconstructing the “Linear Model”: Berenson challenges the traditional step-by-step teaching that places scriptwriting and directing before financial and market considerations.
The Market-First Approach
Film Courage: Can you explain how the market dictates the projects that you want to develop?
Shaked Berenson, Producer/Filmmaker: For us it’s almost always start with the market.
Start with what’s the need of the market and where the project is going to live and then going backwards.
We tend to not just kind of like, Oh, it’ll be fun to do X, right?
And then just kind of write.
Financial Sustainability and End Goals
We need to know where it’s going to be because again, we’re doing it for a living, right?
We need to pay the salaries and we need to know that there is an end goal.
The Philosophy of Reverse Engineering
I always say that the projects are back engineered.
They start with Z-to-A.
The Conventional Linear Model (Step-by-Step)
I think that there is this sense that they teach, I don’t know where they teach it, but that the film business is like a step-by-step, right.
It’s like you first:
-Write a script.
-Then you find some friend to direct it.
-Then you find a producer.
-Then you look for money.
-Then you make it.
-Then you go to the festivals.
-Then in the festivals you’re going to have a producer rep and the producer rep is going to find the sales agent.
-The sales agent…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
About:
Shaked Berenson has marketed, sold, and released over 1,000 films and television series. As a Board Member at the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA™) and a public speaker, Shaked has been a vocal advocate for independent filmmakers and for shortening the content distribution supply chain.
Shaked started his career as a coder, paying for his UCLA education by designing database architecture and running several e-commerce sites. His rare background in both tech and the film business allowed him to bridge creativity and analytics and design a tool that truly leverages both.
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