Choosing The Right Film Concept (And Why Most Filmmakers Get It Wrong)

So many indie filmmakers begin their journey with a passion project—or a story they’ve always wanted to tell. But if you want your film to reach an audience and have commercial success, you need to start somewhere else.

In this episode of Indie Filmmaking: Truth & Reality, Jeff Deverett makes the case for starting with your audience, not your script. Before you write a single page, he challenges you to ask: Who will this movie be for? Can I reach them? And will they actually want to pay to watch it?

Jeff shares practical frameworks, like the “100-seat challenge,” and a real-world case study from his own film Full Out, to show how identifying a clear audience first can help you build a film concept that’s not only creatively satisfying—but also commercially viable.

This episode is about strategy, not sacrifice. It’s about building a career, not just chasing a dream.


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🧠 Topics Covered

00:00 The most overlooked secret to film success
 01:07 Why you must identify your audience before writing a script
 03:00 Financial success is tied to knowing who will pay to watch your movie
 04:00 Don’t just make a movie—create a product people want
 05:00 A coffee shop analogy: why product isn't everything
 08:00 Jeff’s “100-seat challenge” to help define your audience
 10:00 The danger of targeting the “everybody audience”
 12:00 The difference between distribution and marketing
 14:00 Why “figuring out the audience later” never works
 15:00 How to partner with the right marketing minds
 17:00 The myth of the autobiographical indie hit
 20:00 Case Study: Full Out and targeting the Olympic gymnastics crowd
 24:00 Building marketing into your concept from the start
 26:00 Success without compromise: making art and making money
 28:00 Final thought: Start with the audience. Build from there.
⭐️ Want help developing a concept that sells?

 📧 Reach out directly to Jeff: [e-mail]