Preparing the Product for Market
The producer works closely with the ancillary groups, including consumer products, publicity, and promotions to find the best approach to marketing the final product and developing merchandise. To do this, the producer should be proactive in working with these groups to help them create strategies and campaigns to best sell the finished project/products. Some key points to consider when putting a campaign together include; What is the target audience? What is the most suitable air date/release date? What kind of promotional partners are best suited to the project? Does the property have the potential to attract tie-ins with large retail or food chains? Who will be talking to the press? Are there celebrities attached who will endorse the show?
As the production progresses, it is vital to keep the aforementioned groups updated on new artwork and completed scenes. These materials are used to help sell the property to potential promotional partners and to create merchandise. When the properties' campaign strategy has been determined, the producer and the director's input on advertising tools such as art for posters or footage for trailer and teaser is critical as they as so familiar with the property. Additionally, in terms of merchandising, the Producer and Director provide materials and review sample production such as toy prototypes for comments.
Test Screenings
For features, there are usually a few test screenings scheduled. The purpose of screenings is to get feedback from a targeted audience about the story and character arcs, for example. In the case of a comedy, it is also important to check that the humor is playing to the audience. The first screening usually takes place after rough animation has been completed and enough final color scenes have been cut in to give the audience a sense of the picture's look. Additional test screenings are set up prior to locking picture to allow for revisions, which can include adding and deleting scenes. Since the average audience is not used to seeing a film in progress, it is important to add temporary music and sound effects to the voice track. This process is referred to as a temp dub. There may be other types of screenings, referred to as presentations, which are set up for marketing and promotion of the movie.
Consumer Products
It is not uncommon for the project's character designs and color treatment, for example, to be influenced by the needs of consumer products. Since this is the case, producers will often find themselves having to bridge the gap between the director's creative desires and the consumer product's commercial goals. This difficult position must be handled delicately so that all parties are satisfied. On a feature that I (Zahra) associate produced, the protagonist's hair was first long and then cut short. The two hairstyles were designed and approved for production. In the story, the character was very eager to show that she could take on a man's world, and in an important scene, she cut off her long hair as a symbolic gesture to prove herself a worthy warrior. This story point did not work for consumer products and had to be changed. Consumer products pointed out to us that "hair play" was essential to the sale of dolls. In other words, unless the doll had long hair that the child could play with, it would be unlikely that it would sell very well. We were therefore required to revise the story and keep the hair long throughout the show. The director was perplexed by this request. The producer had to do quite a bit of cajoling before the story could be revised. It is never easy to allow commerce to overrule the artistic vision, but both the producer and the director ultimately knew that they had to make certain compromises in order to get the necessary support for the project's overall marketing, promotion, and merchandising. Chances are that the director's last priority is the toy line. Yet it is up to the producer to find a means to have art and commerce coexist...
...continued in Producing Animation, Chapter 9: Production and Chapter 10: Post Production.
