Ipsos OTX to Assess Potential of Scripts

In a move sure to delight creative purists, entertainment research specialist Ipsos OTX MediaCT has opened a 'Script Evaluation Division' within its Worldwide Motion Picture Group, to assess the potential playability and marketability of films at the script stage.

The Group offers research services covering all aspects of a film's lifecycle - from pre-production through to release and beyond. Its new division will evaluate a script's potential for success by implementing an analysis with includes evaluation, playability, marketability and quantitative validation.

During the evaluation process, a genre and/or sub-genre is identified for a film's script, historical elements from successful films within the genre are noted, demographic target audiences are assessed, and a box-office range for comparable films is provided.

The script is then analyzed for its playability, where elements contained within it are compared to those in similar-genre films.

In the marketability state, the team examines the script, including the themes the core audience historically responds to within the genre. From this, they will design strategies to position and communicate the film's messages.

During the final quantitative validation stage, the script is tested among 1,500 nationally representative moviegoers to gauge their interest in it being released. The results of the concept test are then compared to Ipsos OTX's normative data, comprised of hundreds of concept tests conducted each year.

'There is a difference between a film that one wants to make at a price, financed through foreign sales and planned for a platform release that involves very little risk, versus a movie that would need a strong P&A commitment to recoup its negative cost,' explains Vincent Bruzzese, President, Worldwide Motion Picture Group. 'We understand this and take the context of the request into account with each project.'

Web site: www.otxresearch.com .