In the production arena, there’s one sure-fire way to make sure your movie actually gets screened, and that is, Know Your Audience!

Director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) declared on May 28th, 2010 that he wouldn’t release the official trailer for the Scott Pilgrim vs The World film until the Facebook page received over 100,000 fans. Within three days of posting this on both Twitter and Facebook, he had his audience eating out of the palm of his hand and the trailer was released.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World is a much loved comic book series written by Brian Lee O’Malley which has been published in instalments since 2004, with the 6th and final chapter to be released in June of this year.

The series is about 23-year-old Canadian Scott Pilgrim, a slacker and a hero, who lives  in Toronto and plays bass in the band “Sex Bob-Omb”. He falls in love with American delivery girl Ramona V. Flowers, but must defeat her seven “evil exes” in order to date her. Many fans love the series because of its countless references to video game culture from decades passed.

The film version of the comic book series went into production in early 2009 with the lovable Michael Cera in the title role. Since production began, Social Media outlets had been engaged, including a Facebook page, Twitter profile, dedicated Blog and YouTube account to keep fans of the series up to speed on the movie production/post production pipeline.

Banking on social media was a smart move, considering most online users fall in the age bracket of 18-34, which encompasses both the average gamer and those most familiar with Cera from his Arrested Development, Juno and Superbad roles.

In the world of film production it’s also a pat on the back to know there’s a dedicated following to your film, and over 120,000 currently listed fans is no small feat! Average post interactions on Facebook alone look to frequently be over 1000 which is enviable for any brand, showing that there is a lot of active engagement with the film’s online community. But even better must be the dollar signs in the studios eyes as they have probably realised the amount they will have saved from this simple, targeted marketing ploy.