Hollywood Report: Think Strategically
February 13, 2009
At American Film Institute (AFI) this week my business partner and I spoke on a panel about representation, and I thought it would be beneficial to the FilmBlogger community to share the three major points the panel discussed:
Point 1:
Be smart. Think strategically. If you are a director looking to launch his/her career, does it make more sense to first direct a feature or a short? As representation, we’d rather watch a short feature than a 40-minute short. First, it give us a much better idea of your skills, voice and creative vision as a director. Second, there is also a lot more potential to create buzz of a great indie feature than a great short.
Also, it is much much easier for a director to get a second feature off a first feature than to get a first feature off a short. Additionally, with a feature, even if it is really low budget, there are actually distribution possibilities, so you could even find commercial success with your first feature!
Think about the facts: BLAIR WITCH cost only $60,000 to make, ran 86 minutes, and grossed $240 million! OPEN WATER cost $130,000, ran 81 minutes, and grossed $40 million. THE PUFFY CHAIR cost $15,000, ran 85 minutes, and
launched the careers of the directors Jay and Mark Duplass.
If you are going to spend a lot of money on a short, for the same money you may be able to make an 88-minute feature and it will be much more beneficial for you career.
Point 2:
You have to love this business and want to do it more than anything in the world. This business is hard and crazy and disappointing and will break your heart a lot. Thus you have to do it because you love it and because there is nothing else in the world you want to do.
Plus this business is a 24/7 business. No matter what you are doing, you are constantly working trying to further your career. If you are a writer and haven’t made it yet — you still have to find the time to earn a living, write and still go
out at night and network. If you are an executive trying to find the next emerging writer, you somehow have to find the time to work a 12-hour day plus go out at night to network, and then wake up in the wee hours of the morning to
finish reading all the scripts you told your boss you were going to read.
In fact, what we tell potential clients is that we want people whose only goal is to work in this industry and they would be homeless bums on the street if they didn’t do this. And we want clients who are passionate about this business and who are going to work 24/7 just like we do.
If you could be happy doing anything else in the world, my advice is to run towards that!
Point 3:
Everything is subjective. Everyone has different tastes, which is what makes entertainment so interesting, diverse and fun. What one person might love, another person might not respond to at all — and that’s okay. In fact, I loved STEP UP 2 but couldn’t get through THERE WILL BE BLOOD. While most people would think it’s blasphemy to say this, it is simply a matter of what I respond to. By the same token, I never take on projects or people that I just don’t respond to, no matter how talented they are because I know that ultimately, I am not the right person for them.
And you should take this lesson to heart because you are going to have a lot of people pass on you or your project. But if you have a really good piece of material, do not get discouraged — it just means that you have to find the right person who sees the same vision you do. And if you meet someone who wants to work with you but doesn’t see you or your project the same way you do, then that person isn’t the right person for you or the project.
Never try to fit a square peg into a round hole. No matter how much you push, this will never work.
Three Myth Busters for the 2009 Television Season
February 6, 2009
Since my first blog post coincides with the insanity of the first real television season in two years (last year’s got derailed by the strike), I thought it would be a great opportunity to bust the three biggest myths of this year’s tv season:
2009 TV SEASON MYTH BUSTER # 1
“Television buying is year round.”
As much as every network says this, this is simply not true. For scripted drama and comedy, networks still are buying in “seasons.” And although I am sure networks will happily hear pitches and read scripts all year, it seems that they like to announce all their pick-ups at once to maximize the publicity. Thus it looks like the ingrained ritual of television seasons
will probably be here for a while.
2009 TV SEASON MYTH BUSTER # 2
“Networks are looking for a half-hour multi-cam family comedy.”
I think this myth started with good intentions. Executives finally realized that there are no family comedies on tv at the moment even though the family sitcom is the genre that consistently does very well (ROSEANNE, THE COSBY SHOW, HOME IMPROVEMENT, FULL HOUSE, MARRIED WITH CHILDREN – the list goes on and on). In fact, I believe that the reason American Idol consistently gets gangbuster numbers is because it is the only prime-time network family show currently on air.
However, networks aren’t actually buying any multi-cam family comedies. All the producers I have talked to in the past week have reiterated that, even though they have brought many a family sitcom project to the networks, the networks have passed on all of them.
In fact, one producer I spoke to said that the Sr. VP of programming at NBC loved their family sitcom script and wanted to pick it up but the new “branding people” at NBC told the Sr. VP this was not NBC’s brand and thus NBC couldn’t pick up the show. (What, funny isn’t NBC’s brand?)
2009 TV SEASON MYTH BUSTER # 3
“Networks are still buying serialized shows.”
Really this could be the biggest lie of the three. Not only do networks not want serialized shows but even cable networks want less and less to do with them. Think about it this way: There has not been a single successful serialized show on networks since the heyday of LOST, DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES and 24 (and the audience numbers for these shows have been going down drastically in the later seasons). In fact, even cable networks have shied away from serialized shows.
USA, TNT, TBS, and BRAVO quickly caught on to the fact that people are too tired, overworked, overstressed — you name it — to remember a show week to week. Instead, people want to watch shows that they don’t have to worry about missing an episode and not being able to follow what is going on.
Only when cable networks began programming procedural shows did their audience numbers grow exponentially. Indeed, look at the phenomenal success of THE CLOSER, MONK, BURN NOTICE, and TOP CHEF to see what I mean.
In fact, we had a client’s pilot that Fox bought that Fox executives swore up and down they wanted to “keep it serialized but just add procedural elements.” But what really happened is that during the “network notes process” they turned it into a pure procedural and the script lost a lot of what made it special in the first place.
So where does this leave you if you are a tv writer?
Well, you can spend your whole life trying to figure out what networks want and drive yourself crazy in the process. Because, to be honest, nobody knows anything about this business.
The best thing you can do is write something that is in your voice. Something that you love, that you are passionate about, and that showcases your unique POV in the best possible light.
And, yes, if you want to give yourself a leg up, write a procedural pilot — because you have more outlets to sell it.
But if it is a choice between a mediocre procedural and a fantastic serialized show — write the serialized show. Even if it doesn’t sell it may get you an agent or create buzz or get shown around town.
The most important thing is to have a piece of material that you are proud of and that you feel best represents you as a writer. For more honest answers for everything Entertainment — check out my site www.ShowMeTheScreenplay.com
THE MANAGER
February 5, 2009
Rachel Miller launched Tom Sawyer Entertainment in February 2006 to manage the careers of writers and directors of feature films and television. Since launching, Tom Sawyer Entertainment has expanded its roster to include animation, digital media, humor books and comic book talent. Her clients include writers and directors on THE DAILY SHOW, THE SIMPSONS, and FRANK TV, along with comic book company Bloodfire Studios.
Rachel graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts before returning to her hometown of Los Angeles to pay her dues by working at Endeavor Talent Agency, Handprint Entertainment and Red Wagon Entertainment.
She recently launched ShowMeTheScreenplay.com to help emerging creative talent by giving them honest answers about everything Entertainment.
