More tracking board questions

[Copywriter2]

My friend has a small-time manager (relatively new in the business) who is going wide to about 40 production companies next week with one of his screenplays. No studios will be involved at this point in terms of submissions. One question is whether or not the project might still be tracked on the tracking boards -- seeing that the manager is not well known in the industry. Is it the projects repped by the bigger agencies/managers that receive most of the buzz?
Is it the development execs/readers who initiate the buzz on the tracking boards after they read a project and comment on it? Could someone in the know please elaborate how the process works? Thanks.

[santino2699]

Copywriter,

I had a script that actually went to big studios and was never even tracked. I would assume that it would need some sort of heat (or a really bad stink) to even first show up on the tracking board.

Course, Poison Ivy is the tracking board expert here, I'd wait till she chimes in for the straight dope.

But for your friend's sake, let's hope that one of those production companies wants to shepherd the project so that when it is brought to an agency it's packaged with a director or actor by then and it's more appealing and no one will care what was said about it on some tracking board.

S

[toakel]

i see specs on tracking board from both small and big managers/agents...

[georgelondon]

Toakel do you know how they work? Who runs them etc?...

GL

[toakel]

most tracking boards are simply a group of executives or assistants forming a message board where they can share information. ie... this spec from this agent with this logline goes out this week. some will even be a part of a couple of different groups to make sure they're in the know... there is not really a way to join one unless invited by the group or a person in it, and they would want to know that you worked at a prodco/studio, etc, and could contribute.

[PoisonIvy]

Anything can be tracked if a person who sees the script belongs to a group. There are thousands of them and they are very informal, so word gets around really fast.

[BROUGHCUT]

My friend has a small-time manager (relatively new in the business) who is going wide to about 40

WHOA. I think your friend needs to have a chat with manager to discuss. Forty companies is A LOT -- beyond the pale, in my opinion, everything considered.

One question is whether or not the project might still be tracked on the tracking boards -- seeing that the manager is not well known in the industry.

No point going out wide to companies who aren't waiting for the script. Is the manager well-known enough to get 40 simultaneous reads? If so, the script will be on the boards before it leaves the manager's office--one of their main purposes is to keep members appraised of going-out dates--before the project, or the passes, in this case (if everyone has a copy there's not much else to discuss), is tracked proper.

Has to be said, tracking boards present more of a problem to managers and agents at times when they're actually trying to keep some semblance of a grip on their client's material.

[TDWoj]

Hmm... so what you're saying is a script arrives at one place, gets passed, and all the member has to do is mention it on the tracking board, something like, "just got ABC by Xyz, and passed on it." "It just arrived here - should I bother reading it?" "No." - and that would pretty much be the end of the script being read by any of the other 38 Xyz's manager sent it out to?

[PoisonIvy]

Well, it'll still be covered. Everything gets covered. It just won't get as much attention from the exec. Unless this is something they are looking for.