I've been thinking for a while about a post directed toward fellow pros with an eye toward talking through some of the challenges we face. It also seemed like a good way to articulate those challenges to others who intend to become pros.
So.
You've sold the script. You've signed with the Big 5 agent. Your work is known to the point where people you don't know tell you they are "fans". You are in the first sweet wave of heat where you are comparatively cheap (around 100 or 150K per script) and people want to be in business with you.
How many do we know who have hit that level and then stagnated, and why? Let's assume for the sake of discussion that we are past the "desperate first foot in the door" job, which many must take at the beginning just to pay bills and establish some kind of credibility. This is more like the first formal decision about the newly blossoming career. This is the moment where careers are made or broken.
CHOOSING ASSIGNMENTS
The most important task an emerging pro faces is the task of choosing your first assignment. Note I use the word "choose" because too often we land in the middle of something and we find our assignments choosing us instead of us choosing them.
I know a F.O.B. Pro (Boog will like that term - and in fact, he IS one I believe) who wanted to talk to me about his recent successes. He had sold a pitch to an A list director and was very popular. He signed with an agent and then decided he wanted to turn his novel into a television show. I could hear the frothing excitement in his voice. That familiar grandiosity. I heard it in my own voice when the world first started paying attention to me.
The phenomenon of becoming the Flavor of the Month in Hollywood is so intoxicating that it is impossible to remember that it is a FAD that fades with time - now matter WHO you are. As time passes, familiarity can breed contempt. There will always be the fascination with the new, young writer and they are always coming like Kamikaze planes from the sky.
BEING THE LED INSTEAD OF THE LEADER
As with anything, if you let circumstances, convenience and flattery dictate your decisions, you will wind up rudderless, floating along making money with a career that has no direction, no guiding mission. When the first wave of heat hits, it might be a big sale, it might be a small movie that goes into production, it might be a festifval movie that gets some attention. Well and good. But be sure before sitting down with these peole whose affirmation you have craved for many years that you know what you want from them - because if you aren't clear on it, they will rush to fill that gap with their own strong personalities and agendas. If you don't develop a plan and stay with it, you will encounter major problems down the road.
Typically what happens is the first offer comes. A producer with a deal has a book they'd love you to adapt; a mediocre director (let's say - pure example - Gary Fleder) is interested in directing your script; a slightly out of vogue actor wants to play the lead (let's say - again, example - David Duchovny or Michael Keaton) - your first instinct is: Oh my God! These people are...famous! They want to have coffee with me! They want to work with me! The simple shock of it is enough to just roll with whatever agenda comes at you. But step back for a moment.
Maybe Fleder and Duchovny were just the first to surface. Maybe this producer and this book are not the most prestigious, artistically attractive project you could get. As my agent says "it's great to be the belle of the ball, but it hurts when you get knocked up".
Because once you make that first commitment, in a sense, your heat begins to wane. Hollywood is most fanatically interested in projects or people in flux. The longer you wait to commit to your first project, the more heat will build. The more players YOU pass on (meaning that you tactfully inform Duchovny's people through your agent that you are at the beginning stages of your process and can't commit right now), the more interest builds. This process should be milked AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. On the other hand, if you are abrasive and playing the role of the prima donna, that will get old fast as well.
Watch the Troy Duffy documentary "Overnight" for an object lesson in what NOT to do when you catch the first wave of heat. He overexposed and overextended himself and alienated everybody else. The first rule of Hollywood is: civility is a virtue. Treat every person you meet with respect. The assistant getting you a water today could be the executive with the book you want tomorrow. Billy Friedkin treated Michael Eisner and Barry Diller like absolute @#%$ when they were lower level execs and paid a stiff price for it later. Civil, but assertive.
Part of what you want your agent to do for you is help you honestly gauge where the town is on you. A good agent will be honest about when to strike and when to lay off. If your agent is encouraging you to jump at the first offer you get - you have the wrong agent. Agents should be impressed by nothing. If Spielberg calls, their first thought should be: "this project and this circumstance and this price have to be right for my client or we are passing" instead of "I need to shove my client into this job that was a thirty second thought of Spielberg's to make myself better known to him". So keep your criteria simple. Your first CHOSEN job or commitment should meet the following criteria:
1. You know you can do a good job
2. You have a gut good feeling about the material or the collaborators; hopefully both
3. You are being paid a fair price (this should be determined by your agent and lawyer)
Firstly: you must KNOW you can do a good job. Proving yourself is a never ending process in Hollywood. The "three and out" syndrome is very common. A writer catches heat, books three jobs, is late and bad on each of them, word gets around, and they are permanently unemployable. There are very few second chances in Hollywood. Protect the career you have. Don't kill the goose.
The best way of knowing this is through your own take on the material. If your version of the movie thrills and moves you, then that's your gig. Even if it's LESS SEXY than something else on the table. When you find yourself saying "I really SHOULD take this other baseball job with George Clooney attached...but I'm not interested in baseball" then you MUST PASS. The day will come after the deal when it is going to be just you and the baseball material every day for six months. George Clooney will be nowhere in sight. If you can't make magic with that material, he will never materialize. Whereas if you are offered an offbeat graphic novel at a young but hungry production company that is dying to be in business with you, and you are CERTAIN you can make a killer script with it - that's the moment to jump.
NEGOTIATING
Nothing can be more nerve wracking than a negotiation. You are put into radio-free zone with your agent while they argue with the business affairs department of a studio. The hardest part about negotiating is that your negotiating partner KNOWS intuitively your bottom line. They can sense it, it's their special skill and talent. So if you are not truly, no @#%$, prepared to walk away if you don't get your price - you will never get that price. Whereas often if you ARE willing to lose the job - you will wind up getting the price you want. This formula does not always work. You and your agent must understand what your leverage is. If you have lucked into something that is "over your head" and are crazy about the long term prospects for the material or the collaborator, then there is a time to let the price be damned and make the deal happen quickly.
But as you start the gradual process of getting your price up (increasing your quote, the fee you are paid to write a script) you must make peace with the fatalistic quality of negotiating. You must pick a number that you and your agent think is aggressive but fair, know how far you are willing to come off of it, and stick to your guns. The other side will masterfully convince you that they will drop you if you persist in your demands. Occasionally they aren't bluffing. But often they are - and they do buckle.
You have the most leverage if you are challenged by a talent element the studio respects: a famous actor or director. Then you can fight for your deal and get a bump. What is a bump?
GETTING A BUMP
A "bump" is an increase in your standard fee, usually in increments of 25K to 50K per deal. That then becomes your new precedent and your new price. Bumps are vital to making financial progress in your career.
As a beginning writer, your first "writer for hire" deal will net you anywhere from Guild Minimum plus ten percent (about sixty grand) to 100 or even 150K. It all depends on your "heat".
Price is established by precedent. If you have talked someone into paying you 200K to write a script, then your agent will have a much easier time talking the next empoyer into paying you that amount. This paper trail is your value in the marketplace. That's why early decisions are important.
Business affairs people can be pressured into giving bumps under the following circumstances:
1. There is time pressure to do the deal: a project has internal momentum (motivated by above usually) and the executive desperately needs a writer. You are the one they want that's available. They'll pay a little extra to make it happen fast.
2. You have had some kind of career changing event in the interim such as: getting a script "set up" (not bought, set up - there's a difference). Between today and your previous precedent you landed a major actor and director who actually signed deals to make your film. This is a good argument for a significant bump. Good agents will milk this to get a bump on pre-production of a movie, a bump during production, a bump after production (all on different jobs of course) and a HUGE bump if the film is a success.
3. You are supported by a powerful presence, an actor or director the studio is anxious not to offend. Ridley Scott wants you hired quickly. He hears there are "problems with the writer's deal". If Ridley wants you, he will be annoyed that the studio is being cheap and time will play to your advantage. The studio will cave.
4. You are selling a pitch and you simply name a price and stick to your guns. Even if you don't have another offer on the table, if you have the strength to walk away, you can probably get another fifty thousand out of them just by being firm. Studios expect to pay extra for an original pitch, even if they are the only bidder. You should get a bump here.
5. If someone with money gets a deep, hard crush on you - if you are the only, only person they can imagine writing it, or if your take is so amazing they can't get it out of their heads - and you and your agent are smart enough to pick up on this -you can often get a significant bump.
The paradox of the bump is that the less you like the material, the more likely you are to get a bump on it. Because you are WILLING TO WALK AWAY.
I had an experience where a set of producers decided that I was literally their dream candidate for a project. I liked it but wasn't crazy about it. Initially we passed. But they knew I had expressed some interest. the guy called my agent and asked "what is it going to take to get this guy to do this?" At that point my agent checked with me: was I willing to let it go? did I like it enough to do it? the answer was that it was a Goldilocks deal: I liked the material enough to do the job, but was just detached enough that I was willing to walk away if the price wasn't right. My agent got me a 50K bump on that deal.
Another bump I got because a difficult to please actor picked me after being very finicky and the studio wanted to act quickly to please him.
Another bump I got was from selling an original pitch.
Yet another was from selling an original pitch with an A-list director attached and another A-list director attached to produce. That was a beautiful meeting. I could have told the studio president I wanted to do a nine hour incest movie and I still would have gotten the bump.
The most interesting bump I got was a four month negotiation where the producers were so furious at my agent and lawyer that they almost strangled each other. They were at an impasse over a small amount of money but I was told forcefully that because my movie was in pre-production, that it was not industry standard to pay me less than what they were asking on my behalf. And the producer just wouldn't budge saying that his deal didn't allow him "discretion". It so happened my lawyer knew the head of production at the studio in question. he asked him casually while discussing another matter if the producer DID have discretion over his funds to which the head of production replied "of course".
My lawyer then quoted the head of production, thus destroying the producer's negotiating position. The producer screamed at the head of production, who in his embarrassment agreed to have the studio cover the difference between what the we wanted and what the producer wanted to pay. There are many ways to skin a cat.
But be prepared to get punched in the gut. On occasion we have staked out positions and then had studios drop us like a bag of garbage. Know your leverage.
WALKING DOWN THE GARDEN PATH
When free lance writers book jobs, very often they have to chase/consider three, four or five jobs at a time to land the one they want. I have twice been in the position of chasing three jobs with the expectation of getting one, and then getting offered all three in one week. The problem here is that if you have gone into the studio on all three, and don't want to double book, you are going to leave some very hurt feelings in your wake.
Your agent must help you space and stall the meetings in order of your preference of gigs and your likelihood of getting them. It's like applying to college - you have your dream school your likely school and your safe school. The safe school people should be so hungry to be in business with you that they will tolerate your tentative decision making process. You go in on your dream job, pitch your heart out and hope. You then go into your likely job, the one that is the best fit - you'll probably get it and you like the material and collaborators enough. The trick then is to be just honest enough to have a reasonable "out" - which most often is "the other people made an offer first". This can also help (only if the other interest is real) in forcing an offer from a slow-moving employer. They will put the gears in motion just "not to lose" you.
The hoped for outcome are multiple suitors, one of whom you commit to, and the others whom you leave wanting more. I always call in person to pass on a job. People appreciate the call and they will be likely to carry that good feeling with them when the next project comes up. Also - it makes producers crazed with lust to hear the word "NO". Only makes them want you more next time, as long as you don't really @#%$ them or leave them hanging (for example, bailing on a deal after a verbal agreement has been negotiated but the contract not yet signed). That can leave a bad taste.
HOW TO MOVE FORWARD WHEN EVERYTHING AROUND YOU IS STILL
The key to getting to the A-list as defined by my agent is by getting a film made with your name on it that is EITHER a critical or commercial success. Then you enter the world of super-fees and production rewrites. But how to make that leap?
One of the biggest problems I've encountered is the incredible tightrope one must walk, the hurdles one must jump to get a film actually made in this town. Executives get fired, producers lose interest, actors and directors fall in love then bail to do something with a fatter paycheck: the disappointments are many and varied. There is a great problem in trying to get a presitge film made (my genre) whose basic costs are high because it is a period piece. I was a co-producer on the one film I did get produced, and take active roles in pushing my others. Proactivity is a must for a writer, and you'd be surprised how much you can help push a process along if you really set your mind to it.
1. Know what someone else doesn't
Contrary to popular opinion, Hollywood is NOT an all knowing UniMind. Often a simple piece of information: "Ed Norton is looking for a WWII project"..."Tom Cruise read my last script, liked it and knows my name - it's worth trying him"..."My friend's agent is on Adam Sandler's team, and apparently he is dying to work with our director"
My agent is on an A-list director's team. She got him very interested in a script of mine, but we had no actor. The producer had raised the money, but was a very busy ADD guy, and was more interested in his money makers than in my little film. I found out from a former colleague of his that an A-list actor had read my script and said he'd do it with the right director. My agent didn't know this. Once I told her, she informed the director, found out he liked the actor, and put them together. Now we may have a package. You must be the one keeping tabs on the "little strands", little leads that come and go with a script. Keep your agent and producer informed. They have a lot of things going on. With the best intentions, they can fail to put two and two together. It's your job to keep the information and momentum flowing.
NEXT: the current star based system of financing; who's considered a star and who isn't; and why to push your contemporary script over your sci-fi or period piece...
So.
You've sold the script. You've signed with the Big 5 agent. Your work is known to the point where people you don't know tell you they are "fans". You are in the first sweet wave of heat where you are comparatively cheap (around 100 or 150K per script) and people want to be in business with you.
How many do we know who have hit that level and then stagnated, and why? Let's assume for the sake of discussion that we are past the "desperate first foot in the door" job, which many must take at the beginning just to pay bills and establish some kind of credibility. This is more like the first formal decision about the newly blossoming career. This is the moment where careers are made or broken.
CHOOSING ASSIGNMENTS
The most important task an emerging pro faces is the task of choosing your first assignment. Note I use the word "choose" because too often we land in the middle of something and we find our assignments choosing us instead of us choosing them.
I know a F.O.B. Pro (Boog will like that term - and in fact, he IS one I believe) who wanted to talk to me about his recent successes. He had sold a pitch to an A list director and was very popular. He signed with an agent and then decided he wanted to turn his novel into a television show. I could hear the frothing excitement in his voice. That familiar grandiosity. I heard it in my own voice when the world first started paying attention to me.
The phenomenon of becoming the Flavor of the Month in Hollywood is so intoxicating that it is impossible to remember that it is a FAD that fades with time - now matter WHO you are. As time passes, familiarity can breed contempt. There will always be the fascination with the new, young writer and they are always coming like Kamikaze planes from the sky.
BEING THE LED INSTEAD OF THE LEADER
As with anything, if you let circumstances, convenience and flattery dictate your decisions, you will wind up rudderless, floating along making money with a career that has no direction, no guiding mission. When the first wave of heat hits, it might be a big sale, it might be a small movie that goes into production, it might be a festifval movie that gets some attention. Well and good. But be sure before sitting down with these peole whose affirmation you have craved for many years that you know what you want from them - because if you aren't clear on it, they will rush to fill that gap with their own strong personalities and agendas. If you don't develop a plan and stay with it, you will encounter major problems down the road.
Typically what happens is the first offer comes. A producer with a deal has a book they'd love you to adapt; a mediocre director (let's say - pure example - Gary Fleder) is interested in directing your script; a slightly out of vogue actor wants to play the lead (let's say - again, example - David Duchovny or Michael Keaton) - your first instinct is: Oh my God! These people are...famous! They want to have coffee with me! They want to work with me! The simple shock of it is enough to just roll with whatever agenda comes at you. But step back for a moment.
Maybe Fleder and Duchovny were just the first to surface. Maybe this producer and this book are not the most prestigious, artistically attractive project you could get. As my agent says "it's great to be the belle of the ball, but it hurts when you get knocked up".
Because once you make that first commitment, in a sense, your heat begins to wane. Hollywood is most fanatically interested in projects or people in flux. The longer you wait to commit to your first project, the more heat will build. The more players YOU pass on (meaning that you tactfully inform Duchovny's people through your agent that you are at the beginning stages of your process and can't commit right now), the more interest builds. This process should be milked AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. On the other hand, if you are abrasive and playing the role of the prima donna, that will get old fast as well.
Watch the Troy Duffy documentary "Overnight" for an object lesson in what NOT to do when you catch the first wave of heat. He overexposed and overextended himself and alienated everybody else. The first rule of Hollywood is: civility is a virtue. Treat every person you meet with respect. The assistant getting you a water today could be the executive with the book you want tomorrow. Billy Friedkin treated Michael Eisner and Barry Diller like absolute @#%$ when they were lower level execs and paid a stiff price for it later. Civil, but assertive.
Part of what you want your agent to do for you is help you honestly gauge where the town is on you. A good agent will be honest about when to strike and when to lay off. If your agent is encouraging you to jump at the first offer you get - you have the wrong agent. Agents should be impressed by nothing. If Spielberg calls, their first thought should be: "this project and this circumstance and this price have to be right for my client or we are passing" instead of "I need to shove my client into this job that was a thirty second thought of Spielberg's to make myself better known to him". So keep your criteria simple. Your first CHOSEN job or commitment should meet the following criteria:
1. You know you can do a good job
2. You have a gut good feeling about the material or the collaborators; hopefully both
3. You are being paid a fair price (this should be determined by your agent and lawyer)
Firstly: you must KNOW you can do a good job. Proving yourself is a never ending process in Hollywood. The "three and out" syndrome is very common. A writer catches heat, books three jobs, is late and bad on each of them, word gets around, and they are permanently unemployable. There are very few second chances in Hollywood. Protect the career you have. Don't kill the goose.
The best way of knowing this is through your own take on the material. If your version of the movie thrills and moves you, then that's your gig. Even if it's LESS SEXY than something else on the table. When you find yourself saying "I really SHOULD take this other baseball job with George Clooney attached...but I'm not interested in baseball" then you MUST PASS. The day will come after the deal when it is going to be just you and the baseball material every day for six months. George Clooney will be nowhere in sight. If you can't make magic with that material, he will never materialize. Whereas if you are offered an offbeat graphic novel at a young but hungry production company that is dying to be in business with you, and you are CERTAIN you can make a killer script with it - that's the moment to jump.
NEGOTIATING
Nothing can be more nerve wracking than a negotiation. You are put into radio-free zone with your agent while they argue with the business affairs department of a studio. The hardest part about negotiating is that your negotiating partner KNOWS intuitively your bottom line. They can sense it, it's their special skill and talent. So if you are not truly, no @#%$, prepared to walk away if you don't get your price - you will never get that price. Whereas often if you ARE willing to lose the job - you will wind up getting the price you want. This formula does not always work. You and your agent must understand what your leverage is. If you have lucked into something that is "over your head" and are crazy about the long term prospects for the material or the collaborator, then there is a time to let the price be damned and make the deal happen quickly.
But as you start the gradual process of getting your price up (increasing your quote, the fee you are paid to write a script) you must make peace with the fatalistic quality of negotiating. You must pick a number that you and your agent think is aggressive but fair, know how far you are willing to come off of it, and stick to your guns. The other side will masterfully convince you that they will drop you if you persist in your demands. Occasionally they aren't bluffing. But often they are - and they do buckle.
You have the most leverage if you are challenged by a talent element the studio respects: a famous actor or director. Then you can fight for your deal and get a bump. What is a bump?
GETTING A BUMP
A "bump" is an increase in your standard fee, usually in increments of 25K to 50K per deal. That then becomes your new precedent and your new price. Bumps are vital to making financial progress in your career.
As a beginning writer, your first "writer for hire" deal will net you anywhere from Guild Minimum plus ten percent (about sixty grand) to 100 or even 150K. It all depends on your "heat".
Price is established by precedent. If you have talked someone into paying you 200K to write a script, then your agent will have a much easier time talking the next empoyer into paying you that amount. This paper trail is your value in the marketplace. That's why early decisions are important.
Business affairs people can be pressured into giving bumps under the following circumstances:
1. There is time pressure to do the deal: a project has internal momentum (motivated by above usually) and the executive desperately needs a writer. You are the one they want that's available. They'll pay a little extra to make it happen fast.
2. You have had some kind of career changing event in the interim such as: getting a script "set up" (not bought, set up - there's a difference). Between today and your previous precedent you landed a major actor and director who actually signed deals to make your film. This is a good argument for a significant bump. Good agents will milk this to get a bump on pre-production of a movie, a bump during production, a bump after production (all on different jobs of course) and a HUGE bump if the film is a success.
3. You are supported by a powerful presence, an actor or director the studio is anxious not to offend. Ridley Scott wants you hired quickly. He hears there are "problems with the writer's deal". If Ridley wants you, he will be annoyed that the studio is being cheap and time will play to your advantage. The studio will cave.
4. You are selling a pitch and you simply name a price and stick to your guns. Even if you don't have another offer on the table, if you have the strength to walk away, you can probably get another fifty thousand out of them just by being firm. Studios expect to pay extra for an original pitch, even if they are the only bidder. You should get a bump here.
5. If someone with money gets a deep, hard crush on you - if you are the only, only person they can imagine writing it, or if your take is so amazing they can't get it out of their heads - and you and your agent are smart enough to pick up on this -you can often get a significant bump.
The paradox of the bump is that the less you like the material, the more likely you are to get a bump on it. Because you are WILLING TO WALK AWAY.
I had an experience where a set of producers decided that I was literally their dream candidate for a project. I liked it but wasn't crazy about it. Initially we passed. But they knew I had expressed some interest. the guy called my agent and asked "what is it going to take to get this guy to do this?" At that point my agent checked with me: was I willing to let it go? did I like it enough to do it? the answer was that it was a Goldilocks deal: I liked the material enough to do the job, but was just detached enough that I was willing to walk away if the price wasn't right. My agent got me a 50K bump on that deal.
Another bump I got because a difficult to please actor picked me after being very finicky and the studio wanted to act quickly to please him.
Another bump I got was from selling an original pitch.
Yet another was from selling an original pitch with an A-list director attached and another A-list director attached to produce. That was a beautiful meeting. I could have told the studio president I wanted to do a nine hour incest movie and I still would have gotten the bump.
The most interesting bump I got was a four month negotiation where the producers were so furious at my agent and lawyer that they almost strangled each other. They were at an impasse over a small amount of money but I was told forcefully that because my movie was in pre-production, that it was not industry standard to pay me less than what they were asking on my behalf. And the producer just wouldn't budge saying that his deal didn't allow him "discretion". It so happened my lawyer knew the head of production at the studio in question. he asked him casually while discussing another matter if the producer DID have discretion over his funds to which the head of production replied "of course".
My lawyer then quoted the head of production, thus destroying the producer's negotiating position. The producer screamed at the head of production, who in his embarrassment agreed to have the studio cover the difference between what the we wanted and what the producer wanted to pay. There are many ways to skin a cat.
But be prepared to get punched in the gut. On occasion we have staked out positions and then had studios drop us like a bag of garbage. Know your leverage.
WALKING DOWN THE GARDEN PATH
When free lance writers book jobs, very often they have to chase/consider three, four or five jobs at a time to land the one they want. I have twice been in the position of chasing three jobs with the expectation of getting one, and then getting offered all three in one week. The problem here is that if you have gone into the studio on all three, and don't want to double book, you are going to leave some very hurt feelings in your wake.
Your agent must help you space and stall the meetings in order of your preference of gigs and your likelihood of getting them. It's like applying to college - you have your dream school your likely school and your safe school. The safe school people should be so hungry to be in business with you that they will tolerate your tentative decision making process. You go in on your dream job, pitch your heart out and hope. You then go into your likely job, the one that is the best fit - you'll probably get it and you like the material and collaborators enough. The trick then is to be just honest enough to have a reasonable "out" - which most often is "the other people made an offer first". This can also help (only if the other interest is real) in forcing an offer from a slow-moving employer. They will put the gears in motion just "not to lose" you.
The hoped for outcome are multiple suitors, one of whom you commit to, and the others whom you leave wanting more. I always call in person to pass on a job. People appreciate the call and they will be likely to carry that good feeling with them when the next project comes up. Also - it makes producers crazed with lust to hear the word "NO". Only makes them want you more next time, as long as you don't really @#%$ them or leave them hanging (for example, bailing on a deal after a verbal agreement has been negotiated but the contract not yet signed). That can leave a bad taste.
HOW TO MOVE FORWARD WHEN EVERYTHING AROUND YOU IS STILL
The key to getting to the A-list as defined by my agent is by getting a film made with your name on it that is EITHER a critical or commercial success. Then you enter the world of super-fees and production rewrites. But how to make that leap?
One of the biggest problems I've encountered is the incredible tightrope one must walk, the hurdles one must jump to get a film actually made in this town. Executives get fired, producers lose interest, actors and directors fall in love then bail to do something with a fatter paycheck: the disappointments are many and varied. There is a great problem in trying to get a presitge film made (my genre) whose basic costs are high because it is a period piece. I was a co-producer on the one film I did get produced, and take active roles in pushing my others. Proactivity is a must for a writer, and you'd be surprised how much you can help push a process along if you really set your mind to it.
1. Know what someone else doesn't
Contrary to popular opinion, Hollywood is NOT an all knowing UniMind. Often a simple piece of information: "Ed Norton is looking for a WWII project"..."Tom Cruise read my last script, liked it and knows my name - it's worth trying him"..."My friend's agent is on Adam Sandler's team, and apparently he is dying to work with our director"
My agent is on an A-list director's team. She got him very interested in a script of mine, but we had no actor. The producer had raised the money, but was a very busy ADD guy, and was more interested in his money makers than in my little film. I found out from a former colleague of his that an A-list actor had read my script and said he'd do it with the right director. My agent didn't know this. Once I told her, she informed the director, found out he liked the actor, and put them together. Now we may have a package. You must be the one keeping tabs on the "little strands", little leads that come and go with a script. Keep your agent and producer informed. They have a lot of things going on. With the best intentions, they can fail to put two and two together. It's your job to keep the information and momentum flowing.
NEXT: the current star based system of financing; who's considered a star and who isn't; and why to push your contemporary script over your sci-fi or period piece...
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