Creative exec -- HELP!

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  • Creative exec -- HELP!

    I hope someone can help me out with this--

    1) What is the best way to attract Known talent (Michelle Rodriguez / Sarah Polley / etc) if I have financing for my movie ($3.000.000). Call her reps from my unknown Prod Co or Get an agency involved with the film and let them do the work?


    2) When dealing with an agency, if I get a producer's rep for my film and the agency makes a distribuition deal for me -- do they take 1% of the gross plus 10% from the producers rep or just one of them comes into play? How does it work?


    3) When is best to get a producer's rep... at the beginning stages of the film or should one get a producer's rep when the film is completed?

    thanks for your help. hope my questions make sense.

    G--

  • #2
    Re: Creative exec -- HELP!

    1) if you have financing, then you should hire a casting agent and they can get it to whoever you want by making an offer with the submission

    2) I have no idea, but if I were you and I had financing, I'd hire a lawyer to answer that question, not ask a message board

    3) this is a guess - if you want to pre-sell your movie, then obviously you need them to come on ASAP, but if you already have the money and want to hold out, or at least perhaps in key territories, then you don't need one right away, but I'd guess that getting one sooner rather than later is best in terms of planning your strategy.

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    • #3
      Re: Creative exec -- HELP!

      Originally posted by gs1979 View Post
      I hope someone can help me out with this--

      1) What is the best way to attract Known talent (Michelle Rodriguez / Sarah Polley / etc) if I have financing for my movie ($3.000.000). Call her reps from my unknown Prod Co or Get an agency involved with the film and let them do the work?


      2) When dealing with an agency, if I get a producer's rep for my film and the agency makes a distribuition deal for me -- do they take 1% of the gross plus 10% from the producers rep or just one of them comes into play? How does it work?


      3) When is best to get a producer's rep... at the beginning stages of the film or should one get a producer's rep when the film is completed?

      thanks for your help. hope my questions make sense.

      G--
      1) If you have the financing and have a production company behind you should have no problem getting a read from talent. What happens after the read is where the story will sell itself. If you have any problems pm me.

      2) I don't know the answer to this. My educated guess is it should all be clearly stated in your contract with the Producer's rep.

      3) Bringing on a producer's rep has its positives and negatives. The negative is the retention fee whether it sells or not. The positive is, if you don't have experience, good legal councel or contacts in negotiating deals, they would be a good choice.

      Also, talking about budget. If you take a look at how much indie filmmakers spend on travel and lodging at film festivals, you may come out even. A film rep does a lot of the leg work.

      Hope this helps. I know there will be others with more insightful comments as well.
      Never mistake motion for action. ~Ernest Hemingway

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      • #4
        Re: Creative exec -- HELP!

        I realize I didn't answer your original question on three.

        If you have unknown talent and are a small unknown production company, I would suggest waiting to bring on the Producer's rep. Your salvation will be a great story, which we'll assume you have, and a quality production.
        Never mistake motion for action. ~Ernest Hemingway

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        • #5
          Re: Creative exec -- HELP!

          In spite of the bad films he makes, Uwe Boll does something pretty smart in terms of casting. He looks at what actors have holes in there schedule and then offers them a lowball price to be in his movie, if they have nothing going on during the time of the shoot they’ll be more likely to take less money just to be working… according to him…

          Hey he had Michael Madsen, Michelle Rodriguez, Billy Zane and Ben Kingsley in Bloodrayne. Bad movie but that's a hell of a cast for a low budget B-movie about vampies from a director known for god-awful crap.

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          • #6
            Re: Creative exec -- HELP!

            Just throwing this out there...any chance of finding a casting assistant who would work cheap or on spec? Somebody who knows the drill when creating offers and sending them out, who is also looking for a credit? I can't imagine it's any different than anybody else trying to break into any area of the biz.

            I only bring it up because I have friends who've worked in casting as assistants and I'm sure a lot of people in their situations would want to jump on a chance to move up in the world. And despite being low-level, they may have some valuable experience in making offers.

            Ele...

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            • #7
              Re: Creative exec -- HELP!

              Thanks so much for all your help. Hopefully everything will work out.


              G--

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              • #8
                Re: Creative exec -- HELP!

                Ask the same question here:

                http://www.thefilmlaw.com/cgi-bin/board.cgi

                See this recent response from Greg, who is a producer's rep and ent. lawyer:

                Technically, an offer means if its accepted there is a binding contract. However, despite the way the industry treats these offers, because the offer probably does not contain all material terms, its not a complete contract as far as legal enforcement is concerned. Then again, this depends on lots of facts and circumstances. Most agencies are looking for a real, pay or play, offer before reading the script, if the offer is coming from someone they are not familiar with. To be safe on your offer, make the offer subject to a satisfactory creative meeting between the actor and the director, availability of the other lead actors, and if you must, closing of your financing or the completion bond etc. As for finding out what the actor typically earns on other indie films, as opposed to studio level, which can be two different rates, you really have to ask around. Us lawyers tend to contact business affairs at the studios or other lawyers who worked on films that used the actor to find out their “quotes”. Don’t believe the quotes from the agent. I had one recently that told me the actor’s quote was $2 mil. I said, lets not talk about what he earned 20 years ago, what has he earned in the last three years. Then it was only $750,000. In either event, you don’t always have to pay top rate. I have done films where we paid the actor $150,000 or less when they normally make $4 or $5 million per film. We knew the actor would find the material interesting and want to take a risk. Some actors are known for making millions on studio films but hundreds of thousands on indie films.
                Blog: http://writinglounge.blogspot.com
                Email: kidcharlemagne108[at]yahoo[dot]co[uk]

                "What is your greatest ambition? To become immortal and then die." - Breathless

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                • #9
                  Re: Creative exec -- HELP!

                  Regarding the costs to submit to fests, a good friend spent nearly 50k on epk, postage, fees etc last fall. Granted they didn't really target anyone specifically (their project is kinda out there so it didn't have a clear niche). And that's before travel etc. So be mindful of that.

                  Good luck and congrats on the 3 million...that's awesome.
                  Cesahr
                  www.Baggagethefilm.com
                  "I could be wrong, and I probably am."

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                  • #10
                    Re: Creative exec -- HELP!

                    Got this email today re. this company who submit to film fests for you - not sure what their costs are though:

                    http://www.infestation.com.au/services.php
                    Blog: http://writinglounge.blogspot.com
                    Email: kidcharlemagne108[at]yahoo[dot]co[uk]

                    "What is your greatest ambition? To become immortal and then die." - Breathless

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                    • #11
                      Re: Creative exec -- HELP!

                      Thanks once again... you've all been extremely helpful.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Creative exec -- HELP!

                        If you walk into an agency with the checkbook in your hand, they tend to be more open. I'd just call her agent, let them know you have the financing, and drop an offer to them.

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                        • #13
                          Re: Creative exec -- HELP!

                          Actually, I suggest FIRST hiring a good, FAST, KEY GRIP and BOOK HIM with a $5,000 advance. The budget is sucked-up by slow moving crew and the crew does not move faster than your KEY GRIP does.

                          Then, cast your MID-SIZE roles:

                          Hit on someone who maybe in a BIT PART from another recent film and seeking a break. Once you have the whole cast done with others that are reputable ... then you can contact your MAINS and tell them who is involved.

                          Be tricky ... cast people Sarah has worked with before.
                          You get MORE CHANCE at her if there are alot of CANADIAN actors cast from work she's done years before in Canada and you can reunite them.

                          If your story is good, contact her agent directly and ask her if she's interested in the part. If she's NOT ... there are 100 Sarah Polley's wating to be discovered and who will do ANYTHING for a part in your movie.

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                          • #14
                            Re: Creative exec -- HELP!

                            Actually, I suggest FIRST hiring a good, FAST, KEY GRIP and BOOK HIM with a $5,000 advance. The budget is sucked-up by slow moving crew and the crew does not move faster than your KEY GRIP does.
                            This is the last thing you need to think about at this stage of the game.

                            When you have a shoot schedule (which could be pushed 10 times based on your talent commitments when you finally have them) your DP will bring a key grip they've worked with/heard good things before.

                            Hit on someone who maybe in a BIT PART from another recent film and seeking a break. Once you have the whole cast done with others that are reputable ... then you can contact your MAINS and tell them who is involved.
                            Don't waste time doing this. It won't help you with your leads.

                            When you've cast your leads and have a firm shoot schedule based on their availabilities, your casting agent can help with bit part actors that are available within your shoot window.

                            It might be very worth your time to bring on a producing partner with decent credits, contacts (including a great casting agent) and experience. If you already have the money, they can make your life a million times easier, as you will theirs by bringing in the script/$$. Get someone with knowledge you don't have. The money is a huge part of the battle--now it's the experience/contacts that you need to get your money well spent.

                            Good luck and congrats!
                            https://actbreakdown.com

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                            • #15
                              Wow

                              There is some unbelievably bad advice in this thread. Looks like many months have passed since you posted the original thread - hope you got the project going.

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