Hitting the town?

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  • #31
    Re: Hitting the town?

    If you are 30 or under and unmarried and you know you want to do this then there's no reason not to go. No excuse, really. And you'll always wonder what if.

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    • #32
      Re: Hitting the town?

      Originally posted by cvolante View Post
      If you are 30 or under and unmarried and you know you want to do this then there's no reason not to go. No excuse, really. And you'll always wonder what if.
      This is true...

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      • #33
        Re: Hitting the town?

        Originally posted by cvolante View Post
        If you are 30 or under and unmarried and you know you want to do this then there's no reason not to go. No excuse, really. And you'll always wonder what if.
        Second the motion.
        “Nothing is what rocks dream about” ― Aristotle

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        • #34
          Re: Hitting the town?

          Originally posted by Ziltoid View Post
          In-any-case, given all this, I think it is time to start developing a "coming out strategy" so to speak, and after reading though a number of old threads, I come in hopes of some more of that excellent, personalized advice you all seem to have (hopefully I will be able to return the favour one day).
          Honestly, you sound waaay too much in a rush. You think you're ready to "come out" because you have "a very strong feature spec, a strong 1-hour drama spec, and a pretty decent, low-budget comedy spec."

          Well, guess what? Everyone thinks their stuff is "very strong" when starting out. I look back on the stuff I wrote two, three years ago that I thought was "very strong", and it almost makes me laugh now.

          I understand your desire not to wait longer than you have to. But it would be far more damaging to a long-term career to move faster than you should. So I think, as with all things in life, it would be good to find a balance. There's been a lot of good advice on here already, but if I were to add my two cents/my own summary, it would be:

          1) Get feedback from respected paid analysts. As has been mentioned, I would start with TitanCreed, because he offers really thorough feedback at a great price, and has development experience. After he tears your script apart and you make changes, get another set of eyes because one is not enough. At this point I'd suggest either ScriptGal or Screenplay Mechanic, who are highly recommended on here and will also give your script a tough read. You say you've already gotten coverage, but from whom? It's best to choose people vetted through word-of-mouth.

          I really don't recommend using the Black List for initial feedback for two reasons: a) It's not really meant to be a coverage/feedback service -- it's some brief notes meant to justify why or why not you stack up to the best in the business. And right now at such an early stage, you want as much detailed feedback as you can get (for as low a price as possible). b) As anyone here can tell you, scores on the site can sometimes (though not always) be outliers. So you may have managed to score a 7 with one person, and then buy a few more evals and end up with 4s and 5s. With each of those evals costing $50. You want to make sure your script is in as good a place as possible before plunking that down.

          2) Enter the Black List and contests. After your scripts have gotten to the point that they have received strong responses from paid analysts, then enter them in the Black List, when their chances of getting a decent score are more likely. But at the same time, also enter them in contests. You say it'll take "a year", but it's already February and results for most major contests are really just a few months away. I would enter them after you've gotten the strong feedback, but don't wait too late as it's good to take advantage of the low early deadline fees. As for contests, as I'm sure you know, Nicholl, PAGE, Austin, TrackingB, Tracking Board, and Final Draft are all respected and can send you into the stratosphere if you do really well. Don't shrug contests off, there are many examples of people who've made their careers through them.

          3) Query your script to managers and producers. I know you're not going to want to hear this, but I would hold off on querying until you've gotten some strong scores from the BL/contest placements. Why? Because it's hard enough to get a read request as it is. You greatly increase your chances if you can say you got an 8,9, or 10 on the BL or you made at least the quarterfinals of a respected contest.

          This will mean waiting awhile, but it's worth it. Once you query someone and they say "no", you can never do it with the same script again. At this point I would stick to managers and producers, because they are more open to newbies than agents. Also, I'd strongly consider using Virtual Pitchfest, as it has a large database of well known management/production companies, and it also offers several benefits, including a) People must get back to you within 5 days and b) They give you a specific reason for why they turned down the query, which gives you some useful insight. This compared to a regular e-mail query, where you're more likely to just get ignored.

          4) Move to L.A. only if it it makes sense. I know this is one of the more controversial topics on here, and I think it's because the answer largely depends. There's one reality -- being in L.A. puts you around people in the industry and helps you to form valuable connections, and can serve as a great source of inspiration. But there's another reality -- none of those things matter if you don't have a realistic means of supporting yourself while in the city. There's nothing sexy or cool about being a homeless (or frankly, even just starving) artist. If you really want to go there, it'd be really smart to line up some kind of job in advance, or research jobs that are insanely easy to get, while also having some savings to tide you over for a few.

          That said, beyond the need to be financially stable, you need to ask yourself if you're ready to make this move from a life standpoint. Any kind of move is big, and if you're going alone it means you won't have an immediate support network of family/friends/partners. And it may not seem like it now, but the emotional component matters, especially in a field that can be as stressful as this. So, you should strongly ask yourself if the benefits of moving to L.A. soon outweigh the disadvantages they'll bring. Only you can really know.

          Personally, I'd prefer to wait until I've gotten some traction with managers/producers in the city before going. And by traction, I mean more than a polite "That looks great! I'll be in touch!" I mean someone wanting to see more than one of your scripts and expressing an actual interest in your career. For me, that would really justify the commitment that a move entails. For some great insight on making this decision, I'd check out the words of Terry Rossio from this famous column:
          http://www.wordplayer.com/columns/wp33.I.Love.LA.html

          Best of luck in your endeavors!!
          Last edited by UpandComing; 01-29-2016, 09:52 AM.
          "I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.-- Peter De Vries

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          • #35
            Re: Hitting the town?

            Originally posted by TigerFang View Post
            Second the motion.
            Third. And there's no reason to think you can't do all the so-called normal things like working a job, meeting your SO, and raising a family, all while trying to break in. Lots of people do it. I met my wife and had kids here.

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            • #36
              Re: Hitting the town?

              Originally posted by cvolante View Post
              If you are 30 or under and unmarried and you know you want to do this then there's no reason not to go.
              But why the 30-or-under age limit? I've got two new hips, a biscuit tin full of viagra, and a drip-dry g-string. So why can't I go too?
              Know this: I'm a lazy amateur, so trust not a word what I write.
              "The ugly can be beautiful. The pretty, never." ~ Oscar Wilde

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              • #37
                Re: Hitting the town?

                Here is my take on the Move-to-LA thing:

                If you're focused solely on TV, it's pretty essential. To a degree. Mostly. My bro and I came out for staffing meetings last year and made a lot of headway (though I can't help but think we may have actually gotten staffed had we lived out there), but we while we didn't get the brass ring we did sell our own original pilot to The Weinstein Company when pitching the rest of the series in the room. Once you sell or option the pilot, the deal will stipulate (per WGA) that they have to fly you out and put you up for any work related to the show, to include pitching it to networks once the show is fully packaged. So, with that in mind I am in less of a hurry to move out there immediately. That said, it still ain't helping us in regards to staffing on other shows, which would be a fantastic way to make money in the meantime (that will go away if our own show sells as we will be locked into it to a degree).

                As for features, if you want to vie for ever-shrinking studio assignment work and write what William Friedkin calls "spandex movies," sure... move to LA. And I wish you luck. It's extremely hard out there for a pimp, and I know countless people who have moved to LA and made exactly ZERO headway as writers. ****, a lot of them don't even get any writing done because there is so much to do and so much distraction in LA and Southern Cali in general. So you might be better snowbound in Canada and writing your ass off through the dead of winter...

                And here's the real kicker. The game has been, and is, ever-changing. I think it is a tremendous help in this day and age to be a CONTENT CREATOR. Screenplays are, for various reasons, not quite viable content. They are blueprints to content. So you are arguably better off writing a novel (which you can sell film and TV rights to and still retain copyright, mind you) or creating a webseries (Fullscreen Entertainment, though branching into original content, has over 70,000 youtube channels that generate 6 billion hits - you think they are only interested in people in LA?), or making an indie feature on your iPhone like Sean Baker did with Tangerine.

                If you build it, you will come. To be just another writer meekly throwing your blueprints into the fray is not necessarily the best course of action these days, in my opinion. ****, in Canada you even still have a nationalized film fund, right? I would be trying to milk that thing and/or maybe find an up and coming US filmmaker who wants to option your script and set up a stateside LLC and then exploit Canadian tax incentives to shoot up your way, etc.

                My point is, in my experience (I say this as a WGA member who has written on assignment, sold a feature pitch and a TV pilot etc - all while not living in LA) that writing a screenplay (and only writing a screenplay) is not necessarily the best way to make headway in HW. No matter how good it is. Scripts also lend themselves to being **** on and picked apart and overdeveloped in ways you can barely imagine. Reading scripts is work for these people... you slave over it and go for all of the subtext and nuance your story deserves and demands and it's lost on them because they're either reading it while netflixing, eating Thai and checking Facebook Messenger, or simply reading a coverage report fro someone who was doing the same. But in ways a script, or a blueprint, never would, a novel, webseries, TV show, or indie film demands more attention and delivers more rewards in the way of respect and making yourself a marketable asset. ESPECIALLY if those products you've "content created" can make a little money or gain some accolades along the way.

                Or you can move to LA, get distracted as hell, work two jobs that barely afford you time to write because the cost of living is insanity, write scripts that get picked apart by distracted, disinterested readers and executives who got their jobs often through nepotism or frat connections or whatever and if you're lucky get hip pocketed or even fully repped by an agent who will roundly ignore you in favor of clients who are real earners, to only then be sent on water bottle tours of general meetings in which producers will offer you shitty old Atari 2600 game IP adaptations they want you to spec for free.

                Again, just my two centavos.

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                • #38
                  Re: Hitting the town?

                  I'm a big advocate that moving to LA is vital.

                  Even if it means getting a crappy job and having a lower standard of living than you'd have with a civilian job in a cheaper part of the country.

                  Being around other creative people who are doing this at a high level is a godsend. It helps you get better at your craft. It creates opportunities.

                  None of this has anything to do with getting rep or making a connection that leads to a sale - it's about putting yourself in a creative community who can push you, and help you understand what professional standards are.

                  That being said, if you're going to move here, be prepared to move here for a decade without meaningful professional success in screenwriting. Hey, if it happens faster for you, no harm, no foul - but make professional choices under the assumption that it will take you that long, at least.

                  I've seen a lot of people do the "well, I'm going to scuffle for a couple of years and then I'll make it," while that "couple of years" keeps getting extended, but the resume doesn't pick up meaningful entries, and there no sorts of other career development - and that's a tough row to hoe.

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                  • #39
                    Re: Hitting the town?

                    I think there are vibrant creative communities everywhere and if you look you will find them. So many good movies are coming out of places other than LA today. Technology has democratized the process, and allows people with talent and vision and perseverance to make incredible films outside of the system.

                    In LA it's very easy to get caught up in all of the BULLSHIT that surrounds this industry, which in and of itself is another form of distraction. Networking sideways with fellow writers so you can brag about small victories and bitch about reps, etc. Going to pointless meetings and lunches that exist solely to justify a development exec's job and expense account. Making little films with terrible actors who care more about fame than the craft, etc.

                    ****... Soderbergh went to West Virginia and cast a KFC manager as his lead in one of my favorite films. Who needs LA?

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                    • #40
                      Re: Hitting the town?

                      Originally posted by ihavebiglips View Post
                      ****... Soderbergh went to West Virginia and cast a KFC manager as his lead in one of my favorite films. Who needs LA?
                      "Bubble". Great movie.
                      "I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.-- Peter De Vries

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                      • #41
                        Re: Hitting the town?

                        You really have to figure out the logistics for yourself and not make the decision based on the advice of strangers on an internet forum.

                        For what it's worth, I was applying for assistant type work while not living in LA. I heard back from one production company who told me to let them know when I was in LA. So I moved here, got back in touch and got the job, with a little insistence.

                        It was an unpaid, full-time job though, with a long commute. I was in a position where I could afford to make that work. Are you?

                        Do you plan on finding industry related work? Or do you at least have a career you can easily relocate to LA with? Living here is expensive if you've got no savings and will have to work at Starbucks. You have a couch to sleep on while you find an apartment or do you need a hotel room? You gonna need a roommate? Answer all that stuff first. The apartment market here is fierce. Good places last about two days. So you need to be here to sign a lease for one and it might take you weeks to find a place you'll be happy signing a yearlong lease for.

                        There are advantages to being here. But the reality is most people who come out here fail. Even most people who "make it" don't earn enough to live solely on their writing/acting/directing checks. And if your only avenues to breaking in are things like competitions and querying, you probably want to think really hard about it, because you can do all those things from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. The likelihood that you're going to run into Scott Rudin's assistant while getting a hotdog at Pink's is pretty slim. I guess you could go stand out front of an industry building and wait to accost people who come out for a smoke. But that's stalking... so...

                        The advantages to being here really only pop their heads out after you've gotten somewhere first. But, you can get somewhere overnight.

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