Ideas for Heartwalk 2014 drive...

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Ideas for Heartwalk 2014 drive...

    I just wanted to quickly update everybody on where we were with last year's Heartwalk/Daniel Vang read drive and hopefully solicit some good ideas on how to approach 2014's drive.

    As many of you have realized, it has indeed taken Dan awhile to get to most of the reads....months. I think it's getting harder for him to get to everything as quickly as he would like as his own managerial career grows and his profile at Benderspink raises.

    He just sent me a batch of responses from the 2013 drive and expressed interest in one donor's television pilot -- so that's a very cool thing for that writer. We'll see where it goes.

    If you submitted for 2013 please continue to be patient. That's all I can say. I said upfront that the only thing guaranteed was that Daniel will read what he's supposed to read -- I had no way to tell when he'd be able to get to those reads and still don't -- I was clear about that.

    Going forward for 2014, I'm on the fence honestly as to whether we could discontinue the drive or not. At a minimum I know a change in approach is called for and wanted to run a few ideas by you guys and also open the forum for any of your ideas.

    1. We could just discontinue it. It's a ton of work for both me and Dan and over the years we've raised almost $100,000 (or over?) to fight heart disease and stroke. Several writers who donated have also gained representation from the endeavor, too, so there'd certainly be no shame in walking away now.

    2. We could up the ante and raise the minimum donation up from $25, possibly doing something like a $100 minimum donation to the American Heart Association gets you considered for representation by Dan. A higher donation limit would hopefully keep the number of scripts Dan would have to read at a manageable level while still bringing in funds for the American Heart Association's great cause (remember 100% of all donations ever have gone straight to the AHA and will continue to do so should we continue). There would still be no way to guarantee how long it would take to hear back and there's absolutely no way notes or anything like that could be provided. Dan's a working manager for one of the biggest management/production companies in hollywood and just wouldn't have the time to provide notes regardless of the size of the donation. Just want to be clear about that. It's not an option. We tried one line of notes several years back and it was a disaster on multiple fronts -- was just too much on Dan.

    I haven't even approached Dan about 2014 yet to see if he'd still be willing to do continue doing this under any format -- he may not -- it's been a lot on him and honestly we've both had to deal with some pretty strange situations over the past several years in doing this.

    I wanted to get everybody's thoughts, though, before I approached him as I guess I'm looking for some brilliant solution that would avoid us having to pull the plug on this at it does a lot of good for a lot of people.

    Thoughts?
    "I hate to break it to you but there is no big lie. There is no system. The universe is indifferent.- - Don Draper

  • #2
    Re: Ideas for Heartwalk 2014 drive...

    I've been the recipient of Daniel's generosity in the past, so...

    Perhaps limit submissions to first 15 pages, along with a logline and a one page summary of the script? While it's not perfect, it is better than this opportunity disappearing altogether, as I just can't see Daniel continuing at the pace he has in the past. And that would still gets a writer's voice in front of him and shows where the story would go (demonstrating command of structure).

    just IMHO, FWIW

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Ideas for Heartwalk 2014 drive...

      Raise the price and lower the amount of pages, this is for a good cause after all and not just about paying for eyes on a script.

      So, adapting what dangoforth suggested:

      $100 for first 25 pages + the logline.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Ideas for Heartwalk 2014 drive...

        Originally posted by DayJobWriter View Post
        Raise the price and lower the amount of pages, this is for a good cause after all and not just about paying for eyes on a script.

        So, adapting what dangoforth suggested:

        $100 for first 25 pages + the logline.
        This. It's tax-deductible. This would give you first act to sell the story.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Ideas for Heartwalk 2014 drive...

          Originally posted by DangoForth View Post
          I've been the recipient of Daniel's generosity in the past, so...

          Perhaps limit submissions to first 15 pages, along with a logline and a one page summary of the script? While it's not perfect, it is better than this opportunity disappearing altogether, as I just can't see Daniel continuing at the pace he has in the past. And that would still gets a writer's voice in front of him and shows where the story would go (demonstrating command of structure).

          just IMHO, FWIW
          This is a good idea but sort of too detailed - if we did it, it will probably be $100 donation gets you considered by Dan/Benderspink for represenation...and that's it. No specific page count or synopsis or anything -- just logline and entire script - this way if Dan gets to page 15-20 and likes what's he's reading he'll have the freedom to keep going. I'll monitor this thread for a bit longer and then run it by him - hopefully he's receptive.
          "I hate to break it to you but there is no big lie. There is no system. The universe is indifferent.- - Don Draper

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Ideas for Heartwalk 2014 drive...

            I think the above looks great, but there really is no shame at all if you guys can't keep it up. What you've done is amazing - for the Heart Association and for your fellow writers. It's just very cool all round, so thank you both for your generous offer, regardless of your plans in 2014. (Note: This is just me (Nic) talking, not in any official Done Deal capacity.)
            sigpic

            Website
            Tweets
            Book

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Ideas for Heartwalk 2014 drive...

              Originally posted by DayJobWriter View Post
              Raise the price and lower the amount of pages, this is for a good cause after all and not just about paying for eyes on a script.

              So, adapting what dangoforth suggested:

              $100 for first 25 pages + the logline.
              Ditto on this idea. Though IMO, I would do only the first 15 pages-1st act. If the writer can't grab the attention, then reading the entire script would be a waste of time.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Ideas for Heartwalk 2014 drive...

                $100 = First 15 pages. If he likes it, he'll read on.

                $25 = Read your logline. If he's interested, he'll request to read it. This way it won't shut out a lot of people from donating and he could have more control over his workload.

                Or you guys can always take a break and that would allow Daniel to catch up on 2013 entries. Come back in 2015?

                Whatever you choose, it was a great opportunity and you helped a lot of writers and the Heart Association.

                Comment

                Working...
                X