Going wide

Collapse

Announcement

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

  • Going wide

    This is happening very fast so if someone could shed some light, I'd be thankful. I don't want to be pestering my agents/manager with a million questions.

    Wrote a spec that my manager fwd to an agent (a powerhouse). Another agent at same agency read and loved. This was last Wednesday. By Friday night, a few days ago, they wanted to go wide (biggg as he put it), calling this a 'homerun.' But I know enough to know nothing is a homerun so I tempered expectations.

    Anyways, on Sunday night, he emailed late to say he's been hyping it to everyone. Been crickets since. I don't even know where its at, and when it was even sent 'wide.' This morning I texted my manager's assistant and was told 'its went wide and gotten positive responses, I'm not copied the emails but I'll try and find out.'

    I'm honestly trying not to overthink it but I would think if it were 'positive positive', wouldn't we have an offer by now? I don't know who has passed, who digs, etc. But I also don't want to be bothering him or my manager with updates 24/7. I just want to know how the process works. Old threads on going wide were from over 5+ years ago, I assume things that have changed since then.
    Last edited by spyder23; 03-19-2019, 09:56 AM.

  • #2
    Re: Going wide

    all i can say is congratulations and i hope it sells fast. it's still early, it seems.
    "Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy b/c you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say." -- Edward Snowden

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Going wide

      Dude! It's Tuesday morning! Relax! Your reps probably sent it out, what, Friday? This isn't the 80s-- scripts don't go out at 9am and sell by noon anymore (and certainly not unpackaged scripts).

      If you're getting positive responses, I guess that could mean you have producers claiming territories (though your reps should probably consult you about that)-- or it could just mean that people like the script.

      But people liking the script is EXCELLENT. That is the PRIMARY GOAL of writing a spec script in 2019. The game is: you get some heat, you take some meetings, and you convert those meetings into paid writing assignments.

      Yes, every once in a while people still sell spec scripts-- but with very rare exceptions, those sales aren't very lucrative, and they even more rarely result in movies.

      The whole "I sold my script for $1m and Hollywood made it into a feature film" thing is, for the most part, a thing of the past. It can still happen though! Heck, it could happen to you! It's TUESDAY MORNING.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Going wide

        Yeah you haven't even assigned territories yet. It's all good. Enjoy it. And look if you got this much action quickly from a big agency it will likely be mission accomplished as far as getting you in rooms. Which is all you can ask for.

        What genre/ballpark budget?

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Going wide

          In my very limited experience... Hollywood is a lot slower than I thought it was going to be. Everything is moving in a positive direction. I know it's hard to bounce at the finish line and wait for it to catch up. Congrats and good luck.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Going wide

            I had two scripts go wide last year. First thing to understand is that while this is all very exciting (and it is), you need to relax and put your mind elsewhere. I wouldn't hammer your reps with emails. They'll let you know when things happen.

            Okay, so it sounds like at this stage they're getting the script to producers. If I remember correctly, mine went to about 80 or so. From there, you'll get X-number of producers who will take it into buyers. This is the "assigning territories" part someone mentioned above. The more producers, the better. My first one had 6 or 7 producers cover all the territories. The second one had fewer, but we still had it out to all the buyers.

            Once the producers are out to buyers, you wait for them to read. This will happen pretty quickly. Most will do it over a weekend. Given the timeline you've outlined, I'm guessing that would be this weekend. And then you'll find out pretty quickly whether or not you've got a sale. And hopefully you will!

            For the record, both of mine did not sell. I did get producers attached and now we're trying to package. The first one has a director and now we're out to talent. The second is out to agencies to get a director.

            If yours doesn't sell, that's the route it will take. Get a producer, then out to packaging, and back out to buyers with the package. If you sell the spec outright, then packaging gets a little easier!

            Either way, you'll get a ton of generals and you'll do the proverbial water bottle tour. It's exhausting, but definitely worth it. You'll meet lots of cool people and maybe they'll spark to some other idea you're working on. Or maybe you get really lucky and get an assignment.

            But the best part, sale or not, you'll get introduced to the town. You're getting exposure. And maybe the script gets on the Black List (mine did), and that will boost you even more.

            The key here is to act like Fonzie and be cool.

            Good luck!

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Going wide

              Thank you everyone for the intel and good vibes.

              We do have one producer on board who 'slipped it' about two weeks ago (prior to taking it out) to some very A-List friends of his. All three responded very favorably and that's when things began to take off. No attachments yet but I know the actors are interested in the material. I don't know if that info was part of the strategy, maybe on the insider tracking boards?

              This all happened late Friday night and now that a few of you mention it, I believe you're right in that it was going to producers to assign territories as I remember the agent on the conference call mentioning that.

              I totally trust all involved here as they are all top shelf reps and I have primarily stayed out of the way. This is my first time going out to the market and I just wanted to know how the current process worked. It was a very quick phone call Friday night and they were super stoked and things moved really fast. The agent prob then sent at least 4-5 emails afterwards to the team that he wanted it to go very big and was hyping the $%%& out of it.

              But okay, I am going to 'take five' and not worry so much about it and let them do their thing.

              Comment

              Working...
              X