Spec Market Strategies: IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!

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  • Spec Market Strategies: IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!

    A fellow DDer PMed me to alert me to a similarly-titled, locked thread from a couple of days ago. I wish I'd been able to chime in sooner, because Christ knows I love a good verbal battle. The great thing about the Internets? There's always room for one more d-bag like to me toss out his opinion.

    I've only been a "pro" for less than a year now, and I'll say this up front: I feel nowhere near being a "pro". I make money writing screenplays, so by the most academic standards that's what I am, but I am so far from having this all figured out that it sometimes boggles my mind. That's not me complaining - I couldn't possibly. But I try to be as self-aware as possible, so I ask as many questions as I can all the time, no matter how stupid I feel like it could make me look. It's the only way I guarantee I'll learn something.

    In making that my MO, I've picked up a few things. Based on info culled from my own experience as well as that of others, here's how it goes when you're talking about the spec market

    Anyone who has strict rules, systems or processes pertaining to the dissemination of a script is way, way, way, WAY behind the game. Whoever said in the previous thread said it right: this is a FLUID dynamic.

    Every single script/project is a new adventure in promotion and self-promotion; it's almost like each thing you get ready to send out is its own special little universe, the parameters of which will never apply to anything else ever. That doesn't mean the techniques change - agents are agents, managers are managers and lawyers are evi...er, lawyers. But the way those techniques are applied? Total Darwinism. Evolution at its highest levels.

    If you're just a newbie writer with what is at first just an amazing sample (read: unsold script), you're in a totally different boat than someone with sale under their belt. So let's say that sample lands you an agent and a manager, and now the Sample is your first Spec. Great. To go wide or not to go wide?

    That depends on about a billion factors. What agency did you sign with? Management company? Who are their clients? What is their philosophy on packaging? Packaging can work amazingly well at some times and be a complete disaster at others. On one hand, packaging with great talent can be a huge boon and get your script more interest than it even might deserve; on the other, attachments provide for oft-protracted contract negotiations and, in the worst cases, can totally turn a studio/prodco off if they're not into that particular actor/actress/cast.

    If you're at a big agency, the roads are multiple. Let's say for our sake we don't attach cast (because, frankly, I don't have enough time to explain the minutiae of that submitting debacle, and if said attachments have production companies...it's not at all necessarily a bad thing, just a totally different discussion) and we're just going to take the script out. Now the question becomes of the script itself. What's the genre? What's the tone? Do you have a broad voice, a narrow voice, or something in between? How much work does it need before it's ready to be unleashed? What's currently in development/production that may make it a competing project? What's sold in the last couple weeks? Months? Years? For how much? What's the agency's relationship with the studio/prodco?

    ALL of these questions beget more questions which beget different scenarios and sets of circumstances, and you can see how quickly that can all snowball - I've focused on, really, a couple sets of rather narrow conditions here.

    In the interest of being pragmatic if, sadly, generic, here's how it usually happens: good reps have strong connections with a lot of influential people, and out of those connections they have a couple people who they REALLY like. If you write something that they everyone agrees is ripe for submission, they'll "slip" it to a few key people first. Occasionally, one of those parties might step up immediately and say, "I must have this." In those situations, you have an awesome dilemma: send it out further hoping that this reaction is a sign of bidding wars to come, or reward someone for their perception of your talent/the project's viability. The first could bring more money, but it could also backfire monumentally if it doesn't light anyone else's fire OR it could lead you to a destination that's not right for developing the material. The second can ultimately cost you money but often aligns you with someone who's passionate about your work and is going to bust their balls (or ovaries) to get your movie made.

    After that initial slip-burst, if you and your reps (yes, this should ALWAYS be a decision made together) decide to proceed with going wide, you'll probably again go to a smaller (10-15) subset of places where the reps have relationships or where your material is best suited dependent on genre/scope (you're not going to send a summer tentpole movie to Focus, for example, but you'll send them that Betsy Ross biopic in a flash). After that, you roll out really wide, usually to the last 15-20 places on a master list - the big guns, the standards...basically the jocks of the film industry. Sometimes you do more - if you have something that's just universally appealing and very strong, sh*t, you can swing for the fences; it's been done and it's been done with great success. Sometimes, though, the material for whatever reason calls for a more reserved plan of action, and you send it out to ten companies total.

    So much of this is situation dependent, though, that like I said before...every single one of these steps can evolve into something totally different. An example from my own life: my last project that went out was a book about zombies. I was attached to write; there was no script. I'd had three previous sales (one spec and two pitches) and the project carried two producers. The tone is observational, the genre horror-comedy, the story pretty small. All in all, it ended up going out to about 30-35 different placecs. At the same time, there was a competing project going out - zombie-centric, different time and setting, same horror-comedy genre, Natalie Portman attached (this is yet ANOTHER factor in the market - what the other agencies/management companies are rolling out with this week...I seriously don't know when my agent and manager sleep). In the end, I fielded a hell of a lot of phone calls (mostly from producers/execs wanting to know just what my take was going to be on the material), but there was only serious interest from a handful of places. It ended up selling. The Natalie Portman thing didn't. Why? A lot of reasons. It didn't hurt, in this case, that the project was free of attachments and that one of the producers is an Oscar-winning writer. The source material is also amazing. Then again, that's been said by a lot of people about the other book as well. Then again, the producers on my project have an AMAZING track record and relationship with the studio where it was sold.

    Mitigating factors. It's why there really are no rules.

    Do the "rules change" in the spec market if you're an established writer? So much so that you have no idea, and at the same time not at all. Just color me a skipping record: that's a whole 'nother thread entirely.

    Where the hell am I going with all of this? Oh, right, to the same place I always go: no matter what you're doing or what you think you should be worried about, WORRY ABOUT WRITING A GREAT SCRIPT FIRST. Once you do that, choose reps wisely. Whoever said in the previous incarnation of this post that agents and managers only see you as a dollar sign knows a lot of terrible agents and managers. Or none at all. A HUGE part of your success in this industry is going to find not only people that want to fight to get you compensated the way you should be compensated but who believe in you and get what you want out of your career. I have had personally and know many, many writers whose reps have told them, "Yeah, you can sell this to Company A for more than Company B is offering you, but Company B, all things considered, is the much better home for you and for this project." And also: anyone that says that luck isn't a factor in this business is lying to you. Hard work and talent are most important, absolutely, but without some luck you're DOA. The real question there is...how much luck can you manufacture on your own?

    To answer what seemed to be the question that sparked this off: yes, there absoulutely can be a monster-selling spec. Any day of the week. It all depends on how excited people get about a certain script, who's job is on the line, what finished first at the box office last week...and, well, here we go again.

    Lastly, I'll say this about who to trust and who not to trust on this board: these are tough waters to navigate. Some people can be offering good advice within bad arguments...and vice versa. Generally, feel free to tune out anyone who claims to be a player and brags about their accomplishments but can't (won't) offer any specifics or point to anything tangible that they've put their name on. And use logic. Take the anonymous here with a grain of salt. Take the pros here with a grain of salt. Take me with a grain of salt. Trust nothing as gospel, because even those of us with the best intentions are merely peddling our own version of the truth. Make logic your best friend, tally up all the advice, look for patterns, and act accordingly.

    But more than anything...just write well. That solves a LOT of problems.


  • #2
    Re: Spec Market Strategies: IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!

    Take the anonymous here with a grain of salt. Take the pros here with a grain of salt. Take me with a grain of salt. Trust nothing as gospel, because even those of us with the best intentions are merely peddling our own version of the truth. Make logic your best friend, tally up all the advice, look for patterns, and act accordingly.

    Thank you, Goose, for taking the time to share an honest post from someone who really does walk the walk. Very helpful. Very reassuring.

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    • #3
      Re: Spec Market Strategies: IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!

      Excellent (and dead-accurate) post, goose. Thanks for that.

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      • #4
        Re: Spec Market Strategies: IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!

        Well done g. Thanks.

        And thanks to the DDer that coaxed the goose to lay another golden egg. Bravo.
        Doth thou desirest a slapping? - William Shakespeare

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        • #5
          Re: Spec Market Strategies: IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!

          Every thread should end with this...

          "Take the anonymous here with a grain of salt. Take the pros here with a grain of salt. Take me with a grain of salt. Trust nothing as gospel, because even those of us with the best intentions are merely peddling our own version of the truth. Make logic your best friend, tally up all the advice, look for patterns, and act accordingly."
          "It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived." - General George S. Patton, Jr.

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          • #6
            Re: Spec Market Strategies: IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!

            Very nice post, and greatly appreciated.
            Sent from my iPhone. Because I'm better than you.

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            • #7
              Re: Spec Market Strategies: IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!

              Originally posted by Code7Films View Post
              Every thread should end with this...

              "Take the anonymous here with a grain of salt. Take the pros here with a grain of salt. Take me with a grain of salt. Trust nothing as gospel, because even those of us with the best intentions are merely peddling our own version of the truth. Make logic your best friend, tally up all the advice, look for patterns, and act accordingly."
              Nobody Knows Anything.
              "I was dreamin' when I wrote this, forgive me if it goes astray." - Prince

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              • #8
                Re: Spec Market Strategies: IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!

                Well done, goosetown. Thoughtful, intelligent, and I think it's a great inside view. Best of luck with the film.

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                • #9
                  Re: Spec Market Strategies: IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!

                  There were many mysteries in cosmology before Allan Guth came along with his inflation theory. Inflation theory solved all of these cosmological problems in one fell swoop.

                  goosetown's post in response to many controversies on this board is analogous to Guth's inflation theory, solving all kinds of controversies in one fell swoop.

                  Thanks for sharing.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Spec Market Strategies: IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!

                    Nice.

                    Fine. Off I go to outline the one I've been working my ass off to put off.

                    Thanks a lot, GT.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Spec Market Strategies: IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!

                      Thanks so much, man. Well said.

                      "Artificial Intelligence will never match the efficiency of Natural Stupidity"

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                      • #12
                        Re: Spec Market Strategies: IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!

                        I agree wholeheartedly. In screenwriting people seem to worry about in schematics for what they lack in talent. If you have talent you should be as calm as a baby in Pacific Palisades.
                        The Best Impersonation of Christian Bale Freak Out!!

                        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd5631H6KuE

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                        • #13
                          Re: Spec Market Strategies: IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!

                          This is one of the better posts I have read on this site...well...ever.

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

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                          • #14
                            Re: Spec Market Strategies: IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!

                            Great post.

                            - Bill (best with a grain of salt and some crushed garlic)
                            Free Script Tips:
                            http://www.scriptsecrets.net

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                            • #15
                              Re: Spec Market Strategies: IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!

                              Originally posted by joe9alt View Post
                              This is one of the better posts I have read on this site...well...ever.

                              Kudos, Goose.
                              Well, I'm glad to hear that, Joe, because goose's basic premise, that it will happen in many different ways, concurs with what I have said in many of my posts, against which you have strongly argued.

                              What gives, Joe?

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