For the newbies of the site, I thought I’d write a little about what is referred to as “going wide” and just what it all means.
When a rep gets excited about your work, either an agent or manager (or both working as a team) will move onto the stage of “going wide”.
This involves drafting up a list of anywhere between 10 to 30+ production companies that have a sweet tooth for your given genre of spec. Often, if not always, these companies have deals with a big studio, who often end up footing the bill if your script is purchased.
It’s important to know that although rarely a production company can buy your script with their discretionary funds (their own money), it’s often in their interest to get the studio to buy it instead because they need someone to bank roll this venture - as movies obviously cost a lot of money to make. Besides, there are two other very good reasons why they take them into the studio first...
a) The production company can have an “exclusive deal” with a studio, which basically means Production Company A *only* looks for material for that said Studio A, and nobody else. While there are obvious advantages of this style of deal for the company, it can be frustrating for a writer’s script to go into this channel. Why? Because if the studio passes, Production Company A cannot do anything else with your spec. Their hands are tied. And your chances of selling the spec just RIP’d through that channel.
b) The other, and more popular style of deal, is called a “first look deal”, which basically means that Production Company B takes the script to their Studio B, who they have that deal with, and it’s here the studio can either buy it, or pass on it, and if they pass on it, then it opens up a new set or rules (which makes this option more interesting) because then Company B are open to take said script to other studios to see if they are interested in buying it as well. This can often turn into a run around town looking for potential buyers.
In some instances, if you’re lucky to have two or more companies that have deals with the same studio, then your reps decide who is the best fit for the material (based on passion/background/contacts) and they assign that one company that territory (studio) and the other company(s) has to wait it out.
For people interested in seeing just what companies have what studios deals, Variety has an interesting link dated 2008 which lists all of the deals of last year. So have a look and you’ll see how the town is divided up into territories through studios.
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?lay...factspacts2008
Also, just to compare and see how often companies lose or gain their deals, here is another one dated 2005.
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?lay...nter&dept=Film
And here's the 2009 edition:
http://www.variety.com/graphics/factsonpacts.pdf
And here's the 2010 edition:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?k...JQ&output=html
And here's the 2011 edition:
http://images1.variety.com/graphics/...pacts-2011.pdf
And here's the 2012 edition (Printed in April):
http://images1.variety.com/graphics/...sapril2012.pdf
And 2012 October Edition:
http://www.variety.com/graphics/phot...ctober2012.pdf
2013 Edition:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5m2...ZOMnk1LWM/edit
2015 Edition Updated - PDF download here:
https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.c...-pacts.…
It’s also worth mentioning other avenues of a sale that isn’t through a studio. It’s called going to “buyers”. Buyers are like smaller studios that basically can bankroll their own features, they don’t need the nod from a studio to go forward and buy and make something. Companies who are buyers are companies like SUMMIT, WEINSTEINS, CBS, SPYGLASS, etc.
On a final note, the sad truth of going wide is that material sent out dies pretty quickly. Selling something is very hard. Just based on stats alone, 1300 specs are listed as going out in the last 2.5 years on trackingb.com, of those listed, 180 have sold. Obviously this doesn’t encompass *every* sale but it’s a pretty good measurement.
I hope this has been helpful to the more junior members of the site.
EDIT: Do follow this link to hear manager MichaelB explain more about the process.
EJ
When a rep gets excited about your work, either an agent or manager (or both working as a team) will move onto the stage of “going wide”.
This involves drafting up a list of anywhere between 10 to 30+ production companies that have a sweet tooth for your given genre of spec. Often, if not always, these companies have deals with a big studio, who often end up footing the bill if your script is purchased.
It’s important to know that although rarely a production company can buy your script with their discretionary funds (their own money), it’s often in their interest to get the studio to buy it instead because they need someone to bank roll this venture - as movies obviously cost a lot of money to make. Besides, there are two other very good reasons why they take them into the studio first...
a) The production company can have an “exclusive deal” with a studio, which basically means Production Company A *only* looks for material for that said Studio A, and nobody else. While there are obvious advantages of this style of deal for the company, it can be frustrating for a writer’s script to go into this channel. Why? Because if the studio passes, Production Company A cannot do anything else with your spec. Their hands are tied. And your chances of selling the spec just RIP’d through that channel.
b) The other, and more popular style of deal, is called a “first look deal”, which basically means that Production Company B takes the script to their Studio B, who they have that deal with, and it’s here the studio can either buy it, or pass on it, and if they pass on it, then it opens up a new set or rules (which makes this option more interesting) because then Company B are open to take said script to other studios to see if they are interested in buying it as well. This can often turn into a run around town looking for potential buyers.
In some instances, if you’re lucky to have two or more companies that have deals with the same studio, then your reps decide who is the best fit for the material (based on passion/background/contacts) and they assign that one company that territory (studio) and the other company(s) has to wait it out.
For people interested in seeing just what companies have what studios deals, Variety has an interesting link dated 2008 which lists all of the deals of last year. So have a look and you’ll see how the town is divided up into territories through studios.
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?lay...factspacts2008
Also, just to compare and see how often companies lose or gain their deals, here is another one dated 2005.
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?lay...nter&dept=Film
And here's the 2009 edition:
http://www.variety.com/graphics/factsonpacts.pdf
And here's the 2010 edition:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?k...JQ&output=html
And here's the 2011 edition:
http://images1.variety.com/graphics/...pacts-2011.pdf
And here's the 2012 edition (Printed in April):
http://images1.variety.com/graphics/...sapril2012.pdf
And 2012 October Edition:
http://www.variety.com/graphics/phot...ctober2012.pdf
2013 Edition:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5m2...ZOMnk1LWM/edit
2015 Edition Updated - PDF download here:
https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.c...-pacts.…
It’s also worth mentioning other avenues of a sale that isn’t through a studio. It’s called going to “buyers”. Buyers are like smaller studios that basically can bankroll their own features, they don’t need the nod from a studio to go forward and buy and make something. Companies who are buyers are companies like SUMMIT, WEINSTEINS, CBS, SPYGLASS, etc.
On a final note, the sad truth of going wide is that material sent out dies pretty quickly. Selling something is very hard. Just based on stats alone, 1300 specs are listed as going out in the last 2.5 years on trackingb.com, of those listed, 180 have sold. Obviously this doesn’t encompass *every* sale but it’s a pretty good measurement.
I hope this has been helpful to the more junior members of the site.
EDIT: Do follow this link to hear manager MichaelB explain more about the process.
EJ
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