Re: Franklin Leonard
BTW - I also want to point this out because it may seem like his advice conflicts with mine. I don't think so.
He said up front to not ramble on about your personal life (agreed). But, later he says "if you have a compelling narrative, like, 'I was a Navy seal', cool that's great."
Same thing I'm talking about with queries. I literally mean one short sentence essentially as a BIO logline. "I'm an ex-Navy seal." That's plenty. Different than rambling on with a full paragraph about it.
It could be almost anything:
"I was wrongly convicted of murder, did 20 years, pardoned." (Whoa, interesting!)
"I'm an ex-stripper." (you know who I'm talking about).
"I spent 10 years as a monk." (Hmmm, interesting.)
"I'm an ex-homicide detective." (His friend, my ex's ex-client)
"I was homeless and lived on the streets of LA for 10 years." (Wow, bet that dude's seen a lot!)
"I ran a fortune 500 company for 10 years before the FBI raided it." (Cool. Bet this dude's seen some shady sh!t.)
"I lived alone on an island in the South Pacific and didn't speak to another person for 5 years." (Holy sh!t, what was that like?)
It can be almost anything. It's merely saying "this is an interesting fact about me that informs what I write." If it's interesting, and short, mention it in the query. People love unique stories, especially if they're one sentence. If it's not interesting "I went to film school." Don't waste their time. Because if it's not interesting enough you're outing yourself as not knowing WHAT qualifies as a great story.
Franklin Leonard
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Re: Franklin Leonard
Craig Mazin hates all contests. Scripts consultants. Final Draft software - which is fine really. I get it others are better customer service... anyway... 99.9% of that stuff. There was only 1 thing I recall him not making fun of on his podcast. And you can guess what service that is off this thread...
I say that because sometimes we say things to help out our buddies... to be nice to people we see at kids birthday parties.
So my point was, we you hear interviews with managers or agents or anyone be skeptical of all advice about the business given in a public way. Hell any interview from anyone. The truth is in the shadows. Ha ha ha ha ha.
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Re: Franklin Leonard
Ps... correct date? Don't you mean June 2018 or did the link go to the wrong vid?
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Re: Franklin Leonard
Ha!
Watching it.
[LONG. SORRY]
Notice when asked what script competitions matter to agents he's like "Austin... ummm... The Nicholl... ummm, shoot, ya know... [snip] Ummm... God, there's not a lot of competitions, honestly, that people pay a heck of a lotta attention to. And if I can't think of them off the top of my head...?"
There's the answer.
Like I've said. When my ex was an agent she read exactly ZERO competition scripts in 15 years. But, notice he did say that if HE tells the agent it's good the agent will read it, that it means something coming from him.
Agents generally see it like this (especially nowadays): "If the winner of some competition is really that good, a manager will find them, develop the script so that it's finally in sellable shape... because I'm not interested in developing, that's the managers job... and THAT'S finally when I *MIGHT* read it if it sounds cool and this manager swears it's not a waste of my time."
But, that's still no guarantee you get an agent. My manager on my last script (or was it 2 scripts ago, I forget) took it to a friend at a particular agency... agent passed. Not quite passionate ENOUGH about the material.
This business is tough and only getting tougher.
I also agree with his comment about being utterly professional. Yes, I'm an idiot on here, but put me in a room and I'm all business. It's kinda like (but not nearly to this degree, obviously) my ex used to rep Lebron (yeah, that one), during events he likes to clown around and have a good time (same). But, the second you bring up money. CLICK! He's immediately all business/100% professional.
Time and a place... I say.
If we're at the bar. Fukk it, we're gonna rage. If we're "in the room", I'm gonna get down to business (work hard/play hard). I think it helps to have both sides. That way people want to hang out with you off the clock too. Meaning: professional doesn't mean stiff and rigid. I've seen that a lot with writers. Comes across as desperate and needy, and somewhat creepy. Gotta be relaxed. Puts people at ease. It's actually our JOB to do that.
I used to suck at meetings. But, after my mono y mono with a Rudin-Type at SoHo house with Chris Hemsworth eavesdropping (we'll pretend he was), I'm not scared to sit down with anyone. That was definitely my scariest meeting.
Advice for people who haven't done meetings with people that high up (and I know a lot of us have, not puffing up like I'm the only one, I'm a loser), but my advice is: DON'T PANIC! BE FUN! BE INTERESTING! BE ENGAGED FOR REAL! And know that you're gonna go off script if the meeting is going well, don't let that scare you. If you go off script RAD! That's exactly what you want. I can't stress that enough. Because now you're building a RAPPORT. If they smile, if they laugh at your joke, if they go the full hour, if they say "Shoot, I gotta run" but THEY keep talking. You're doing good! If THEY go supper OFF TOPIC and tell you personal sh!t or sh!t where you're like "should they be admitting this insider intel to me???", you're doing fukkin GREAT!
Who cares about talking about the project if they're opening up about problems with their wife, or whatever. So what if they've veered way off topic talking about some completely unrelated subject. PERFECT! This is a really good meeting! Rapport is #1.
I think brand new writers friggin' PANIC! when that happens "Wait... fukk!... we're off topic... I need to steer the convo back to MY PRECIOUS SCRIPT!!!" Don't do it, bruh! Not in your best interest. Stay on the topic THEY are most interested in discussing. This way, on your way home you'll get this call from your rep "Just got off the phone with ____. Said it was one of his best meetings ever." This is a dude who's sat across the table from Sorkin. No pressure!
Still... fukk it. Stay calm. Stay loose. Stay FUN!Last edited by GucciGhostXXX; 08-20-2019, 01:24 PM.
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Re: Franklin Leonard
Originally posted by finalact4 View Postso, i'm listening to a Scripts & Scribes podcast with John Zaozirny @Bellevue from June 2019. cool guy. sharp. great advice.
he mentions a few ways he finds clients... but first, Bellevue 7 scripts on The Annual Black List tied with Kaplan/Peronne as #1 management company with the highest number of scripts on the black list.
he has found clients off query letters but it's becoming less of a thing.
his #1 suggestion is the black list website.
and last August he found a woman on the black list website who wrote an amazing pilot that was recommended in an email from the black list. he read it. it was amazing. he reached out to her. she lived in new york but was moving to LA. met when she got into town. did work on the pilot.
he was at a party in November for Variety "new leader" in and met an agent, mentioned her to him, he signed her. he met her, signed with him and went out with her and got her staffed on her first show in February. super talented. phenomenal in the room.
he has found two clients from Austin Film Festival where he's a judge. one of his clients (Chris Thomas Devlin) his script COBWEB was on the 2018 Annual Black List and sold i think he said to Lionsgate.
he had someone call him, email him, facebook messenger, and someone shows up with his mother in a wheelchair and he said, "i haven't been able to get in touch with you," yeah, no, don't do that. John took the address off his website to prevent this from happening again. his advice, don't be desperate.
he looks for talent on the page and professionalism. NO ONE is going to reward bad behavior. he also admitted that he goes on Done Deal Pro sometimes.
here's the link... https://www.scriptsandscribes.com/20...hn-zaozirny-2/
props to Kevin.
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Re: Franklin Leonard
I like it the most when they have managers on that show. They seem to have the most interesting things to say about the business.
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Re: Franklin Leonard
so, i'm listening to a Scripts & Scribes podcast with John Zaozirny @Bellevue from June 2019. cool guy. sharp. great advice.
he mentions a few ways he finds clients... but first, Bellevue 7 scripts on The Annual Black List tied with Kaplan/Peronne as #1 management company with the highest number of scripts on the black list.
he has found clients off query letters but it's becoming less of a thing.
his #1 suggestion is the black list website.
and last August he found a woman on the black list website who wrote an amazing pilot that was recommended in an email from the black list. he read it. it was amazing. he reached out to her. she lived in new york but was moving to LA. met when she got into town. did work on the pilot.
he was at a party in November for Variety "new leader" in and met an agent, mentioned her to him, he signed her. he met her, signed with him and went out with her and got her staffed on her first show in February. super talented. phenomenal in the room.
he has found two clients from Austin Film Festival where he's a judge. one of his clients (Chris Thomas Devlin) his script COBWEB was on the 2018 Annual Black List and sold i think he said to Lionsgate.
he had someone call him, email him, facebook messenger, and someone shows up with his mother in a wheelchair and he said, "i haven't been able to get in touch with you," yeah, no, don't do that. John took the address off his website to prevent this from happening again. his advice, don't be desperate.
he looks for talent on the page and professionalism. NO ONE is going to reward bad behavior. he also admitted that he goes on Done Deal Pro sometimes.
here's the link... https://www.scriptsandscribes.com/20...hn-zaozirny-2/
props to Kevin.
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Re: Franklin Leonard
And don't forget the hobnobbing with the rich and famous. Counts for something, too.
Meanwhile, ole' Franklin has talked about that script he wrote about 15 years ago, and how he'd "like to get back to it some day." Yeah, right. Ha ha.
"Hey, BL readers, who among you wants to give an honest appraisal of the boss's old script?"
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Re: Franklin Leonard
Originally posted by lostfootage View PostTou-f-ing-ché.
I bet he clears $500k a year off the tears of aspiring screenwriters. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
ave hosted scripts = 3400 @ $25/month = $1,202,000/year. that's the low side.
ave two paid reviews $75/read = $510,000
now you also need to consider that this is a "rolling" average. writers come and go. plenty of people buy more than two reviews. you need four to get on the top annual list. so let's say those 240 ish writers spring for two more reviews.
that's $42,000. this is bare minimum, i think. that doesn't even include the dropouts.
i'm guessing its A LOT more than $500,000
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Re: Franklin Leonard
Originally posted by Bono View Post23 pages. I bet FL comes here, laughs, counts his money and knows he's won.
I bet he clears $500k a year off the tears of aspiring screenwriters. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
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Re: Franklin Leonard
23 pages. I bet FL comes here, laughs, counts his money and knows he's won.
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Re: Franklin Leonard
Originally posted by kintnerboy View PostA couple of days ago I noticed that the 2 most highly rated scripts on the BL were by the same writer.
I also noticed that neither script had a reader endorsement or any written reviews. Instead, each script had only 3 identical ratings from industry members -- (2) 10's and a 9.
I'm not really good at math, but the odds of such a sudden, simultaneous coincidence must be very many odds.
Anyway, so this was obviously an instance of someone using their industry contacts to game the system, which happens more often than you think, but usually not with such balls out not-care-ity (why 10's instead of 8's??... why 2 scripts at the same time?? It's like they WANTED to get caught).
I was all ready to come here and write an angry rant about the Blacklist scoring system (it truly is the only thing that bugs me about the service. Reader reviews should weigh much more heavily in a scripts rating than some random industry person)
but then I noticed today that the BL has taken away all 3 ratings from each script, disappearing them into the oblivion that is the Blacklist script database
and so I must instead commend them for doing the right thing, and doing it quickly.
My faith in the BL is 57% restored.
every writer that has reps has people who'll score their script. those scores are also weighted, they don't hold the same "scoring value" as a BL reader does.
it also could have been an error in the system where something was mis-stated. i'm TBL has errors that have to be corrected and it sometimes takes a very determined customer to get it done.
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Re: Franklin Leonard
A couple of days ago I noticed that the 2 most highly rated scripts on the BL were by the same writer.
I also noticed that neither script had a reader endorsement or any written reviews. Instead, each script had only 3 identical ratings from industry members -- (2) 10's and a 9.
I'm not really good at math, but the odds of such a sudden, simultaneous coincidence must be very many odds.
Anyway, so this was obviously an instance of someone using their industry contacts to game the system, which happens more often than you think, but usually not with such balls out not-care-ity (why 10's instead of 8's??... why 2 scripts at the same time?? It's like they WANTED to get caught).
I was all ready to come here and write an angry rant about the Blacklist scoring system (it truly is the only thing that bugs me about the service. Reader reviews should weigh much more heavily in a scripts rating than some random industry person)
but then I noticed today that the BL has taken away all 3 ratings from each script, disappearing them into the oblivion that is the Blacklist script database
and so I must instead commend them for doing the right thing, and doing it quickly.
My faith in the BL is 57% restored.
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Re: Franklin Leonard
Originally posted by GucciGhostXXX View PostAfter hearing your approach, I agree with Bono. Doubtful it was TBL. IMO.
I mean, why would he even need to request the script from you directly if it was TBL. Or do I not understand how TBL works?
So producers do read scripts they find on TBL and do contact people, but it's a long shot. I think the Twitter blasts of Gary Graham are probably more effective. That guy has a lot of energy!
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Re: Franklin Leonard
After hearing your approach, I agree with Bono. Doubtful it was TBL. IMO.
I mean, why would he even need to request the script from you directly if it was TBL. Or do I not understand how TBL works?
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