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Hitting Los Angeles. What would you do?

M

meaneye

Hey guys my friends and i have planned a trip to the states next year. We will probably be in L.A for 2 or 3 weeks. I have heard a lot of successful international screenwriters say that you should break your own country before trying to break hollywood. But I'm going to be over there anyway so i don't see any harm in trying. I have 3 features that i have not touched and have not shown anyone and I'm currently writing 2 more and about to start production on a documentary.

What would you do?
 
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You're right, there's no harm in trying.

You should start sending query letters to agents right away. You should
research producers and prodCo's in Los Angeles you think might be
interested in your scripts and contact them right away. . It can often take
a new, unproduced writers several years to make any decent contacts or
set up any meetings. Do not wait until you arrive in the Los Angeles to start.

You should have that documentary finished and in festivals before you get
to the States. There are hundreds of thousands of people here in L.A, who
are about to start production on something - there are fewer who have
finished something and fewer still who have had their production shown in
festivals. You want to impress people in the industry in L.A. you should be
the one who has a finished, award winning production.

Make those 2 or 3 weeks count. Have meetings set up long before you
get to L.A.
 
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meaneye said:
Cheers for the quick response guys. How would you go about preparing for one of these lunches/meetings ?
Click to expand...

You would start by sending query letters to agents right away. You should
research producers and prodCo's in Los Angeles you think might be
interested in your scripts and contact them right away. Producers and
agents don't take meetings or lunches with every writer who wants one.
Make sure you have several (three to five) excellent, marketable screenplays
that will attract actors and directors.

You need to stand out from the tens of thousands of writers who live full time
in Los Angeles trying to get meetings and lunches and the hundreds of writers
who come to Los Angeles for 2 to 3 weeks from out of the country hoping to
get meetings and lunches.
 
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Thanks for the help Rik. I'm getting onto it ASAP! I will have a short finished by then and hopefully it will be in festivals. I should also have 5 or 6 completed screenplays that I am completely happy with and believe in.
 
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A couple of things...

Make sure you have put enough work into your loglines before you try this... if you can't sell the film's core concept in forty words or less then it won't matter if you can get meetings or not.

Next:

You say that you've five or six screenplays that no one has seen... I presume you mean you haven't pitched them in Australia, not literally that NO ONE has seen them .

The only reason I say this is that everyone thinks that their current draft of their current project is the greatest thing ever... I personally would be very nervous about pitching any script that hasn't been read by someone qualified to give notes.

If I had to choose between taking three well crafted third drafts, based on professional notes and six unread first drafts I'd always chose the former.

The only other thing I'd suggest is that you target producers rather than agents... and match your project to the kind of films the producer already makes... and to answer your next questions (Hollywood Creative Directory)
 
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