I was just contacted by an Agency

Gonzo_Entertainment

Gonzo_Entertainment

I'm sure nothing will come of it, but I was contacted by a company in LA that does management and production. They wanted to schedule a conference call with me. The gist was they are "always looking for new talent" and had seen the Island. They appear to be small, but also appear to be legit.

I don't want to name them until I've talked to them, but I'll update after the call tomorrow. Even if nothing does come of it, nice to get an email with that big a surprise in it.
 
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I'm going to sleep on this treatment and then send it tomorrow after a final revision. Very weird exercise. Trying to take my short and stay true to the intent and subtext while also turning it into something resembling what they want.
 
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Gonzo_Entertainment said:
Trying to take my short and stay true to the intent and subtext while also turning it into something resembling what they want.
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Welcome to the biz! You have no idea how familiar that sounds! :yes: FWIW, it's the holy grail of marketable writing skills. I wish you the best of luck!

I just submitted a screenplay to my manager in which I'd come up with a central character I really loved. He's a young ex-con who wants to straighten out his life, who says very little in order to keep his sordid past a secret from everyone. I worked very hard to make him a cypher -- kind of like an old Clint Eastwood character from his spaghetti western days.

Problem is, my manager deals with the major studios. Our conversation went something like this:

Manager: "I really like this, but the main character hardly says anything."

Me: "I know. That was intentional. To make him more mysterious and intriguing."

Manager: "You've succeeded in that. Problem is, a studio will look at this and figure that whatever actor they offer it to is going to demand more dialogue. This is an independent film character in a studio-budget film."

Me: "D'oh!"

:lol:

So I went back through it and added a bunch of unnecessary dialogue. We'll see how that draft flies...
 
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Cracker Funk said:
So, he wants you to make a post-apocalyptic found-footage movie? Huh?
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No, if you've seen it, replace the slider in the door with security cams and have lots of scary stuff outside.
Also this indicates to me I am writing for a low budget. The security cams lets you cheap out on the effects. the last film I know for a fact these guys were involved in was probably 1 million ballpark budget tops.
 
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Ohh. I don't know how I feel about that. That kills the element of mystery! I think I'd like it much more if you stick with the environment you created, but just expand on the story. Find a reason to force him outside, or something.
 
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If you don't mind my asking how did they find out about you? For many of us, making content and getting picked up are well and good, but how do those two things initially connect, what vectors work?
 
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knightly said:
If you don't mind my asking how did they find out about you? For many of us, making content and getting picked up are well and good, but how do those two things initially connect, what vectors work?
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I wish I had a better or more inspiring story for you, but his intern found my film online, brought it to him and said "you should watch this" and he did.
 
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Cracker Funk said:
Ohh. I don't know how I feel about that. That kills the element of mystery! I think I'd like it much more if you stick with the environment you created, but just expand on the story. Find a reason to force him outside, or something.
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This has been tough and I'm torn, but what I did was make the gist of the original short the (much maligned in my other thread) the 2nd act and most of the third act. the first act is some back story on what is happening and who the main characters are, but with some ambiguity (think The Mist).
 
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I was thinking (if I can be so bold) that one way to expand the story, would be to keep it mostly inside the bunker (keeping that claustrophobic feel to it) and add to the beginning and end of the story.

Maybe start things off by showing the very end of Tom doing the same thing to a first victim, but having the situation be very confusing for the audience. Maybe make it seem as though it's the victim's idea to leave and Tom is trying to keep them there. But then it all becomes clear when he does it again to Katie. Then you can have Tom pull in a third victim, only to have them turn the tables on him and trick him into going outside...

Just spit balling, but I hope it works out for you!
 
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Dreadylocks said:
So what are the possible outcomes from the treatment? Are they just looking for you to write the script or would they have you direct it as well (if they pick it up)?
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I believe initially at least they want me to develop the script. If they they want to talk further after they see this treatment then we have a LOT of stuff to discuss still. I think they are kind of seeing what I got at this point as far as my ability to take what I had and expand it to a marketable feature. This also marks the first time I have registered anything with the WGA. I thought it prudent before I sent this to them.
 
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That's exactly the kind of information I was looking for. I'm curious then, how the intern found it... I'm looking for effective vectors. At some point an indie filmmaking group that has been working toward good enough content to distribute has to study successes from the same world as them to try to minimize the risk in marketing/distribution.
 
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I don't have that answer (how the intern found it), but if the relationship goes forward I'll find out.

It's my most successful festival film, played over a dozen, nothing major, but Phoenix, another really big Sci Fi festival, Las Vegas, etc... The full film has about 1000 views on youtube and vimeo combined (not terrible for a 25 minute short, but hardly viral). I post on most of the usual suspect filmmaking forums (3 or 4 besides this one) with a link to my youtube in the signature. So a lot of potential suspects.

And the caveat to ALL this is. They could hate it, they could like it, but not be able to sell it, they could stop returning my phone calls like today. No contract signed, none even discussed, no promises, just a "Work this up and let us see it".
 
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Well, they just wrote me back and in an email probably longer than the two page treatment, kind of tore it apart in an extremely thoughtful and knowledgeable way, BUT I consider that a pretty good outcome because they liked it enough to go to that trouble and they want me to revise it per their comments and call them Tuesday. Way better than "Don't quit your day job".
 
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I think when johns tell the prostitutes "A little more this and a little more that" that that's a good thing from the prostitute's POV.
Certainly beats a "Just fuhgedaboudit" followed by a shove off.

Juno? :yes:
 
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