10.11.08
Posted in Business, I-Man Cast Film Update, Scripts/Screenwriting at 10:40 pm by Amanda Rogers
Yesterday marked the end of several months of negotiation between a writer and myself. Today, I’m happy to say, I placed the hard copies of the agreement and the COA (Certificate of Authorship) into the mail for her signature. It’s almost finished.
What a long, drawn out process it has proven to be. I can’t believe that we started this back in June, and here we are in October just finishing up. I never expected negotiations to go on for so long. I figured it would take two to three weeks at the most and then we’d be done and able to meet to my original deadline. Now I need to contact the cast and let them know that they won’t be receiving the treatments this month after all. Instead, it looks like they will have to wait until January to get them.
So, you may be wondering, do negotiations for producer/writer agreements normally take this long? For studio deals, yes. But not in the independent world, according to my lawyer. This was highly unusual. Part of the reason for the delay was because the writer’s lawyer had jury duty and then promptly left on vacation, leaving us hanging for a while. The rest of the time was spent going back and forth with emails and having our lawyers advise and review each step of the way.
I’m a fairly patient person, but I have to admit that even my patience was tested with the length of this negotiation. Fortunately, I had my entertainment attorney to guide me every step of the way. I had recently changed lawyers from one in the LA area to one that is closer to me (San Francisco) and this was our first time working together. What sold me on him was his experience working with independent filmmakers. I had heard him give a couple of talks about legal issues for filmmakers and I was impressed with how in tune he was to the needs of independent filmmakers. He knows that independents don’t have the deep pockets that the studios have and his advice reflected that knowledge. So far I have to say that I’ve felt that he has truly had my best interests at heart; and that’s one of the most important qualities, next to competence, that is needed in a good lawyer. The fact that, before coming to the Bay Area, he worked in LA and has done the big studio deals really makes him well-rounded and a good fit for my needs. If things continue going this well, I’ll definitely keep using his services.
Now that this negotiation is coming to a close, I really need to turn my attention to the other story submissions I’ve received. If I don’t get things moving with those stories, they won’t be ready by January. So I spent some time today giving long overdue feedback. One story looks promising and two others could be, but they need to be fleshed out more.
Hopefully all this work will pay off and I’ll have several good treatments to present to the cast in January. If they like one of them, we’ll be able to go to the next step and start writing the screenplay!
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09.20.08
Posted in Classes/Books, I-Man Cast Film Update, Scripts/Screenwriting at 9:19 pm by Amanda Rogers
Well, folks, I apologize for being away so long. My screenwriting class sucked up all my time and I was forced to put my nose to the grindstone to catch up and get my homework and outline done. The good news is that I now have a complete first draft of my outline done! I also got an A in the class.
In addition to the outline, I have the first 15 pages written. The teacher had us outline one act of the story and then write a few pages of the script each week (starting with week four). So an unexpected bonus is to have a first draft of the first 15 pages done. I found that alternating between writing the outline and the script is a great way to develop a story. They feed off each other and it really helps the process. And the cool thing is that if this is the story we end up developing, I can just hand over the pages I’ve already written to the writer and she can take it from there.
I was interested to see what kind of reactions I would get from people who had no idea that I was writing for a specific cast and project. Nope, I didn’t divulge that info to them. I just went in as a student with a story I wanted to get outlined. I wanted to see if the story would stand on its own terms. The story is still a bit rough, but the overall response I got was good. One classmate in particular was very enthusiastic about it.
So I’m feeling pretty good about the story. However, it’s only the first draft. I need to continue working on it, but I’m going to take a break from it for now and tend to other pressing matters.
I’m still negotiating an agreement with the writer. Yep, still. We would have been finished with it by now if her lawyer hadn’t been called to jury duty and then immediately following that took off on vacation. But we’re back working on it and it looks like we’re getting close to wrapping it up. In addition, I have unanswered emails that are piling up. If you’re reading this and I haven’t answered your email yet, I apologize. I’m working my way through them and hope to get caught up soon. I also have story submissions from two other writers that I really need to give feedback on. And now I can finally get back to blogging regularly. I’ve got a bunch of news that is piling up.
Stay tuned.
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08.18.08
Posted in Classes/Books, Film Financing, I-Man Cast Film Update, Scripts/Screenwriting at 7:55 pm by Amanda Rogers
Sorry for being so quiet lately. When I got back from Comic-Con I was really looking forward to getting caught up with blogging, among other stuff. Instead, a nasty virus caught up with me and had me down for the better part of a week. This put me so far behind with everything else that I’ve been scrambling to catch up ever since.
So let’s talk about the film project, shall we? I’m way overdue on giving you all an update.
Back in January I mentioned that two treatments were being worked on. One by the writer I’m working with and one by me. So how are they coming along? Well, slowly. The writer has the first revision of her treatment finished and ready to send to me. I just haven’t seen it yet because we are busy negotiating a producer/writer agreement right now. It’s a bit of a time consuming process and, ideally, it’s something that should have been done right at the outset of our working relationship. But once we get the agreement hammered out and fully executed, she’ll be sending me the next revision. I’m looking forward to seeing what she has done with it.
My version of the treatment is coming along much more slowly. Instead of writing, I got sidetracked with financial matters, namely, my own. Now I’m not one to talk about my personal finances on a public blog, but in this case my own finances are very much a factor in this project because all of the money that is keeping this project moving forward right now is coming out of my own pocket. I need to get this project to the point where it is packaged so that I can pitch it to investors and get presales. If I get lucky, maybe I can find an angel investor who is willing to come aboard the project early and help out with seed money. But, in the meantime, I’ve had to get creative and find ways to stretch my own money. While I make an okay living, I’m not by any means a wealthy person, so this has been a challenge.
A couple of years ago I had refinanced the second on my tiny condo. Then, at the beginning of this year, as I watched real estate prices plummet and people lose their homes, it didn’t make sense to hang on to my riskier loans any longer so I decided to refinance both my first and second into one fixed-rate loan. Fortunately for me, I was in a position to refinance. There are a lot of unfortunate people in this country who got into risky loans and didn’t have a clue what they were getting into. I really feel for them. But having a little bit of a background in real estate, together with my propensity to do my homework and make sure I understand what I’m getting myself into, really gave me an advantage. So I’m not in any danger of losing my condo even though it’s not worth much anymore and I have virtually no equity to speak of. But I have a roof over my head and that’s the important thing!
Refinancing allowed me to get my monthly payments lowered a bit and pay off my car. It’s not a huge amount, but it’s freed up enough money to allow me to keep the project moving forward. For now. Eventually, in the not too distant future, I’ll come to the point where I’ll need equity and/or debt money. So even though the writing got put on the back burner for a while, I’ve been moving the project forward by taking care of some necessary financial matters. And speaking of financing, I’ve met a few investors over the last few months who have shown some interest, so maybe something will come of that…we’ll see.
Getting back to the writing has been a challenge for me. When developing a movie there always seems to be a ton of other things that need to get done and are demanding my time, so I found a way to basically force myself to focus on the writing: I signed up for a screenwriting class. The goal of this particular screenwriting class is to have an outline or beat sheet of one’s story finished by the end of the semester. This is exactly what I needed because once the outline is done, writing a treatment from it should be a snap.
Getting the feedback of my classmates and especially my teacher is a real help. My teacher has worked in the industry for years as a writer, story analyst, studio executive, and executive producer; and has been involved in the making of such movies as Silence of the Lambs, Platoon, and Bull Durham.
Each week we are required to write a three-page scene. Rather than try to come up with a random story idea each week, I decided to take the story I’m going to outline and use the characters and setting to fit the scene. Most likely none of the scenes will actually be used in the story because I had to change some things to fit the homework requirements, but it does give me a chance to explore the characters and the story and really makes me think about where I want the story to go.
The first week’s scene assignment was to have one character follow another, so I had the protagonist follow the antogonist in an interesting setting. My teacher liked it so much that he posted a note on the bulletin board and told the whole class to go read my “very instructive scene in the vein of I AM LEGEND.” He also said I “include(d) so much action and suspense and communicate(d) the flow of action with some real clarity.” I’ve never seen I Am Legend, but from the trailers I’ve seen of the movie, I can see where he would get that comparison even though that’s not really the tone I was shooting for. Now, mind you, this scene was far from perfect. The formatting was too “Old Hollywood,” but considering that we had just read an old Hitchcock script, that’s what I was using as a guide. Also, the ending fell short. Nevertheless, I’ll take the compliment, especially coming from someone with his experience in the industry, and considering that, so far, I’m the only one in class that has been singled out for praise.
Going on my trip and then getting sick afterward has really put me behind in this class, so if you’re wondering why I’ve been so quiet lately, it’s because I’m scrambling to get caught up on homework. There are only about four weeks left before the semester ends and I’m determined to get the most out of this class, not just in terms of getting the outline finished but, also, in terms of learning as much as I can about screenwriting, which will make me a better producer.
In the producer/writer agreement that I’m currently negotiating, we’re setting deadlines and right now we have asked for a completion date for the treatment of October 31. However, since the negotiations are currently eating into our writing time, I’m pushing to move the date back to November 30. This means that all treatments, both hers and mine, need to be in final form by that date. In addition, I’ve been accepting story submissions from another writer and if I feel that one of them is worth developing, I’ll have my attorney draw up an agreement with that writer also with the same timeline. The goal is to get all the treatments done at the same time so they can be submitted to the cast at the same time. After that it will be the decision of the cast as to whether they like any of them. If they do, then we’re looking at a six-month timeline to get the script completed. If they don’t, I start all over again looking for more stories.
So that’s where we are right now. If things go well, we are looking at having a finished script by next fall, hopefully sooner. I know that seems like quite a ways off, but getting the script right is absolutely vital. According to Dov S-S Simens, you don’t just need a good script, you need a great script. Yes, the standards need to be that high because the competition is intense. Nothing less than great will do. Hollywood may be able to get away with mediocre scripts, but independent filmmakers can’t.
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06.22.08
Posted in Film Production, Low-Budget Filmmaking, Scripts/Screenwriting at 5:00 pm by Amanda Rogers
Here’s a great tip from William Martell’s blog on how to give a low-budget film a big-budget feel: Use stock footage.
In his blog, Martell writes about a writing gig, that ended up going bust, in which the producer was supposedly looking for a script to fit a facilities deal he had. What’s a facilities deal? According to Martell, “a facilities deal is a studio that will give you equipment, studio space, standing sets, and often crew in exchange for a cut of the film. Most of these deals are outside the USA, many in ex-Soviet countries (including Russia) and places like the Philippines and Mexico. Anywhere where the film biz was booming at one time and now it is not.”
Martell goes on to explain how he tries to make the most of the sets and props that the facility has. He writes: “One of the issues with any facility deal is that to best use what they have, you need to stretch it. Just like any other backlot, they may have some street sets and some buildings, and then all kinds of cool standing sets on the soundstages. But you need that bit of stock footage of New York to sell that New York Street Set. You need some Paris stock footage to sell the European Street Set. And if you do a little bit of re-dressing and use a piece of Rome stock footage, your story can do a little globe trotting without any real cost.”
So how does using stock footage make a low-budget film look bigger? Martell explains how he incorporates stock footage into his scripts: ”When you are writing scripts on a budget, you start to look for things that can stretch that budget - so that you can write a script that looks like a big studio film that can still be made on the producer’s budget…You didn’t want the audience to think your $3 million film cost $3 million. You want them to think it cost $100 million. So you learn to keep your eye out for anything that adds production value. I see a film with ‘harvestable’ stock footage, and I remember it. In this case, I was looking for stock footage that had been used at least once before in an inexpensive film - that way I know it’s cheap.”
Where do you find stock footage? Martell says that “you want to find great footage from a film that completely flopped. George Lucas isn’t going to sell you footage from STAR WARS (starring Mark Hammill) but you might be able to buy some of that great sci-fi footage from SLIPSTREAM (starring Mark Hammill). The bigger the film flopped, the more likely the producers want to make a buck or two selling someone stock footage…The biggest mistake you can make when thinking of stock footage is to consider material from a film that made money. You need to *only* look at big flops.”
What a great tip for us independent filmmakers who are looking to stretch our budgets!
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03.02.08
Posted in Classes/Books, Scripts/Screenwriting at 8:44 pm by Amanda Rogers
I’ve been reading William Martell’s daily script tips for quite some time now and always find them very worthwhile. I really would like to take one of his screenwriting classes. But in order to get him to come to the Bay Area to give one of his classes, a minimum of 20 people is needed. So I thought I’d ask around and see if there are any local screenwriters, aspiring screenwriters, or anyone else interested in screenwriting that might be interested in attending.
If you’re not familiar with William Martell, you can check out his bio at http://www.scriptsecrets.net/products/authorbi.htm. The class he teaches is a two-day class called Character First. You can check out the content at http://www.scriptsecrets.net/lecture/secretc2.htm. The price is $199.
If you’re interested, please contact Mr. Martell via his website or myself and I’ll pass the info on to him. I’m hoping that there will be enough interest to make this happen.
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