What does a producer do anyway? Maybe today’s post will give you an idea.
Today’s post is an informal continuation of yesterday’s contest winner announcement. So if you haven’t read that post, check it out.
Today, I thought I’d share a little of my producing journey with you in the hopes that you gain some perspective on what happens with a screenplay once it’s hurled into the system.
When you’re a producer with a script and you’re trying to make a movie, your end goal is basically one thing: find financing. Cause you can’t make a movie without money. So the question becomes, how do you get that money? And this is where things get tricky because there are a lot of paths you can take to get to that point.
Unfortunately, you cannot get financing based on your script alone. I’m sure it’s happened before. But there’s not enough meat there for people to invest in. That doesn’t mean a script is worthless. Quite the opposite. A good script with a bankable premise is what ATTRACTS the other elements that help get a film financed.
Probably the most common way to do this is to get a bankable actor attached. Once you do that, it’s easier to the get the money because the bank can justify giving money to a project with an actor who has a successful financial performance record.
Another way is to go after a director. The great thing about directors is they’re closer to the “make a movie” finish line than actors. These are the guys who physically make the film. So if David Fincher wants to make your movie, all he has to do is snap his fingers and off you go (unless it’s something with an enormous budget, like World War Z 2).
But both of these angles have limitations. Let’s say you want to get the script to Bradley Cooper (or Bradley Cooper’s people). Sounds like a good plan, right? Get Bradley Cooper involved in your project and it’s a ‘go’ movie. Well, guess what? EVERYONE wants Bradley Cooper to be the star of their movie. So they’re all calling Bradley and pitching their projects. And some of those people pitching are named Todd Phillips. Some of them are named the Russo Brothers. Where do you think you rank on that priority list?
Then you have directors, who bring their own unique challenges to the table. When an actor makes a movie, it may be three months of their life. When a director makes a movie, it’s closer to three years of their life. For that reason, directors tend to be very choosy with their projects. Unlike actors, who can say, “It’s a small time commitment. I can shoot this in less than a month,” directors tend not to attach themselves to something unless they really really love the project.
Why is this relevant? Well, you could spend three months of your life trying to get an A-List director to read your script only for a highly likely (we’re talking 98%) “no.” And, in the meantime, you just lost a ton of momentum.
Now, of course, if an actor or a director needs money, they tend to be a little more lenient in their decision-making process. But those tend to be people who aren’t in demand as much and who wouldn’t move the needle on your project much anyway. So do you really want to go that route?
All of this leads us to the worst thing about making movies: WAITING. The bigger the fish you’re trying to hook, the longer you’re going to wait. Could I get Kinetic in front of Bradley Cooper’s eyes? Probably. Everybody knows everybody in Hollywood so you usually know someone who knows someone close enough that they could get your script to that person. But because it’s not some giant Warner Brothers priority project they’re being sent, who knows when Bradley Cooper (or even his people) are going to read it.
Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum, you have actors who are not of Bradley Cooper’s caliber, but who can still get movies made. It’s way easier to get scripts to these people. And since these people aren’t getting the cream-of-the-crop material, when they come across a script that’s actually good, they’re more likely to want to make it.
But therein lies the dilemma. When you go this route, the project you’re making isn’t as sexy. And because it isn’t as sexy, the budget isn’t as high. And because the budget isn’t as high, the production value isn’t going to be as good. Which means the movie’s not going to look as good. Which means you’re probably not going to get that wide release everybody producer dreams of.
BUT! And this is a huge BUT. You got a movie made. Getting a smaller version of your movie made is always better than never making your movie at all.
These are not the only paths either. You could try and sell the script to a studio, in which case the studio would take control over the project and do all this stuff for you. Of course, their version of actor and director are probably going to be different from what you imagined and most likely be based on who the studio has good relationships with. Didn’t imagine Logan Paul as your salt-of-the-earth blue collar trucker lead? Too bad. Someone over at the studio just made a movie with him and wants to keep him in the fold.
Yet another option is to go the agency route. Packaging is what turned agencies into mega-businesses. You set your writer up with an agent at CAA or WME and that agent looks at their full client list and they say, “This movie would be good with Johnny Walters starring and Hans Friedberg directing.” Because those two are under the company umbrella, the lit agent walks over to the talent agent, suggests the idea, which the talent agent loves, and calls can be made to the talent immediately. You could put one of these packages together in the time it takes to fly to London. Well, maybe not London. But Bombay.
But that direction has its drawbacks as well. These big agencies have so much inner-company politics going on that they’re not always doing what’s best for the project. For example, if you’re Relatively New Agent and your writer has a script you think would be great for Christian Bale, your boss may tell you that Senior Agent’s project is getting Christian Bale’s attention right now so you’re not allowed to talk to Christian Bale. But, you know, Paul Bettany is available. You can send the script to him. The agent will then call the writer and, for reasons the writer is totally ignorant about, go on a 20 minute monologue about how great of an actor Paul Bettany is and, oh yeah, maybe you should think about him for the lead.
It may sound like I’m complaining about this but I’m actually not. I just find all the little nooks and crannies of trying to make a movie fascinating. You really have to sit down and strategize to figure out what the best route is. Cause each route has its own unique maze you have to manage your way through.
I also think it’s good for you, the screenwriter, to know this. Once you understand the challenges of getting a project to the finish line, you realize how important it is to come up with a script that a) has a great concept and b) people can’t put down. Cause the best defense for tired people with too much Hollywood bullshit on their mind is a great script. That’s the script that’s most likely to become a movie.
I know this post was a little off-brand but I hope you enjoyed it. :)
