Breakfast with Sharks Read online

  Don’t let passion get in the way of practical business sense. You are trying to get noticed for your writing and filmmaking abilities, to show people that you have what it takes to earn a spot in Hollywood while developing your contacts—always keep that objective in mind. It should be enough that you’re directing and most likely producing your own script, so avoid also starring in it. Having name actors or at least professional regional actors in your film will enhance your marketing prospects by creating a more polished project. Many professional actors, particularly in areas outside of Los Angeles or New York, will jump at the chance to do a real live film. For example, not long ago, a friend held a casting call here in Los Angeles for principal acting parts paying fifteen dollars per day. He received more than 500 head shots and agent calls, including several recognizable faces from film, commercials, and series television. When we cast the feature film Hard Scrambled, we received head shots from more than 2,000 actors, including two who were Oscar nominees. Again, know that recognizable faces will greatly enhance your project’s commercial viability. It’s a rule of thumb that while most investors won’t be able to distinguish a good script from the Farmer’s Almanac, those same investors will instantly see the merit of having Gary Busey, James Caan, or Florence Henderson in a cameo in your film. You can often get such actors for one day or one week for very reasonable fees—particularly if those fees are in the form of cashier’s checks. That’s because a cash-in-hand offer shows that you are serious about making this movie right now. This last part is crucial, since to get things done in Hollywood you must create a time constraint—which is often tough to do. Getting a name actor to read your script may take months. That’s the slow-boat-to-China route. Few actors read for themselves, however, and the chain of command is something like this: Producer or development exec takes three weeks to read and then gives to the actor’s personal manager, who takes another two weeks before passing it on to the actor’s agent, who requires an additional twenty-one days. If all goes according to plan, the targeted actor then reads the script. An upset stomach from any of these people along the way will end your project. However, money behind a project helps speed up this process immensely. Having your casting agent say to an actor’s agent, “We have a June start locked. We want your client for x role for x dollars and are willing to give you exclusive read on the script for three days before we go out to [name of rival actor],” will get things moving quickly. An agent is obligated to tell his or her client about all money offers, even if the agent feels that the offer is too low. In the case of the film Hard Scrambled, one veteran actor accepted our compensation terms over the objections of his agent, because he felt strongly about the part.

  What you’ll notice about all of the above is that going the independent route gets you, the writer, out from behind the keyboard and puts you into the middle of the filmmaking process and consequently in the driver’s seat of your career. You’re still writing, probably at a faster and more furious rate than you dreamed possible, but you’re also expanding your skills, learning by experience how your writing connects to the overall process, as well as expanding your contacts throughout the industry. Case in point: Joe Carnahan wrote, directed, produced, and edited his ultra-low-budget film Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane. A writing assignment for Harrison Ford, and a chance to write and direct the acclaimed cop drama Narc, with Jason Patric and Ray Liotta, soon followed. Likewise, the writer/director team of Owen C. Wilson and Wes Anderson (Rushmore) established their careers with Bottle Rocket, which was initially made as a thirteen-minute black-and-white short film that attracted both the Sundance Film Festival and veteran producer James L. Brooks (Broadcast News).

  Few people really fail in Hollywood. More often they simply get frustrated with the system and quit. The resourceful creative learns that when the door is closed, it’s time to go through the window. Sometimes you have to make your own opportunities. Even if you don’t envision yourself as writer/producer or writer/director but are still frustrated with the system, you should try to expand your skills, or at least seek out someone wishing to collaborate on a limited budget project. Many such parties can be found on the Done Deal message board at http://pub130.ezboard.com/bdonedeal. In any case, the various avenues offered via well-planned independent film making can be your window of opportunity.

  PART FIVE

  Advanced Career Planning

  19

  SECTION 501: WORKING THE MEETING TO YOUR FULLEST ADVANTAGE

  How to Meet with an Executive or Producer

  Setting Up the Meeting at the Best Time for the Best Result

  How to Prep for a Knockout Meeting

  The Meeting Itself

  Using Meetings to Land Assignments

  EXTRA CREDIT READING:

  From Script to Screen: The Collaborative Art of Filmmaking by Linda Seger and Edward Jay Whetmore

  There’s one last thing that I know to be true about people who work in Hollywood: Very few of us, and this includes performers, dated the cheerleader. And then they became successful and did get the cheerleader—and that’s almost worse, in a way.

  —WILLIAM GOLDMAN

  HOW TO MEET WITH AN EXECUTIVE OR PRODUCER

  Despite all appearances to the contrary, meetings with producers and studio executives don’t drop out of the sky. Today’s version of the “Lana Turner discovered in a drug store” myth is that the next Clerks or Blair Witch Project is ready to be discovered in some fourteen-year-old’s home-video camera in Anchorage. Unfortunately, those odds are at least a million to one. You should aim for better odds in developing your Hollywood career. The gnawing reality is that most opportunities come via research and perseverance, with the ultimate goal of being face to face with a gatekeeper who can purchase your project. Meetings with the movers and shakers of the industry occur in these ways:

  Contests and Competitions. A more elaborate discussion of this topic occurs later in this chapter, but know that if you win or place well in one of a dozen or more major scriptwriting competitions, the people in Hollywood will want to see what film you’ve made or script you’ve written. They’ll contact you. It’s that simple.

  Set Up by Your Manager or Agent. You have an interesting short movie, student film, or spec script that is a tough sell on the open market. Nevertheless, your agent deems the work to be a worthy introduction to gatekeepers who might be interested in meeting you. The job of such gatekeepers is to learn about new talent like you. Thus, your creative interests and aspirations are important to know in the event that you do write something deemed market-worthy six months or six years from now.

  Query Call or Letter. Meetings resulting from a query are pretty rare, since you’ll need some sort of track record to gain even two minutes of time with anyone worth meeting. However, a snappy pitch in a query letter, followed by a worthy script submission, can open doors. The Hollywood Creative Directory (www.hcdonline.com) is basically the white-pages phone book of Hollywood. In it you’ll find nearly 10,000 producers and studio and network executives representing more than 1,750 production companies, studios, and networks. The HCD includes addresses, phone and fax numbers, staff and titles, credits, and studio deals. Updated three times a year, the directory is expensive (about sixty-five bucks) but contains crucial contact information for tracking down the right people to receive your query.

  Industry Referral. Someone who is well established in the industry may be willing to make a few phone calls on your behalf to various gatekeepers. In Hollywood this is known as “godfathering.” Such generosity is invaluable; however, you should always remember that the intended target is beholden not to you but to the godfather who initiated the meeting. Generally, that reality will be in the back of the mind of whomever you sit down with. While you’ll be able to cut to the chase about possible job opportunities a bit more than someone off the street, always be respectful of the fact that you are mainly in the room because of the relationship someone else has with the person you’re pitching. Compl
aining if the person you meet with doesn’t follow up with you to the person who got you the meeting is an uber no-no in this case, and the surest way never again to get some of that sweet Hollywood love that is the godfather call.

  Get into the habit of making circle-and-arrow diagrams of the people you call and when the call occurred, along with the person who referred you, with an arrow pointing to any result and follow-up, if necessary. Even if you’re someone who is “naturally good with names,” you’ll be severely tested in Hollywood. Not only are there dozens and dozens of names to know over the course of a year, but I’ve discovered that a person’s brain starts to specialize the longer he or she works here. That is, by concentrating your whole being on the highly visual endeavor of film, your brain will start to crowd out what it deems to be less important forms of processing, such as remembering names. Very quickly, you’ll discover that while the name of the first president of our nation may suddenly escape you, you now have a knack for total recall of a line of dialogue from a Pauly Shore movie viewed in 1987. Luckily, you can fend off Alzheimer’s by keeping your notebook handy for fast reference when the phone rings.

  Because 90 percent of your interactions will be with a gatekeeper’s assistant, be sure to write down the assistant’s name, and work it into any conversation you have with said assistant, as well as any details you know about the gatekeeper’s projects.

  SETTING UP THE MEETING AT THE BEST TIME FOR THE BEST RESULT

  Avoid Mondays and Fridays for setting up meetings, if you can. Try for Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. On Monday, execs tend to be just getting into gear and back into the swing of things after the weekend or coming back from traveling to sometimes far-flung locations for movies in production and dealing with issues on the set that may still be vexing them. Execs will have departmental meetings to attend, lots of phone calls to return and e-mails to answer on Mondays. Meanwhile, Friday is gateway to travel, weekend fun time, as well as the release of the week’s new films. Execs will be distracted, strategically looking for meetings they can bump (reschedule at a later date) in order to take off early. Sadly, unless you have a project with the company already in active development, chances are you’ll be bumped a couple of times before the actual sit-down meeting occurs, regardless of what day your meeting is scheduled.

  Ten-thirty a.m. is the perfect meeting time, plus or minus a half hour. This time period allows you to avoid the Hollywood rush-hour traffic. Try to get in before lunch, but not too close to that time. And not too early. To that end, avoid the 9:00 a.m. sit-down. My experience has been that execs often arrive a bit late and cranky from a long night of reading, braving L.A. freeway rush-hour traffic, a hurried breakfast, and often all of the above. Also avoid being the last meeting before lunch. Once I sat down with a CE for a noon appointment and thought she muttered something. “Sorry? I didn’t catch that,” I said, to which she replied, “Nothing. My stomach is grumbling.” Many execs get queasy at having to admit that they are made of the same flesh and blood as you or I, so the admission threw both of us, and things sort of went downhill from there. For some reason, ending a meeting with “Sorry about your tummy” sounds better in one’s head than when actually uttered.

  Finally, know that meetings are scheduled very tightly together and usually run long. Thus a four-o’clock meeting can be forty-five minutes late because of all of the previous rollovers. Most likely you will be struck by the irony of waiting nearly an hour for what is designed to be a ten-minute meeting at best. But gently put aside your complaints, as you continue to patiently sip your exotic bottled water (Los Angeles is, in fact, a desert—for that reason, keeping you irrigated is chief among an assistant’s duties).

  HOW TO PREP FOR A KNOCKOUT MEETING

  Creatives neglect the business side of movies all too often, but such negligence can come at a terrible price. In Hollywood, daily industry newspapers like Variety and The Hollywood Reporter are referred to as “the trades.” They are found in every reception room of every production company and studio in Southern California. (It’s not a good sign when the trades in a Hollywood reception area are a few weeks old. Out-of-date status may indicate that they’re probably bought sporadically or pilfered from other waiting rooms around town, which, in turn, may mean that the producer with whom you are about to sit down isn’t quite as successful or plugged into the Hollywood juice as they would have you believe.)

  Many libraries carry the trades, particularly in major urban areas. The media or film department at your local college or university may also make them available for students. Subscriptions to the trades are very expensive, but are a good write-off on your taxes. Note that the free online versions are basically just a marketing tool containing a few teaser headlines and not much else, so they aren’t very useful.

  I admit I’m not wild about reading the trades. However, I do subscribe to them, and in doing so I have discovered that the daily process of perusing them gets easier over time, like a bran muffin for fiber in your morning diet.

  Tip: A friend maintains a massive professional Rolodex. Each morning he cuts out the photos of significant players and pastes them onto a card along with pertinent information gleaned from the accompanying article, as well as anything further that he has uncovered on the Internet. Screenings and trendy restaurants are always a veritable who’s who of the industry. My friend is genuinely affable, so he likes to walk up to these players and say, “Hey, Jim Sherman. Congrats on acquiring No. 2 Pencil!” The exec will invariably assume he has already met my friend, and they will begin to chat.

  You should make use of the aforementioned trade publications as well as other print and online resources before your meeting. Additional resources are the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times print and online editions, Fade In, Creative Screenwriting, Written By, DGA Magazine, and Script Magazine, as well as other general interest film magazines like Premiere and Movieline. Premiere magazine, particularly its annual “Top 100 Hollywood Power Players” issue, is an important resource. I find it fascinating the way people move up and down, and sometimes abruptly appear on this list or vanish from it. The day you sit down with someone who is on the list is a particular thrill, akin to meeting the Wizard of Oz.

  Two online sites that are helpful are the Done Deal message board http://pub130.ezboard.com/bdondeal and Who Represents.com. The key is to educate yourself about the industry and about people doing what you’d like to be doing. In prepping for your meeting, ask yourself questions like “What genre does the exec specialize in? What sort of material has the studio or production company recently acquired, and what might they be looking for?” Magazines and trades can tell you this. For example, a company that has recently made three low-budget hardware (guns-and-gadgets extravaganza) flicks probably won’t be interested in your cerebral period drama. By making use of trade publications and other print and online resources, you can uncover the company’s recent track record, as well as what is currently on its slate. Track down this info and ask yourself, “Do I have a sense that the company gravitates toward projects involving concepts, talent, or directors?” It’s critical for you to know such things beforehand.

  DEVELOPMENT SLATES

  When a production company or studio acquires an intellectual property, a script, the company needs someone to manage the project on its journey to the big screen. A slate is the roster of projects in development for which a producer or studio executive is responsible. Usually, this task is handled by a VP of Development. A project in development is most likely still being rewritten at the script phase, whereas a project in preproduction has been out to directors and actors for consideration. The producer will also oversee a movie through is production and post-production (editing, sound, etc.) phases, right through to the actual test screening and marketing of the completed film. Via websites like Filmtracker.com, you can find out what a company is producing via development reports and studio production slates. Such information will include dates so you’ll know how active a pro
ject is, as well as key elements attached like notable movie stars. Note that many of these sites charge a fee to obtain their information. However, most offer free trials or reduced rates for students or individuals.

  Knowing what’s on a gatekeeper’s slate can give you an indication of budget levels (Jonny Depp as the lead versus Emilio Estevez), how active are both the producer/exec and his company since you can infer a lot about a company with no projects in production . . . or if the executive isn’t assigned to them. You can also get a sense of the producer or exec’s taste in material. I once took a meeting at a prodco specializing in big budget action films. An executive who had just come on board invited me in to discuss my action script. However, a check of the exec’s track record indicated that he liked developing comedies. I guessed there might be extenuating circumstances for the hire. Sure enough, the meeting wasn’t very fruitful (we spent the time discussing his theory of comedy) and the exec soon moved on.

  THE MEETING ITSELF

  Most meet-and-greets (introductory meetings) begin with very brief small talk about sports, your drive in to the studio, or what kind of weekend each of you had (theirs: Diving off Catalina Island; yours: Cataloging your collection of dryer lint), then up-shift to interesting tidbits usually gleaned from the trades that morning. While such topics may seem like a cliché, remember that the average executive works sixty hours a week or more, so preoccupation with what others are doing becomes second nature and part of one’s survival skills for the industry. Small talk is also your way to gauge the temperature of the room a bit. So mention the new Brad Pitt comedy project and an exec will often give you a Ben & Jerry’s–sized taste of the “inside scoop” behind the headline. In any case, the point of reading the trades is to send a clear signal to the creative exec or producer that you not only share reference points, but also understand his or her priorities. That makes you a potential project mate for the next six months.