finding producers and talent re Joe Calabrese

[tspenn]

I want to know more about how to find and locate producers and even talent to submit a screenplay. In another post Joe Calabrese mentioned cutting out the middle man, the agent. His concept as I understood it was that producers are more hungry to step up. Sounds like an interesting concept. How about getting screenplays direct to talent? From what I have found as a songwriter/composer this is a tough deal as they are well protected from the unsolicited. But where do we find them? I'm new to this business, but not new to conducting business. Probably a dumb question, my guess would be connections.

But like I mentioned I'm new in what I see as a savage and ruthless trade often conducted in deep shark filled waters. A strange place where talent and art must clash with the swill of greed in search of mutually beneficial high ground.

Have no ego and you have deprived them of their first weapon.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

TS Penn

[mario_c]

A-list actors and directors, as a rule, will not touch a script from someone they don't know. Just like producers will not touch a script without a release form, which is why you have to query the Development Exec's assistant first and get the express OK in the form of a release form. And when they get the script, read it and think you're the bees knees and start talking options and sales and treatment money, THEN you can find an agent or lawyer to negotiate the deal.
Terms to remember here:
A-list.
As a rule.

[wordmonkey]

The only way to skip the slush pile is to network and have workable connections that you trust and will work with you. The joke that every pool cleaner and starbucks' barista has a screenplay isn't that much of a stretch.

You can't get passed the watchdogs and filters unless you're already passed them, then you can call up a producer and and say, I have this idea, wanna look?

I'm not saying you need to go snag a job in the Mail Room of William Morris then hustle everyone you meet, but there's a reason people do that too.

And lest you think it all too depressing, it IS possible to work the system from outside LA. But given how difficult it is to do from INSIDE LA, there are easier ways to do it. (And easy is relative - it's all hard.)

Depending on your screenplay, if you wanna try and hustle talent up to sign-on, you might wanna look at indie people and actors looking to break-in themselves. There's a lot of talent around, with access to equipment and the pool cleaners and baristas without screenplays are probably actors (every chance the ones WITH screenplays are actors too).

I see breaking in very much like that show "Man VS Wild." The guy is dropped in the middle of nowhere and needs to get to civilization. Now only part of the thing is getting out. A big part is also about just staying alive and you gotta spend time you COULD be using to find help just making sure you live long enough. Same here. You have to be constant working on your skills and craft. However, you also have to be surviving and working on developing your presence, working the connections you have into bigger connections.

There are ways in. But they usually require a lot of love on your part (for what you're doing).

[zeprosnepsid]

If you are interested in submitting to talent there are several ways to go about it. One is to see if they have their own production company, a lot of them do, and submit to them like you would any other production company (although you will probably have the same results). Another, is to submit to/talk to/whatever their assistant. Their assistant reads all their scripts for them anyway and can be very influential. The guy who wrote Little Miss Sunshine used to be Matthew Broderick's assistant and got him to do Election.

There are probably other avenues too, these are just some ideas.

[ParsonBoyles]

Getting movies made is all about relationships and/or your body of work.

Make a short film or a play while you write your feature. Watch as many movies (in the same genre as yours) as you can, and when you find a movie you like, send a query letter to everyone associated with that movie that you can track down. You'll get hundreds of no thank yous.

Be polite, be professional. Be prepared to move or go to LA for meetings if you're serious. Be prepared for it to take ten years.

When it happens, it'll feel like a fluke but really what you're doing is expanding your opportunities to find that fluke.

Above all, finish your script. Nothing turns people off more than getting excited about an idea and then waiting and waiting for the script to be written. I know that from painful experience.