Want to impress us? Want to make us drop what we’re doing and realize that you are the next big thing in Hollywood?
If you manage to get a meeting with a production company, network executive, or agent, these three things will help you knock their socks off:
1. Great Tape
When you’re just starting out, you need great tape to sell your ideas to Hollywood.
Yes, you do.
After all, no one knows you. You’re not an established filmmaker, TV producer, or production company. You have zero track record. What you are, honestly, is a wannabe—just as we were not too long ago.
But walk in with fantastic tape that clearly defines your show or movie idea, is well shot, tightly edited, features great music and a clean sound-mix, pops with attractive, appropriate titles or graphics, shows an understanding of today’s marketplace, and features great characters, and I promise you’ll have our undivided attention.
When you’re just starting out, you need great tape to sell your ideas to Hollywood.
Why? Because by producing incredible tape you are SHOWING us, instead of lamely telling us, that you can execute.
Ideas are a dime a dozen, but if you can turn an idea into great tape, you have real value. Everyone in town will notice.
2. Humility
We all start somewhere, and that somewhere is…as nobodies. Fact is, until people know you’re for real, you are a liability. If someone takes a chance on you, you could turn out to be incompetent, a pain to deal with, or just a straight-up whack job. At best, it could be a waste of their time. At worst, they could end up with egg on their face and looking bad to their cohorts, because they took a chance on an unknown quantity…you.
When we were trying to break into the business, we just wanted to prove ourselves to anyone who’d give us a second look. We took lousy (or no) pay, worked countless hours…and enjoyed every minute of it.
Yes, we were totally broke newlyweds, but at that point in our lives, money was not high on our list of priorities. Proving ourselves was.
(By the way, if money is high on your priority list, you may want to think about a different career. It’s gonna be a while before your investment in your filmmaking career pays off.)
While you should never allow yourself to be taken advantage of, be realistic. What many newbies mistake for “getting screwed” may be the opportunity of a lifetime.
If someone wants you to recut your tape sans pay, do a free re-write of your pitch or script, or spend some more time developing your idea, do it! This is your chance establish yourself as “the real deal.” Those of us who’ve managed to earn a living in this business have all been there…broke, dreaming big, and working for free to prove how badly we want it.
This is your chance to establish yourself as “the real deal.”
Realize that you’re an unknown quantity, and anyone deciding to work with you is putting their good name on the line…for you! By working with you, an agent, production company, or network executive is endorsing you, and helping you chase your dreams. Act accordingly, and make sure they don’t regret it.
3. Flexibility
It comes as a shock to many first-timers that the concept they’ve been slaving over needs to be tweaked, or completely re-envisioned if they actually want to get their movie made or television show produced.
You need to be flexible.
Agents and production companies get constant updates about the kinds of TV shows that networks want, and have their finger on the pulse of the feature film market. Studio and network executives know exactly what they want, and what is working for their target audiences at any given time. Your idea will almost always need to be adapted to fit these needs.
Be ready to listen and open to suggestions. Feel free to ask questions, but PLEASE don’t presume to know better than the people you are pitching to. At this point in your career, they know best, and if you’re lucky, they just want to help you make your film or TV show a reality. While you shouldn’t make creative promises you can’t keep or twist your project into something you can’t deliver, you should be as flexible as possible.
Willing to do that? Great. If, on the other hand, you’re one of those “this is my vision of my show and i won’t change my vision for anyone” types, then … good luck.
You need to be flexible.
Making film and television is a long, hard process that requires ridiculous hours and constant collaboration. If you prove impossible to work with this early on, people will shoe you out the door faster than you can say “wannabe.”
Blow Us Away
Come in humble, flexible, and bearing great tape, and we’ll scramble to work with you.
Just remember, a lot of people are humble. A lot are flexible. Not many are great Hands On Producers…so HOP to it!
