The video below is the last of the Cinematic Study Guides for now. Next week it's back to the PoPS updates until Episode 7 comes out.

One of the standard tools of YouTube audience building are collabs. Collabs, I'm sure you'll be hyper-shocked to find out, are the abbreviated form of saying collaboration videos. You find someone else on YouTube with similar interests or a similar style of content and you collab…orate. Usually without being in the same place. You each shoot your individual parts and the person who suggested the collab has to edit everything together, it goes up on their channel, and both channels promote it in the hopes of fostering audience crossover and growth for both channels. BOOM.

These can be hard to organize. People are super busy. The more subscribers they get the busier they get. I recently tried to get a collab going for a Cinematic Study Guide and though the folks I reached out to said they were up for it, our schedules never aligned.

I've used the spirit of the collab in PoPS newscasts. In episodes 4 and 5, whenever a newscast comes on, those are other YouTubers appearing as newscasters and witnesses. I think they all did a great job, but I also think it's hilarious the way the microphones keep changing. I don't know why that's so funny to me. I've been able to arrange some fairly prominent cameos thanks to the help of my buddy Craig using his clout to reach out to them. I also had contact with an author I'm a big fan of, J.A. Konrath, he's at the forefront of the e-books movement and has made a lot of money through self publishing and speaking out against the parts of traditional publishing he has a problem with. I sent him an email asking him to be a lynchpin character in episode 7. He said he'd do it if I would agree to a rewrite he did on his character. He did a hilarious rewrite that enabled it to be more of a crossover with his social media persona and I loved it, it was just too much of a departure from the series so that was another collab that didn't work out.

Several times I've agreed to be part of collabs where I wasn't entirely pleased with the end results. Interactions like that leads to many people distrustful of sending footage in to any collab. But here are a couple of examples of collabs that I think are great.

Thanks for reading!

THE SPEC MARKET

Our mission is to provide tools that can help you become a successful artist. In this series we search for articles that can illuminate different aspects of the business you are in.  This week we are bringing you Scott Myers' take on the Spec Market from his great blog GO INTO THE STORY more at: http://gointothestory.blcklst.com/

And remember, the EXTENDED DEADLINE for the WRITING & PITCH COMPETITION is May 24. If you rushed to beat the Late Deadline, we'll accept revisions up until May 24...more time to refine and submit your great work.

The Business of Screenwriting: Everything you wanted to know about specs. (part 6)

March 21st, 2013 by Scott Myers

Spec scripts, that is. I’m guessing that perhaps 90% of the people who follow this blog at some point in their lives will write a spec script. And the other 10% are involved in buying and selling them. In light of that fact, last year I interviewed a top manager and some Hollywood screenwriters about the ins and outs of what is involved in bringing a spec script to market. I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to do something with that inside information, so when Vanity Fair recently came out with this article — 'When the Spec Script was King' — a decent piece, but pretty surface level, I figured this is as good a time as any to dig into the subject in a comprehensive fashion.

In Part 1, we looked at the genesis of the spec script in Hollywood from 1900-1942.

In Part 2, we covered the emergence of the spec script market from 1942-1990.

In Part 3, we analyzed the boom, bust, and back again of 1990-2012.

In Part 4, we surveyed the buyers, both major studios and financiers.

In Part 5, we examined the screenwriter-rep relationship in terms of developing a spec script.

Part 6: Rolling out a new writer's spec script

There are multiple ways in which managers and agents take out a spec script, but when it involves a new writer, there can be an additional value in going wide. Check out these observations from Chris Fenton, literary manager and producer of H2F Entertainment from an interview I did with him:

It depends on the script. We’d like to have something that works for both the studios and the financiers, a script that could be a big blown-out studio movie as well as something a little more constrained that can work for financiers with smaller budgets. If we have something like that, I want to introduce that writer and their script to everybody in town. I want to create excitement around a piece of material, make sure the tracking boards are covering the project, and try to get it out to 120 producers, get everybody reading it. Because you never know what can happen with a good piece of material and the right producer. Maybe it doesn’t sell, but it gets that producer thinking about another assignment, creates an opportunity for the writer that way, too. Bottom line the spec market is a fantastic way for getting a new writer to be read.

A lot here. Let’s  unpack it:

* First and foremost, everything depends on the script. As Chris said elsewhere in our conversation, “It’s super important for us to be very critical and have a high quality control when it comes to representing writers because every time we sell something, that makes it that much easier to get everybody to read our next writer client and their script, and read them fast to try to make another sale.” This underscores what we discussed in Part 5: No script goes out until it’s ready.

* The desire for writers to craft material that can be sent to both sets of buyers — the major studios and independent financiers — is understandable. As discussed in Part 4, the odds of a deal are much better when dealing with 50-75 buyers than no more than 9 major players. The subtext here is that writers would be wise to don their producer’s hat when conceiving, developing and writing a spec script, one that is cognizant of budgetary issues. If you write a script that can only be produced for $100M or more, you seriously reduce the pool of buyers. If, on the other hand, you create a script that could be made for $30M, but if a major studio wants to step in and lay in all sorts of special effects and set pieces, then you have two sets of buyers.

* 120 producers or whatever the number, the goal here is to get a writer and their material maximum exposure. All it takes is one set of eyeballs to get the script, to become its champion. Moreover, as Chris noted, producers are involved in multiple projects. Perhaps they like what you’ve written and have another script in development they can plug you into. And yes, Hollywood players are in a constant state of motion, moving from this gig to that, that gig to this. Exposing a writer to as many producers and studio execs as possible may not translate into anything specific in the present. On the other hand, if a writer can make connections with multiple players, that increases the odds that at some point in the future, the writer’s name will arise in relation to another project.

* “The spec market is a fantastic way for getting a new writer to be read.” The meaning of that is simple and plain, and should encourage each of us — aspiring screenwriters to professional screenwriters. There is nothing quite like a spec script in terms of its potential to introduce a new writer, redefine an established writer, reawaken the career of a floundering writer, and generate enough heat to translate into a writing assignment or an actual sale.

Next week: Another installment in this series.

The Business of Screenwriting is a weekly series of GITS posts based upon my experiences as a complete Hollywood outsider who sold a spec script for a lot of money, parlayed that into a screenwriting career during which time I’ve made some good choices, some okay decisions, and some really stupid ones. Hopefully you’ll be the wiser for what you learn here.

The video below is the second to last Cinematic Study Guide, in which I give my thoughts on Iron Man 3 and recap the plot of Batman the Movie from 1966.

Okay. The next logical step in crowd sourcing appeared a couple days ago and it makes perfect, beautiful sense. As artists back in the day had patrons who sponsored their ongoing work, so appears the website Patreon.

This dude Jack Conte is an awesome YouTube musician. He built his audience around a format called video songs. He would perform all the parts while recording it on video and create big collage-type videos where you'd watch him actually create the song. The difference between this and a music video is that these are actually clips of the actual parts being recorded. His covers are amazing. I first came across him because of his Aphex Twin/Bright Eyes mashup:

Then a couple months ago he uploaded a couple new videos with a completely new sound, style, and format. It was clear he had a few cameras and was doing these videos in one uninterrupted take that he would just edit together, but it was essentially a live performance. It was awesome. Then his machine announced a new project. (Warning. This Thrift Shop remix has a TON of F-bombs. But the video itself is amazing.):

The music video he announced at the end went live two days ago. It's for an original song. The song is great, the video is amazing, and the robots and sets and everything are all practical. At the end, an exhausted and apparently mildly nervous Conte announces Patreon: a site where people can pledge a certain amount of money to Conte's videos PER VIDEO. Every time he uploads a video, someone who's pledged 5 bucks has 5 bucks deducted from their account and deposited into his. It's a way he's going to sustain his musician/video creator lifestyle sustained simply by the small ongoing donations of hundreds or thousands of his core supporters. It's ideal for the musician or the short video creator. They make lots of little things instead of one big thing. It brilliant. And people can create their own Patreon pages for their projects on the site. Simply awesome. Here's the video and a link to his Patreon page where he explains the whole concept himself:

http://www.patreon.com/JackConte

Thanks for reading, guys.

- Jake Jarvi

THE SPEC MARKET

Our mission is to provide tools that can help you become a successful artist. In this series we search for articles that can illuminate different aspects of the business you are in.  This week we are bringing you Scott Myers' take on the Spec Market from his great blog GO INTO THE STORY more at: http://gointothestory.blcklst.com/

And remember, our partner, withoutabox.com has an EXTENDED DEADLINE for the WRITING & PITCH COMPETITION of May 24 which we will honor on our site as well.  More time to submit your great work.

The Business of Screenwriting: Everything you wanted to know about specs.

Spec scripts, that is. I’m guessing that perhaps 90% of the people who follow this blog at some point in their lives will write a spec script. And the other 10% are involved in buying and selling them. In light of that fact, last year I interviewed a top manager and some Hollywood screenwriters about the ins and outs of what is involved in bringing a spec script to market. I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to do something with that inside information, so when Vanity Fair recently came out with this article — When the Spec Script was King — a decent piece, but pretty surface level, I figured this is as good a time as any to dig into the subject in a comprehensive fashion.

Three weeks ago in Part 1, we looked at the genesis of the spec script in Hollywood from 1900-1942.

Two weeks in Part 2, we covered the emergence of the spec script market from 1942-1990.

Last week in Part 3, we analyzed the boom, bust, and back again of 1990-2012.

Part 4:

THE BUYERS - STUDIOS & FINANCIERS

We may tend to think of Hollywood buyers as the movie studios: Disney, Paramount, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal, Warner Bros. For those with advanced math skills, that translates into a whopping total of 6. There are subsidiary divisions such as Fox 2000 and Fox Searchlight (Twentieth Century Fox), Focus Features (Universal),  and New Line (Warner Bros.), but those acquisition dollars are presumably part of the overall studio’s pot. We can add Lionsgate to the mix, a so-called mini-major, so let’s say 7. And DreamWorks as long as they have funding which at present they do. Last year Millennium Films acquired 6 spec scripts, more than Twentieth Century Fox, Disney and Lionsgate, so perhaps we throw them into the mix.

So… we’re talking 9 buyers? That’s it?

No, that’s not it. Fortunately for screenwriters and the film community as a whole, there are financing entities like IM Global, Content Film, Between the Eyes, Bold Films, perhaps 50-75 in number who are actively buying, developing and producing movies.

I spoke with manager Chris Fenton, literary manager and producer of H2F Entertainment about the spec market and he gave his thoughts on the state of things with regard to buyers:

The business model is going to continue to change and as it changes, I don’t expect the [spec script] market to get worse than it is now. I would like to believe that it gets a little better, but we’re never going back to the over-development days of the mid-to-late 90s. Not so fortunate for those trying to sell original material, but better in the long run for the health of the major studios.

But there are all these financiers and financier-driven projects we’re having a lot of luck with outside of the studios. Last year, we sold a relatively good amount of projects to the major studios, but then we also sold a lot of stuff to the financiers. And while the financiers don’t necessarily pay a lot of upfront money when they purchase or option a piece of material, they don’t develop a lot either.

So if you actually get one of those companies on board with a script, chances are it gets made, and the deals you can make with these type of financiers are such that if the movie does get produced, sometimes you can actually get a production bonus that might be greater than one at a studio.

In that respect, writers are actually in a strong scenario. They’re setting up a project, and while they’re not making a lot up front, when the movie gets made, they might actually be making more and on top of it, they’re more likely to get a produced film.

And by the way, if you look at it as a business model, you don’t make any money as a studio or as a financier developing material. Where you make the money is actually making the movie and distributing it and getting it out there. That’s what everybody’s goal is now.

What type of projects are these ‘financiers’ buying? It varies from company to company, but I think it’s safe to say there are two commonalities across the board: (1) They are interested in genre films such as Action, Action-Thriller, Thriller, Horror, Horror-Thriller. (2) They tend to focus on lower budget movies as compared to the major studios. By lower budget, think $5-25M. Some may partner up with other financiers to stretch budgets above $30M, even $40M, but those projects have to have major talent attached, super strong marketing potential, and so on.

As you track spec script sales here on GITS, make sure to note the buyers. As I’ve said before many times, the easiest way to sell a spec script is to write what they’re buying. Your understanding of that marketplace can help you assess story concepts you generate so you make smart use of your time as you develop and write your next original screenplay.

Next week, we start looking into the actual process of bringing a spec script to market.

The Business of Screenwriting is a weekly series of GITS posts based upon my experiences as a complete Hollywood outsider who sold a spec script for a lot of money, parlayed that into a screenwriting career during which time I’ve made some good choices, some okay decisions, and some really stupid ones. Hopefully you’ll be the wiser for what you learn here.

The video below is a study guide recapping my very unprofessional first feature made with super consumer grade equipment.

A lot of people expect to drop their content online and for views to just start rolling in. That's not how it works. Same with crowd sourcing. The attitude can be summed up in a question I asked my Video for the Internet class this week:

INT. COLLEGE CLASSROOM -- DAY

The room is half full, at the tail end of a ten-minute break. ADJUNCT PROFESSOR JAKE, 32, debonair and impossibly windswept, leans back casually in his chair surveying his domain. STUDENTS (late teens to mid twenties) are scattered around a large table. The room is silent except for TINY CLICKS as they hover over their phones and laptops.

ADJUNCT PROFESSOR JAKE: What do you guys think of Kickstarter? Have you ever donated to any campaigns?

ANONYMOUS STUDENT: No. They can give me money though.

ADJUNT PROFESSOR JAKE: That attitude right there is why a lot of Kickstarter campaigns fail spectacularly.

The class LAUGHS uncomfortably.

BACK TO BLOG

People who ignore the existence of online communities tend to think of online audiences as something magical. View counts are just numbers that come from the internet. However, the internet itself doesn't actually consume anything. It's just a very populated gateway.  If you just launch your project on a website, it's going to sit there and not do anything. You have t let people know it's there. Review sites and blogs and yadda yadda. That's why YouTube is so amazing. It's a place rife with communities full of people who are already going to a site to watch and discover content. If your stuff is good…they want to find it. So how do you help them find it?

Some creators go to the comments of very successful videos and say "Check out my channel!" and provide a link. Those usually get flagged as spam though. More acceptable is creating a video response to a successful video. Video responses appear below the video and above the comments on a YouTube page. If they correspond directly to the video, sometimes people will click on them. If they're completely unrelated, people often won't. My buddy Craig was ingenious, pulling clips of other YouTubers winking from his video responses to close each video. His videos always get tons of video responses because everyone wants to be a Wheezy wink. Others also send personal messages to YouTubers they like or have heard of with links to their videos. This is hit and miss too.

The best way to slowly yourself into online communities is to actually participate in them. Watch videos, leave comments, like things, use your Twitter and Facebook to promote things you like. The internet is great at linking people together over common interests. The more videos you comment on, the more your username is out there. If someone leaves a comment on my video that piques my interest I'll always go check out their channel and see what they do. I've subscribed to quite a few people I found in the comments of my videos or in the comments of videos I'm interested in. And they're not "Hey! Watch what I'm doing!"-comments, they're just interesting or express interests I relate too. If you can't think of anything else to write in the comments of a video, just quote back your favorite line from the video in quotation marks with a single qualifier like HILARIOUS or I LOVE IT after that. People love that. It lets them know what you're connecting with. Finding common ground is what the internet is all about. And if people like what you like, there's a good chance they'll also like the content you create. But you can't find them if you don't engage. Participation is essential.

Thanks for reading.

--Jarvi