by Voyage | Jun 11, 2014 | Audience, Book to Film
Keys to Turning Your Book Into A Film Or Original Series – Part 4 Make Your Film Project Stand Out — Get Ahead on Time and Money In Part 3 of Keys to Turning Your Book Into A Film Or Original Series we talked about creating short form materials to help facilitate getting producers to read your work and this week we’re going to talk about why creating short form materials help a producer not just save time, but also save money. When a producer is deciding which projects to focus on, which aren’t projects to consider, and which projects to option and acquire, they’re largely considering three major things: What is their cost to bring the project to market? How much of an investment are they going to need to make? What’s the probable speed to market, meaning is the project efficient or inefficient? How much time will it take? Does the project meet the producer’s creative and market needs? These questions can help your film project stand out. A Closer Look at Costs The other thing to really understand is that producers in Hollywood are signatories of the Writers Guild of America. The Writers Guild of America is the union that manages all screenwriters and authors. In the case of a producer in Hollywood who’s the signatory to the union, when they’re looking at a novel to adapt, one of the first things that they’re likely to need to do is hire a screenwriter to develop the material into a treatment or screenplay. The minimum union scale for a writer in the Writers Guild of America is roughly...
by Voyage | Jun 4, 2014 | Book to Film
Hook them with a logline First and foremost, in order to sell a story, you have to know its logline like the back of your hand. Loglines are an industry standard of communication, so being a master of writing a logline is definitely a requirement. So what is a logline, exactly? A logline is a one sentence compelling and cinematic description of your story, its main character, that characters main objective, and the main obstacle they face. Your logline is the absolute essence of your story. Loglines are, by necessity, simple. But they aren’t always easy. While a logline is a simplified encapsulation of the main points of your story, fitting the essence of your story into an easily-digestible sound bite can sometimes be tricky. You have to make several important decisions: What does the audience absolutely need to know? What else can they infer from the page? What can you make them feel? What makes your story stand out from the rest? In order to be as effective as possible, your logline needs to do these three key things: 1. Answer their questions: First, it must answer the who? what? where? when? and how? of your story. This is the bare bones of the story you’re trying to tell. Without this, it can be difficult for a producer to determine what your story is even about, even if the concept may be clear as crystal in your own head. A good rule of thumb is to include one or two telling adjectives about both your protagonist and antagonist. It might be tough to pin down your complex...
by Voyage | May 28, 2014 | Book to Film
Keys to Turning Your Book Into A Film Or Original Series – Part 3 Why Do I Need Short Form Materials? In Parts 1 and 2 of this series — The Keys to Turning Your Book Into A Film Or Original Series– we discussed how to solve the time (and money) problem for a producer, how to make a producer’s life easy and really attract them to your book, and how to view this entire process as the business that it is – the “Adaptation Business”. Today in Part 3, we are going to start discussing exactly how to do this. To start, one of the best ways of beginning this process is by creating short form materials. Let’s take a look at what short form materials look like, why they’re important, and how you can create them… What Are Short Form Materials? There are a variety of valuable short form materials, but the most effective for promoting your book to producers are: Logline
– Loglines are quick, one-sentence summaries of your book written in exciting and visual entertainment speak, can be really great sales tools, and serve a bit like your ‘elevator pitch’. Synopsis (or Book Summary)
– This is probably self-explanatory, but a synopsis is a short summary that provides a clear and concise outline of the story. Although longer than a logline, this should be relatively short. Treatments – In most cases, a treatment is a 7 to 10 page breakdown of the story outlining the beginning, middle, and end. This document is a great sales tool because it solves a big part of the producer’s time problem, and can even be adapted into a screenplay. Screenplay – This...
by Voyage | May 25, 2014 | Book to Film
The Keys to Turning Your Book Into A Film Or Original Series – Part 2 How Your Adaptation Can Make the Producer’s Life Easier The first part of this is determining which market you should be targeting for your book. This is different than knowing your audience, because you must also understand the in’s and out’s of the various genres, media outlets, and niches that Hollywood partitions itself into. You need to identify which market you’re dealing with. These market distinctions go much deeper than just television and film – genre, tone, style, etc. filter down to create much smaller sub-markets. By knowing all of this information, you will be able to target the right producers that will be passionate about your project and give it the fighting chance it needs. (Remember, most producers have a very targeted niche that they work in – if you have a book that should be turned into a horror movie, you don’t want to send it to a producer who works in TV comedy). The very worst thing you could do is to waste a producer’s time. This is a sure fire way of ensuring that nobody will ever take the time to consider your book. So get your ducks in a row so you’re not wasting valuable time. Make a Producer Love You and Your Book The next element of being in the “Adaptation Business” is solving the money problem for potential producers. Adapting your own book or hiring a screenwriter to have your book adapted into a treatment or, even better, a screenplay (FYI – having the book adapted is probably...
by Voyage | May 21, 2014 | Book to Film
The Keys to Turning your Book Into A Film – Part 1 Have you always dreamed of seeing your book (or concept for a book) on the big screen? Bestsellers are being made into movies at a growing rate these days, but what if you haven’t written a bestseller? Producers and filmmakers are always looking for intellectual property to adapt for the big screen (or for television), but getting your work considered by producers is a much different process when you don’t have a bestseller. Keep in mind that many bestsellers only become so AFTER they are made into movies. While top selling authors have big time producers knocking on their doors, most authors have to do the knocking themselves. The point is — you need to have a solid strategy, and you need to be in the Adaptation Business. Lets explore why bestsellers are so attractive to producers (and how you can add a similar appeal to your book). A bestseller usually comes with an audience. It has a lot of “Pre-Awareness” and a known story that audiences have already resonated with, which in a producer’s business-centric mind equates to an established market and predictable revenue. In many cases, it’s easy to envision how these stories would transform on the big screen. A producer is acutely aware that they are the one responsible for bringing a project to the finish line. They are the ones that must push the figurative stone up the hill for two or three years in order to get a movie developed, financed, and made. So, when a bestseller shows up on a producer’s...
