by Voyage | May 7, 2014 | Entertainment Business
The entertainment industry is a strange, complex, and absolutely unique sector of business. As such, the people who participate in it on the ground level are prone to misconceptions about how things actually get done behind closed doors. The primary assumption that gets made is that the industry is first and foremost interested in artistic form and expression. While that’s not entirely false, the truth is that the entertainment business is, well, a business. Whenever you’re asking for other people’s money or other institutions money to help you make something, you’re participating in a market, not just artistic expression. At first glance, the role of a writer looks similar to that of a painter: the screen is a blank canvas, and your ideas are the paint that you use to communicate to others a fully-formed artistic expression. If your form of expression resonates with somebody, great! You can sell or show your painting and attract the attention that your artwork deserves. In the world of the average painter, the sort of distance between themselves and a customer is very short. But this doesn’t quite hold true for the film world. In film, the distance between the writer and the audience is much larger. Even in an independent film, the writer must understand the larger context of satisfying the needs of actors, directors, and collaborators–all of which require money. You’re in the business of satisfying the needs of all the organizations that finance the realization of your work. The point is, you’re really entering a significant marketplace world in which there are a lot of people making efforts to express...
by Voyage | May 2, 2014 | Audience, Entertainment Business
Know Your Market We always recommend starting at the end of the game. The end of the game is when you have audiences watching your content. Ultimately they are the buyers of the material and everyone else between you and them is basically trying to interpret and predict their needs, so you too will be well served to understand who your audience is and then develop the right product that they will want to “consume”. If you don’t know who your audience is, then you really don’t know what market you’re operating within. When I say market, I mean like are you operating as a studio, like a studio project. Is this a cable television project? Is it a network television project? Is it a meaning maker project? Is it an indie film? Is it a digital web series? What is the market that you’re operating within? In turn if you don’t know what market you’re in, then you won’t know how to potentially do two things: 1. Budget: You won’t know how to write the right material, meaning you won’t be creating the type of material that’s needed for that kind of market at the right price, meaning you can’t make $150 million web series, but you can make $150 million studio movie. That’s just a broad example of how the market’s going to dictate the budget. 2. Tone: You won’t know how to write your screenplay to hit a specific budget or you won’t know what budget you need to target and then you won’t know the correct tone. For example, a made for TV movie has...
by Voyage | Apr 30, 2014 | Pitching
We just talked last week about this notion of idea plus execution for getting a producer to come to YOU for your project. In order to give your project a fighting chance, you’ve got to take action! This week, I want to dive in on what makes a project marketable. What makes an idea strong? What makes an idea ‘good’ (or appealing to buyers and producers)? – – A Good Idea is a Marketable Idea Ultimately, what it comes down to is whether an audience wants to consume it (or watch it). That’s when you have an idea that’s marketable. Pretty simple, right? Not quite that simple, unfortunately. If you keep up with our posts, you probably know by now that there is a vast amount of different markets within entertainment, so it’s definitely not a one size fits all business. It gets very niche and specific. What makes a good tent pole movie is totally different than an equally good indie drama… A great micro budget horror film is nothing like an edgy romantic comedy… What about a scripted drama for CBS? And this is just the beginning. How the Hook Comes Into Play The one element that comes into play in every market is really the notion of a hook. Presenting something with an extremely unique point of view can be a hook – but the hook doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the content. For instance, in terms of subject matter, maybe your story is about polar bears in the North Pole. That’s the subject matter. It’s not a hook. Here’s the hook: the bear was...
by Voyage | Apr 23, 2014 | Uncategorized
Filmmakers are always trying to convince somebody to read their work, when they should really be striving to create work that people (and producers) actually want to read. If you can do that, then the path to success will become much clearer and you greatly increase your chances of achieving a positive outcome for your project (i.e. financing, production, distribution). So here’s the million-dollar question: How do you get a producer to come after you? And just as importantly, how do you create material that people will line up to read? This end goal must be broken down into a series of questions you should constantly be asking yourself as a writer or filmmaker in Hollywood. So let’s jump right in… Question # 1: What’s My Market? The best way to begin this process is to gain a thorough understanding of how the various markets in Hollywood work, and then really explore what the buyer for a specific market (your market) needs to fill their project pipeline. What are their agendas and objectives that must be fulfilled in order to successfully do their job and elevate their own stature and career? This is where we start getting into the needs of the producer, which is extremely important for you to understand as someone who wants to get their project noticed… Producers, like the rest of us, want to be successful. They are always looking for that next great project that is going to make money, elevate their career, or make them look good in front of their peers. They’re looking for a project that is going to...
by Voyage | Apr 18, 2014 | Uncategorized
How do I get my materials to a Producer? This is a question I often get asked. It’s a great question. In fact, it’s the primary reason that people get in touch with Voyage Media to begin with. The funny thing about it is that they’re usually thinking in terms of how do I get the contact information for a certain person? Or how do I get my material in front of somebody? And the reality is that the answer is very different from what they think they need, because they’re asking the wrong question. If you have a film or television project you want to sell, the key question you should be asking is: How do I get a producer to chase me for my project? I’m going to break this question down into different components and give you the answer to each one. Why Voyage Media Doesn’t Give the Easy Answer Our entire business is built around answering this question—meaning everything we do at Voyage, whether it’s a service or we do it for our own projects—everything we do is about getting your material in front of actual buyers. But it has nothing to do with, or very little to do with getting someone’s contact information. I could teach you how to find contact information through a page resource called IMDB.pro. And I can certainly teach you how to research names and find buyers and get their contact information. That’s easy. I could even give you the names and phone numbers of 6,000 producers. But it would be difficult for you to use that information in...
