by Voyage | Nov 30, 2015 | Entertainment Business, Pitching, Screenwriting Tips
How rethinking your writing can help you bounce back from rejection You don’t need me to tell you that rejections are tough. The stories we tell, the ones we really care about and want to see come to life, are our darlings. They’re the result of hard work and tough love. When you’ve got a story that you’ve slaved away on for weeks, months, or even years of your life, it can be crushing to take that project to a producer and be told it’s not what they want. Worse—they might not even respond to you at all! So how are you, as a writer, expected to traverse the minefield of rejection and criticism we call “Hollywood”? You only have a few minutes, at most, to capture their attention… So what do you say and do to get that producer interested in your book or script? First: don’t panic. Rejection is just as much a part of writing as hand cramps and eye strain. Even the greatest writers can get rejected at the height of their established careers. By nature of marketing to the changing landscape of film, not everything you write is going to find its audience on the first go around. It’s what you do next after your script gets sent back to your doorstep that really counts. Before you plan your next move, it’s important to understand the two types of feedback you can get from a producer… The useful… And the unreliable… If you’ve gotten critical feedback from a producer who’s read your script, you’re already a step ahead on the road to improving your writing’s marketability.... read more
by Voyage | Oct 8, 2015 | Audience, Blog post, Entertainment Business, Font Page, Pitching, Presentations, Producer Interviews, Screenwriting Tips, The Expert Network
Inside The Comic Book Industry’s Latest Cool Thing… Let’s transport ourselves to a simpler time for just a moment… Imagine you’re back in middle school and your favorite limited edition comic book has just been released… You and your friends race to the local comic book shop after school to get your hands on the newest edition of “Captain America” or “Wonder Woman.” You wait patiently in line, with 25 cents burning a hole in your pocket… Finally, you get up to the counter and hand your pocket change to the clerk who slides over the goods. At last you get your hands on your coveted new comic book… And as you begin to flip the pages, a whole other world emerges… While this may or may not have been a reality for you, we can all agree that comic books and graphic novels have played an important role in pop culture and media. What you may or may not know is that there’s a thriving digital marketplace for NEW comics and NEW graphic novels with distribution and sales portals populating various corners of the Internet with readers of all ages scrambling to get their hands on the latest thing. And while we all know many of the blockbusters films we’ve come to know and love are based on comics from Marvel and DC, you may not know that comics and graphic novels have paid a very significant role in the development and sale of numerous other movies and TV series, some of which might surprise you… -30 DAYS OF NIGHT -CONSTANTINE -MYSTERY MEN – 300 -HELL BOY -THE... read more
by Voyage | Oct 8, 2015 | Entertainment Business, Producer Interviews
How to make your audience care about what’s important to YOU, and use your voice to provoke social action…not reaction What does it take to get an audience to care about ingrained political and global issues? How can you inspire empathy in your viewers? And what social responsibility does the creative have to their wider audience? Bonnie Solomon tackles these questions and more in our latest Voyage producer interview. Oscar Wilde once famously wrote, “If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.” This is a quote that rings very true to the tone of Bonnie Solomon’s work dealing with hot-button, sometimes uncomfortable-to-talk-about social issues. But death, continues Solomon, is of course not the only possible outcome when you need to convince an audience that the truth is relevant and important to their own lives. “They’ll kill you,” says Solomon, “…or they’ll completely tune you out, and watch the Kardashians.” When your goal is to make people listen, you must grab their attention as soon as possible, or their inaction will make future change impossible. Audience boredom is certainly a frustration for many writers, and for Solomon it means that the urgency of her issues aren’t getting through to the people who might need to hear them the most. Of course, not all of us writers are social activists, nor do we specifically call on those themes within our own work. However, what is striking about Solomon’s work is how she strives to inspire a strong ethical sense in her audience, through only the language of film. Knowing how to engage an audience... read more
by Voyage | Sep 23, 2015 | Blog post, Book to Film, Entertainment Business, Pitching
(HINT: You don’t need a lit agent) When was the last time you were at the movies? If it was sometime in the past 50 years of so (please tell me it was!), then chances are you caught a flick that was based on a book. Book adaptations have always been a source of compelling content (think Jaws and the first Jurassic Park), but more recently, adaptations have become one of the fastest growing, most reliably profitable and attractive markets for producers in Hollywood (think Hunger Games and Harry Potter). Authors everywhere are gaining more and more traction with producers looking for compelling stories to be adapted for film and television… So where do you start? Traditionally, authors begin by looking for a literary agent who would then connect them with producers and agents in the entertainment industry, and act as their calling card to success in Hollywood. Well I’m here to tell you that is not [always] the case… If you are a well-known author who already has a large following of fans and readers, then this traditional route will be effective for you because a lit agent has pull with producers. A lit agent’s job is basically to make a producer’s life easier by acting as a middleman between writers and producers. But… If you are an author who is just starting out or still working to figure out how to gain traction for yourself and your book(s), then going the lit agent route is not your best option. Here’s why: Literary agents are very focused on the projects that will provide an easy transaction with guaranteed... read more
by Voyage | Sep 11, 2015 | Entertainment Business, Producer Interviews, Screenwriting Tips, The Expert Network
John Crye, Producer Find out how to make Hollywood producers want to work with you again and again by building producer rapport using advice from industry veteran, John Crye. As part of our ongoing series, which asks our producers about their work in the entertainment business, I talked with John Crye, a current Hollywood producer and Voyage team member, about his work in the industry. Here you can read some of his own personal advice on building producer rapport in Hollywood, what a writer can do to make a producer’s life easier–and get them to fall in love with your script while they’re at it. Crye–the former director of Creative Affairs at Newmarket Films, who had a hand in acquiring such modern-day classics as Donnie Darko, Memento, and Whale Rider–has more recently moved on to independent writing, directing, and producing. In his many years in the entertainment business, he’s learned a lot from experience about the production world and the professionals who inhabit it. I asked him about any advice he had to give to writers thinking about entering the business, from the perspective of someone who had not only written himself but also worked extensively with writers as a producer. A common theme tended to reappear in his advice: understanding your producer’s needs is crucial to getting your story made in a way that’s satisfying for everyone. In the most basic terms: you need to make their job as easy as possible. So the question remains: why do YOU need to make their job easy? Aren’t THEY supposed to work for YOU? While a producer is indeed there... read more
by Voyage | Aug 10, 2015 | Audience, Book to Film, Entertainment Business, Pitching
The Key to Getting Your Project into Production For creators like us, generating content comes pretty naturally (excluding the occasional writers block of course). That’s why we do what we do. But as you probably have experienced first hand, writing and conceptualizing isn’t always the hard part; it’s money. Finding investors who are interested in funding your project can be incredibly difficult. It’s the ultimate catch 22 in a creator’s life—investors want to give money to projects that are well known and bound for success, but a project can’t become well known and successful without money from investors. If you don’t have a very generous great uncle waiting in the wings to donate to your creative project, I have the perfect solution to help you out with this age-old dilemma… ***Crowdfunding*** Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising many small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the Internet (google.com). Whether or not you’ve heard of crowdfunding before, I’m here to tell you that it should absolutely be on your radar as a tool to finance part (or all) of your project. Websites like Kickstarter.com and Indiegogo.com give you the chance to get your project or ideas off the ground without having to go out and solicit investors the traditional way. These crowdfunding platforms by nature create a reciprocal relationship between investors (who pledge money) and creators (who offer various perks to backers who donate). And it works because everyone is benefiting from the partnership, and the momentum that comes with having so many supporters is exactly what you... read more
by Voyage | Aug 5, 2015 | Audience, Entertainment Business, Screenwriting Tips
How to untangle the web “Googling yourself” has sort of become the punchline of the digital era—it’s degraded as a vain and silly pastime of the erstwhile millennial. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Far from just an ego trip, Googling yourself can be crucial to building your online presence as a writer. I’d like to encourage you to Google yourself right now. Take a moment, I’ll wait. What are some of the first pages that pop up. Your social media sites—Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, your personal blog? Or is Google drawing a big blank? There is a time and a place for the reclusive, mysterious, off-the-grid writer—but falling into that description can be dangerous for the up and coming. The Internet makes it easier than ever for producers, directors, and financiers to find out what you’re all about. And social media searching has become more and more commonplace as a tool for weeding out the unprofessional or unmotivated writers from the writers with serious passion and marketability. Make no mistake: the question on the forefront of a producer’s mind is going to be “how can I market this?” If your website or blog has any sort of following, it means your Internet presence comes with a built-in audience AND that you’ve already got a huge advantage over the throngs of other writers trying to get noticed! It gives the producer a sort of “cheat” into your market—they’ll thank you for having less work to do to create a finished product that people will watch. With so much riding on the kind of persona you exhibit online, there’s... read more
by Voyage | Jul 13, 2015 | Entertainment Business, Screenwriting Tips
5 questions you must immediately ask yourself upon finishing the first draft of your script Congratulations! You’ve finished your script! Now what? Well, give yourself a pat on the back and take a moment to appreciate your labor of love… Now roll up your sleeves and make a fresh pot of coffee because it’s time to get back to work! The first thing you should do immediately upon finishing your first draft is think about your next draft, and that means asking yourself some tough yet necessary questions. No, we don’t mean, “What’s for lunch?” (although that’s a pretty important question too). We mean that you need examine your draft with a keen and honest eye in order to zero in on its strengths and weaknesses. That way, you can make your second draft all the more intriguing and marketable. As you probably already know, this town is filled with scripts…producers and agents are literally buried in them. And on every desk there are lots of good scripts, but there are not a lot of great scripts. If your script doesn’t grab the attention of the producer, agent, or director in the first 5-10 pages, you can assume that he or she is going to move on to the next one in the sky-high stack on their desk/kitchen table/floor (you get the picture). But here’s the problem…re-writes can seem about as daunting as doing your high school math homework. But don’t worry because we’ve got your back! To help make your script a standout on Mr. Producer’s desk (while also avoiding the feeling that you’re back in Algebra I), we’ve come... read more
by Voyage | Jun 25, 2015 | Audience, Entertainment Business
One of the worst things that a screenwriter or an author or any content creator can do in their career is operate in a vacuum or think that they’ve got to figure everything out on their own and learn everything by themselves. For some reason, content creators take it upon themselves to think of their pursuit as a lonely one – like this romantic image of a writer stuck in a hotel room in a foreign country writing by himself. If you’re a content creator looking to achieve a result in Hollywood, then you’re going to be really well served to not just learn on your own, but learn from other people’s mistakes and successes and then leverage that learning into your own career. What Makes a Good Mentor There’s a world-renowned success psychologist named Martin Seligman and one of the things that he modeled or created was a framework for identifying who’s a mentor. In other words, who’s worth listening to and who’s not? He said a mentor, a quality mentor who can help you achieve a significant result or a significant outcome, has to satisfy one or more of the following three things. 1) They have to have done successfully what it is you’re trying to do. 2) They have to have helped others achieve success – helped other successfully do exactly what it is you’re trying to do. 3) They are world renowned experts in the field. Anyone who does not satisfy one or more of those equations is not a mentor worth listening to. If they’re not meeting one or more of those equations, they’re... read more
by Voyage | Apr 22, 2015 | Uncategorized
Voyage Media is proud to announce that our documentary, Valley Uprising, is set to premiere on the Discovery Channel this week as the headline of the newly launched “Elevation Weekend!” Featuring vintage footage of this once fringe lifestyle and the breathtaking Yosemite landscape, Valley Uprising provides an in-depth look at seemingly unknown aspect of American history… “We have a purpose…only through climbing can you find yourself,” says one of the featured climbers in the surprising and riveting documentary Valley Uprising: Yosemite’s Rock Climbing Revolution. The men and women featured in this film have a passion for climbing that is palpable, and jail time and living on the fringes of society are minor details in their minds… as long as they can be on that mountain. Don’t forget to tune into the Discovery Channel on Saturday, April 25th at 8 PM EST to see this remarkable film for yourself. Watch out “Shark Week,” the Yosemite Valley climbers are coming for you! Archives December 2024 (2) November 2024 (2) October 2024 (3) September 2024 (2) April 2023 (1) January 2023 (1) December 2022 (1) October 2022 (1) June 2020 (1) April 2020 (1) February 2020 (1) January 2020 (1) October 2019 (1) August 2019 (1) June 2019 (1) January 2019 (1) April 2018 (1) March 2018 (1) February 2018 (1) January 2018 (1) December 2017 (1) November 2017 (1) October 2017 (2) July 2017 (4) April 2017 (1) February 2017 (1) January 2017 (1) December 2016 (1) November 2016 (1) October 2016 (1) September 2016 (2) June 2016 (1) May 2016 (1) April 2016 (1) February 2016 (3) January 2016 (1) December 2015 (2) November 2015 (1) October 2015 (2) September 2015 (2) August 2015 (2) July 2015 (1) June 2015 (1) April 2015 (1) March 2015 (1) February 2015 (2) January 2015 (3) December 2014 (2) October 2014 (1) September 2014 (3) August 2014 (3) June 2014 (2) May 2014 (5)... read more
