by Voyage | Jul 7, 2017 | Book to Film, Entertainment Business
4 Steps To Finally Writing Your Book So here you are with a great idea for a book. Maybe it’s your own story, a story based on true events, or simply an awesome idea. You may have even been sitting on this story for months or years. Well it’s time to finally do something about it… But where do you start? I’m glad you asked 🙂 Whether you’re working on your tenth book or your first, use these steps to get that story out of your head and on paper. Decide what the book is about You may be thinking to yourself, “Yeah, obviously.” But you’d be surprised at how difficult this step can actually be. Let’s say you have a compelling life story—but you have so much material (your whole life!) to draw from that it can be overwhelming. It’s important to boil down the main plot points early on in the writing process so as not to get bogged down in the details. It’s also a good idea to decide on the goal length of your book at this stage too. That way, you can more easily outline the book ahead of time (and not end up with a 100,000 word epic-novel based on that one week you spent abroad in college). Set a daily word count goal We’re all busy. We all have things going on that could stop us from writing. But if now is the right time for you, you need to make time for it. Make it part of your daily routine, like brushing your teeth or walking the dog. Even if...
by Voyage | Jul 7, 2017 | Blog post, Entertainment Business, Font Page
By: Dan Benamor, Voyage Producer In film, there may be no key creative more marginalized than the screenwriter. Screenwriters are fired and re-hired, rewritten and written out, and generally cede power to the director, producers, studio executives, and so on in the filmmaking process. If you are fortunate enough to sell a screenplay, once you as the writer have signed on the dotted line, you relinquish control. The writer is often on the low end of the totem pole in the film world, but it’s a reality screenwriters usually have to come to terms with. As tough as it may seem sometimes to break through and maintain a creative vision of your script as described above, there is an exception to this rule… You can decide to produce a micro-budget screenplay. Taking this journey will require a screenwriter to utilize skillsets more akin to a producer, and/or (if so desired) a director. But by taking control of your own career in this way, you can guide the process, both creatively and pragmatically (there’s no one to blame but yourself if the film is not made). Micro-budget films can be made for extremely low budgets with the modern state of film technology. Crowdfunding has become a valuable resource to the micro-budget filmmaker, and on the back end of the process, VOD has democratized everything. A case in point here is a film I co-wrote, INITIATION. The film was released on just about every VOD platform last August. That means that if you are scrolling through VOD titles on ITunes or Amazon or any other VOD platform, you could easily find my film...
by Voyage | Jul 2, 2017 | Book to Film, Entertainment Business
Getting Lucky in Hollywood It’s no secret that Hollywood producers and directors are always on the hunt for the next best movie concept. What’s not so obvious is where they’re looking to find these ideas for their next Blockbuster sweep. Drumroll please…they’re looking at books (even self-published or unpublished ones)! Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “Voyage Media is talking crazy.” But I promise you we’re not! Think about it. A book is already a fully baked idea, complete with an established plotline and solid characters and a built-in audience, whereas a screenplay may be unknown and in various stages of development. Hollywood execs are all about immediate gratification when it comes to looking for their next project because, let’s face it, it’s all about the money. So from a buyer’s perspective, a book holds more weight than a screenplay because it’s more economically viable for them in that moment. Take for instance the self-published book turned Academy award nominated Hollywood adaptation The Martian. Its author Andy Weir found wild success practically overnight after releasing the book chapter-by-chapter online, and then on Amazon’s self-publishing arm where it caught the attention of a producer…and the rest is history. As the movie has begun to gain traction, so has the book, and vice versa. This is another reason Hollywood producers love a book adaptation…the book and the movie provide built-in cross-promotion. They feed off of each other which means more $$$ for everyone involved. After word got out that The Martian was being made into a movie, the book debuted on the New York Times best-seller list at No. 12 in March...
by Voyage | Feb 23, 2017 | Book to Film, Entertainment Business
THE IMPORTANCE OF DIVERSIFICATION As a writer, you invest huge amounts of time, energy and money into your project (and you should)! But because you spend the bulk of your time writing (often a single project), it can be difficult to dedicate energy to other important areas – such as planning for long-term financial health and wealth management… At Voyage, we aim to look at the life of a creator holistically – it’s not ONLY about sparking the creative fire, honing your craft and developing the most marketable story… It’s also about helping you to create a balanced and fulfilled life – a life from which the best stories and ideas naturally take shape. To give you some context: as a writer, you’re starting with a 1% chance of having someone buy your movie or TV project. Now, this should never stop you from pursuing your dreams… But you want to make sure you’re thinking about other ways of saving and creating wealth, not just from your writing – in other words, you want to save, and diversify your investments of time and money. Here are 3 simple non-writing ways to diversify and have a strategy for a long-term sustainable career that perhaps you didn’t know about: 1. Acorns Sounds funny, but we don’t literally mean invest in the acorns you find on the ground. Acorns is a very high-tech system that allows you to quickly enroll in automatic deposits to a personal savings account where their system will invest it for you based on market trends and super cool algorithms – and you can even select how conservative...
by Voyage | Sep 22, 2016 | Blog post, Entertainment Business, Pitching, Presentations, Screenwriting Tips
As creator of the TV series EXTANT, Mikey Fisher certainly knows a thing or two about it and he’s recently written about his experiences in this eye-opening story below. He recounts every moment on his roller-coaster journey, from figuring out which screenwriting contests to enter, to how to choose an agent, to doing a conference call with Spielberg. This document is a veritable How-To on breaking into the TV business. And for more tips and tools on the screenwriter’s trade, stay connected via Voyage Media. We make stories like Mikey’s happen every day for our clients. __________ ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS I’VE BEEN ASKED -MIKEY FISHER WHY I WROTE THIS: The day I turned forty years old I sold my first big script, a tv pilot for a new show called EXTANT. One of the Executive Producers was Steven Spielberg, it starred Oscar Winner Halle Berry, and got a straight to series order for thirteen episodes from CBS. I was made an Executive Producer as well and spent two years learning how to make television at the highest level. It was my first job in Hollywood. A lot of people are going to tell you that it NEVER happens that way. But it DID happen and to quote David Mamet from THE EDGE, “What one man (or woman) can do, another man (or woman) can do.” So I’m passing along what I learned from my personal experience. I know it’s not going to happen for everyone the same way and there will be plenty here that other people will disagree with. This is just one guy’s overall experience from writing the pilot to...
by Voyage | Sep 22, 2016 | Blog post, Entertainment Business
3 Myths About Making It In The Entertainment Industry At times, the Industry can seem like a very mysterious & exclusive club that requires a secret password to gain access. Because of its somewhat elusive nature, stories of what people think the industry is actually like emerge and begin to be taken as fact. We hate to burst your bubble, but here we go… “Everyone is out to steal my story idea, so I can’t talk about it.” We hear this myth from authors and screenwriters all the time, but there’s very little evidence to back it up. In fact, a creator who is trying to break into the industry should be talking about his or her story to anyone who will listen. Yes, when you’re an established film or television writer who takes meetings with producers and executives all the time, copyrighting your ideas should be a consideration. But that fact is, an idea alone is not what sells in Hollywood. What sells is the entire package—how an idea is executed. And it’s crucial to practice telling your story because you’ll need to be phenomenal at painting the picture for your producer-audience when you do land a meeting. Check out producer Elizabeth Kushman’s (ONE MISSED CALL, THE HILLS HAVE EYES) opinion on the topic here: http://voyagemedia.com/exclusive-producer-interview/ “I have to send out a lot of query letters to improve my chances of getting my idea picked up.” Sending out hundreds of query letters to unqualified leads is like throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks – it’s a waste of time and often yields little to no...
