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Lesson 3
Reply to post your work
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6 Replies
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(JENNA) How I will present myself and project to a manager:
Hi, I’m Jenna. I control the rights to a Chicago Tribune “Best Book of the Year” and have written its marketable adaptation. STEALING BUDDHA’S DINNER tells the true story of an Asian refugee who’s trying to survive high school in the Midwest during the awesome 80’s. It’s a timely dramedy celebrating Asian representation and the universal quest for belonging, set against the backdrop of your favorite junk food and 80’s jams.
I also have a marketable sports comedy in the vein of TALLADEGA NIGHTS and BLADES OF GLORY. My unique background as a psychology Ph.D. makes me a strong candidate for paid writing assignments in cerebral TV series and film. I can’t help but get inside characters’ heads, even when I don’t want to. This blessing and curse is a great asset to writers rooms because I can pick up characters faster than you can say “Oedipus Complex.”
Please let me know if you’d like to read one of my features, or learn more about my writing.
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How I will present myself and project to a producer:
Hi, I’m Jenna. I have the next SIXTEEN CANDLES, but with Asian representation. Adapted from a Chicago Tribune “Best Book of the Year” which I control the rights to, STEALING BUDDHA’S DINNER tells Bich Minh Nguyen’s harrowing true story of how she survived high school as an Asian immigrant in the Midwest during the awesome 80’s. Through junk food and pop culture, it chronicles an awkward yellow girl’s quest to become a normal American teen when the kids are all white.
Please let me know when you’re ready to see the one-sheet and script, and take a ride with a bad-ass Bich.
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I would love to see what you have.
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Joan Beesley: Producer/Manager
Joan Beesley: Producer/Manager
1. Producers:
ü The Junkman of Brooklyn will be highly successful in your historical fiction selection of films. Based on a novel, it has undergone rewrites and will be modified to your creative and budgetary requirementss.
ü The strong inter-generational/ethnic father and son roles will appeal to actors whose range will bring the stages of Michael Flynn’s amazing life to the screen.
ü Audience appeal goes beyond family saga and ethnic boundaries. The film will capture and explore the dynamic of the father/son relationship and its impact on the families involved, for better or for worse.
ü My goal is to get the film made. Since it spans Ireland and Brooklyn from 1854 to 2001, there will be opportunities for modification in time/location scenes if required.
ü Junkman is similar to:
The Dig: $15-$20 million budget, box office n/a
Somewhere in Time: $4million budget, $9.7 box office
The Godfather: $6-$7 million, $246-$286 million box office
2. Managers:
ü While I am a seasoned author with 6 books on Amazon, this is my first feature film project. I’ve also completed a limited series TV pilot of Junkman, world, bible, etc. Rather then hand it off to a writer’s room, I wanted to write the entire script, hence this complete feature film script.
ü As a writer, I am eager and committed to write marketable scripts, both my own and as a paid writing assignment. I am not a one hit wonder.
ü I want to collaborate with an expert in the industry and that is you! Specifically I want the coaching to develop the best pitch possible for Junkman.
ü My goal is to partner with you to become the best screenwriter I can, open to criticism and making creative changes. I want the professional development, to market myself and my scripts in an outstanding way, that only you can provide!
3. The clarification in this lesson is extremely helpful. The opportunity to work with a manager would be highly valuable to me. This is high stakes for me and a springboard, a manager who knows the world of producers, would be a very valuable interface, to package me as a talented and marketable screenwriter.
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Nick Walsh / Producer/Manager
What I learnt: A query template does not work for all. It’s all about convincing producers that money can be made on your project,
Answer two questions:
- How will you present yourself and your project to the producer?
I would present myself as a writer who has a marketable product for an over-25 audience and believes it would attract lead actors—male and female—because of the unique story and range of emotions and feelings they must bare. This TV drama is an historical epic, comparable to Roots, telling the generational story of the great Irish diaspora from starving Ireland to settlement in America during the mid-19th century. Because it is a unique story—as seen through the eyes of the charismatic protagonist, who happens to be wanted for murder—and also has epic potential, it should attract directors and interested investors. The scope and length of the project is cost flexible.
2. How will you present yourself and your project to the manager?
I would present myself as a writer who has five finished screenplays currently in my portfolio, with a couple more baking in the oven. One of my screenplays is the pilot for a TV series and it was one of five finalists in the PageTurner international competition, 2021. It is fiction, but based around real historical events. The protagonist weaves together historical events as he travels in his quest for liberty and a lost lover, much like the Hoffman character in Little Big Man, where he finds himself involved in all the key events of the last half of the nineteenth century; or Forrest Tucker, where Hanks is at every key event of the last half of the 20th century. This series shows how the Irish suffered and died and perservered through wit and song and ale and God. Real stories of survival are myriad and are there to be exploited for great episodic stories and a lengthy series.
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I’m posting lesson 2 here because I can’t do it in the right spot.
Assignment #2 Aurora’s Marketable Components
1. Concept/Logline:
When a loyal Centurion on mission to assassinate an Insurrectionist prophesied to bring down the Empires, is falsely charged with sedition, he becomes the rebel he was sent to kill.
2. I feel it is a unique story with a great title.
3. In brainstorming this I was really inspired to take it up a notch (headed for ultimate extreme in final episode) and make the Centurion more proactive in his journey toward full on rebellion against Rome. I ‘ll also be adding much more physical action, revealing more action in his responses (beside frustration) with the continued false accusations, and manipulations of others. I want to make it a more timely parallel to the January 6 “Insurrection” and add more “Ray Epps” entrapment manipulations by the antagonist. I also think it may be the first (for my intended Evangelical audience) in depicting first century Jewish-Christians as “insurrectionists”, as this battle- hardened Centurion is really going to embrace that role.
4. I learned so much with this one! I feel I had a break through with my tough series. Just visualizing the project from a producer’s perspective was very helpful. New scenes and a new ending just popped up. So I plan to rewrite the ending, by adding an adventuresome and dangerous trip for Theophilus, smuggling Lucas’ writings and fighting his way through ”enemy Roman lines”. I feel this slight tweak to reveal his change of mission will really cap the story and leave my audience satisfied. I don’t feel my main character has not been proactive enough since he hates political wrangling and deception, but I then I realize that all that disloyalty and falsity is what drives him to trust in a God, who out of loyalty and love, dies for his people. So different from the antagonist, the grasping, violent and self-centered grandson of Herod the Great. I just need to plot out step by step their story arcs through the now 14 episodes.
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Richard Senne Producer/Manager
What I learned today is… producers need a writer with a marketable script that will work to get the project made. A manager needs a writer who is able to work with projects as a finished package that is willing to work with others.
I will present myself to a producer as someone who has a marketable script that is well written. I will research each producer and make sure I have a script that fits their specific target audience. I will have marketing material available that makes it easy to actors, directors, funding, and make it appeal to distributors. I will be flexible on doing whatever it takes to get the project made. I am able to do that again and again.
I will present myself to a manager as someone who has marketable, well written scripts. I am able to write more scripts that are as good. I will be professional and work with others well. I listen and collaborate to make myself marketable. I am always interested in working on paid writing assignments.
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