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Lesson 2
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Joan Beesley’s Marketable Components
I learned from this assignment to select the most marketable component and focus my pitch around it.
I think I have the 2 components of Wide Audience Appeal and Bankable Roles.
I think my pitch is focused on Michael Flynn’s evolution, arriving as a very sickly three year old in 1854 to scrap metal czar during WWII and WWII and the subsequent loss of his empire due to his (typically Irish) relationship with his sons.
Script begins with his father fleeing the British during the Famine. Fixated on insulating his family from his childhood poverty and proud of his own talent in deal making, he celebrates his wealth and rise in Ward 6’s Irish democratic party and society, yet fails to take time to educate his sons in his business with disastrous consequences in the 1950’s.
Not sure how to improve pitch. I want to convey these things in the shortest amount of words possible. Thinking “Bankable Role” and “Wide Audience Appeal” are already there?
1. Existing Logline:
Consumed by family stories, an author dreams of meeting The Junkman of Brooklyn. Fleeing with his family in 1856, Michael Flynn, an Irish immigrant befriended by Tammany Hall, builds a scrap metal empire salvaging submarines and destroyers. Laser-focused on his rising place in society and politics, can he pass on his deal-making skills to his sons? And did he really put those windows in the Chrysler Building??
2. Components:
(This is hard as I think I have many of these components!)
C/H. (Minor Components). True story adapted from a book to which I have a
pending copyright.G. Wide Audience Appeal: Inter-generational relationship between immigrant
fathers and sons. Everyone has an immigrant background. Every family has
a father. And very often a son (s)!(Godfather, Gangs of New York minus the violence. Echoes of family
business alienation as in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons)J. A great role for a bankable Actor
3 great roles here: Tom Cruise, Pierce Brosnan and Robert Duvall as
Michael Flynn in his life stages.
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In this lesson, I learned that I have some strong Components of Marketability, but could highlight them more strongly in my pitch.
(CURRENT LOGLINE):
Based on Bich Minh Nguyen’s award-winning coming-of-age memoir, STEALING BUDDHA’S DINNER is a dramatic comedy about an Asian refugee who’s trying to survive high school 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.
Components: “Great title;” “True story;” “Timely;” “Adapted from a popular book”
(NEW LOGLINE):
Based on the timely Chicago Tribune “Best Book of the Year,” STEALING BUDDHA’S DINNER tells the dramatic and comedic true story of an Asian refugee as she tries to survive high school 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.
I could try (again!) pitching it to producers who have had success with diverse, true story adaptations.
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Hi Jenna!
Sounds very interesting, a movie I’d like to see. I was wondering if instead of “timely”, perhaps the actual year (2022, 2023?) of the Tribune award, might make it more immediate, relevant. Just a thought! Sounds both entertaining and poignant.
Take care,
Joan
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That’s a great idea! Unfortunately the book award was from 2007. Re: “timely,” I was referring to the increased and long-overdue Asian representation we’ve been seeing lately in the film landscape. Maybe “topical” is a better word? Thanks for your feedback! Every little bit helps! 🙂
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Rachael Migler’s Marketable Components
1. Current logline.
OFF TRACK is an action comedy about a semi-feral farm girl who goes undercover with the FBI as a posh thoroughbred owner to bust open a sophisticated racehorse doping ring.
2. One or two Components of Marketability with most potential for selling this script.
<ul type=”disc”>
- C. True. <b style=”background-color: var(–bb-content-background-color); font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; color: var(–bb-body-text-color);”>YES – based on real-life FBI sting.
- D. Timely — connected to some major trend or event. 60 Minutes
- I. Similarity to a box-office success. <b style=”background-color: var(–bb-content-background-color); font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; color: var(–bb-body-text-color);”>YES- Miss Congeniality
- J. A great role for a bankable actor. YES – Jennifer Lawrence
3. Do a quick brainstorm session about ways to elevate those two components for this script and tell us how you might pitch the script through the two components.
“I’ve got the next Miss Congeniality and it’s inspired by a real-life FBI sting that’s been covered from the New York Times to 60 Minutes. The project is called Off Track and it’s got a fantastic role for someone like Jennifer Lawrence. It’s an action comedy about a semi-feral farm girl who goes undercover with the FBI as a rich thoroughbred owner to bust open a sophisticated racehorse doping ring.
4. I learned the 10 marketing components and the difference between business hooks and story/character hooks.
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Richard Senne’s Marketable Components
What I learned doing this assignment is… by focusing on marketable components I have a more specific and compelling pitch that highlights the key features necessary to capture the attention of producers and actors.
1. Tell us your current logline. After a deadly bio-weapon attack the sole survivor, a brilliant drone expert, must survive being hunted by a psychopath who needs her blood.
2. Look through the 10 Components of Marketability and pick one or two that have the most potential for selling this script.
I picked B. Great title and J. A great role for a bankable actor.
The story deals with precise and calculated actions, The name has a memorable quality to it. It helps to intrigue potential producers, and viewers, and draw them in because it suggests action.
The Female lead has a wide range of emotions to act through. Actors want the challenge and opportunity to show their craft.
Do a quick brainstorm session about ways to elevate those two components for this script and tell us how you might pitch the script through the two components.
B. Title:
The title has a punchy quality that makes it memorable to audiences of action films. It’s the kind of title that sticks in your mind as high energy, and communicates a thrilling experience.
J. Bankable Actor:
This female character has a rich emotional arc, requiring emotions ranging from strength and determination, to vulnerability and despair. It will challenge her acting abilities and showcase her versatility and talent.
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Nick Walsh’s Marketable Components
What I learnt: Don’t be a Jack of all trades, master one. Perfect your best market component to an irresistible hook.
- Tell us your current logline.
A fugitive murderer in 1847 Ireland temporarily poses as a Catholic priest to evade the English looking to hang him; then suddenly finds himself in the middle of a famine, and his starving parish needs him to stay and perform miracles.
2. Look through the 10 Components of Marketability and pick one or two that have the most potential for selling this script.
3. Do a quick brainstorm session about ways to elevate those two components for this script and tell us how you might pitch the script through the two components.
- I. Similarity to a box-office success.
The Irish version of Roots. Tyranny and famine in the homeland force the Irish to escape across a treacherous ocean, where half die trying, to a place that has nothing but contempt for them. Many aspects along the timeline of this diaspora have been portrayed in movies, but none followed a generational history that paints a whole canvas or tells the whole story journey from tyranny to freedom, as lived through the adventurous life of a cunning renaissance man desperately seeking liberty in a new land that hates him.
- J. A great role for a bankable actor.
I think my TV series will give an actor the opportunity to showcase a broad spectrum of emotions and feelings. The complex protagonist is unique and memorable in speech and action and emotion.
- B. Great title.
I’ve had many iterations of a title, beginning with When Irish Eyes Are Cryin’ to my latest choice: The Rogue of Connemara. I’m now considering a title with broader, thematic meaning: The Old Sod. I like it because the first half is about escaping from the Old Sod of Ireland and the second half is yearning for it. I’m considering changing. Any thoughts from my fellow classmates?
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