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Lesson 1
Reply to post your assignment.
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14 Replies
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Kathy’s Project and Market
What I learned doing this assignment is thinking about which project I want to work on and who I want to target first.
Genre – Drama
Title – “Lost in Sand”
Concept – A young American woman meets a handsome older American who is working in Saudi Arabia. She falls head over heels in love with him and decides to marry him. She leaves her family and friends behind to join him there. After discovering her new husband and culture are not what she expected she learns to stand up to both of them.
I think this story is attractive because with women losing their rights today, I need to let people know what it was like for a woman to live in a country where women are literally second -class citizens by living in a country run by religion.
I think I would like to target managers first because they could help me with my other projects.
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George Schwimmer Project and Market
What I learned today: There is a method for creating anything.
Genre: Comedy Sub-Genres: Magical Realism/ Sci-fi
Title: TIME TRACKER
Concept:
“A” story: A falsely discharged CIA agent time travels to catch his parents’ killers and stop an assassination, aided by a hip young Black Merlin the Magician.
“B” story: A man’s search and efforts to recreate “paradise,” —a sense of belonging, of being human.
Most attractive: The combination of comedy, magical realism and sci-fi, with a sprinkle of thriller added, along with an updated Merlin the Magician, some romance and political assassins (the kind of story Snoopy the Dog would write).
Target first: Producers. Why? Because, as bank robber Willie Sutton said, “That’s where the money is.” Direct channel between seller and buyer.
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Tom Basham’s Project and Market
What I learned today is I should have saved what I posted on here the other day.
Genre: Holiday Drama
Title: A New Years Wish
Concept: A young man so anxious for success jumps forward a year in time and his life is better but what did he miss?
What I think is attractive about this is it’s the human condition – we are desperate to reach the hight of success and miss a life while we do it.
Will talk to Producer’s First and then Managers. I think there is a market for this script – for New Years – a not very well covered holiday.
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Peter Saltzman’s Project & Market
Genre: TV SciFi Musical-Comedy
Title: “The Bubble”
Concept: The entire universe is comprised of a mega-grocery store with a depressing piano bar and a broken-down parking lot that is the scene of extreme weather events. The store has everything you could ever desire—but all of it is losing tangibility. It will fade into nothingness unless its self-absorbed inhabitants can work together to find a way out into a wider world.
Most attractive about story: The combination of dark comedy and sci-fi with music and a contained setting. And at its heart, it’s a series of mysteries: why are the people here, how will they escape, and to where?
First target: Producers first because, at least in this iteration, I think it’s already a highly attractive product, ready to go to market.
What I learned today is...Most importantly, the second season of my show inherently had a more marketable hook than the first. And that even though I haven’t completed the pilot for that season, I can wait and write it from the POV of the marketable concepts I’ll be developing in this class.
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Lindy Baker’s Project and Market
What I learned today are skills in targeting the companies and individuals in the entertainment field in the correct way to sell my script and get my movie made.
Genre: Drama, Mystery
Title: Rainbow’s SecretConcept: Inspired by my own true story. A psychic woman in the middle of an identity crisis accepts the plea of a distressed woman to find her missing 6-year-old great niece. She becomes the stalked when she discovers a series of abductions are connected and accidentally uncovers major evidence of a child pornography ring.
What I think is most attractive about my story is that it has unique characters and situations, is based on a true story. I really think I’ve written a great story with so many twists and turns that the audience won’t be able to guess who took the girl, if she is found and where. Even the title, Rainbow’s Secret, is a revelation in itself.
I’m focusing on middle producers first and actor’s production companies next. I’ve chosen middle producers as this script is low budget and has only a few locations and a small number of characters.
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Re-posting.
1. Gangster; Red; What if breaking the law was the only way to realise your dreams?
2. A gangster TV series that focus on Jewish gangsters for the first time, against a first time World War I back-drop: the first US light tank brigade. Real life inspired. A compelling love story (broken man) through which the audience can connect and invest emotionally in the characters. Women who dare break with conventions to experience freedom, but pay a dear price. A historical piece with relevant themes to today’s audience – war, antisemitism, discrimination and injustice.
3. This would be a big budget pilot (estimate 5-10mln) so looking for production companies that have previously produced historical gangster film/series with larger budgets (e.g. Boardwalk Empire). There are many production companies associated with names such as Terrence Winter, Martin Scorsese and David Simon or actors such as Robert de Niro, Steve Buscemi and Mark Wahlberg. However, they do not accept unsolicited material! A search at “secondary level”: people who have worked with “the A gangster team” and now have indie production companies active in the same or similar genres (action, crime, thriller) reveal that some accept unsolicited material. The same goes for some of the “secondary level” managers who get credited along with A names. They post their contacts on IMBdPro.
Series could also be (re)written as a podcast – like the old Radio play from the 30s-50s.
MBdPro
is difficult to search in! Many production companies do not accept unsolicited
material. -
This is a Drama called “To Be Frank”
It is the story of a famous person as if he lived in modern times in Italy.
It is attractive because it addresses themes of spirituality and earth conservation and animal communication mixed in with a love story.
I want to target Indies to lesson the chances the story is sabotaged and mangled by big studios.
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What I learned today is to focus on making the script marketable to producers who are looking for action coupled with real life threats
Genre: Action
Title: The Coming Storm
Concept: The FBI learn that a Neo-Nazi organization is planning a major terrorist threat as a call to action from other extremists but no one knows what it’s going to be.
This is based on recent events as violent extremists are calling for a new Civil War. A number of action sequences (murders, car chases, shoot outs, synagogue burnings) lead to the final confrontation between the protagonist and a Neo-Nazi sharp shooter in order to prevent an assassination.
I’m targeting managers because I think it’s more likely that a production company will trust a seasoned veteran more than a relatively unknown screenwriter.
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Title: Morine N. Perry- Project and Market
Genre: Family Drama
Title: Memory Makers
Concept: What if a father was given a small window of time to build meaningful memories with his estranged adult children? Would he, could he, and can he even convince them to do it?
Attractive Point: The universal themes of reconciliation and forgiveness is told from one of the adult children’s perspective. Many people are giving up, but in this story desolation is injected with hope.
Target: I will probably target one of the streaming platforms because I feel like it most the viewers who would watch it are on that platform. Or I may target managers so establish myself as a marketable teachable writer.
What I learned today is that I really need to think more about who I would like to target with my scripts in general because not every one is a good fit.
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What I learned today was the difference between a LOGLINE and a HOOK.
I have a multi-layered story so the logline is not as effective as the Hooks Can be.
Title: Underwater Hazards
Genre: Animated Horror/Fantasy
Logline: Searching for her lost classmate, an eco-conscious girl from an exclusive private school swims into the lair of a Mutant Merman Wizard deformed from Ocean Pollution.
The Merman is having a Birthday Party and has caught the missing boy as the main course. (Fish were the first meat eaters on the planet, he’s half fish, he eats people.)
I wanted to have a Horror script in my portfolio. I am NOT a traditional Horror fan, but as I was walking past a lake I noticed a sign that read “Underwater Hazards May Exist”. I looked up what they were referring to and it said that before WW1 underwater hazards were rocks, tree branches etc., after WW1 it also stands for hundreds of thousands of BOMBS and cannister filled with Poisonous Gasses that were dumped into the ocean and can detonate or spread their dangerous deadly toxins at any time. That was the scariest, most horrible thing I had ever heard, so I decided to weave that concept into my Horror Story.
What is most attractive about the story is that opposite sides come together to do something about Ocean Pollution. The sea characters are funny and all have supernatural qualities, such as Lady Tako, an Octopus is a shape shifter(an Octopus characteristic), and Reefer is a lawyer Shark who lost an eye to an underwater bomb, and his Dorsal Fin to “Shark’s Fin Soup” but he is tough and optimistic. Hazard is the Merman Wizard who has built a Quantum computer. Polly is Polynesian and learns her mother came from the same island as Lady Tako, and Wyatt (the missing boy’s Mom is a disgraced DNA Quantum Physicist who succeeds in helping Hazard remove the excess Carbon from the ocean and the mutant disease from his DNA.
I am focusing on Agents looking for stories like mine. I have made several pitches from the viewpoint of my logline, but I can see I need to use Hooks instead.
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Lee Skore’s Project and Market
1. Genre, Title, Concept
Mystery
TELLING LIES
What do you do when someone tries to kill you and you’ve learned your life is a lie?
2. What is most attractive?
A present-day mystery with a female main character in her 20s, helped by a male character in his 30s.
3. Target first?
Producers because they manage the money and have many contacts.
4. What I learned today?
A concept and a logline are no where near the same.
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Dave’s Project and Market
What I learned doing this assignment is the importance of choosing a target market and tailoring a script to that market.
Genre: Drama
Title: The Last, Best Hope
Concept: Fifty years in the future, America has divided into a series of independent states. A young, British journalist reporting on the military state discloses that they are executing their political prisoners. The state imprisons her and sentences her to death. Her husband must journey across North America with his best friend and attempt to free her before her date of execution.
I think this project is marketable because it speaks to the deep divisions in America today and offers a hypothesis concerning what could happen as a result. It’s also viable because it includes quite a bit of adventure and an element of romance.
I would target producers because I would like to sell to them directly.
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Jani’s Ultimate Plan
1. GENRE: Drama
TITLE: LIVE FOREVER
CONCEPT: A woman with mild autism, teams up with a wannabe vigilante with a dark past who who teaches her to let go of her fears. They both reincarnate and keep meeting again in different lifetimes.
2. What makes my story interesting is that it’s a three part series for streaming t.v. that will engage audiences.
3. I would like to target managers first because they can help me with planning and organizing my goals which will ultimately, steer me in the right direction with producers, agents, etc.
4. In this assignment, I learned that the first thing I need to do is become more organized before I approach a manager.
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MICHAEL L HARRIS – PROJECT AND MARKETING
Genre: Thriller
Title: SIMON SEES
Concept: To solve the mystery of his mother’s disappearance a 6-year-old psychic must convince his new foster mother that his visions are real.
The most attractive part of the story for me is the bond that is created between Simon and Elise as she begins to accept him for what and who he is.
As I am producing myself and seeking a production partner and believe that a known actor with their own production company will elevate the project as well as facilitate financing, so, they are first on my list. I also have a few production companies with distribution deals in place that will be my secondary first line reach out.
Today I learned that when marketing you need to gear your pitch to answer the needs of the customer (i.e: Producer, manager, actor.) That telling the story instead of showing marketability will not get you produced.
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