Posts Tagged ‘Screenwriter’

Front page of aol.com today:  A Chinese woman paid $600,000 for a Tibetan Mastiff dog.  She had been searching for years for just the right dog and found it. 

When I saw this, it got me thinking about my actor and screenwriter clients who want to be paid for their services – presumably all of them! 

So I have a question for you:  How much would someone pay for your acting or screenwriting talents?  Or anything else you do for that matter? 

For the most part, the most difficult part of an acting or screenwriting career is getting paid for doing it.  It’s easy enough to act in a play, a student film, or a no-budget film, but to be HIRED to do it is a different story. 

Same with writing.  You can get a video camera and shoot a few no-budget scenes, edit them with free software, and then post them on YouTube for the world to see.  Doing the thing itself is not so hard.  It’s getting paid to do it that is the hard part. 

So the question is, what is it that makes someone PAY for what you do?  And a lot of money at that?

Here’s the answer:  The reason they pay you (your audience, that is) is that they perceive a particular and unique value in what you do.  Someone pays for a Madonna record because they perceive what she delivers as being unique AND they like it. 

Someone pays to have you act in their film because they perceive that you will deliver something unique that’s worthy of paying for.  They also think that, in turn, others will also perceive it as being unique and worth paying for.

Said another way:  You have to be unique in some way, or more accurately, perceived to be delivering something unique that is valuable enough that the buyer will pay for it.

Let me break it down.  First, for actors:  Most actors fall in the category of what’s called a “commodity.”  A commodity is something that can be easily replaced with another similar item.

For screenwriters, it’s the same thing.  Most scripts that I’ve critiqued are actually okay, not bad.  But most of them could be classified as commodities, meaning easily replaced with a similar one. 

The problem with being a commodity when it comes to marketing is that you have little leverage in getting someone to pay money for what you are selling over another commodity, unless you are a name brand (meaning a star name actor or proven screenwriter).  Think of computers:  they are now commodity products.  The main difference is the name brand.  Most people prefer to buy a name brand over a no-name brand, even when they could get more for their money with a no-namer.  

There is more perceived value in the name brand commodity than the actual product itself, therefore most people stick with the name brands.  And on top of that, even the name brand companies are very competitive with each other, trying to separate themselves from the others in a sea of commodities.

As an actor or screenwriter, you are a commodity until you have a name.  It’s the chicken-egg story.  How to you get to have a name if they won’t hire you so you can build your name? Well, you have to do one thing.

 I’ll put it very simply: 

If you want to be paid to do your acting or screenwriting, you have to go to work on increasing your perceived value in the Hollywood market place.

It’s not about your real value or your worth as a person.  It’s not about how much money your movie would make if we could see into the future and really know.  It’s about how much the Hollywood marketplace perceives that you or your script is worth.  So you have to work on increasing the perceived value of what you provide.

How do you do that?  It’s not just one thing, there are lots of things that you can do.  Everything from being great at your craft, to being unique, to getting fans of your work, to being great to work with, and much more.  It includes all the steps in the process of branding yourself and making a career — and it’s not as elusive as you might think.  (Stay tuned for more insights on how to do this or check out Smart Girls Productions services for marketing actors and screenwriters as a starting point.)

To bring the point home, let’s go back to the $600,000 Mastiff… was that dog really worth that much money?  Who knows?  How do you even tell?  It’s a made up number.  The bottomline is that the buyer thought that he was worth it and she paid it. 

What is the perceived value of your talent in the market place?  How will you increase it?

You’re a screenwriter.  You’ve written a screenplay.  You send out a Query Letter Mailing to Hollywood producers and agents. And then, much to your excitement, they call and tell you they want to read your movie script.  You’re thrilled.  You send it.  And now… you wait. 

If you haven’t already experienced it, you will quickly learn that even when a Hollywood movie executive requests to read your screenplay that they may not read it right away.  Therefore, you will need to learn to follow up with them after you send it.

Being effective at following up with execs is an entire art and skill in itself.  It requires a certain amount of schmooze as well as knowing the protocol, as well as having the correct intention.  I’m only going to cover the intention aspect in this post.  So here goes:

When you prepare to call an executive, or any business call for that matter, know exactly what outcome you are trying to produce.  The clearer you are about what you want to have happen, the more your mind will find possible ways to make it happen.  However, you can even go beyond just knowing what you want to have happen and create three possible levels.  In other words, instead of it being All or Nothing, if you create that you want X to happen, but if X doesn’t happen, then you At Least want Y to happen, and if Y doesn’t happen, then you At Least want Z to happen, it sets you up to win.

The power of it is that you have to figure out ahead of time exactly what you want to have happen — what is the Best Case?  Then you have to figure out 2 lesser outcomes.  When you do this, it gives you a direction to take the conversation instead of just focusing on one thing only and then having nowhere to go if that doesn’t work.

For example, let’s say you are following up with a producer who wanted to read your script and you needed to create your three outcomes.  One level would be to connect with the exec and get them to commit to a time to read your script.

A possible outcome short of that would be to try to get a Development Assistant to read it and consider recommending it to the exec.  It can’t hurt to get in good with the assistant since many of them work their way up the ladder eventually, and they might recommend it to the producer.

A third possible outcome, even if you don’t get the Development Assistant to read it, is to try to get them move it to the top of the exec’s reading pile and to put in a good word about it to try to get them to read it.

Having three possible outcomes makes it so that the success of your call is not an all-or-nothing proposition so you are more likely to move your cause forward. Tap into your own well of ideas to try to come up with other possible outcomes that will still move you forward toward your goal.  Plan this out before you make your call and you will find things moving forward much quicker than you can imagine.

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P.S. You know, a lot of actors and writers will read every word here, agree with what they see – and still do nothing. They’re the wanna-bes-who-didn’t-go-for-it. The almost-made-it crowd. Always waiting for that good ship success to sail in, but too timid to hop on board once it is at the dock! We can and do give you every tool you need to go after your desires and ambitions. But you have to take this first step in your acting or writing career. Give us a call to see how we can help you — or AT LEAST, start by getting our mini-course on marketing to Hollywood!

P.P.S. A lot of people wonder… is Smart Girls just for women? The answer? No. It doesn’t matter who you are, whether you’re a man or a woman! If you’re looking to make it in film or TV, we’re for you. Smart Girls (and Guys) are who we are, savvy, smart people who get the job done – and done right!

To Be Continued…