How To Make It In Hollywood Before You Make It (Book)

By Christopher C. Odom

PART ONE

Boilerplate

Agents

A

gents can be a valuable resource, but keep in mind, they just are that – a resource. Who would you rather have in control of your career: a person with a 10% interest or a person with a 90% interest. I hope the answer is a person with a 90% interest, which is you. Your agent makes money by having many clients and making a little money from a lot of people. You make money only if you make money. This does not make your agent an evil person, but you need to be aware of this so that you put everything into perspective.

In essence, it’s your agent’s job to get you that meeting or audition. It’s your job to close the deal. Once the deal is closed, your agent will negotiate the major deal points and your lawyer with finagle the finer points.

You can help your agent by letting him or her know about great leads such as who could be attached to your project and so forth. Your agent works for you and not vice-versa, but once again, your agent only has a 10% interest, so you have to be out there constantly working for yourself.

If you do use an agent, allow your agent to “be” an agent. I had a screenplay go out wide once and I assisted my agent by having my manager send out an Evite to key studio and production executives. You would think that the email would have been ignored as junk mail, but in fact, the average executive didn’t seem to have the power to ignore the unsolicited email and we ended up doubling the amount of requests to read the script. The downside was that some of the additional requests were from the bosses of the executives on my agent’s list. The end result was bad vibes from my agent’s personal connections and bridges burned. The script made it all the way to the president of a small studio’s office by 10:30 a.m. the next morning, but in the end, it all fizzled out.

The big question for most is “how do I get an agent?”  Remembering, that an agent is just a tool, if you choose to use that tool, here’s the short answer:  contact one. If you go to Samuel French Books or even Barnes and Noble in LA, you’ll find a “Hollywood Creative Directory” for anything and anyone you can imagine you’ll need in show business. There you can find a list of agents and agencies in your field. Pick a name and send them a query letter, headshot, or reel, etc. Writers, if you’re great on the phone, you can call and briefly sell yourself to the assistant. Never ignore the assistant. No one in Hollywood wants to be an assistant and many assistants have already passed the bar or possess doctorates and masters.

I’ve pitched someone once who I thought was an assistant, who had actually already become full fledged agent just weeks prior. The person read my scripts. If you’re an email person, you can go to websites like www.showbizdata.com and www.hcdonline.com and collect email addresses for all your favorite agents and assistants. I’ve emailed as many as 400 agents and assistants, sent them an amazing query letter, and had someone contact me from every top agency to read a script of mine. I’m not afraid to tell anyone about this, because it took me 180 hours of hard work to make my email list, I had to learn how to write a great query letter first, and most people simply aren’t willing to go the extra mile and put in the elbow grease to get ahead.

For actors, there are publications at Samuel French books that also list what type of person agents and agencies are looking for that particular month.

For writers, a great book on how to write a query letter, as well as how to market your script is “The Screenwriter’s Bible” by David Trottier. This book is also great for formatting suggestions.

Managers

Managers are another “tool” at your disposal, but they aren’t free. By law an agent cannot collect more than a 10% commission, but managers are unregulated and their cut can skyrocket. Screenwriters, expect to give up around 15%. Actors can be on the hook for even more. And for musicians, well we’ve all seen “E! True Hollywood Stories” and the managers who were taking “half” as Eddie Murphy says.

Like agents, to get a groovy manager you need to send out a mass communiqué. But the more people you have on your payroll, the less money you will be able to keep. If that manager can get you someplace you couldn’t get before, it can be worth it, if not, only keep the essential key players on your team.

Film School

Having gone to film school three times and being a member of a family where education was held in the highest esteem, obviously I am a fan of becoming film educated. However, I do stress becoming “educated”. School is not the only way to become educated, and in certain situations, there is no official school to learn critical information. Never-the-less, school is a time tested successful method for laying down a formidable foundation.

The Big Five

The Big Five films schools are The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), The University of Southern California (USC) and The American Film Institute (AFI) on the West Coast in Los Angeles, and New York University (NYU) and Columbia University on the East Coast in New York.

UCLA is best known for their writers who dominate the summer movie screenwriting credits, USC is better know for their powerhouse directors, AFI often has incredible cinematographers, NYU is heralded for its East Coast filmmaker style, and Columbia is an all around great school with exceptional film theory for all programs. Any school you go to at the Big 5 will be an incredible experience for each program. You will also have big name professionals and heads of big companies teach courses or speak as guests because of the school’s notoriety. You can’t lose.

The downside to USC is that they run it like a studio. Only 5 people get to direct a thesis project if you’re a graduate directing student. Every directing student comes in to be one of those 5 and then 20 or 30 people in the end don’t get a thesis project, but get to help crew on the 5 people who did get to make one’s film. The upside to USC, is again, that they run it like a studio. USC is often unparalleled in its networking capacity and markets its students aggressively to the industry.

UCLA is most known for its screenwriters. USC might be capable of out-networking UCLA, but its writers can’t out-write UCLA writers. An average UCLA Graduate Screenwriting student will leave with 8 feature length screenplays. UCLA screenwriters write a feature-length script in a 10-week quarter, which most resembles a real life 8-week writing assignment. USC screenwriters will write 1 feature-length screenplay over a period of 1 year. You do the math.

The Peter Stark Producing Program at USC is great for producing movie executives, but the UCLA Producing Program is great for teaching producers everything there is to know to go out there and just start doing it.

Similar to USC’s “only 5 will direct a thesis project”, AFI is even more hardcore. Not only are there are a limited number of thesis projects, not every filmmaker is always invited to come back to school for a second year. It’s harder to get into any of these film schools than it is to get into Harvard Law School, simply because Harvard takes a higher percentage of its applicants than the big film schools do, so for me AFI and USC really wasn’t worth getting cut or snubbed over after you had to already defeat the odds of winning the lottery to even get accepted. Having to win the lottery a second time just wasn’t desirable.

Other Film Schools

Another school worth mentioning is Florida State University, which accepts an equal amount of writers, directors, cinematographers and editors so they can form teams for thesis projects. This seems to make the most since. Temple University in Philadelphia is great, and a must-apply for experimental filmmakers.

But in general, any film program is a great film program as long as you are learning.

Business Plans

Learn how to write a great business plan. You never know when you’ll be in town for the big game, waiting in line at the breakfast buffet, and talking to that out-of-towner millionaire who always wanted to be in the movie business. This is the time to reach into the trunk of your car and present that millionaire with the opportunity of a lifetime. There are a number of good books for writing film business plans. My favorite is “Filmmakers and Financing: Business Plans for Independents” by Louise Levison.

Film Festivals

This is the easiest section to write. The first step in film festivals is reading “The Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide” by Chris Gore. Chris also has a website called FilmThreat.com. If you don’t know a lot about festivals, this book tells you everything you need to know from making press kits to how to eat if you don’t have any money. The book also lists over 600 festivals foreign and domestic, divided into categories.

Every filmmaker should submit to 2 or 3 of the biggest festivals (Sundance and Cannes a must) in addition to a slew of others at various sizes. It’s best to form a submission strategy:  size, location, genre, etc…  It takes about 40 submissions before you’ll start getting into festivals, but it can take off like wildfire at that point. Filmmakers who are a little more financially secure will find themselves applying to upwards of 100 festivals, but it will pay off when you learn that if your film has buzz, some festivals will even pay you to screen it. Foreign festivals usually don’t have entry fees, and will often provide some type of support such as a plane ticket or room and board to participate in the festival. It never hurts to apply to many festivals in your home city, since you won’t have to pay for a plane ticket or room and board.

Selling a Script - vs.- Launching a Career

UCLA prides itself on teaching its screenwriters on how to launch a career and not just sell a script. Any schmuck (theoretically) can think up some big summer movie idea, get lucky, and sell it off. But it will probably never get made, you’re compensation will be marginal, and you’ll never work again. If the movie does get made, it’s not unreasonable to assume that you won’t even get a credit, an invitation to the world premiere or a copy of the DVD.

Launching a career is a different animal. Whether you want to be a film or TV writer, six polished samples are the best way to help yourself or your agent. Many have made it with less, but why go into a shootout with 1 bullet when your revolver can hold six. Linda Voorhees believes it takes 9 – 10 screenplays in a workshop setting before a writer really has a grip on his or her craft. I must admit that by feature length screenplay 9 or 10 in my own arsenal, something magical did happen, and there’s no comparison at that point to my previous work. Nothing can beat hard work in the long run.

Contests

Winning a contest is a great excuse for an agent to read or watch your work. It’s the job of agents, producers and executives to find the next big thing, but they don’t have time to watch or read everything. It’s your job to give them a valid excuse to check out what you have to offer. Winning a contest, or any other kind of accolade is a bona fide excuse to give someone a reason to take you seriously.

A few of my classmates would submit multiple scripts to a single contest, sometimes as many as a dozen at a time and win. At first I frowned down upon this, but after having to submit one film to 40 festivals and make expensive press kits, I realized that multiple contest submissions does increase your odds and is a vehicle within your power to winning accolades. One former classmate submits multiple screenplays to multiple contests on a regular basis, and he has won over 32 screenwriting awards. It hasn’t sold a script for him yet, but it does get him countless reads and/or meetings. Remember, it’s your job to “close” the deal once you do get that meeting.

For screenwriters, The Academy’s Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowship and The Chesterfield Screenwriting Award are must submits for all screenwriters. For protected classes (women, minorities and seniors) The Walt Disney Fellowship is a must submit. For African-Americans, the Cosby Program is a workshop that’s a must submit and doorway for many TV writers to get staffed. Fox and CBS now have diversity programs, but they are still in their developmental phases. Similar to the Disney Fellowship, Nickelodeon also has a one-year fellowship for writing features or TV sit-coms for youth.

Guilds & Unions

Six eggs in one hand, half a dozen in the other... Every non-union actor in LA will tell you that they are trying to get into the union, but the union is not magic. After I joined the Screen Actors Guild, the guild went on strike and by the time the strike ended my life had changed and it was 3 or 4 years before I worked a union job again. There are plentiful non-union jobs in L.A. Many pay, but unfortunately many more don’t. However, paying or non-paying, it’s a chance to work. You can get into the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) by working one day as a day-player (means you have a line or get a contract: stunt, choreographed dancer, singer) or work 3 days as a Union background actor. SAG has also worked out a way for excessive Non-Union background work on union shows to get you into SAG as well as charitable work for SAG. Once you become SAG eligible, it will cost you an approximate $2,000 initiation fee (always going up), but $2,000 extra isn’t that easy to come by in Los Angeles with its high cost of living.

The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) will let anyone join if they can pay the initiation fee, and if you’ve worked at least once as a Day Player (spoke at least one line) within the last year, and been a member of AFTRA for at least one year, SAG will allow you to pay their initiation fee and join SAG.

As far as writing goes, almost 85% of cable television is not covered by the Writers Guild of America (WGA). The WGA essentially has a monopoly on primetime slots, day and night on major networks, but the rest is fair game. To expand their membership base, the WGA will allow writers to join the Guild as an Associate member through their Independent Writers Caucus (IWC) if they fall into one or a combination of 4 categories:  a graduate of a Masters Program in Screenwriting from a major film school (within 5 years), won a major feature screenwriting award, sold a feature script to a non-WGA signatory company, and/or had a feature script produced by a non-WGA signatory company.

The Producers Guild of America (PGA), although more of a networking organization than a powerbase (producers already have the power), will allow members to join if they have two national producing credits for a film or television program and can get a written recommendation from a PGA member.

The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is the hardest to get into and cost the most to join. You may join based upon a point accumulation system of Assistant Director or Production Manager work. You can also apply to the DGA Training Program, which will make you a Second Second A.D. upon completion and allow you to join to DGA. But be weary, that A.D.’s do not become directors. They go on to be Line Producers or Production Managers. However, if you are self-producing an independent film, the DGA is flexible with their low-budget agreements. So if one were to produce a film under a DGA low-budget agreement and also direct it, that action would allow the director to join the DGA.

Songwriters may join Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) or Society of European Stage Authors & Composers (SESAC) simply by signing up.

Lawyers & Contracts

Like agents, Lawyers can be a powerful “resource”, but once again, they are only a tool and not magic. If you already have a deal on the table that needs to be negotiated, but have no money, many lawyers will work for 5% commission of the deal. However, if you’re small potatoes, 5% of your deal may not be enough to cover a big time lawyer’s minimum fee, and they’ll want to charge you by the hour, which can be egregiously expensive.

If you’re a writer and don’t have an agent, and a company will only take your submission through an agent, some companies will also take your submission through an entertainment attorney. Some entertainment attorneys will even try to charge a fee per submission, but it’s ABSOLUTLEY NOT WORTH IT. Truth be told, if a company really wants to read your work, they’ll have you sign a standard release, which they all have, saying you won’t sue them if they make something similar (steal your idea) because they get lots of submissions which may be similar (exactly like yours). In all fairness, they do get lots of similar submissions. No one has a copyright on seeing the sun or moon rise – we’ve all seen it. Ideas are not protected by law, because an idea is too general and vague. Only tangible forms of expression, be it written, filmed or taped can be copyrighted. This cannot be stolen. And if you’re still worried about signing that release, here’s another caveat for you. You don’t have the right to give up your rights. Just like when you pull into a pay parking lot and the ticket says the parking lot is not liable for damages to your property, well, they are liable. Just because a company tells you something or calls it policy, doesn’t mean it’s legal. Language like this is often used by companies to dissuade what they deem “frivolous” lawsuits.

Although possible, it’s rare that a script is just outright stolen. It is easier to buy it from an unknown writer for nothing than to be sued and pay legal fees.

Chapter 1

Christopher C. Odom is an Award-Winning Writer, Director, Producer and Author who earned his Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting from the University of California, Los Angeles. An Associate Member of the Writers Guild of America, west Independent Writer’s Caucus, Christopher has won numerous screenwriting and filmmaking awards. His work has been nationally televised and screened in cities worldwide, including Tel Aviv, Berlin and Cannes.

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