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Matt Hader recounts what is unfortunately not an uncommon tale in the land of the wannabe scribe.
Can you feel your skin thickening?
- E.
Luck On/Luck Off
I had lunch today with a screenwriting buddy. He’s fairly new to the game and asked me what it’s like to have a well-known production company read/like/and consider taking on something I’ve written. I’ve been fortunate enough to have this type of scenario play out time and time again. He was all bug-eyed with anticipation as he waited for my reply, probably hoping upon hope that I would wax poetically about the feeling of bliss and accomplishment that one can experience --
-- until that “non-deal” falls into oblivion.
It’s not a deal until the check clears, so simply having a production company show interest, while – yes - exciting, is pretty much a fairly common occurrence worthy of nothing more than a passing, “oh, cool,” followed by my daily chores (my beautiful wife is kind of a stickler for vacuumed carpets and Swiffered floors…we’re seeking counseling).
Unfortunately for me, and I’d guess a good number of other screenwriters who’ve been at this for a while, most “potential deals” are really non-deals. You’re led to believe that someone is hot on your screenplay and then the heat fades as quickly as it flared. I’ve learned to react in the same fashion to that non-deal falling apart as I do to the possibility of making a deal – with a calm disposition. If I didn’t level my head, I’d be punching holes in walls, or worse, blogging all the time…
My buddy then asked me how many times I’ve had non-deals become nothing-at-all-deals. I had to think about that for a minute – “in the past year?”
Yeah…it’s happened a bunch.
Maybe it’s me? Maybe it’s my writing? Or maybe it’s the fact that the executive revolving doors in Hollywood spin at such a ferocious pace that you can’t keep track of all the comings and goings. Perhaps it’s a little of all the above?
My screenwriting Bud was surprised that non-deals fall away so quickly after the one championing your cause at a production company makes his/her exit. He never took into consideration that just because one executive at a company likes your screenplay, that the second they leave the employ of said production company, everything they were working on (in most situations) simply goes “poof” into thin air. At least that’s how it’s panned out for me in those instances. Hopefully for you, you’re cranking out the deals left and right regardless of your circumstances…Jealous? Me? Nah…
“But, why wouldn’t that executive take your project to his/her new company?”
Because a lot of times, when he/she does land at a new company, the new employer is looking for a different type of material – and my stuff may not fit in to their corporate vision. And actually in one case, after I asked my agent if the producer would be willing to look at my screenplay at his new place of employment, the answer was not one I fully expected -- “Well, his new job is with a realtor…”
Oh…
They loved it – and left…
I feel so…used…Labels: industry, Matt Hader, screenwriting, Story
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