|
Post by RJ Alden Lackie on Aug 21, 2013 9:08:26 GMT
Compass has a pretty varied membership, but there's one thing that binds us all together:
We are not Joss Whedon. Hell, we're not even Joss Whedon's lowest SHIELD staffer's personal assistant. We are not Hollywood insiders, not by a long shot.
Not all of us are looking to do this professionally (by 'this', I mean media), but for those of us who do...
What is your dream, and what are your biggest obstacles to your dream right now?
Consider not just money, location, access and equipment, but also gaps in your knowledge - eg, starting a production company, reading a contract, networking skills, money management, etc. What you need to learn, both in raw knowledge and career advice, and what resources you need. And the second step is:
What can other folks at Compass do to help you move forward?
This is an open thread where we can discuss our challenges and obstacles and how we can help one another defeat them to achieve our goals.
|
|
|
Post by Srini Madhavan on Oct 27, 2013 13:32:49 GMT
I think a lot of people, myself included, overlook the legal side of filmmaking, from copyrighting, to releases, to contracts. That, and the money management side of things, from putting together a realistic budget, to working out a reasonable pay structure, from deciding whether or not there should be deferred pay contracts in place, or if there should be day rates for certain people.
Personally, I need to learn about those things, but also networking, and in a real-world sense, balancing my ambitions in film with my current job and location. Frankly, Australia is not the place to be if you want a decent chance at making a career out of filmmaking. Whilst it can be done, it's reserved to a painful few. So I'd like to move to the US, and preferably LA, to have the best shot geographically. But then rel life and my current job kicks in and reminds me I can't yet afford to uproot my life and move to another country, without a job or a degree.
So yeah, there's a few obstacles, and I doubt I'm alone in trying to overcome them. And let's add "lack of money" just to cover my bases.
As for your question of 'what can Compass do' - I'm not entirely sure. I think there are two main things we need to get a foot into the industry - skills, and screen credits. Obviously, the more writing we do, along with the mentoring side of things I believe the powers that be are planning behind the scenes, will help us build those writing skills. As for screen credits, I think that it can sometimes be best to take that into our own hands. I made a suggestion in the little shout-box on the home page a little while ago, that we perhaps work together to develop a series that's genuinely producible. Like, we treat Compass as a writers room for a no-budget web series, and we somehow gather people and funds to get it made. The reason such a thing would be necessary is that, as far as I've heard from a handful of books and industry pros (including film school professors) is that the first thing an agent asks you these days is how many views/subscribers you have on YouTube, because they want to see that you can help develop and create that end product they're representing you to create in potential jobs. To Hollywood, all that matters is viewership, so we as creators need to develop that viewership. I genuinely think a great way to do that would be to act as a writers room and somewhat of a production company to create a series of our own.
Wow, that was long. Ha.
|
|
|
Post by RJ Alden Lackie on Nov 23, 2013 21:03:20 GMT
I think a lot of people, myself included, overlook the legal side of filmmaking, from copyrighting, to releases, to contracts. That, and the money management side of things, from putting together a realistic budget, to working out a reasonable pay structure, from deciding whether or not there should be deferred pay contracts in place, or if there should be day rates for certain people. Essentially, the skills of a producer. Agreed - a lot of screenwriters supplement their writing with directing skills, but producing ones come less naturally and need more education/mentorship to develop. Most can get away with it - at the super-indie level, nobody is getting paid, and eventually you can hire a producer who can cover that stuff. But it's best to know how to do it yourself. Even if you don't actually oversee those areas, it's best to be able to tell what needs to be done and whether it's getting done effectively. For Canadians, Media Law For Producers by Philip Miller is a great comprehensive for contract language and legal issues. Thankfully, we're in an era where you don't have to start out in LA. Film stuff, sharpen your skills, get really good - because the scouts are keeping an eye on YouTube and looking for talent there as well. Film webseries to build a personal brand, submit to the Black List and whatever reputable contests/fellowships that will have you, but stay stable until you can't any more. There's no point moving out to LA to be a waiter for 10 years. And build partnerships over the web. Because what you're doing now, getting involved at Compass, building writers rooms and connecting to other writers? This is networking. Maybe not to big-shot executives, but you don't need them until you're ready anyhow. Use what you have access to. Yeah, this is a common one. Sigh. Haha. I don't think YouTube is the only way to build a brand. We need a fanbase, sure, and YouTube is a great place to develop that if you have the money/skills to pump out quality video product. But making online connections, blogging, podcasting, submitting scripts are also a good first step to building a name for yourself. But the skills you have are always the real YouTube subscribers; they just want to make sure your writing is strong enough to make a wave in the industry. YouTube fame can help to a point, but your writing is key. That said, our ambition has always been to make Compass into a multimedia community with our own YouTube channel alongside our forum and iTunes-released podcast(s). Making webseries, or building viewership for those our members make, is definitely something we want to accomplish. It's my own hope that we'd be able to launch a real, competitive YouTube channel this coming summer if we can get a slate of webseries into production ahead of that time. Perhaps we should start building plans for that. Dan Taylor, Kyle West, thoughts?
|
|
|
Post by Kyle West on Nov 26, 2013 17:22:11 GMT
There's plans, but The Beautiful Game is growing at an unforeseen rate and is requiring all attention, haha.
|
|
|
Post by Dan Taylor on Nov 26, 2013 18:33:43 GMT
I'm not quite getting to channel my creative energies quite as much as I would like but my all encompassing work life doesn't allow for the time I need.
|
|
|
Post by RJ Alden Lackie on Dec 31, 2013 5:49:49 GMT
Hey A J. Black, considering your most recent blog post, this might be an interesting thread to hop into.
|
|
|
Post by A J. Black on Dec 31, 2013 14:24:59 GMT
Thank you, an interesting topic.
My biggest obstacle, like Dan, is work. It's getting the life balance right to actually write. I'm out early, travel far for work, then I'm back evenings after my gym commitment (which isn't going anywhere), so blocking time under the weight of Real Life will be difficult. Not impossible, it just needs moving up the priority list and one of my biggest 2014 determinations is to do that.
Beyond that, it's then really knowing where to start breaking in. My knowledge on how it works in the UK is fairly minimal, so that needs expanding. I follow plenty of blogs & online sources, but not as regularly as I need to. Competitions I think I need to start going for, and Waylon Wyche (an old MZP hand) recently gave me links to a lot of international ones that could be options, once explored. I'm aware many have cost issues so that's another concern. Then it's representation - how do you get that in the UK? I've even looked at possible jobs in the industry, but they require experience in roads I haven't gone down so it's a Catch-22.
First obstacle though: the life balance. Once I tackle that & get the material under my belt, I can hopefully start exploring the ways in. Baby steps.
|
|
|
Post by RJ Alden Lackie on Feb 8, 2014 5:53:25 GMT
Have you ever considered going back to school, even just for a year or two, A J. Black? I'm doing my Master's at the moment in screenwriting (2 yrs), and it's a really great chance to lock down my skills at Features and make some real connections. It also gives me more time to myself so I can focus on getting networking etc. done. It might even help you with getting repped. Otherwise, best move is probably to write some AWESOME feature scripts (maybe put your DSR skills to good use and write a fun, vivid action/spyfi film?) and throw em up on the Black List. Get a couple 9s and it won't matter where you are folks will pay attention. You might even be able to take some of the best writing you did for DSR and jury-rig it into a feature that shows your skills, just to speed up the process of having an awesome sample. After all, readers won't know the Alias connection unless you mention it, right? Jai Shaw and co. are bigger than the Alias connection, I bet.
|
|
|
Post by A J. Black on Feb 8, 2014 11:22:06 GMT
Doing anymore school I don't really think is an option sadly now, least not while I live alone & have bills to pay for. Perhaps when/if I'm in a relationship & can halve my outgoings but even then with the cost of living I think it's unrealistic.
The Black List *is* a target though, and something I've been asked by a fellow writer to help break into. We already have a few really good script ideas we're getting into, and he's US based so that helps on that side. Retooling DSR is an idea though, actually… I would like to have another run at spy-fi (I miss it) & I did flirt & work up ideas for having Jai Shaw the main character in a novel that might be worth looking at for a film. Hmmm...
|
|
|
Post by RJ Alden Lackie on Feb 11, 2014 8:51:58 GMT
Doing anymore school I don't really think is an option sadly now, least not while I live alone & have bills to pay for. Perhaps when/if I'm in a relationship & can halve my outgoings but even then with the cost of living I think it's unrealistic. That's a shame. I forget that every country doesn't have Canada's encouraging student loans program, where they pay your way and are pretty flexible when it comes to repayment if you're not making tons of money out of school. Oooh, perhaps I've been of help? Score! I do remember that you did some excellent work over the years on DSR, and I feel like you could easily even pilfer and reconstruct a few great samples out of scripts you've written over the years, if you're eager to dig in a bit quicker.
|
|
|
Post by A J. Black on Feb 12, 2014 11:58:09 GMT
Oh we have student loans in much the same way, that's not my issue. It's the fact I couldn't afford to give up work. This is why it's harder doing this when you're in your 30's & have more responsibilities because it's harder to step away from 'the day job'.
You have. It's got me thinking. Though my next scripts I still plan on being MUSKETEERS & then ORDINARY, but after that… maybe Jai Shaw will return...
|
|
|
Post by RJ Alden Lackie on May 31, 2014 20:58:34 GMT
My biggest obstacle right now, I think, is mentorship.
I got to where I am through mentorship - Lee Chrimes and various other MZP writers especially, whom I worked in the trenches with on script series. Part of the reason why I've started developing all these new skills - prose! producing! directing! graphic novels! - is that I don't think my TV/film writing has been improving that much in the past year or two. I can write til my fingers are nubs, and watch TV and films til I bleed out of my eyes, but there's only so much improvement I can do on my own. At a certain point, you need someone who can look at your work and break down what's not working and maybe why, and lay out some strategies and suggestions for improving. I think I'm getting to a place where I'm stalled, perhaps even getting worse, because I've hit the limit of how much I can grow on my own. I've been working with story editors off and on for various projects, and it's there that I've been learning new skills - editing, pacing, etc - and it's been fantastic... but very limited.
I'm a good writer, but I need access to mentorship to become the great writer I want to be.
|
|