As we discussed in our previous post, words like “business” and “distribution” can sometimes sound restrictive to writers. Creative people often separate the art from the business and believe that one will naturally take care of the other without realizing just how intertwined they are from the very beginning, and how understanding this will help you.
A script is never “just a script”. It is the beginning of a long process that ends up with a film or TV show reaching the audience. The screenwriters that understand how that process works will always have a huge advantage over those that don’t.
Pitching Your Project
So, if you think that you’re “just” a writer and none of this will ever apply to you, think of it like this: at some point, you will be sitting in front of someone else and asking them to take a chance on your script.
That someone else might be a producer, an investor, a development exec, or any number of other people. But when they are deciding whether to take a chance on you and your project, their decision-making process will be driven to a large extent by the distribution process and how they see you fitting into it.
You need to know how an investor thinks and what they are looking for. If they don’t believe that anybody will pay to watch your film or TV show, then they are not going to waste their time or money trying to get it made.
Their decision-making process will be distribution-based. And if you aren’t thinking about that when you create the project, you could be missing the mark and creating a product that nobody wants.
Identifying Informed Writers
As a producer, financier, and executive, I’ve met with hundreds of writers over the years. It’s usually obvious within minutes which ones understand how the industry works and which ones don’t.
Believe me, the writers that do understand the industry are far more likely to produce better work and get ahead quicker. Working with them also tends to be a much smoother process.
Whenever you’re pitching a project to anyone in any business, understanding what they’re looking for makes it a lot easier for you to give it to them.
For a producer or financier, there’s nothing worse than sitting in a meeting with a talented screenwriter or director and asking them: “Who is the audience for this movie?” only to be greeted by blank stares and silence. Ditto when a producer is looking for financing and you ask them: “How are you going to achieve distribution for this project?” and they have no idea.
Both examples have happened to me multiple times. And in both cases, they stop the meeting dead. It shows that the filmmakers have not given any consideration to the distribution process, and indicated that working with them is likely to be a lot of hard work.
Understanding distribution means that you understand what audiences want. It informs the choices that you make, the stories that you choose to tell, and the way in which you choose to tell them.
It will put you ahead of your competitors, some of whom might be great writers but have no understanding of the market or how it works, which makes their scripts much less likely to get picked up or produced.
Discovering New Voices
I often hear writers complain that industry execs don’t want to take a chance on fresh voices or discover anyone new. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Many of the most successful producers and financiers in the industry have created their entire reputations on their ability to discover new talent and create breakout hits that nobody saw coming. There is no greater success in this (or any) business than a project that can be made for relatively little money and return multiples on that. It’s what everybody is trying to achieve.
And it’s true that nobody really knows what will work until it’s actually released.
Some big-budget movies that have all the “right” elements and “couldn’t possibly fail” end up doing miserably at the box office - these are known as “bombs”.
Breakout Hits
Conversely, the breakout hits are the ones that few people saw coming, yet somehow touch just the right nerve with audiences at just the right time.
But breakout hits rarely come completely out of left field, however good a story that might make.
They still have to contain various elements and tick certain basic boxes that people within the industry are looking for. That certainly does not make them formulaic, but it does mean that the filmmakers have thought about their primary target audiences, and understand what they want and how to give it to them.
They can then build on that foundation by adding an extra element of surprise, combined with that additional level of quality and, often, fortuitous timing to allow them to reach an audience way beyond what was initially expected.
Understanding The System Will Help Your Career
There are plenty of talented people working behind the scenes within the industry. If they don’t take a chance on your script it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are terrible at what they do or that Hollywood refuses to take a risk on anything new - the number of wonderful indie films I see every year at festivals is testament to that.
It may instead be that many talented filmmakers simply don’t understand enough about what these producers, investors, or executives are looking for. Just a few tweaks here and there might take a writer's work from being a "great script" to one that is great AND financially viable for production.
Audiences drive distribution. Distribution drives the market. The market drives the finance. Whether you like it or not, you need to be part of that essential cycle to succeed in this industry.
But the benefits aren't all one-sided. In our next post, we'll look at how understanding the market can also help to protect writers from working with the wrong people...
To learn more about the Sales & Distribution process, check out our book on the topic: HOW THE HELL… Do I Get My Film Financed: Book Two: Sales & Distribution by Ricky Margolis. For more information on other books in this series, check out all our current releases here.
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