10 MORE Insider Realities of the Movie and Television Businesses They Don’t Teach In School Joel Eisenberg Follow Jan 4 · 6 min read

My first sequel.

James Dean monument

It was as though I had murdered someone.

I posted the below article on insider realities just yesterday, and the questions came hot and heavy, and angrily:

“You mean I can sell a script outright and the studio has the right to take my name off of it? After all my hard work?” Yes (with caveats).

“Please. I can actually call companies on my own without agents?” Yes. (Are your fingers broken?)

“I live in Idaho. They’ll never read my scripts.” Bullshit.

You get the picture.

Because I just may be a masochist, the following is a sequel …

10 More Insider Realities:

Write-Offs: “Hollywood” (as a euphemism for the entertainment business as a whole) can spend millions of dollars in development, including paying you good money … and never make your film or TV show. Any number of factors can figure into that equation, including the loss of financing, the loss of a key piece of talent, and even the insolvency of the purchasing company. Which leads us to … Turnaround: If a given company expends any amount of money into your project, and they elect not to move forward, you more often than not will have to reimburse these fees before receiving your rights back. Talent “Insurance”: When a script is purchased outright, or even frequently when it is “set-up” with a producer and/or company to attain financing, the writer(s) who created the project may be eliminated upfront, or asked to step aside, in favor of a writer with a stronger track record. This is common, especially with larger product. Remember, your power is to say “no,” which may kill your deal, but with a good attorney it may be possible for you to successfully negotiate elsewhere. Yet Another Agent Truism: When you contact an agent for the purpose of attaching acting talent and you have no financing behind you, chances are the agent will not submit your script to the talent … even if the agent has verbally agreed to do so (more often than not to get you off the phone, if you are dealing with them directly and not with their assistants). Large agencies are notorious for this practice (I was repped by two of them for two years each, and heard it all). That said, LOIs, or “letters of intent,” are non-binding expressions of interest, pending financial and scheduling negotiations, that reps of some bigger-name talents will sign to leverage their client and help you attain financing, but your script has to completely stand out from the dozens if not hundreds they receive on their desks weekly. Speaking of … The Truth About “Talent Attachments”: Not unlike the James Dean bust in the lead-in photo, above, actors are monuments and their reps well know their value. They hold the cards … but you hold the project. Though even the most sought-after actors are no guarantee of sales or audience favor (see “Cats”), the inordinate amount of money they regularly generate on a global basis makes them commodities. LOIs are not binding, and talent is not committed to your project until they are formally contracted. Further, if an agent tells you, alternatively, “Find the financing first and then I’ll submit the script to Tom Cruise,” as an example, that does not mean you can tell your friends or investor prospects the following: “Tom Cruise’s agent is interested in my project. He said as long as I get the financing, I can get him.” No. That’s not what he said. Get the money and go through the submission-negotiation maze from there. “Let’s Take a Meeting”: Hollywood loves “taking” meetings. If not careful, you will soon find yourself in the whirlwind of meeting a potential prospect, only to schedule another meeting … to look into still another meeting. You will kiss a bunch of frogs — and eat a whole lot of lunches when the meetings are not in offices — to find the one meeting that means anything. One cannot avoid this trap entirely, so try to query comprehensively on the phone or email to determine if a meeting is at all worthwhile. Time is money, including yours. About VOD and Marketing: Truly anyone can make an independent film or even TV show today. Cell phones, iPads and cheaper cameras make it possible for anyone to shoot in HD, edit on a computer, and “dump” the film on a video-on-demand outlet. Your success comes down to this: How will you market your product? If your goal is to say you made a film, great. Job done. If, however, you want eyes on your work, you need to creatively market it as — unless you hire a publicist — no one will do it for you. Your product will be in the midst of thousands of others. How will it stand out? Distribution: If you have signed a distributor to your finished film, always contractually cap their expenses. Far too many so-called “sales agents,” who sell your film internationally for a commission, will over-inflate their expenses to untenable degrees. It is not at all unusual to never see a return on your product, unless you are scrupulously careful. Once again, retain a good attorney for all contractual purposes, who will also be sure a “rights of audit” clause is included on any agreement. Yes, You Will Be Lied To. Get used to it. Suck it up. False promises will abound. This does not mean there are no honest people in Hollywood. There are, and plenty of them. But you may well be backstabbed and lied to your face at least once before reality seeps in and you are able to elucidate fact from fiction. On a related basis, I strongly suggest to not kiss ass to get into anyone’s good graces whether you know they are lying to you, or not. Bullshit and sycophancy is a deadly combination, and one that will come back to haunt you if you’re not careful. Another bitter truth: The mindset of accepting lies and going back for seconds is no different than the casting couch mentality which, in reality, has been around this business since its inception. Tip: No one has to ever sell themselves or buy into any manipulation to make a living in this business. Period. My advice is to stay focused and play the Hollywood game while determining the terms that suit your morality, not theirs. It may take you longer to make it, and selling your soul is always an option, but that’s a decision you need to make for yourself. I will not preach to you. “Hollywood” Is a Closed Shop: If that is what you believe, that will become your reality. I do not say this in any metaphysical way; I am not talking about manifesting reality … Well, actually, I guess maybe I am. Hollywood is a closed shop only if you go in believing that you will fail, as for every one of the more brutal realities listed herein, there are methods you can undertake to circumvent them and turn the odds to your favor. As ever, you must do the work. All of it.

Note: I frequently write “rah rah” articles on the film and television businesses from my perspective as a writer-producer. However, if I do not balance those strategies with other realities, my cheerleading would be disingenuous.

I have to also stress, in disclosure, that most people I meet today are kind and real. That was not always the case, however. I had to go through the above, to get to the heart of it all.

There is nothing in the world like creating with a group of like-minded dreamers.

Again, anyone can succeed in the entertainment business IF the work is done. All of the work, not just writing or raising money.

You will always be your own best friend in this business.

Smarten up.

Thank you for reading.

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