Careers in Film: 10 Absolutely Essential Industry Rules You Must Stick To

There’s plenty of discussion among those on the outside of the film industry regarding what rules must be observed to appear professional. The hope is, this essential knowledge will help us past the gatekeepers and onward to success.

These rules range from how many brads your screenplay should be bound with and the exact font size used. Whether Netflix will accept your HD shot movie. Should you pitch your film idea as a logline or a tagline? Should the first act major turning point come at page 32 or 39?

Everyone knows that nobody in the industry will take you seriously unless you have an agent. And you can’t get an agent until the industry take you seriously. That’s just obvious. But what other rules are there? What is the secret code insiders know to observe or risk being seen as amateurs?

Top 10 Industry Dos and Don’ts

Do imply that whatever you are doing will make money for the person you are talking to. Don’t tell anyone that you haven’t sold anything. Do mention exactly how many units of your book, song or film you have sold (but only if it’s a lot). Has your work featured at a major film festival? If so, this means you are worth money to other people in the industry. Do mention it. In the past, have you been attached to any creatively successful projects? Haha, of course I just mean, did they make a big profit? Feel free to talk about them. Money. $$$$$ Was your screenplay inspired by a film you loved, which was critically acclaimed, but flopped at the box office? Yes, I know your screenplay is perfectly formatted and structured. But now you’ve told everyone your dirty secret, it might as well be a Dr. Seuss rhyme written on parchment in goat excrement. Did I mention money? Lastly, do focus on something generally accepted as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, or a means of payment.

The Only Real Rule Is Money

You see, we are led to believe that talent and hard work is what leads to success. But that narrative is just part of the film industry marketing plan. The story the industry wants to sell to the general public is one of romance and glamour, for obvious reasons. Behind the scenes, however, there’s a tough business being conducted.

The thing is, what William Goldman once famously said is true, “Nobody knows anything.” What he means is, nobody knows what will sell and what won’t. The only thing film business folk have to go on is previous sales of projects connected to an artist.

If you have no bankable credits to your name, it doesn’t matter if your work is powerful, moving and insightful to the human condition.

Here’s an illustration of what I mean…

A few weeks ago, a friend sent me a screenplay he’d written. I think this was his first screenplay, as he had not formatted it using screenplay formatting software. So, I suggested he use one and get the screenplay into shape.

Of course, it does indicate that you are a beginner. And if you’re sending out screenplays, you want to be seen as an experienced writer, right?

But what if Aaron Sorkin had sent me a script, as a word doc with centred text using comic sans as a font? Would I have insisted he format it correctly? If I was hoping to strike a deal, more likely I’d be doing everything in my power not to upset Mr Sorkin. There’d be no mention of formatting. Only how much I “loved” this script (and all his work, incidentally).

If anything, I would be questioning everything I know about formatting a screenplay. If Aaron Sorkin formats his script this way, maybe I’m behind the times, here. I’d be paranoid that maybe I’m the one sending out scripts and people are thinking, “What is with this old school formatting shit?”

Here’s another illustration…

When I was a professional composer, we got work writing music for a well known publishing company. Having spent a few years trying to be pop stars and getting endless rejections and facing the usual brick walls, the experience with this company was the opposite.

Every piece of music we sent to them was accepted. One year we wrote over 100 pieces of music! So, after a while, we got rather blasé about it.

Some years later, we found ourselves pitching to write theme tunes for some high profile BBC TV shows. We were up against some powerful music writers (you’re not competing against individual artists but publishing companies with clout). Although we got close, finally we lost out to the big guys. But rather than waste this music, we thought we would send it to our publishing company.

The mistake we made was we told them they had been rejected by the BBC. They wrote back bluntly, “If the BBC don’t want it, neither do we.”

To us, this music was just as good as anything we’d written before. If anything, we put even more work into it, as this was a chance at making a step up. But to our publishing company, all that mattered was how the music had been received by the industry.

What this meant, to my mind, was they weren’t too good at knowing themselves what was well produced and what wasn’t. At least, they weren’t judging it on that when it came to making a business decision about it.

Film as a business

Many of us outside the industry, hoping to get a break, are focused on the quality of the work. We believe if our work is expertly created, that will be enough to get noticed.

But if, for example, you’re a great screenwriter (but with zero notable credits) the best you can hope for is some meetings. At those meetings, everyone will agree what a great writer you are and how awesome the screenplay is. But, most of the time, nothing will happen.

A couple of years ago, I met a producer about a sci-fi screenplay I’d written. She told me it was perfect (it was a first draft) and that she couldn’t think of anything wrong with it – “except the part with the dog” (it’s actually a cat). She apologised for getting that wrong (like she was worried she’d lose the deal).

I never heard from her again.

OK, so people will say, “You just have to keep going. Meet more people. Eventually you will find the “the one” (like dating)”.

Yes, I do think that’s possible. But sometimes I wonder if I’m like a crazy gambling addict hoping the next punt will see the jackpot come spilling out of the machine.

Also, you begin to realise the industry doesn’t really work in the way you believed it does. There’s something else going on. Something mysterious and unspoken. And that thing is… money.

Which isn’t really all that mysterious at all, is it? It’s actually quite obvious. Any industry has to use money the ultimate judge of value.

Packaging a film for industry

In the industry, when a film project is looking for funding, producers will put together all the elements ready to pitch to investors. That process is called “film packaging”.

How does that process sound to you? Does it sound romantic and glamorous? To me it sounds like something underpaid staff do in Amazon warehouses. So, even the term used tells you the reality of how the industry works.

When a film is packaged, all the elements are put together to create a simple sum. Actor + Director + Genre + Budget = so many $. Now, do you think the value of the actor or the director is based on their talent? No – it’s based on their credits.

So, in truth, it’s pretty easy to understand. If you have no credits of value – and films that made it into a small festival, or have 500k views on YouTube have no value in industry terms – then you and your work add no value to the package. If you add no value to the package, then you’d better find someone who does and add them, or no one will invest in it.

What is your market value?

You see, when it comes to the business of film, talent alone has no value. Because it’s highly subjective, it’s almost impossible to predict reliably which kind of talent and which kind of work actually sells cinema tickets (or, these days, gets VOD clicks). So, even if you are the next Shakespeare, or Marlon Brando, the money men and women of film cannot tell if that is worth anything.

Yes, you might get lucky. You might find someone who is willing to take a risk on your talent, alone. But finding that person is like trying to win the lottery. And with ever shrinking budgets, it’s a lottery which every week becomes harder to win.

The truth is, the only rule which counts is $ value. If you go shoot a film with a $50 digital camera and half the world ends up talking about it, Netflix are not going to turn it down because it wasn’t shot in 4K.

Essentially, rules are just guidelines to give everyone a reference point. Often, they’re simply there to filter out as many wannabe creatives as possible.

If you’re in a meeting and you get the “We’re not really looking for anything in this genre at the moment” or “We’d like to read your next script” response, what they’re actually saying is “we don’t see a monetary value in you or any of your work” (yet, but we’re we think you have some chance of being of value in the future).

So what’s the good news?

The good news is that, once you stop thinking of this as purely about your art and craft, you can focus on what’s actually important – creating a value for you and your work. This is why I wrote previously about the Mark Duplass talk for SXSW. His steps to success are essentially a path to (starting from nowhere) building a body of work and connections in the industry, which then enables you to sign one of those actors who adds $ value to your package.

If you are an actor, you can also build your own industry profile. Again, it’s all about getting the credits with value. So, why not create your own projects, rather than wait for others to “discover” you?

This method won’t work for everyone. Perhaps no one. But at least it gets you thinking about a real, practical route to building your career as a filmmaker.

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