So I just had a Skype call with a producer in Switzerland who wants to make one of my short scripts. She contacted me earlier via email today. That’s what’s great about the world today, right? We can move so fast on things. However the last time I heard from this producer was last Sept, just before they flew out to Australia to work on a feature. And that was after my details were passed on to her in July by a director in LA who wanted to put me touch with someone in the UK. And he himself only knew about me via an actor I started writing for five months earlier. It’s been one year and a month almost to the day from that initial contact and now and that loop has finally closed. And guess where it started; right here on Stage 32. I’d been a member here just a few months when that first person messaged me. The funny thing is this producer actually requested me to send my short script so she could forward it to a friend. She picked it up upon her return from down-under while offhand looking for something she wanted to make when she gets back to LA. Turns out it had some uncanny parallels with her own life. So a lesson in patience learned, mighty oaks from little acorns grow. And yeah, I know a year is actually a blink of an eye in this industry, I just needed reminding. Just think how the little things we are doing now here and elsewhere that may come back to reward us further down the line. Anyway, a great Skype chat was had. Things should move forward through this year. Another big thanks to Stage 32!
Success Stories: MAR'20 From Switzerland (via Australia, England, and America) with love.
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What a great post! Way to keep on gettin' it, playboy!
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This is terrific news, CJ. I wish you all the best and I look forward to seeing what this short film is about.
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Thanks my lovelies. I'm all tuckered out now so nighty night :)
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Congratulations! What goes around, comes around, eventually.
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Congrats from Down Under, CJ. Thanks for sharing your experience. Good luck, and keep planting those seeds. A lesson for us all :-)
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So the average movie (130mins) should take 260 days to shoot and be in preproduction for 26 decades. Got it.
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Always good to hear things are going well for you, CJ! Your consistently positive work ethic and limitless support of your peers does you credit, my friend, and if that doesn't deserve success and good fortune, I'm not sure what does! Enjoy the fruits of your labour, buddy.
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Indeed that's is the great thing about world today, hard work, persistence,patience, and kindness pay off as eventually can connect with just the right people and audience, congrats and thanks for sharing!
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Those are indeed my values: Honesty, Passion, Charity, Kindness. I know many of you share the same attitude and that's why I love you.
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Glad it went well, CJ! Keep us posted.
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It'll be a bit of a slow burner this one and my first experience developing a script with a producer. I'll certainly be learning a lot and sharing the experience.
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You just reap what you have sown. Congratulations CJ, you really deserve it!!
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That's fabulous, CJ! Congrats!
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You deserve this, CJ. Many congrats, and can't wait to hear how it goes!
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There was another interesting twist to this regarding which of our scripts we promote, and I'm trying to work out what to learn from it. Last July I used to list loglines for pretty much every script I'd written on my website. However, I then read some advice that we should only be promoting scripts which fall in line with the genre we favor writing in, a sort of form of branding. I took that advice and removed a bunch of loglines. As it turns out, this producer actually did look at my website in the July before contacting me in the Sept and the logline that had caught her eye had been one of the ones I'd removed. Thankfully she remembered the core concept and I was able to determine which script she was referencing. So now I'm sort of torn between that advice I took and simply listing everything I can offer. Something else that's been interesting here is how the producer has connected with this script. I get the impression that 80% of it isn't what they are looking for. The tone is wrong, the characters too comical, the theme under-developed. What hooked her was the concept, a thematic element, and some moments which had remarkable parallels with her own life experiences. She was on the fence about choosing the script and forwarded to a friend for their opinion. She came back with something like "Are you kidding me? This has you written all over it!" which caused her to suddenly realise these eerie coincidences. This has really got me questioning our obsession with trying to write perfect scripts that satisfy all feedback and please all readers. I am very familiar with the concept is king effect but hadn't until now realised how much than can influence a producer. But compounding this is just how much these moments can cause a script to have appeal, and it concerns me how vulnerable they can be to peer criticism and potential removal. I never requested any feedback from other writers on this script but I'm very confident that one of these moments would have been heavily questioned as plausible and most likely deleted. It all comes back to this crapshoot reality, although it now feels like the odds are way more complex.
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Thanks for this great post and especially "Just think how the little things we are doing now here and elsewhere that may come back to reward us further down the line" as this is exactly STAGE32! RB you can be proud of your guys! :o) oh and by the way CJ thank you for saying nice words for Swiss Producers!
Kathryn, that's the thing. Would we say our brand is our prefered genre, tone, or what. And that's before even getting into the complexities of considering if optioning a script outside of our remit is a good or bad thing. Michel, thanks for the kind message and I love how you see it as the Stage 32 spirit because that's exactly what it is.
Great bit of networking. If any of my adventures interest you let me know. "Angels on the Bridge". The Search for the Real Great Gatsby, Interfaith Crusade. Author/Private Detective/Interfaith Crusader looking for Agent to find a publisher or write a script for my Quadliogy to help Finance "The End Game". Looking for help finding a Agent for my Quaglogy for: 1. "Angels on the Bridge" my public Corruption investigation in S Carolina that brought me in contact with the Medium Elizabeth Baron, the Vatican, Mickey Spillane, George W Bush of Harkin Oil, the investigation of President Clinton, Hassidic Rabbis in Myrtle Beach, and "The Rebbe" in Crown Heights, Commando on the Raid on Entebbe, ), and the founding of the Charleston Congress of Religions. 2, :"God Sees Everything" my search for the real Great Gatsby, 3. "My Interfaith Crusade" National effort to move Interfaith Harmony Month nationally and beyond with retired Professor of Religious Studies at the University of South Carolina, the SC Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, and the Governor's Dad, Martha's Vineyard and the investigation of a famous Actor, 4. The End Game: The Rise of Isis, a National Civil Awareness need, The Governor of South Carolina, the President's Rabbi Cousin, and the adventure continues. https://www.facebook.com/authorcomen https://www.facebook.com/groups/783150381757789/ Google Howard Comen and F Scott Fitzgerald and Howie Comen, and Howie Comen
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This fills me with so much confidence! Just keep it up & all good things come to those who wait! Well done CJ keep up the good work!!
Glad to read it, Chantelle :)