ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

9 years, 2 months ago - David Hughes

Well I have some experience of that: we had enough elements for our Slated project – actor, actress, director, producer, screenwriters, sales company – to reach the required number of points to set the financing rolling... and when Slated agreed we had reached the relevant points total, they said "Ah, sorry, we aren't able to finance the project at this time" – so essentially we wasted months getting the package together under Slated's agreed terms, and they still said 'No.' Which of course makes me question their entire model (not to mention business practices, since they have essentially defrauded us). I wonder if we are alone in this experience, or whether anyone has actually had a film funded by Slated, rather than just listed on Slated and independently/coincidentally funded elsewhere.

9 years, 2 months ago - David Hughes

Also, regarding InkTip, "the bar for producers" is actually pretty low, although tbf they do state when a producer doesn't have the requisite experience but has been allowed to post a project anyway. It's not like they're asking for proof of experience (much less proof of funds), it seems to me.

9 years, 2 months ago - Dan Selakovich

@David Hughes I know a couple of producers with feature credits that couldn't get into Inktip to save their lives. And if I know 2 personally, I just expanded that out. Weird.

Sounds like Slated screwed you, but I wouldn't say that time was at all wasted. You have a package now. But I don't think it's too healthy to think that Slated, or anybody else, is going to green light a project. What's fucked about your experience, is that you reached their points minimum, which is quite high, and they didn't push it through to investors. That is really odd.

I think what I'm learning here, is that just about everyone has a horror story about each of these services. Like I said, I've never used any of them. While I don't know anyone that's sold through Blacklist, the people I know that used it (in its early incarnation) didn't have any bad things to say. Perhaps doing one round on each service is viable, since everyone hates each for different reasons.

9 years, 2 months ago - David Hughes

Do you use InkTip to follow preferred leads, or do you post your logline in the magazine?

9 years, 1 month ago - Peter Spencer

@David Hughes I have spent a few year on inktip without tamgible results, yes lots of logline views, script downloads etc but no produced work. That's not the 'fault' of Inktip, my scripts were just not what they were looking for. About 20-30 films get made each year through Inktip, they tend to be low budget or movies of the week but they do get made. I also tried the Black List. No results. Had two reads and evaluations but they were fifty dollars each. For a page. So actually pretty expensive. At the end of the day I was paying twenty five dollars a month to be on a list, a list that got longer every month. I could buy some pretty good script development with that three hundred dollars. I won't be going back to the Black List and I'm off Inktip at present. I have no knowledge about Slated at all.

9 years, 1 month ago - Gregory Fishwick

@David Hughes I've done both but the preferred newsletter, I think, is the most valuable aspect.

9 years, 1 month ago - Gregory Fishwick

@Gregory Fishwick The preferred newsletter obviously being where the leads are.

9 years, 1 month ago - Peter Spencer

Shirley makes great points, for example through Shooting People I have found a paid writing gig for a very established director, had meeting on scripts, had options taken up and in fact one of those meetings eventually led to co-writing work on a film, that led to an original screenplay being produced, that led to an assignment to adapt a play - again produced, that led to the director and producer of my next film, also an original screenplay. So let's not not forget SP

9 years, 1 month ago - David Hughes

@Peter Spencer Interesting. How did SP work for you, in the sense of "through Shooting People..."

9 years, 1 month ago - Peter Spencer

@David Hughes Well I pitched twice on SP which led to a flurry of meetings. One of the meetings led to an option that led to director attachment though the film finally did not get made. Another meeting led to a friendship and collaboration with a TV cameraman who went on to direct two low-budget features, one I co-wrote and one I wrote. The second of these films led to a paid gig to adapt an award-winning stage play - https://vimeo.com/130571374

On another occasion a director who made documentaries posted on SP for a writer to work on a thriller. It took a year or so of gentle emailing to get a meeting and by then the thriller was no longer on the table, BUT she was working on a historical bio-drama and I got the paid gig to write that. I've also met people at SP events that led to collaborations and it was through SP posts that I learned of the London Screenwriting Festival in 2010 - that led to some great friendships and contacts and also an offer at LSF 2011 from a production company that wanted to buy a pitch.
Over the years I have also been very proactive, going to events, making contacts and setting up pitches. The film I am working on now came about because I met a TV producer at an event in April 2015 (in fact it was the premiere of my film 'All The ordinary Angels'), pitched my bodyswap in a few sentences and she immediately said "I'll produce that." and here we are, setting up to apply for BFI First Feature funding deadline in September. But everything is about keeping the pressure on to come up with new material and keep writing, to not be afraid to meet people and be someone they want to work with.

9 years, 1 month ago - Peter Spencer

Well I pitched twice on SP which led to a flurry of meetings. One of the meetings led to an option that led to director attachment though the film finally did not get made. Another meeting led to a friendship and collaboration with a TV cameraman who went on to direct two low-budget features, one I co-wrote and one I wrote. The second of these films led to a paid gig to adapt an award-winning stage play - vimeo.com/130571374

On another occasion a director who made documentaries posted on SP for a writer to work on a thriller. It took a year or so of gentle emailing to get a meeting and by then the thriller was no longer on the table, BUT she was working on a historical bio-drama and I got the paid gig to write that. I've also met people at SP events that led to collaborations and it was through SP posts that I learned of the London Screenwriting Festival in 2010 - that led to some great friendships and contacts and also an offer at LSF 2011 from a production company that wanted to buy a pitch.
Over the years I have also been very proactive, going to events, making contacts and setting up pitches. The film I am working on now came about because I met a TV producer at an event in April 2015 (in fact it was the premiere of my film 'All The ordinary Angels'), pitched my bodyswap in a few sentences and she immediately said "I'll produce that." and here we are, setting up to apply for BFI First Feature funding deadline in September. But everything is about keeping the pressure on to come up with new material and keep writing, to not be afraid to meet people and be someone they want to work with.

9 years, 1 month ago - Gregory Fishwick

@Peter Spencer Well done and thanks for the advice!

9 years, 1 month ago - Ed Wiles

Well done on the option. Can I ask what the budget range/genre was so we have an idea of what might work?

9 years, 1 month ago - Nick Brown

@Ed Wiles
Thriller. Budget probably 5m plus. But I think it's very much down to a director/producer finding what they're looking for.

9 years, 1 month ago - Nick Brown

@Ed Wiles Cheers btw

9 years, 1 month ago - Peter Spencer

Good work!