Getting It All Down in an Interactive WorkshopMichael Hauge and Heather Hale will be presiding over a unique class at the Great American Pitchfest on Saturday, June 13. The Four Giant Steps to a Deal will be a four-part overview of writing for and selling to Hollywood, presented by two of the best-known scriptwriting coaches and insiders in the business. Michael and Heather promise to provide plenty of nuts and bolts but also a lot of personal insight. How did you get paired at the The Great American PitchFest? Heather: We paired ourselves up! Michael and I have known each other for a long time, I’d say eight to ten years. We taught a class together at the Vancouver Film & Television Expo 2007 and it was incredible. We had a ball! Nobody wanted to leave - it ran over by an hour. So when Signe (Olynyk, founder and CEO) called us both about coming to this upcoming Great American PitchFest, we asked if we could do something together. Or maybe it was her idea off the VFTX? I can’t remember. Michael: We first met at the Selling to Hollywood conference years ago. We both love watching the other speak. We overlap in places but we also have areas of expertise that aren’t identical, so I think we have a nice package to offer. Signe liked the idea. How did you come up with the idea for the class? Heather: Michael and I both like to team-teach. We’ve got great chemistry, a lot of energy – and we both just really love teaching. We sat down and said: Okay, what kind of class would we want to take? What would be a really cool class that nobody’s done before? What do the attendees really need to know? You can read the books, go to the classes, but what better than to have real hands-on experience with people who work in the trenches? It’s a great opportunity for them to have both of us to look at their work. We’re challenging ourselves with this class. We’ll have to think quick on our feet – it’ll be constructive - and fun! Michael: We both think there are certain ways of imparting knowledge. One is that when people hear two different points of view about the same thing it can often help clarify it. Or give them a choice about what they hear. If we differ about story or process, people can pick and choose what fits their needs more. People have personalities that make them want to do certain stories or do them in a certain way, or pitch a certain way, or market a certain way, and those don’t work as well for other personalities. So it’s good for people to see that there are different ways of looking at it. While we may agree on certain core principles, we may disagree about specifics of pitches, structure, or something one of us will notice about a story. Heather: What will be nice is for the participants to hear that there isn’t just one way to do something. Michael: We won’t be just talking about very successful Hollywood movies. I’ll mention some successful movies that I expect everyone has seen and is familiar with. But in the class they can see that, Here’s another writer trying to break in or another working screenwriter with a new project to pitch, and I’ve encountered that situation, too. So here’s what Heather or Michael think would be a way to approach that. I think that can be very helpful. Heather: The other thing we are both big fans of is responding to people’s work, not just, or primarily, for the person who wrote it, but because real-life examples can be really helpful in understanding basic principles. So it’s not so much nuts and bolts but more about big overarching concepts? Heather: Yes, it is a lot of nuts and bolts. We will give specific examples. We’ll use every tool in our arsenal. We want to get the writers thinking. It’s very intensive and interactive. We’re doing the full gamut of stuff you need to know. It’s the class I would want to take: roll up your sleeves, laugh, learn from mistakes. We thought this through. We hope they walk out of there with their minds spinning with all that they have learned – and be truly inspired – and empowered. Michael: The workshop is designed specifically for this event. Neither of us nor anyone else has ever seen or done this before. That makes it both exciting and a bit of a gamble, I suppose. We’re doing it for a large group, for the benefit of the entire group, of learning the principles of writing and selling a screenplay and applying those principles to their work. Heather: I think people in the class will get what they’re looking for – on the spot feedback. Depending on how many advance submissions we receive, there will be anywhere from one to three examples per concept. We will hand out the ones we have chosen and talk about them. If you are reading this and haven’t sent in a sample – please do! We want to use your work! Don’t be afraid! We’ll be kind! But also specific. How will you decide what to present? Heather: Signe has asked participants to submit loglines, opening scenes or wish lists of who they’d love to see buy (or attach to) their script. We will choose out of these samples which to use as examples for story concept, the first 1-10 pages, the pitch, hit lists, etc. Michael: Besides the four steps, the four giant steps, we’re going to zero in on these examples and pick the essential elements of each step. We won’t have to talk about everything that goes into a great story concept or a great opening page, but we’re certainly going to be talking about the most important things related to each step and we can accomplish what we set out to accomplish. What should people who attend this class expect as far as presentation and structure? Michael: along with all her writing and producing experience, and her powerful approach to networking, Heather is a master at generating group interaction. My strength is more in presenting specific principles of storytelling and screenwriting, and backing them up with an abundance of examples. So I’ll more likely lead off when it comes to Story Concept opening scenes and pitching, giving key elements and guidelines for grabbing a reader or buyer with an idea or a pitch or an opening scene. Then Heather will weigh in with her point of view, and we’ll both respond to the selected examples. But with the networking process, we’ll sort of switch roles, and Heather will be the point person. But keep in mind that neither of us likes to do a canned presentation. A lot will grow out of the moment – the examples, the group participation, and whether Heather will let me monopolize the stage, which so far she’s been sadly unwilling to do. Heather: I’ll begin by talking about approach techniques in the business. We’re just going to go off the assumption that we’re dealing with scripts that are market-ready (they may not be) and well-developed pitches (also may not be – we can’t solve everything in ninety minutes!) – and we’re going to take it from there. How do you navigate the show biz gauntlet? How do you get your pitch to sing? How do you get your first pages to emotionally engage a Reader? How do you get your polished script to the right people? Like querying agents or prodcos? Heather: No. Not things like query letters. Enough talented people are covering that. I want to teach them how to navigate the Hollywood system in a much more empowered way. I teach PowerNetworking techniques: how to mind map (brainstorm) the best paths to their professional goals. I show them how to analyze the best and the quickest approaches but also think outside the box for creative, clever back doors – untrodden paths where there might not be as much traffic, noise and competition. I want to get them to begin to see different ways of storming the castle. We’re gonna teach them to fish. I will show them how to create a constellation of fans and champions that will help build momentum on any given project. We’ll hopefully have plenty of advance submissions to choose between. Ideally, we’ll get to show both strategies for a high-concept, studio film as well as a low budget, tougher-to-market project – because they are very different avenues. I’ll teach them how to figure out the lay of the land: how to determine who might actually be a real buyer for their project – and how to best get it to them. Which studios might option that kind of project? Which producers would best be able to help you gain traction with your targeted studios? What attachments – actors, directors, etc. – might help where? I’m a big fan of back doors: maybe there’s a cinematographer or production designer who is famous for your type of project – who has worked with the right daisy chain of people to help you get the project where you want it to go? We’ll talk about pursuing those kinds of avenues as well. It’s finding the yellow needles in the haystack, identifying the right trees in the forest – and being proactive. This is designed to give the person a mind-map, a mind technique to create a hit list. After talking about the hit list, we will let them break out and create their own, and then we’ll all talk about them again. But I emphasize that there is a right buyer for your project out there. Your class starts by focusing on developing a great story concept. Obviously, everyone thinks their concept is brilliant, so how do you tell someone who is married to their concept why it needs more work – or may not work at all? Michael: As far as being married to an idea ... if you are, then my suggestion is, don’t come. Because what’s the point of being there if it’s not about learning how to make your ideas better? And if your heels are dug in so deeply, that you’re not willing to change anything, it’s doubtful this will be much value to you. In my experience, that is almost never the case. I have almost never encountered a writer who would go to the trouble of coming to an event and hearing what Heather and I or the other speakers has to say and go away saying, I’m not going to change a thing. They would want to know how to make it better. I don’t think being married to an idea is a big issue. Or that it’s going to come up here. Heather: You simply have to learn to be responsive to criticism. I was very impressed by a screenwriting instructor I had at UCLA who gave the most insightful, constructive criticism. I was blown away by how delicately she managed to point out what really needed work to each writer in the class. Of course, when she got to me… I felt she was glaringly harsh! We all have to learn how to thicken up our skins, take a step back and look at our own work objectively. It’s a lifelong learning process. It’s part of being a writer – at least one who’s trying to write professionally. Michael: Our careers are about making people’s work better, so it’s almost never as cut and dried as saying that idea does not work. It is my belief that almost any idea can work if it’s developed well enough into something that meets the needs of a good story concept. I almost never say to someone, That doesn’t work. How helpful is that? My job is to figure out what the writer is trying to accomplish and close the gap between the vision they have for their project and what they’ve got on the page or in their pitch. So for instance, when I coach people on their pitches, I don’t say their pitch is good or bad, I keep working with them until the pitch succinctly and effectively conveys the vision of the movie they have written or that they have in mind. In your experience, do openings have to grab a reader within the first couple of pages or they quit reading? Is it your experience that great openings often disappoint further in? Heather: I see a lot of what I call “throat-clearing” in many script set-ups. Rookie writers don’t have enough faith in their readers. They believe they need more backstory than they really do. But you would be surprised how many scripts could have the first 15 pages literally chopped off and you wouldn’t miss a beat. Believe it or not, when a reader opens your script: they are actually rooting for it to be great. In addition to setting-up the characters, issues and story, your opening images also reveal the milieu (give a sense of time and place), the genre, theme and sensibility – the writer’s voice. Straight out of the gate, you want the reader engaged. You want the reader to feel that he or she is in competent hands. Do you have any views on the film trends, how writers or prospective writers should keep abreast of what is current? Michael: The most important thing a screenwriter should know about current trends in screenwriting is to ignore current trends in screenwriting. What screenwriters should be worrying about are the things that don’t change, because mastering the principles of story that have worked since at least the '70s – and some go back to dawn of film – is much more difficult than looking for trends. If writers get caught up in that, it’s a recipe for disaster. If you get caught up in What’s Hollywood looking for now, by the time you get anything written, they’re not going to be looking for it anymore. THE FOUR GIANT STEPS TO A DEAL will be held from 10:30 a.m., to noon at the Marriott Burbank Hotel and Convention Center (2500 N. Hollywood Way, Burbank, CA 91505). To RSVP for Michael and Heather’s class (or any of the other 30+ classes being offered), please email info@pitchfest.com. HEATHER HALE’s dozen years in the entertainment industry span the reaches of “show” and “biz.” An independent producer, screenwriter and director, her credits include over 45 hours of award-winning productions, including the $5.5 million 2000 Lifetime Original Movie she sold off of a spec screenplay (after attaching Vanessa L. Williams) to star opposite Diahann Carroll, Gil Bellows and Stacy Keach. Heather is a member of the Television Academy and Showbiz Mensans and her work has garnered two Emmys, Tellys, “Best New Series Pilot” - and a list of other industry awards. She is an active contributor to the entertainment community, having served as The Director of Event Programming for the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE), the official script consultant for The American Screenwriters Association and has been a judge for hundreds of TV, film and script competitions worldwide. She is currently a judge for the ABC/Disney Fellowship, The Hartley-Merrill International Screenplay Competition, a trustee for the Sally Picow Foundation and a Mentor Board Member for Kids Making Movies. An in-demand keynote speaker, workshop leader and industry expert, Heather lectures and consults globally on careers in entertainment, her trademark PowerNetworking strategies, and business development for traditional and new media. For more information, please visit www.HeatherHale.com. BILL McILVAINE is a freelance writer and editor with over 25 years in the business. After starting out in the field of entertainment and rock music, he switched to writing and editing for high technology magazines. After his last publisher withered and died, he went back to his first love, movies and books (with a little teaching on the side). He has several screenplays completed or in progress. |
