Getting Paid $85000 for a Negative Review Reddit

A few weeks after Manny Fonseca arrived in Los Angeles in the early part of this decade, having left his native Michigan with the promise of becoming a Hollywood writer or executive, the so 30-year-old was at a party when a producer asked if he'd "similar to make a hundred bucks." Sure, he replied. What would he have to do?

The reply was to show upward the next day at a "pitch fest," one of dozens of such gatherings each year in which hopefuls pay hundreds of dollars to serve upwardly their story ideas to agents and executives who, in theory, will purchase them if they're good. Fonseca would be there as ane of the buyers, which struck him every bit foreign — non only was he not an executive, he didn't even have a proper job: he had been interning with producers Arnold Kopelson and Irwin Winkler.

"I was completely overwhelmed," says Fonseca (at present a screenwriter whose piece of work has notwithstanding to be produced), who was soon invited to other such watering holes on behalf of Kopelson Amusement. "There were writers that I knew by name because they would literally get to every single pitch fest. At that place were a couple of people that drove around in their RV. Information technology was like following the Grateful Dead for 2 or three years straight."

Pitch fests are part of a multimillion-dollar manufacture that thrives in a dark corner of the mainstream entertainment business, catering to thousands (and possibly hundreds of thousands) of would-be screenwriters, most of them clueless about how to get their projects fabricated. At that place are writing festivals, competitions, workshops, websites, extension classes, seminars, script analysts, coaches and a Writers Store in Burbank (which offers software, books and a "do-it-yourself MFA"), non to mention rapacious producers and hungry managers, all making coin from putative scribes ofttimes oblivious to Hollywood reality.

"What I learned — and I know it because I was the 1 being sent to these things — is y'all're sitting there with no power," says ane literary agent. "As an assistant at an agency, y'all're not allowed to sign people, and nearly of the time y'all're talking to amateur writers who shouldn't be repped."

Information technology would be wrong to dismiss anybody toiling in this ecosystem out of hand. Many accept solid credentials (among them writing professors Robert McKee and John Truby, and Black List founder Franklin Leonard); others, however, are schemers eager to hook starry-eyed newcomers.

Pitch fests are a prime target of critics. Having exploded in the 1990s, when the spec script market was at its summit, these gatherings dropped in popularity but appear to be regaining momentum with such deep-pocketed, content-hungry buyers as Netflix and Amazon inbound the market place. The best known include the Hollywood Pitch Fest, Ken Rotcop's PitchMart, Virtual Pitchfest and the Bang-up American PitchFest. Most are based in Los Angeles and New York, but they tin can also exist found in other parts of the U.S. and Canada. Each promises the chance to meet agents, producers and executives; the reality of many, nevertheless, is that the "executives" are unremarkably low-level operatives dispatched past higher-ups to field pitches that usually go nowhere. With no power to spend, these junior-level reps are typically paid a modest sum along with perks such as restaurant vouchers.

The agent recalls listening to a typical pitch: "The guy said, 'I traveled all the way from Minnesota to pitch you a script for this A-level talent, and information technology's virtually a former stone star who ends upwardly on an isle, and the movie is him trying to figure out how to go off it.' Eventually he digs to the bottom and finds a treasure chest, which was the stop of the pitch — and that was 1 of the more normal ideas."

Nick Iandolo, a Boston-based aspiring author, recalls how a positive feel at one fest turned sour. After the weekend-long upshot, "I felt inspired," he says, even though he had spent more than than $one,000 on his ticket and airfare to 50.A. "So I decided to go back. I had written a family holiday adventure and a criminal offense drama, so I'm all psyched: 'I'm gonna become, and I'm gonna be an exhibitor' "— that is, he would purchase a stand where he could brandish his projects, including a book he had written. Like so many others, he came away empty-handed. "I didn't sell one book. I was like, 'My God, how is this possible?' I'd spent a total of $6,000."

For those uncomfortable with pitching, there's a host of other ways to lose coin, including a slew of writing competitions. The nearly legitimate and prestigious of these is run by the Academy; the Nicholl Fellowships are worth $35,000 apiece and are awarded to every bit many as 5 new writers each year, often launching their careers. Previous winners include Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich) and Allison Anders (Gas Nutrient Lodging). With other competitions, even so, information technology'southward advisable to read the fine print. Fifty-fifty well-intentioned contests tin stop up having strings attached.

The LAUNCH Screenplay Competition was started with considerable hoopla by two young producers, Jason Shuman (Lone Survivor, Rebel in the Rye) and Zachary Green (Spartan), promising that the winner would take his or her script fabricated with a budget of $1 million, funded past an anonymous donor. Greenish says their goal was to give educatee writers a chance to have their voices heard, with their projects read past well-established judges including casting director Barbara Fiorentino, APA agent Chris Ridenhour and managing director Ali LeRoi. Simply Dark-green admits he and his partners fabricated a fault in asking all 25 finalists to grant them a free 18-month option.

The prospect of giving up rights to a script for a year and a half — with no pay — horrified several entrants. Only, says Green, "We've revised that. Information technology was an admitted overlook on our end. Nosotros've emailed the finalists to say we'll negotiate a new option understanding for the screenplays we want to movement forward with." Even and then, contestants still accept to sign the free pick understanding and will have to take him at his word that information technology volition change.

Before submitting to such contests, writers may wish to plough to coaches such every bit McKee, if they are ready to pay the $850 he charges for a iii-day seminar that he now conducts in Los Angeles, New York and London; he's held others in Moscow and Beijing.

And then there are freelance script analysts who accuse anything from $45 to $2,000 for notes. A author who moonlighted as an analyst says he got fired by the company that hired him for being too edgeless in his verdict. "I had a guy write a sequel to a 1996 movie [F. Gary Grayness'southward Set It Off]," he recalls. "It was so God-awful. He literally misspelled the main character'south name throughout the script, and he paid for 7 pages of notes. Ultimately, I got fired because I did not blow him. The problem is that if yous requite too-harsh notes or whatsoever shred of honesty, that person is probably not going to come dorsum. That hurts the business model. The idea is to hook them."

Roadmap Writers is one of several companies that provides script analysis and other forms of counsel. Among its offerings are cursory telephone consultations with executives who will read the first few pages of a screenplay and chat about information technology for 15 minutes at a cost of $45 (or $275 for a total hr). Among those offering their insight: two inferior managers who have no clients listed on IMDb and a "development assistant" with an independent production company. (Roadmap CEO Joey Tuccio did not reply to a request for comment.)

"Caveat emptor!" warns a fledgling author.

That also applies to some dubious producers who charge money to become pictures off the footing. One "took my best friend for roughly $28,000 that she never got dorsum," says Fonseca, adding that many writers end up giving then-called producers coin to move a project forward. "It ruined her spirit, and she ultimately left boondocks and ran dorsum to Detroit."

Iandolo discovered that agents don't ever guarantee success either when he was approached past John W. Benson of the literary agency and lecture bureau B.Yard. Nelson Inc. "I get a letter in the post saying, 'We dearest your script! Nosotros want to represent you at the American Moving-picture show Market place. Nosotros but need you to spend a one thousand bucks on materials,' " he recalls.

In fact, in ii dissever letters (which THR has reviewed), Benson offered to represent Iandolo at a pitch fest for $395 and at AFM for $995 — even though it's been illegal for agents to charge fees for securing work since California passed the Krekorian Talent Scam Prevention Act in 2009. Iandolo never reported Benson to regime, and B.One thousand. Nelson Inc. did not answer to an email requesting annotate. Its listed telephone numbers no longer work.

That author got lucky and thought twice earlier paying Nelson. "I called this friend who'southward been dealing with the Hollywood scene and said: 'Dude, I'g really excited! What practise you think?' " he recalls. "He was similar, 'Man, this is the biggest scam I've ever seen in my unabridged life!' "

Says another agent: "A lot of these things are fairly large scams. They say, 'This is your only admission point, and information technology volition become you connected to the right people if you give u.s. X amount of money.' "

Such schemes may exist on the wane cheers to online outrage and the inflow of several more transparent cyberspace services that announced to be getting good marks.

I is InkTip, a website that allows writers to post their scripts for a modest fee. Another is Black List, founded by Leonard, a former executive with Universal Pictures who fabricated his name circulating an executives' poll of the best unproduced screenplays. Since its inception in 2012, the site claims "it has hosted more 55,000 screenplays and teleplays and provided more than than 85,000 script evaluations."

Unlike and so many of the moving parts in this cottage industry, Blackness List is well regarded within Hollywood. "We aren't interested in forcing anybody to work with us in an ongoing manner," says Leonard. "This is but a means for someone to accept their piece of work evaluated and lay bare the fruits of that evaluation to members of the manufacture, through a reliable intermediary — us."

For more Galloway on Film, delight check the annal.

This story will appear in the Aug. ane issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click hither to subscribe.

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Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/why-are-wannabe-screenwriters-getting-scammed-1130919/

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