Why Lead With An Old Spec?

Lately in one of my TV writers groups there has been a few emails flying around about sending out “older” spec shows. Not to slam anyone on there, or anywhere out there in the TV writing world, but I honestly don’t understand why anyone would want to send out an “old” script.

The rule of thumb is to be current. Write current material and toss out your old spec of Pushing Daisies or whatever show you have that is now off the air. I don’t think any of these “rules” are too fast and hard, but why go against the grain?

I have taken a few TV writing courses, and workshops and they all say to have a NEW spec, or a CURRENT spec from a current show, and if it is has been taken off the air, your time to show it goes to even less.

If you are writing sitcoms, you need to have more than one and have a new one every 6 months-yes there are exceptions, but that seems to be the most popular opinion of the showrunners and agents out there staffing people.

For drama you have about a year, unless your storyline is completely different than what is going on. For example writing a Grey’s Anatomy where George, Izzy and Dr. Burke are the main storyline probably won’t work.

So this brings me onto my next point.

If you want to work in TV, why is is that you don’t want to WRITE?
Why do so many wannabe TV writers NOT want to write a new spec? It is actually hard for me to wrap my brain around that concept. You are a writer, so write!

I love to write new shows, and research them, it makes me feel energized and as well then I have more to show.

If you have one spec, even if it is great, you will at some point be in a meeting where they ask you “what else do you have?” and if you don’t have other scripts, you might as well be walking out of there. As well, you need a strong original pilot.

I am not saying that I am right and these other people hanging onto specs they wrote last year are wrong. I am just sharing what I have heard over and over and over.

AND, if you want to write for television, you have to know it is the fastest paced writing gig you will get. You have to always be working on new storylines, so for me, it is just good practice to do an awesome script, then do another one and so forth. I am not saying to whip out a bunch of junk, but don’t fall so in love with your spec that you don’t do anything else.

Okay, so if you aren’t really upset with me already because I am basically telling you to write something new and you want to keep reading, I will share something that happened to me. I had a strong spec of a current drama on ABC, I met with a lot of people. It got me attention, so I got cocky and thought I didn’t have to write another one. Then I actually lost a job later that year because I was called into a meeting and when I was asked “what new material do you have?” I didn’t have any. I had my own spec pilot, but they didn’t want to see it, they wanted to know what other specs I had written.

A month or so ago I mentioned that I have gone back to comedy writing to pretty much everyone I know, including agents, execs, showrunners and other wirters I am friends with. Last week I sent my “Christine” to a development exec that I know and he said, “Well that show isn’t really one that I watch, what other shows do you have?” I am working on two other specs-but I had to tell him to wait-and he did think my spec was funny, but he doesn’t watch the show, so he wanted more.

I am just suggesting to people to be prepared and you also want to be armed with current material. I have also on the rarer occasion been asked to send my older specs, I still have them, but they aren’t what I am leading with.

This is free advice, take it or leave it and I believe that there are exceptions to every rule, but I also like to share information that I collect.

Happy writing!! Have a super day and enjoy what you are doing-your spec is your calling card this season. :0)

Hollywood Needs NEW Material-duh!

I was going to write a witty comedic blog today about not giving up because everyone in Hollywood is full of shit, and you have to just keep going, but then I stumbled across this article, and it’s past 10:30 and I still have a couple hours of writing to do-so here is the article, enjoy!!

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/06/studios_sequels_remakes_fail.html

With Sequels and Reboots Failing, Hollywood (Finally) Puts Out a Desperate Call for Original Material

Conventional wisdom in Hollywood of late has said that you should stick to familiar brands when making movies. It could be a sequel or an adaptation of an old TV show, board game, toy, or crumpled candy wrapper, just as long as people already know it. So how’s that working out? In a summer season where only three out of the fourteen major releases so far have come from a new idea, attendance is down 13.3 percent from last season. Even with The Karate Kid’s surprise bounty, box-office revenue is down 7.5 percent, according to the National Association of Theater Owners … and that is skewed more by 3-D gouging than anything else: Since the summer of 2009, ticket prices have actually gone up 8 percent. That’s why studio execs at Warner Bros., Paramount/DreamWorks, and Universal are now madly pinging agents and managers with an uncharacteristic, desperate, and welcome request: Send us your fresh material!

“We’re on a lot of calls with people at the highest level [of production], and they’re just nervous,” one agent tells Vulture. “They’ve been telling us, ‘We have our movies for next year, but attendance is down, so, guys, you know what? Get us the original material. We need some original shit, because now our bosses are on us.’” It’s no wonder panic is in the air, considering how moviegoers are rebelling. “People are feeling marketed to, as opposed to catered to,” says JC Spink, a partner in the management and production company Benderspink and one of the executive producers of last summer’s surprise original hit, The Hangover. “I think we’ve all gone a little bit overboard as an industry. There hasn’t been room for original material for a little while now. It’s a shame, because I don’t think it’s what anyone [who works in the business] came out here for.”

Here’s a quantitative illustration of people’s franchise weariness: According to the most current market research by E-Poll, which surveys people’s interest, connection, and loyalty to familiar characters for movie studios, 59 percent of Americans view the Shrek character favorably … as compared to 64 percent score for advertising’s green M&M. A year ago, studios might have reacted to this news by yelling, “QUICK, STAKE OUR CLAIM FOR MEMORIAL DAY 2012 FOR GREEN M&M: THE MOTION PICTURE!”; instead, they’ve gotten the message that their franchises are fading and are suddenly paying handsomely for original ideas and — even better for the creative community — moving them quickly towards the big screen.

• In May, Ivan Reitman’s Montecito Picture Company picked up Field Trip, an original sci-fi adventure-comedy from Jordan Cahan (My Best Friend’s Girl) and set it up at Paramount. That same month, the studio also picked up Fun Size, an original teen comedy from Colbert Report writer Max Werner, with Gossip Girl co-creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage producing.

• Two weeks ago, Summit Entertainment paid Boaz Yakin (who, ironically enough, also co-wrote the video-game-born bomb Prince of Persia) and Edward Ricourt handsomely for their script Now You See Me, an original heist movie about a gang of criminal illusionists who use their skills to make millions disappear from bank vaults. Fringe co-creators Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are producing.

• Also, two weeks ago, Universal paid $1 million for Most Wanted, a comedy pitch that would reunite The Proposal’s cast, writer, and director. And around the same time, across town, DreamWorks placed the winning bid in a three-way battle for a new action-thriller pitch about an international heist from John Hlavin, formerly a writer on F/X’s The Shield.

“What makes this business work are the things nobody expects,” says Patrick Corcoran, NATO’s director of media and research, noting that box office for the summer is $106 million shy of what it was last year at the same time. “If people start to feel like they’ve seen the same thing over and over again, they stay home.” Spink says that while he think this box office “isn’t going to end the pre-branded craze, it will slow it down, and I think we’ll see even more original material selling.” And he hopes so: Next week, he’s sending around a spec thriller screenplay called The Tracks, based on the true story of a possible DEA cover-up of a bizarre 1987 double murder in Arkansas. And it was only a year ago studios would have been asking, “Any way to use that crime, but have Plastic Man solve it?”

By: Claude Brodesser-Akner