Master Your Master

When dealing with your master tape for delivery to a distributor there's one rule to follow:

It has to be perfect.

That means no flash frames, color shifts, timecode drops, audio drops, contrast shifts, tape hiss, pops or anything else that says, "Bad Filmmaking". You guys know what I mean. There's nothing worse than being pulled out of the moment by some technical glitch that seemed minor when you saw it on the tape, but is magnified a thousand-fold by the DVD video compression process. Bad sound and picture says, "cheap."

The best way to ensure a great master is keep reviewing everything during post production, and make sure it's correct. In other words:

Extreme Attention To Detail.

Have your lab doing a comprehensive QC review of the master, which should cost you around $500. You do this so that you have written backup as to everything going on with your master. If someone gets a bad dupe, you can trace it back.

Audio should be configured as follows: Channel 1 - stereo composite left, Channel 2 - stereo composite right, Channel 3 - stereo left fully-filled Music and Effects, Channel 4 - stereo right fully-filled Music and Effects. This is the same audio configuration you'll use for your trailer.

Because you're working Direct to DVD you don't have to worry about making a workprint or anything else. This saves you money. If you shot on video you still have to transfer it to Digibetacam or Hi-Def tapestock- whatever your distributor prefers. The point is again, it has to be perfect because they are going to use the master to create the DVD.

This covers points 1 & 3 of Delivery.

I Don't know About You...

But I'm heading to Mars.

Be sure to click on the trailer and watch the forgotten fun of the fifties that is Destination Mars! This is a spectacular example of filmmakers who overcame their budget limitations and created an endearing tribute to fifties Sci-Fi.

They are now at work on a serial called Monarch of the Moon (the poster of which you can see on the website).

Enjoy!

4GM is Here?

www.video.google.com is here.

I just saw the post by Denis here and I'm amazed. This is a bigger step than the IPod.

Upload your digital files. Charge people to download them (or not).
Take the responsibility and reap all of the benefits.
Distribution has been placed in the hands of the people.

God help us all.

(Excuse me, I have to go. The barbarians are storming the studio gate)

Can You Deliver? - D2DVD Film School

C. Powell recently emailed me while I was on vacation, regarding the numbers behind the D2DVD game. I take it to mean how much money he thinks he can make if he releases his movie. So, in between beers I thought about what I should reply.

The short answer is no, I'm not going to get into a numbers game because, quite frankly, they change too often. Not only from genre to genre, but from company to company. Every deal is different. Every deal is new.

What I am going to do is give you an idea of the things that occur behind-the-scenes at a distribution company once they purchase your film, and prepare to release it. I'm hopefully going to give you a real clue as to how much hard work goes into making your film look sellable. In this way, you'll be better prepared for a) the realities of filmmaking and b) how to make a better deal that ensures you get paid more quickly.

*** Disclaimer: these notes I'm giving you are based on my personal experience, and as such don't reflect all experiences within the industry. Different companies have different procedures, strategies and tactics. These are all not hard-and-fast rules. Also, I am not a lawyer, nor am I qualified to act as one. Before negotiating any distribution contract, engage the services of a lawyer and understand you are always signing a legally-binding document ***

Special Delivery:

When you sell a film to a distributor you're not only selling them the physical film, you're selling them the right to replicate and re-license the film. What that entails is a little thing called "Delivery" - the legal documents and materials that allow them to distribute your film. This includes things like:

1. A master tape of the film with the sound configured properly, and a quality control report from a lab identifying any and all defects in the master.
2. A dialogue list.
3. A copy of the trailer with a like qc report and proper sound configuration.
4. A proper chain-of-title documentation including (but not limited to): a writer's agreement, copyright documents from the Library of Congress showing the writer's copyright assignment of the script to the producer, a copyright form on the film itself, any and all producer agreements with the financing entity as to who owns the copyright of the picture, any director's agreements with the producer, any composer agreements with the producer and any actors' agreements with the producer regarding using their likenesses.
5. A complete timecoded and ASCAP approved music cue sheet.
6. A set of at least 50 color slides or jpeg format photos of high resolution.
7. A one-paragraph synopsis of the picture.
8. A credit block
9. An original insurance certificate covering errors and omissions for a period of three years.
10. Five 1/2-inch vhs copies of the movie.
11. A lab access letter so that the distributor has access to the lab. This must be signed by all three parties - distributor, producer and lab.
12. A license agreement for the film.
13. An MPAA rating certificate.
14. A digital copy of the key art of the film.
15. Any and all behind-the-scenes material on the film including (but not limited to) : audio commentary, features, stills and interviews.

A lot of this will be unfamiliar to some of you, and I will go into more detail later on in this series. What I'm trying to impress upon you is the fact that you won't get paid until you deliver all of the above to the satisfaction of the distributor. If you don't do your job - you don't get paid. That's why it pays to have all of this stuff ready to go before you shop for a distributor. It will mean you get paid that much more quickly.

Filmmaking is a job, and as such it includes paperwork. Once you deliver all of this material and paperwork and it's approved - that's when the distributor can get to work...

And that's when the business gets really crazy.

Highlights of the Week

My big brother Reuben Ridgeway has a beer with fellow Pi Kapp Chip Holly and Chip's lovely wife Carol.

This is approximately 1 pm on Saturday.











Charles Sweat and his lovely wife Diane.

(Sorry guys, the flash didn't go off)








People lined up far and wide to hear me speak about the D2DVD industry (yeah, right!).

This is approximately 3 pm (and much BBQ and fried foods) later...






















All leading to the end of the evening and The League of Extraordinary Bald Gentlemen you see before you...
Can you believe all these guys are (now) responsible citizens -- Bankers, PHD's, Nurses, Army officers, Executives and Teachers?

And in the center - your pulp screenwriter.

Not in work mode, yet...

Had a great weekend at Presbyterian College in Clinton, SC. I wasn't in work mode yet I still managed to snag a few leads on work. It's really a small world we work in, and if the word screenwriter or producer pops up, people seem to take notice even if they don't exactly understand what it is we do.

I'll be flying back to Los Angeles on wednesday, in the meantime I'm stuffing my waistline with "deep fried" stuff.

I'll have a more detailed report later in the week.

In Transit

Travelling today.

Heading to (soon to be) swampy South Carolina. The forecast is rain for the weekend, so there goes the Homecoming football game. Thank you, Wilma.

I may post from SC, but if not...

Keep writing.

Warner Bros. Has Case of Blu...

Warner Bros. announced today it is embracing the new Blu-ray format of high-def DVD.

This leaves Universal the only studio to ally with the Toshiba HD format (at present).

The only profession not from in this format war are the replicators who must retool and replace current equipment in order to accept the Blu-ray format. Announcements have not been officially made regarding pricing of the new format and the cost to the consumer.

I'm not paying $500 for a new DVD player only to have to add a $35.00 disc in order to play it. If this is the scenario then that disc better be jam-packed with every bell and whistle the DVD authoring house can muster. At this kind of pricing, consumers will want more bang for the buck and will not accept inferior discs released quickly with a follow up director's cut.

Never a Dull Moment Pt. 23,451

Having a rough day today, and by the looks of things I'm not the only one.

I'm going on vacation starting this Thursday, and won't be back until the 26th. I'm going to my 20th college reunion! Until that time I'm trying to get as much work done as possible so I won't have to carry work with me on the plane.

Uh uh. Not gonna happen.

I'm going to be taking work with me on the plane, spreading it out before me and bothering the poor soul who has to sit next to me on the flight to Atlanta (I don't work on the short hop from Atlanta to Augusta. By the time the prop plane is up in the air, we're already on approach.) I don't do the laptop thing in the air either, so I bring a script and plenty of red pens.

This time, I'm bringing three scripts and plenty of pens.

THE SKULL - yes, I'm still rewriting it. Thank God, it's a spec or else I'd have blown twenty deadlines by now. Because it's a spec I could not bring it with me, but that isn't right either. Inspiration could hit, and I could solve the story's problems right away. It's funny how the simple ones you design to just crank out, somehow get mired in the mud.

THE KNIGHTMARE - Thanks to notes from Fun Joel, I have about seven or eight pages to cut out of this and five to add. That'll give me 110 pages of good serial-styled superheroics. The character was a product of Poverty Row's Titan Studios, which burned down in the early forties near Silverlake - Echo Park and the old Mack Sennett stages. Unfortunately, not a lot is known about Titan because they stored their negatives and business documents on the lot and everything went up in flames. From what little I've been able to research, Titan had a business plan of creating B-movie versions of bigger studios productions. If Universal released FRANKENSTEIN or THE MUMMY then Titan released PATCHWORK and SARCOPHAGUS to the little midwest and southern theater syndicates that couldn't afford Universal's rates. THE KNIGHTMARE, as far as I can tell was their only original creation, and the only serial in their (destroyed) library. If anyone has heard anything overseas about Titan Studio productions (apparently in the late thirties some prints were sent over on ships during Germany's blockade of Great Britain) then please let me know.

WOLFSBANE - my werewolf action script that was originally co-written with Jeff Miller. There's a producer swirling around this one and about to strike. I want to go over it to make sure it's ready. A tweak here. A sharpening of a claw there.

Welcome to the life of a pulp screenwriter. There's always something going on!

Is it Me?

-- or did the Pate Bros. take E.T. , CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND and JAWS; throw them in a blender and come up with SURFACE?

-- or does it make no sense to rebuild inferior homes in New Orleans when the levees haven't been repaired, the ground is inundated with all sorts of bacteria, viruses and waste, and there are no plans yet to realign the streets, power lines, sewer systems and any other public utilities so that this doesn't happen again?

-- or does it make no sense that pilots of TV programs aren't available for download from the source studios' websites so that we can vote on which shows we'd like to see? Shows like GLOBAL FREQUENCY or LA CONFIDENTIAL?

-- or is it about time Lions Gate got off their ass and remastered the Republic serials so that we can have the kind of DVDs these masterpieces deserve? They have a whole library of superhero titles in their vault just sitting there gathering dust.

-- or isn't it about time we started waging an economic battle in Iraq? Teaching people to cure hunger and disease and homelessness and you win over hearts and establish independence. Business over bullets?

-- or was LA looooong overdue for the good shower we had today?

-- or have comic books become way too expensive? So expensive that every time you look at the cover of a book, you wonder if you're going to get your money's worth?

-- or does the theme of MEDIUM sound like a Hitchcock movie theme?

Beer Eye for the Pulp Guy

Josh Friedman is again dispensing invaluable advice to writers and wannabes regarding what to do in a pitch meeting. This week he tackles Writer Fashion Sense:

" But here at Josh Planet we are all about monkeys. Throwing our shit, howling at the top of our lungs while we hang our red ass out of the cage and masturbating in front of the tour group."

(Josh obviously caught my pitch meeting for The Sound, but he forgot the tearing off of limbs and the jumping up and down on the Director's chest cavity)

He brings up a lot of cool points in his own humorous style. He's one funny fucker that Josh. We aren't jealous of him one bit...not a bit...at all.

You always want to project a certain attitude when you pitch (your take on) a project. If they want a comedy, you better have them laughing. If it's a dark comedy, they better be giggling and looking around to see that all the sharp objects are put away. If it's a horror project it doesn't hurt to wear a dark jacket and a shirt with an image of Charles Manson on it.

You want to come off as being cool, confident and creative. After all, this is the only time we writers are "on stage" so we should at least dress the part, right? We've got to give 'em a show, and that means the right costuming.

All this is especially true if the people you are meeting have never met you before. I once wore a Misfits T-shirt to a meeting with a German production company, and I ended up explaining who they were, and who the skull-faced guy was on the shirt. The Germans seemed to be impressed that I was - a) an edgy American writer, and b) a student of film history. The Producer could reference an old title out of his ass and it wouldn't throw me. Ultimately they went with a German writer for tax reasons. Bastards.

(If you don't know who The Misfits are then Google the image then smack yourself on the back of the head. Twice.)

If you're meeting executives you've worked with before, wear what they are used to seeing you wear. Then dazzle them with your brilliance, and make them glad they called you into the meeting. Solving problems they have with the story or concept is a surefire way to get hired. They are already comfortable with you, know your work habits, etc...but need to make sure you've nailed it.

I like to wear black to meetings. Not because it's slimming (okay, maybe), but because it projects authority. By mixing that with a cool shirt that says "creative" you're establishing yourself as the "Creative Authority" in the room. That makes them sit up and listen if you have something cool to say and they can see the dollar signs floating before their eyes. If not, then you aren't giving them the show they are asking for - you're just a schmuck in a stupid shirt.

You also have to remember that sometimes they don't want to take a meeting, but just send you the script or concept they are having problems with (story doesn't work, need the script next week, sending the script to talent and it needs a dialogue polish). They simply want your input on what problems you see and if you can fix them (by Tuesday). No face-to-face whatsoever.

For those kinds of (non) meetings I wear a smile.

DVDX Honcho Hettrick Weighs In

Scott Hettrick, Editor-in-Chief of Video Business and DVD Exclusive gives us his perspective on the new Apple IPod as well as the PSP and Echostar systems.

What Would Stan Do?

So we all know by now that Marvel Entertainment has half a billion in cash from Merrill Lynch to make movies, as well as a Paramount distribution deal.

So what movies from their library of characters should they make?

Here's my vote...

(And yes, we've talked about this before. I want Marvel input this time okay?)

*** And I forgot to add that I swiped this art from Dial B for Blog. Check out Robby's site for stuff that remains cool even after all these years ***

Apple of My Eye?

I woke up the other morning to discover Steven Jobs and his crew at Apple Inc. has once again re-imagined how we receive and enjoy our entertainment. Disney has jumped on the bandwagon and joined with Apple to provide content for the new IPod.

Here’s some random thoughts I have on this new IPod (some of these ideas are rather plebeian, but then again, so am I) :

This is a new distribution method and as such will have little impact on the content itself. After all, does your Tivo affect what you watch? No, it affects when you watch it.

This will be a great thing for commuters on trains and busses.

Ratings on this end of the media spectrum will be more accurate because Apple will know immediately who downloads what. This is good news for advertisers.

I’m wondering if the idea of commercials for IPod hasn’t been suggested. If I have to watch two or three commercials, but I get a download for half-price, then I’m going to think about watching those commercials.

This will cause a shift in revenue for theatrical, TV and DVD as VOD (Video-On-Demand) matures.

The technology end of this new distribution method – server farms, fibre optic cable, satellite, etc – will offer opportunity for investors to make some money. Comcast is very happy.

As John Rogers stated here, Apple has locked people using their video IPods into Quicktime which is not exactly conducive to putting the scope of media in the hands of the little guy. We need the ability to quickly upload content from a variety of formats – QT, Windows media, Bittorrent, etc...

We need more minds (from other than Apple) working on this new distribution method to explore its potential applications and implications. The fact is that distributors will still control everything. We need the entire model reworked in order for it to really affect the creators.

The networks are offering these programs after they premiere on television, which is a bit of the old “dragging of the heels” when it comes to launching a new distribution model. Original content for this method will be the mark of whether or not money can be made. That’s going to be awhile and it isn’t going to come from the studios.

I’m not sure if this IPod is the device we should be looking at, but rather the V-casting that we see on cell phones or some of the other devices like those mentioned in Roger's post. V-Cast seems to be more of a new media than this video IPod. It has internet, text components and applications to it that make it a slightly different experience.

There will be more thoughts, musings, drunken ramblings from me on this and how this is going to affect writers. Certainly there is a lot to think about after I do more research.

Stay tuned...or logged on...or whatever it is you kids say nowadays.

It Was No Surprise To Me...

http://www.dvdexclusive.com/article.asp?articleID=2464


It speaks for itself...

(Re)Production Update

After nine months of production (with five minutes of pre-production) we are pleased to announce that David Michael Latt and his producing partner Kim Little have premiered BRADY ZANDER LATT - 7 lbs. 14 oz.

This is their second production.

Father is a writer-producer-director (THE War of the Worlds, Scarecrow Slayer). Wife is an actress (Diagnosis Murder, Scarecrow Slayer).

We wish them boffo box office.

Little Lessons

I've been doing alot of different kinds of writing work this week - marketing copy for a website, PR for a new website to be announced soon, PR for a DVD company, pitching a sci-fi feature, rewriting THE SKULL, writing notes for a colleague who's pitching a TV series based on a series of popular horror/mystery novels - a lot of different stuff that nevertheless had common elements that will be of help to those of us writing, pitching, getting notes and rewriting. These are some of the little lessons I've learned this week:

1. Development Executives are not the enemy. When they reject a story - it's for a reason. They actually want you to succeed because it makes them look good when you do.

2. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work.
(and that means you have to go back to the beginning and fix it)

3. A simple story told with a unique style is far better than an overly complex story told with no style.

4. Good notes come from everywhere. Just because you, the writer, didn't think of it doesn't make the idea suspect.

5. When pitching, say what you need to say then listen. Of the two - it's more important that you listen.

6. Don't ever think that just because someone requests your script it means they want to make it. The fact is they don't. They would rather have you work on their idea.

7. Don't respond to ads seeking writers unless you have exactly what they are needing. If they want to look at a sample script in a particular genre - it better be a script in that genre.

8. It doesn't matter at what stage you're asked to come in and write, just be glad you're getting off the bench and into the game. (Right Steve?)

9. There's a fine line between self-confidence and ego. Make sure your query letters come from confidence and don't come off as boastful.
(This particular note goes out to the guy in the OC who sent me a pitch document of all these "blockbuster screenplays" that he has written. The problem is that he said he will "accept bids on these scripts for a limited time" and that the scripts will attract "A-plus talents")

10. Ask questions. Even if they can't answer - their silence is saying something.

11. People know you by the last thing you did that they read or saw.

12. Be dependable. If it comes down to two talented folks, most companies will then look at dependability.

13. It's not a deal until you cash the check - even if it's printed in the trades.

(Per Denis McGrath - make sure the check clears...)

Keep Your Eyes Peeled

STUDIOS RAMP UP DVD PREMIERE MOVIE PRODUCTION

DVD EXCLUSIVE and VIDEO BUSINESS editor-in-chief SCOTT HETTRICK comments on the exploding DVD premiere movie business on CNBC’s new nightly business news program (7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT on CNBC tonight, Monday, Oct. 3).

Scott is a friend and my boss on The 2005 DVD Exclusives Awards. People listen to him regarding DVD and its role in the marketplace. If you want to know more about the business of DVD then watch this guy. He will give you information that you can use to further your career - who's doing what, where the market is heading, and what this means for the consumer.

You may now resume your filthy activities on the net...

********* addendum *************

If you watched the show, then you know the score. With the average theatrical film costing $64M and only half the revenue coming from theatrical screenings and the rest from DVD, Cable, etc... finally the truth comes out. Something I've known for years, but people didn't believe me...

Theatrical film distribution is DVD's bitch.

It's a Screamer!

SCREAMFEST LA Horror Film Festival (Oct 14 - Oct 23)
Event Venue: Loews Universal Studios Cinemasat Universal CityWalk.

Screamfest is a hoot, and those in the LA should attend. I will be out of town for the latter half of the festival, but I may be there opening night.

I'm sure Screamwriter will be there.