Even in a world the place self-made creators build empires earlier than Hollywood comes begging, pay-for-play establishments have their place. Not everybody has the entrepreneurial spirit wanted to construct a YouTube channel; some crave infrastructure that lets them know they’re not alone.
Leaving apart outright frauds, pay-for-play exists on a spectrum of value and legitimacy. High-legit, decrease value is submitting a function to the Sundance Film Festival ($125) or a screenplay to the Nicholls Fellowship ($130). High-legit, high-cost is a level from USC Film School ($40,000 and up).
And then there’s the casting director workshops, the screenplay contest upsells for “guaranteed reads,” the minor-minor movie festivals. Judging their worth turns into an train in YMMV, however right here’s one metric: Does it present help that retains you going, at a value you possibly can afford?
Enter Matt Boda and Sylvie Dang Boda. They’re co-founders of Get It Made, the place members pay to entry a web-based platform and growth pipeline. Beyond its assortment of former and present manufacturing executives who stroll screenwriters by the three-act construction, story beats, and line-by-line workshopping, Get It Made additionally provides a community of financiers — those who Matt describes as “the dentists, the doctors, the people that made a zillion dollars in finance.”
Matt was an IATSE grip and electrician earlier than he started producing model content material with aspirations to make motion pictures and TV. He stated Get It Made got here out of his dismay with many screenplay contests: “There’s millions of people that are submitting to this thing, and I don’t see a single movie coming out of this.” That impressed the creation of a platform providing screenwriters each growth help and entry to funding.
Writers apply ($59) and upon acceptance (Get It Made doesn’t settle for everybody, extra on that later) they pay $99 per thirty days. That buys entry to a growth strategy of conferences with story producers and packaging (led by Sylvie, a advertising and marketing exec who got here out of Samsung, Disney, and Beats by Dre) with pitch decks, letters of intent, and market methods.
Until then, the author retains and might go away with all rights. They can also signal an possibility settlement that enables Get It Made to promote the script and take a finder’s payment — or, to finance and produce a proof-of-concept quick or function. If Get It Made brings capital, it takes a mission stake of 10%-30%.
Get It Made received’t settle for everybody’s cash — particularly, individuals who don’t present endurance for the method. “We can tell that they just don’t have the time or the dedication to do what it takes to actually make something,” he stated. “Or they tell us, ’Hey, I thought you were going to make my feature film for $59.’”
Matt stated members span “the guy that’s packing boxes at Walmart in Ohio all the way to a radiologist who’s making lots of money. Our youngest guy right now is 19.”
However, the demographic that retains exhibiting up are midlife professionals circling again to a dream. “We do see a lot of older folks that are coming up against their mortality, and they’re like, it’s now or never,” he stated.
Get It Made just lately accomplished its first function, “Plight.” The script got here from member Ronald Sandoval, who owns Tesla Solar in Miami. Boda, who directed, described it as a dystopian “Stand By Me” with an all-autistic solid. It was shot in 11 days on a $170,000 price range; 60% got here from Get It Made, the remainder from Sandoval.
By any definition, that’s a scrappy film. But, true to the identify and with no scarcity of favors from Boda’s IATSE days, they bought it made. Oscar-winning filmmakers Sean Baker and Samantha Quan, whom Boda met when he was a key grip on Baker’s 2012 “Starlet,” even confirmed up on the “Plight” premiere to reasonable the Q&A.
The firm is now elevating $500,000 for “She Who Walks Between,” a contemporary Native American drama written by Get It Made member David Rasch and directed by Native American filmmaker James Bird. It’s in a fundraising spherical; Get It Made at present has about 100 members and hopes to scale to accommodate as much as 500. It’s additionally prepping a proof-of-concept initiative that gives manufacturing providers to The Writer’s Lab, the nonprofit backed by Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and Natalie Portman.
So the place does Get It Made fall on the pay-to-play spectrum? It’s no shock that the membership skews towards retirees; most younger and struggling screenwriters don’t have $1,200 a 12 months to spend. But for worth, you possibly can do worse than entry a group of members and mentors who wish to help your work. As for financing, the identical recommendation all the time applies: Talk to a lawyer.
Pay-for-play is rarely a assure. Best-case state of affairs is it sparks progress, which ends up in individuals who wish to pay you. Second-best case: Using it so long as your ROI is actual, and never a second longer.
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dana@indiewire.com; (323) 435-7690.
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