Go Wide!

I have an ongoing list of goals that I try to accomplish to push my career forward as a writer and semi-functioning member of society. Every few months I review it, cross items off, add items, and make slight changes based upon new information that I've learned. Things like: Introduce Katie Holmes to mom and dad will be modified given recent events, and other goals may suddenly arise. Such as: check out Scientology.

I reviewed my past goal lists this morning over a cup of nuclear coffee and a bagel, when I realized that it's been over a year since a pretty large event happened. My agents took my first script out *wide* last year.

It wasn't my FIRST script. Far from it. But it was my first script to land me a pair of ace agents, and to make a small but significant dent in Fortress Hollywood. And while it wasn't the High Sixes against a Mil-Five sale I'd hoped for, it was a pretty big moment in my career; something I'm really only able to comprehend in hindsight.

For the non-screenwriting readers, *going wide* is when someone, usually an agency, takes your screenplay and literally blasts the town with it in an effort to create a bit of Jonestown hysteria and get you top dollar for your latest literary opus. Sometimes it works, most of the time it doesn't. As much as the idea of paying off your $20,000 credit card debts in one fell swoop from the riches you suddenly acquire may tempt you, don't give into the Dark Side of Delusion like I did. The primary goal¹ of going wide, according to my agents and manager that handled it, is to introduce you to the Town. Or the Town to you. A bidding war between two studios would be nice, but rarely happens.

Here's a time line of events prior, during, and following my first screenplay "going wide". Keep in mind that no one experience is ever the same, and the Devil's in the details. Like great sex, this was a bit of a blur, and by the end I was left exhausted yet eager to do it again.

Unlike sex, I had no idea what to expect before hand. Just a few vague grins from my more professional friends, and the occasional image of myself, in 2006 saying: ...and I'd like to thank the Academy.

Prologue
Worked my ass of with my manager rewriting an old spec. My manager slipped it to a few agents to test the waters. The reaction was slow at first, but once they read it they didn't stop calling.

Act One

• Met with junior agents and agents at virtually all the major agencies, minus Gersh. They never responded. Fuckers...
  
• Met with agents at several medium sized agencies, as well as a few lone gunman types running their own Jerry Maguire solo shop.
  
• Decided on going with one of the major agencies based upon the agents enthusiasm, track record, game plan, and sensibilities. It was a very hard decision.
  
• Made some last minute changes, and planned for it to go out wide on Monday afternoon of the following week.
  
• Submitted my own list of ideal people who I thought the script would good for. Never heard back from Scorsese
  
• The agents and assistants began to make phone calls pitching the script to their contacts, and slipping it to a few key allies. I already had a fan at a major production company, so they put some good words in on the tracking boards.
  
• Threw up a few dozen times.

Act Two

• Monday.   
  Script was emailed & sent around town to fifty-odd places. I sat by the phone in a bathrobe and chainsmoked Lucky Strikes while mumbling to myself. Didn't sleep at all.



• Tuesday   
  Tons of requests based upon positive coverage and word of mouth. Still sat by the phone but occasionally moved to eat or shower. Read lots of screenplays by other writers but don't remember a single word of them.
  
  
• Wednesday   
  A huge response. We had every studio covered by at least one producer who had a deal there, and in some cases, by several who were teaming up like Gondor and Rohan before the Black Gates of Mordor. The horses were jockeying for position and I was in a state of Euphoria. My agents assistant and I were now on a first name basis. My manager was calling me every other hour to update me. I called up Ferarri of Beverly Hills and asked if they took cash up front. Bought a GameCube just to keep myself from going nuts. A few passes here and there.
  
  
• Thursday   
  Shot down at some of the studios. Too esoteric for Warner Bros. Too violent for Disney. Some negative coverage popped up on the tracking boards and suddenly there was a lot of silence. By that evening we'd had about a dozen passes, a few at the studio level, and quite a few at the producer level. "Never-the-less!" my agent screamed, donning his armor. "We're still very much alive!" I was already 1/3rd of the way through Metroid: Prime on the GameCube.
  
  
• Friday   
  My telephone was eerily quiet that afternoon. Around mid day I braved a call to my manager and was told:"We took some big hits today. Sony passed. Paramount passed. New Line is taking it over the weekend and Dreamworks doesn't want anything to do with you." I went out for a rollerblade, put in some face time with the girlfriend who thought I had fallen off the planet, and tried to pretend that I wasn't in a delicate state of emotional imbalance. Turned my cellphone off and waited until around six to return home. A few messages from my agents. "We took some big hits today. But it's still very much alive. We'll find out more on monday. Have a great weekend!" as they sped off in their Ferrari's towards Vegas.
  
  
• The Weekend   
  Longest one ever. Beat Metroid: Prime. Saw a movie.
  I think.
  
  
• Monday   
  8 am and I'm already by the phone, pretending to work, but it's not working. Get the call later that day. "They passed." "Who passed?" "Pretty much everyone." "Oh..." "Well it's still alive at a few places, but it looks like our next bet is to get an attachment and go back to the places that really like it." "Cool, when?" "Couple of months maybe...'round the Halloween." "Oh..." "In the mean time, we've got you on the books for some meetings." "Meetings? What for?" "Because a lot of awesome people really went to bat for you. And they want to meet you. Besides, this is where you'll make some great fans, and plus, might even get an assignment out of it. How are you looking for the month of May?" "Well, I can make some time, I guess." "Good. We've got thirty confirmed so far, maybe more. Get some rest. We'll talk later."

Act Three

• The Month of May   
  One meeting after the next, sometimes three a day. All in all, forty eight general meetings. Some went over as well as could be imagined, while others stunk like a fart in church. Twelve of them led to formal pitches for open assignments. Another three led to various stages of developing a story. One went down a strange road towards video game development, and another towards a graphic novel.

So what's my point? Well, I'm not terribly sure, but I can say this. All the work I've done since then, every assignment small or large [I haven't really had any *HUGE* assignment²], has been as a direct result from that one spec going out last year and the meetings that followed.

So while my goal to: SELL SPEC FOR MIL-FIVE was not met, another more realistic goal emerged as a result.

GET AN ASSIGNMENT.


^{1   To most working screenwriters, this is pretty much preaching to the choir, since the vast majority of their income won't be from spec sales. But one year ago, my idea of the Choir was a New York Stock Exchange style pit where scripts are bought and sold like penny stocks.
2    Still waiting for the Lawyers to ink the deal on the Lord of the Rings prequels.}