I get a fair few inquiries through the 8 Sided Forum – the social and community sector of 8 Sided Films – from people.
A lot of them are cold inquiries – somebody we’ve never seen before and will probably never see again. A lot of them are pitching desperately to anyone they can find, hoping to find somebody to produce their script. A lot are people who have paid enough attention to see the hard work and the talent and the relationships we’ve built and see it as a ready-made package.
What they’re all asking, in their own way, is this: “I wrote it, please do the rest”.
Why?
Because it’s easier to get someone else to do it.
Because it’s daunting, and terrifying, and huge, and requires no small amount of time, effort, and learning.
Because they don’t know how.
Because they think they can’t.
Because of any number of other reasons, most of which I can’t agree with.
The question I always try to send back is this:
Do you believe in your script?
If not – why not? That’s a problem and you should probably look into it. After all if you don’t, why should anybody else? If it’s not worth your effort, and you’re trying to pitch it to someone else, then you’re devaluing them, yourself, and your script with every word.
If so, then why would you ask somebody else to dedicate potential years of their life into getting it made their way? If it’s a labor of love, as it should be, why are you asking somebody else to take over? If it is worth your effort, then you are the one that should be making it. Your love for your script will only help attract others.
That’s not to say don’t enlist help when the time is right – no film ever got made all by itself – but be willing to take point. Be willing to learn and work and fail and try again. Be willing to build from the ground up what you need to make your script a reality.
If that means spending a year building contacts and social media and fan base – do it.
If that means backing down and starting with something smaller – do it.
If that means hours and hours and HOURS spent reading about how to build and engage a community and how crowdfunding works, heck you could do worse than start on this very website!
Producing is hard, time consuming, often boring, often stressful. Things fail at the last moment, people let you down. You’ll go from bouncing off walls with excitement to wanting to hide under the sofa, with everything in between.
You can look for the easy ways out. You can hope to be one of the teensy, tiny percentage that gets their script picked up and made by someone else (and you can hope with all your might that when it happens, they don’t make you regret it). You can do that.
Or you can take advantage of your own agency, get out there, and start working.
There’s no shortage of people willing to offer advice, support, assistance. No shortage of things to read and people to watch. no shortage of people who run podcasts and blogs to help out people just like you. Ask questions, make use of the resources that are already there, take advice when given, learn about what it is you’re doing, allow yourself to try and fall and get up again and keep going. Get involved in the indie community, help others as much as you get helped by others, give as much as you take – if not more. Be genuine, be honest, and keep working all the while to make that script the best it can be. Don’t be afraid to fail, don’t be afraid to try again when you do – you’ll find nobody here who hasn’t had to do the same. Where others give up and fall by the wayside – you keep going.
That’s all success really is: getting back up just one more time than you fall down.