Film Courage: When you’re working with a writer,
can you explain how you reverse engineer their path forward?
Peter Katz, Story Driven CEO: In some situations I like to think about where I want to be
and I start there and then I walk backwards. You’re thinking what kind of producer or
director or actor does he like to collaborate with? What are your references to other movies
that are in this space? You might be thinking about the expectation of the fans of a genre.
You might be thinking about the scope of a movie. For example there are horror films that are made
for a hundred thousand dollars, some of them are made for a few million
and then there’s bigger budget ones that are mid-range which are in a whole other category.
I want to know what model are we working in? The last thing you’d want to do is
get a script that’s un-producible where the budget’s just too big for the genre typically
and it’s not going to work. You want to be able to have a general sense of in a perfect scenario
who's on board to produce it direct it act in it finance it is it from private financiers is it
from a studio or is it streamer good to back it like get a general sense I mean obviously
these things could be flexible so I'm not saying being stuck on it but knowing what
you're fulfilling a demand you're not creating a demand and I think that's important uh so on uh
on just kind of knowing where you where you fit in another part you also want to think about is
what is it about this concept that makes it unique now I don't mean like making something that's so
like esoteric and weird that it's unique because it's just strange I mean like if we've seen
a certain kind of bank heist film what is it about it that's familiar and what about it
is a new way in and I could talk about tonally conceptually the type of characters are in it
the plot there's all sorts of room to make it new so it's that balancing act and if there's
not enough unique elements in the story my worry sometimes is who's going to want it
it just feels kind of what's out there and that's a problem you're going to put all that work into
writing it yet there's 10 other movies like it that just came out so ideally I want to know the
business model like how does this work who would want to be part of this collaboration potentially
and then on a creative level what makes this special and once we've achieved that
and we know there's space then it works like I kind of look at like there's a big white board
okay and the board has things already on it like marked it up but there's a space on that board
where your movie fit or tv show fits in and the key is making sure the ideas feel like there's
some room for it it's not redundant and it's not just not tenable in the it's in the business model
so that really affects how I think about potential concepts to pursue developing into scripts
have you ever had a client or potential client say are you gonna
make this my career like if I work with you and sign with you can I be guaranteed by within this
amount of time this will be my career i'll be a working screenwriter podcaster producer
no I have never experienced that approach I mean I'm sure some people have it and it's fine
but typically I'm dealing with somebody who's understands the complexities of the industry so
someone who would ask those questions that's that's a big that's a newbie that's an amateur
I don't know I mean that that individual has the right to ask any questions to a potential manager
I haven't encountered that and I don't know if that means they're a newbie I mean anybody could
address their concerns or their ambition with the reps that they want to bring in to their team
it's totally fine but I just haven't encountered somebody who would put that on the table would you
say a lot of writers naturally think this way in terms of reverse engineering their
path so maybe they don't know how things are going to turn out for them but they want to
try to see okay this is where I want to be this is the level I want to be working at with these
type of players now how do I get there I think every client has their own approach I think
as a manager you want to think about how a project
can go on a journey to it becomes a a very high quality experience once it's produced
that it's successful not just because it got made critically and it has an incredible return on the
investment of who buys into it that's important to me and I can't lose sight of the business
when I look at any project any ideas that we just start discussing
now will writer have the the mindset to reverse engineer their script maybe maybe
not maybe there's a theme they want to explore and that's totally fine I don't think there's one way
to bring something to life I think that whatever their whatever they're prioritizing
in the inception of the idea and then how it develops so it's all across the board
what do you say to the writer who says I just do writing I don't do anything else
I know my story is going to resonate there's an emotional connection with the protagonist
find someone else to produce it and market it and do all the heavy lifting
but I just wrote it and that's all I need to do well it's fine there's plenty of
producers out there who love collaborating with great writers I mean it's a personal
choice if somebody wants to be a hyphenate it's something that if that's what matters to them
then they should make that their focus if if a client just wants to write scripts
that should be their focus I don't want to do anything but manage and produce
I don't want to do any other capacity in this industry and that's my choice
so I don't expect a writer to have to act in it or direct it or produce or do anything beyond
sitting down and working on developing new material so you wouldn't be opposed to that if you
had a potential client that said I have things that I write I know they're excellent that's all
I do I don't do windows I just I just write that's all I do I mean that's totally fine I don't value
that type of client more or less than somebody who wants to take on additional responsibilities
do you think it shows an attitude of being inflexible
or they just do one thing and they don't want to dilute what they do
I don't see any inflexibility at all there's an entire union the WGA that protects writers
because this is a community that in a lot of ways they they're like this they build so much
incredible stories and they are part of this industry in the most meaningful way there's no
reason why a writer has to direct it's it's it's a choice my brother is a writer who ultimately he
was he that's what got him into the a lot of into the game and now he's directing and then you start
he's also producing and he does that and I have friends who are actors who are also writers I mean
in the same way me as a manager like there's something compelling about working with incredible
storytellers and that uh is my passion and that's why I every day I get up and look forward to the
next project and the next pitch or it get it keeps keeps me moving that's that energy that I get from
my work because it's so well suited for me in the same way a writer if that process excites them
there's no reason to do anything else so you can respect that someone who knows what they're
great at and they know where their skills lie and they're not going to deviate from
that just so that they can get a project moved along or they if they're also you're okay with
people being as you say a multi-hyphenate yeah I mean it's it's a spectrum I mean there's people
who do everything and the and it's just incredible what they they have so many hats
but it's not for everybody and I totally respect that I don't look at it negatively if somebody
really wants to just be a writer because it's hard to to have that as their singular focus so
that doesn't mean that it's that much easier that comes with a lot of challenges to be successful so
there's no expectation that somebody has to direct and it doesn't also mean that
if you're just a writer you're not being pragmatic because if you write incredible
work you might find a director that you love working with and now you have a partner
and that director might not want to write so that's like a perfect fit
what are those challenges you said there are challenges that come with being
successful well you start with a blank page that's hard you have to build a reality out of nothing
and there might be an incredible director who doesn't want to write a script but you
see their music videos or their short films and you think they have the right tone so then you go
why don't we work together you don't want to write you just want to direct and
my my passion is writing scripts and then you team up and you make something really exciting
so you want your client or potential clients to be comfortable in what they do and their skill
set and you don't try to push them to do more if that's not within them it's just what they're
passionate about I have clients that create ip and they love writing comics or making podcasts
that's all they want to do they don't want to write scripts and that's fine because they're
making something that really emotionally moved me I don't need anything beyond what they already do
they they're already successful being able to make pieces of like art that are meaningful
to their audience and they get excited about them and that's hard that's not easy so changing
the changing them into hyphen nights is really just they're about their own personal interests
and I can empower somebody who wants to expand new responsibilities and support that
but at the same time it has to be a natural progression of what they want to do.
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