- Most recently, Ken Atchity produced The Meg,
a major movie with Jason Statham
and a lot of other major stars in it,
about a giant shark, or megalodon.
Ken Atchity was working on this project
for like, 20 years,
and he's the one who
originally discovered this writer
and kept the project going for so long.
So I had him on the podcast to talk about it,
and here are the takeaways
from my conversation with producer
and literary agent, Dr. Ken Atchity.
The first thing we talked about was
how no one knows anything in Hollywood.
- [Ken] Remember the only rule in Hollywood,
no one knows anything,
and that was an enormous relief to say that,
because I thought, well,
I certainly know nothing,
but what he's saying is
it's a level playing field.
I can handle that.
If I had known then what I know now,
I would never have dared to pitch eight movies.
- Then, Dr. Atchity talked about wild ideas.
- [Ken] When I get a new partner in the business,
which I do, you know,
once or twice a year,
I always say to the new partner,
don't hesitate to tell me your craziest ideas,
because we'll try them.
I'll give you the cautious version
of how to do this.
I'll give you the kind of correct version
of how to do it,
but this is a business that's based on,
you know, wild ideas,
and don't ever hesitate to come up with them.
- And what stops someone from
thinking outside the box.
- [Ken] I always say that
I think outside the box,
or there are just no boxes,
but the truth is,
when you're in the business,
and have done as many movies as I have
and have made as many deals,
when you do that,
you start taking on partners in all directions
from inside the business,
and those partners all have a way of doing it,
and it starts rubbing off on you after awhile,
and it's harder and harder to
think of crazy things to do,
and that's why I always welcome
fresh new partners outside the business,
who say, why can't we do it this way?
- Then we talked about
the market for new stories.
- [Ken] You know, the story market
is very volatile,
and the good news for story tellers
is it's voracious,
as you know, with the proliferation of channels,
and television is now in a renaissance
of spectacular quality,
even compared to feature films,
you have more freedom in television
and the world of television today
than you do in features, even.
It's a very exciting world.
In that world of storytelling,
things can change overnight.
You know, you could be in the middle of negotiating a deal,
and the deal is killed because
another project very like it
comes out on another channel,
and that can cause the buyers in your deal
to decide this isn't the right time,
and on the other hand,
something can sell immediately
just because it is the right time,
so the key thing, if you're me,
you just need to be pitching all the time.
- I asked him how he sets up
meetings with studio heads.
- [Ken] Well, you don't pick up
the phone anymore, of course.
You use email.
People are very phone-adverse these days,
including me, I don't know why.
I guess email is just so much more direct,
and the phone is for when things get snarly,
because email has a way of
tying people up in knots unnecessarily,
and when I see that happening,
I try to pick up the phone
and have a human conversation,
but normally, you just,
you send somebody an email,
you ask them to set up a pitch meeting,
and normally they respond.
- Then we talked about how to stay memorable.
- [Ken] People in this business are,
you know, they have good memories about
people who have good stories,
and I've kind of always been known as
someone who brings worthwhile material about.
You know, we're setting up series now.
We're shooting new areas,
television series,
and also into family animation movies,
and in both areas,
we are starting to make deals,
and that's very gratifying.
- I asked him about the art of pitching.
- [Ken] Pitching is an art in this business,
and the biggest part of the art
is watching the eyes of your buyer
to see whether he's truly engaged
and listening or not,
and to stop that process
when you see that he's not.
- We talked about the difference
between veteran and amateur pitching.
- [Ken] You know, when you think about
what they do, the buyers,
they listen to stories all day.
That's what they do for a living.
It's extremely exciting to be living
in a world where people do nothing all day
but read stories, listen to stories,
make decisions about stories, and so,
to show them that you respect their time
means that you may be somebody
they wanna work with in the future,
because that respect is kind of the basis
for good relationships.
- If you've found this video valuable,
I'd love if you would share it with a friend.
Think of someone you think would get value,
and email it to them.
Hey, found this video.
I'm sure you will like it.
Put a little link.
Send it on over,
and your friend will come back,
maybe they'll subscribe.
Maybe they'll go over to a story merchant,
which is Ken Atchity's business,
and maybe they'll buy from him.
Everybody wins.
Subscribe to the channel if you haven't already.
I would love if you'd give it a like.
Comment what you think.
I'm always in the market for reading comments.
You know, Ken Atchity is in the story market,
I am in the comment-reading market.
So let me know what you think,
are we on the right track.
I'm Alex Berman,
thanks for watching the video.