Film Courage: Most screenwriters understand that they should know
the ending of their story before they start writing.
Can you explain how the same logic applies to understanding the business?
Scott Kirkpatrick, Executive Vice President of Co-Productions & Distribution/Author: Yeah,
that's something I had a challenge defining for a while myself and then I realized it's actually a
lot simpler than I thought about it it's just it's it's us it's it's we call ourselves end users we
are people who actually pay for content so if you have a Netflix subscription you're an end user if
you pay for tickets to a movie you're an end user we are the actual audience that's paying money
and funding the whole entertainment business so looking at us what do audiences like how are we
split into groups what genres pop with certain demographics that is what studios care about
that's what networks care about that is what any sort of consumer direct to consumer facing company
will care about so it's sort of the same idea they are using that information to sort of delineate
what content should we go for what content should we avoid so if you look at different television
channels they are all targeted to very sort of specific audience categories they have similar
genres they have very similar themes and they tend to not they tend to speak to very different groups
and they don't have a whole lot of overlap I think this is probably the most visible with cable news
where you see very polarized views of the world speaking to very specific audiences and all they
care about is speaking to that one target and nobody else if a company is releasing the Twilight
films they're doing the same thing they really want to keep their audience happy so that they
can make the second and the third film if they're doing the Fast and Furious franchise they really
want to keep that audience happy so they can keep sort of churning out one title to the next so
very long-winded way of answering this but it's basically you're correct if you're going to write
a script you have to know how it ends because you structure everything leading up to it when
we're doing distribution deals when I'm sort of getting films financed or getting television
shows off the ground we are thinking the exact same way but are sort of how are we going to
make this work we're looking at an audience we're looking at a company that speaks to that audience
because most of what I do Works in what we call like the B2B or business to business
end of things I'm doing deals directly with the studios or I'm doing deals directly with
other entities that are direct to Consumer so television channels or VOD platforms
Etc they care about their audience they want content that's going to Keep Their audience
happy and engaged and watching I need to give them content that's going to ensure that that
takes place so I'm absolutely using the metrics the data the information I can gather or that
they can share with me about who Their audience is what they like how they like content to feel
how they like it to be structured how they like it to flow and then I work backwards and those
are the kinds of films we look for those are the kinds of screenplays we try to find we try to find
writers who can sort of deliver in that world and that's sort of what keeps that supply chain going
what else do writers need to know about the traditional script to screen mode of thinking
I would reverse it it's I I think when you're starting out it's it's the whatever is going to
get a couple scripts like under your belt so to speak like follow it but
once you sort of get a much better command of your craft you have the confidence that you can
write feature-length scripts with relative ease it's not easy at all but I mean the fact that
you can do it once you've sort of reached that point you need to sort of stop thinking about
the script to screen approach and start thinking about what do screens need and then write that
because that's how our industry really operates it's it's if you look at the Cannes Film Festival
or the Berlin Film Festival a lot of people have a mindset that the film gets made and
then you take it to the festival and then sort of present it to the world with the hope of getting
distribution and it's like no the distribution was set up before the film was even shot that's a big
marketing stunt that's just getting it out there and showing people like look how great this movie
is we want awards etc maybe very small Independent films go to the markets and haven't yet secured
distribution but the big ones they're already taken and they're locked and you sort of have
to think about screenwriting the same way you need to approach it as what do these television
channels need what do these outlets need what are the core genres that make that work I've I
wrote about that years and years ago in in my first book and it was those have not changed like
Christmas movies they make hundreds every single year it's like Christmas is coming this year and I
guarantee you it's going to come next year too and there's going to be a big content need and a lot
of networks and a lot of TV channels all over the world really bank on that action films with aging
male Heroes you can shoot them very economically and you can get all kinds of known talent
who can be in those films you can shoot them for a day or two and you have this big celebrity you
have on the poster but those same scripts they work at very low budget levels but they also
work at much bigger budget levels the genre is what's important I wouldn't do a horror film
but you could do a Creature Feature something with some kind of a tangible visual thing and not just
sort of the standard issue sort of slasher film and then I'm I'm personally a big fan of like
tween girl romance films those do extraordinarily well both as movies and as well as TV series
there's a lot of latitude in those genres you can work in so those are the things
that I think writers need to think about is these are the genres that are going to sell
I call them “Gold Mine genres” that's not like an industry term but it's those are the genres that
sell so if you're writing in those buckets you're writing what the industry depends on through good
times bad times inflation non-inflation periods and that's what the industry builds itself on
forgive me why not horror? Horror is just horror and comedy are just really really really hard
to pull off I I call these latitudes of failure which again is not like an industry term it's just
something I made up but it's it's like if you're gonna write something or shoot something if you're
going to make a movie on spec whatever it is there are certain genres that like you gotta nail it
or it's just a dud and a comedy or a horror film if you have like if it's 99 on point but there's
like one or two things in it that aren't ideal it just like loses interest or it loses Market
placement opportunities whereas if you have a family movie that's very family safe if you
have a Christmas Romance movie with a dog in it or like a tween girl and a horse movie any of these
that like aren't perfectly executed or there's like maybe not the best coverage of a scene
they still get bought and they still get picked up and you can shoot them on very low budgets and
even if they don't come out perfectly like there's an audience for it because television networks and
VOD platforms around the world love that stuff their Advertiser safe they're they're very family
co-viewing friendly I mean Christmas movies are a good example I don't think many people actually
watch them but they're just like background fill and people like to have them on and so there's
not a whole lot of dedication to the viewership of them outside of a select group of people so it's
but networks love them because they really turn in the ratings so that's the kind of thinking
you have to have is if you're going for a genre like comedy or horror I'm not saying don't do
it I'm saying like work on it but maybe don't have it be your out of the gate project that
you're trying to sort of get an agent with there's always outliers of course there's
always examples people can cite of like well this person did it and that person did it and it's like
yeah they did but the vast majority of people that's not going to be the path they follow.