Showing posts with label screenwriting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label screenwriting. Show all posts
Story Merchant E-Book Deal - Sell Your Story to Hollywood $.99
Through the expanding influence of the Internet and the corporatization of both publishing and entertainment, the process of getting your book to the big screen has gotten more complicated, more eccentric, and more exciting.
Newtown screenwriter creates her own path to success, markets her own work
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Daina Ann Smith, of Newtown, is a screenwriter who got her start right from her kitchen table. Most recently, she had two of her original feature scripts brought into development. Smith also is working as a creative lead at an audio storytelling company. Photographed on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, in Newtown, Conn. H John Voorhees III/Hearst Connecticut Media |
NEWTOWN — When Daina Ann Smith first sat down at her kitchen table nearly a decade ago to work on screenplays, she said she was in “steep student loan debt.”
And now, the first screenplay she completed, called “Student Loans,” is in development to be made into a full-length feature film with the producers of “Sonic the Hedgehog” and “Magic Mike.”
“Student Loans” will hit theaters sometimes in 2026. “It’s been an eight-year-long journey,” said Smith, who works from home as a creative lead at Pocket FM, an audio storytelling company.
In 2018, she began working with “The Meg” producer Kenneth Atchity, who took one of her scripts into development. In 2021, Smith signed a contract for another original feature screenplay.
To get noticed by Hollywood producers, Smith said she looks for those involved in similar types of projects as the one she’s pitching, and emails them her queries.
Over the years, Smith said she has sent out thousands of emails and built an “amazing network.”
Her advice to fellow writers? Don't become obsessed with getting someone to represent your work.
“It’s very hard to get an agent,” Smith said. “You have to have a proven track record of selling work.
“Instead of focusing so much on that, I will continue to write and continue to build relationships," she said. "Don’t think that it can’t be you.”
WHAT IS A STORY?
Writing, though driven by intuition and passion, is first and foremost a craft that demands discipline.
Collaborate with Ken Atchity for one-on-one coaching.
Don’t put a deadline on your dreams!
Persistence is showing up for your writing—even when no one’s reading yet.
With one-on-one coaching, you’ll get the support, structure, and belief to keep going until your voice breaks through.
WRITE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
What kind of impact do you want to make on an audience with your writing?
Let's go ahead and answer that question.
Let's go ahead and answer that question.
Write with Purpose!
Kenneth Atchity's Writer's Lifeline: Turning Writers into Bestsellers, and Bestsellers into Blockbusters for 25 years!
One-on-one professional assistance and interaction goes a very long way toward making your writing and publishing dreams a reality.
Sometimes writers, when they begin their careers, think that if they write, they can write about anything, but the truth is they need to write from their heart about things that matter to everyone, and if they do that, you can hardly go wrong. Because stories are really not about words or word choice or anything like that. They’re about conveying the power of a character facing a dilemma that you have no idea how he or she will resolve, and when you do that, you’ve got everyone’s attention.
Sometimes writers, when they begin their careers, think that if they write, they can write about anything, but the truth is they need to write from their heart about things that matter to everyone, and if they do that, you can hardly go wrong. Because stories are really not about words or word choice or anything like that. They’re about conveying the power of a character facing a dilemma that you have no idea how he or she will resolve, and when you do that, you’ve got everyone’s attention.
Visit: https://thewriterslifeline.com or
Contact Ken: atchity@storymerchant.com
Why Aren’t You Writing?
Kenneth Atchity's Writer's Lifeline: Turning Writers into Bestsellers, and Bestsellers into Blockbusters for 25 years!
One-on-one professional assistance and interaction goes a very long way toward making your writing and publishing dreams a reality.
FILM COURAGE: Sell Your Story To Hollywood: Writer's Guide To Show Business - Dr. Ken Atchity [FULL INTERVIEW]
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| Available on Amazon |
The #1 Writer's Pocket Guide to the Business of Show Business by Kenneth Atchity.
Through the expanding influence of the Internet and the corporatization of both publishing and entertainment, the process of getting your book to the big screen has gotten more complicated, more eccentric, and more exciting.
This little book aims to help you figure out how to get your story told on big screens or small.
Work 1 on 1 with Story Merchant CEO, Hollywood producer, and author Dr. Ken Atchity.
Sign up Today at Writers Lifeline
Story Merchant E-Book Deal Ken Atchity's Sell Your Story to Hollywood $.99!
|
| Available on Amazon |
Through the expanding influence of the Internet and the corporatization of both publishing and entertainment, the process of getting your book to the big screen has gotten more complicated, more eccentric, and more exciting.
This little book aims to help you figure out how to get your story told on big screens or small.
Maren R, ReviewerFull of information but still easy to read! If you want to start screen writing -even if it snot the rather lofty goal of becoming a Hollywood writer- this book will tell you how you could actually manage it!
Cristie U, Reviewer
This is a helpful and honest guide as to how to get your book made into a movie or tv show. It seems like it would be easier now because of the internet, but the author points out how difficult it still is and how to ensure your book gets into the right hands.
Terri D, Reviewer
Sell Your Story to Hollywood is a quick guide to getting your story into the hands of those who make things happen in Hollywood. The author Kenneth Atchity speaks from experience with decades working in Hollywood to get stories from the page to the screen. Although every guide about breaking into Hollywood should be viewed through the lens of how small the odds really are, this book starts out a bit discouraging for those who are truly interested in learning what they can do to move from a novel to a produced screenplay. The first step in getting this done, according to this book? Have an international bestseller. Okay. Not everyone can do that. Step 2: get reviewed by the NYT or other prestigious publication. Um... if a writer had that, they probably wouldn't need this book. While some of these initial steps are not quite what you would consider actionable advice for getting your screenplay produced, the book does move toward more actionable steps that you can take, though the guide does assume that you have a great story to tell with either an impeccably written novel or screenplay. As a writer with scripts but no connections to the industry, the parts of this book that I found most helpful were actual Appendix B and Appendix C. Writers at any stage can probably find something useful to take away from this guide to use in pursuing their own Hollywood career.
Reviewer 428382
Informative and well written, this is a guide that ever writer should read. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot.
pamula f, Reviewer
Hollywood buys stories all of the time. Sometimes they buy a story that started out as a small article in a hometown newspaper. This book will show you how to get your writing out there for the world to see.
Steven M, Reviewer
I’ve recently completed a screen writing course and was delighted to have been approved for this ARC. The author clearly knows his stuff and offers an insight into the world of scriptwriting for movies. A perfect introduction to a world that some of us can only dream of.
Librarian 121315
Have you ever watched a movie and thought to yourself that you can come up with a better story? Or have you ever been inspired by a movie to tell a story of you own? For either of those cases, this is one of the books that you must read. I said one of the books because there are other books that can also stir you in the right direction; nevertheless, this book will certainly give you a good start. I loved that the author offers real life examples of movies that we have heard or watched before making the book’s contents more relatable to the readers. This is a great introduction to the business of movie making and readers should feel more comfortable with this subject after studying this book.
I’ve recently completed a screen writing course and was delighted to have been approved for this ARC. The author clearly knows his stuff and offers an insight into the world of scriptwriting for movies. A perfect introduction to a world that some of us can only dream of.
Librarian 121315
Have you ever watched a movie and thought to yourself that you can come up with a better story? Or have you ever been inspired by a movie to tell a story of you own? For either of those cases, this is one of the books that you must read. I said one of the books because there are other books that can also stir you in the right direction; nevertheless, this book will certainly give you a good start. I loved that the author offers real life examples of movies that we have heard or watched before making the book’s contents more relatable to the readers. This is a great introduction to the business of movie making and readers should feel more comfortable with this subject after studying this book.
Jeff Rivera Interviews Kenneth Atchity on Pursuing Your Dreams Later in Life!
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” —C.S. Lewis
As the man who found everything he was looking for in his “retirement,” Dr. Atchity is a shining example of the never-ending potential of dreams and aspirations. In a HuffPost interview with Jeff Rivera Ken outlines many of the problems he encountered when shifting to a new career along with some useful advice for those looking to go down the same road.
Taking into account how the film industry has changed over the past couple of years, what advice would you give today that you wouldn’t have given two years ago?
I think it’s becoming harder to sell anything to big studios because they have become almost entirely married to producing big franchises and pre-sold concepts. Marketing has taken over the entertainment industry. Even in the publishing world, big publishers are only interested in how many copies of a certain book they can sell.
For new voices it can be extremely difficult to get published and this is very much the case in Hollywood. It’s often easier to get your work produced independently or through the MD method than it is to go to the studios. Keep in mind that the big studios used to produce hundreds of movies every year whereas now they produce dozens. Some studios are completing as little as three movies a year, but they’re making $400 million films from pre-established franchises like Spider-Man and Captain America.
There’s a global market for these movies and it’s a safer bet for them to spend a lot of money on one movie and earn it all back plus extra. This can make it even more difficult for new writers to sell their ideas, although I think writers can be proactive in finding ways to draw attention to their stories.
If someone, for example, lived in Nebraska and had a story about a family that lived in a cornfield, would they have any hope of having a studio make that film?
Always remember that if you don’t have hope then you shouldn’t be doing it, and hope is never something that can be analyzed statistically. It comes from within. In any industry, looking at the odds can be more than a little discouraging but if you believe them then you might as well go back to work as a bank teller. You have to think to yourself, what can I do? How can I think outside the box to draw attention to my story?
These days, the internet can be hugely beneficial if you’re looking to get your story out there as it provides millions, if not billions, of people access to you work. If you’re looking to generate interest then the internet is the best tool you can use. Studios have executives who do nothing but trawl through the internet looking for new stories. The Hunger Games is one of the biggest success stories of the last 10 years in this sense.
I think the gatekeepers are becoming predictable because they’re so enslaved to their corporate owners but what the true creative executives are looking for is someone who’s not saying the same thing as everyone else. Anyone who has a following as the result of their work is a potential line of interest. So, if I were in Nebraska facing that dilemma, I would focus on the thing that I have in front of me – that everyone has in front of them – the internet. You just have to find a way to pierce that golden shield.
What specific advice would you give to the person in Nebraska if they had access to the internet? How can they get noticed?
Well, honestly, if I had an answer to that I’d be a billionaire. This is where creativity comes in. If you were putting together a cartoon, for example, you might start putting it into a small book. Books are easier to get to people than anything else. I don’t recommend putting an entire screenplay on the internet but you could try generating interest by creating a website or blog and doing everything in your power to drive traffic to it.
On there you could maybe share stories, although I also like the idea of doing cartoons or animations because they can end up going viral. You can usually find someone to animate or do a cartoon for your story. Remember that social networks are a key part of using the internet, especially sites like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter which are all vehicles that can reach millions of people. I boosted a post the other day from Naples and over 8,700 people saw it in the first hour. That’s how you get exposure.
Try not to be too shy or humble when promoting yourself. Shakespeare wasn’t shy when he talked the queen into building the Globe Theater and Sophocles and Aeschylus wouldn’t have been remembered today if they hadn’t gotten patrons to sponsor putting their tragedies in the Great Dionysian Festival every year. The most aggressive writers have always gotten their story told and it’s important to push your point across.
As for writers who think “I’m just a writer, I don’t really do marketing and all of that,” you have to snap out of that mindset. As Cher says in Moonstruck; “Snap out of it!” It’s not going to get you anywhere!” No one feels sorry for a poor writer who can’t sell their own work and if you really are that person then you need to find somebody else to sell your work for you.
What about the independent route? Is there a way for a really passionate writer to go out and make the film themselves? How does that work?
In theory, the indie route is always possible because anyone can buy all of the equipment needed to physically make a movie. You can enlist the help of friends, write the script yourself, or do it even without a script as many small pictures have been done. That is the ultimate indie route.
That’s what Robert Rodriguez did with El Mariachi, which is a masterpiece of ingenuity. I heard that he didn’t even give lunch to his actors because he couldn’t afford it; so they had to knock off at noon. Rodriguez also shot all of his scenes so that nobody’s lips were ever facing the camera. He then dubbed all of the dialogue in post-production, completely diverting the chance that any sound problems would crop up during the shoot.
You can find somebody to work with you and to help produce your movie and raise enough money to develop it and so on. There are ways of doing it and every year movies breakthrough that are made unconventionally, but still in a really old-fashioned, pioneering style. If you follow in the footsteps of Robert Rodriguez then you’ve reached a point where you are doing it all yourself because nobody is doing it for you.
Is it true that your company has a division where they do this? They match people with money to producers such as yourself who help in making their films. How does that work exactly?
Yes, that’s correct. We work with writers who have access to resources as well as those who have a great story. Money makes things happen: If they have access then we help them prepare their movie. If you imagine a big conveyer belt with every project that has the potential to become a movie on it, you can see stories, treatments, and even books on the far end of it. These are naked ideas but by the time they reach the front of the belt they’re “fully-clothed” and ready to leap onto the screen.
These movies need to have a professionally prepared budget that shows exactly what the cost of the film is going to be. They need to have that budget bonded by a completion bond company. They will have the locations chosen, along with a director, cast, and start date. They should also have a distributor interested or attached, and so on and so forth.
If you already have the ability to put together some money then you can leapfrog over the other projects on the belt, which is what happens every day, but if you’re on the belt there’s no guarantee that you’ll get to the front of the line because you’ll always be leapfrogged over by another project with better casts, directors or financing. Our goal is to work with people who can find the money they need for their project. With writers have access to funds our goal is to turn them into producers so that they then have control over their project and don’t lose the rights before their movie is made.
If I’m an author that lives in Iowa, or Canada, how can the book that you just released help me turn my 70,000 word tome into a feature film?
Well, that is the exact purpose of the book - sell your story to Hollywood. It’s basically a little handbook that just shows you all the steps that have to happen in order to sell a story. This includes how to get an agent, how to get a manager, how to attract attention of producers, and even how to prepare sales materials that will help you in delivering a short pitch or contacting people via email. The purpose of the book is to provide you with an outline of all the things you have to overcome in order to get the story into the hands of the buyer.
My second aim with the book is to offer some alternative selling methods including some information on making a movie yourself. It gives examples of treatments and other materials that you need to build along the way.
SELLING THE STORY: SIZZLE REELS
What is a sizzle reel and how can someone use one to pitch a reality show or drama?
A sizzle reel is basically a teaser or sampler of a program that’s used as an outline by the creator. The term came out of reality programming because you need a sizzle reel to sell a reality TV show. A sizzle reel is usually three minutes at the most and it’s supposed to be an exciting, well-edited teaser that gives you a vision of what the program is and what it is intended to be. In theory, the reel gives you a strong inkling of how the program will continue and how it will go beyond its pilot episode. Sizzle reels can introduce characters as well as convey the excitement and points of interest within the show.
Knowing how to make a decent sizzle reel is extremely important but very, very difficult because if you’re not actually in show business you don’t know what companies are looking for. Learning how to put one together is an extremely beneficial way of getting into the industry and it’s a great way to show what you have to offer.
If someone had a sizzle reel, would they then upload it on Vimeo or YouTube? Would it also be included in a pitch to a producer?
Yes, it’s important to send it everywhere you can. You can come up with a log line, or short pitch, that would get producers to watch it. Do a short version for Instagram. YouTube is definitely a great tool. People scour YouTube all the time looking for ideas for movies. Facebook is also good. It’s important to send it it in whatever way you can. If you have an email list, send it to everyone. Ask people to share it, pass it on.
GETTING THE RIGHT ATTENTION
For those wanting to enlist your help in producing a project, what’s the best way for people to pursue you? Are you looking for work or simply developing your own projects?
I’ve been in the business for so long now that I’m not really looking for a whole bunch of things. I’m already involved in a lot of projects, but things that do often catch my eye are ideas that I’ve never seen before; new concepts that are truly exciting—and female-driven action, thrillers, and drama.
I recently read a piece on a boy who was born in the US but ended up being taken to Saudi Arabia at the age of seven or eight and raised over there as an outcast because he was half American. He spent his teen years trying to figure out a way to escape and when it finally happened he ended up joining the US marines where, to his amazement, he was treated like an outcast because he was half Saudi. What I loved about the story is that it’s something Americans really need to understand; it’s exactly what Saudis are taught as they’re growing up and what makes a person turn against his country. When I see something that unique and that unusual it captures my attention despite how many things I’m involved with.
If anyone is looking to speak with me then I’m contactable through referrals, emails, and phone calls. Email is the best way to approach people like me and I’d suggest keeping it brief. If an email is longer than five lines long, the chances of me jumping on it are very, very diminished. If it’s only two lines long and says something amazing about you and your story then it will be hard to resist. Use some examples from your work and write-up a short pitch, that’s the best and most respectful way to do it. atchity@storymerchant.com
Taking into account how the film industry has changed over the past couple of years, what advice would you give today that you wouldn’t have given two years ago?
I think it’s becoming harder to sell anything to big studios because they have become almost entirely married to producing big franchises and pre-sold concepts. Marketing has taken over the entertainment industry. Even in the publishing world, big publishers are only interested in how many copies of a certain book they can sell.
For new voices it can be extremely difficult to get published and this is very much the case in Hollywood. It’s often easier to get your work produced independently or through the MD method than it is to go to the studios. Keep in mind that the big studios used to produce hundreds of movies every year whereas now they produce dozens. Some studios are completing as little as three movies a year, but they’re making $400 million films from pre-established franchises like Spider-Man and Captain America.
There’s a global market for these movies and it’s a safer bet for them to spend a lot of money on one movie and earn it all back plus extra. This can make it even more difficult for new writers to sell their ideas, although I think writers can be proactive in finding ways to draw attention to their stories.
If someone, for example, lived in Nebraska and had a story about a family that lived in a cornfield, would they have any hope of having a studio make that film?
Always remember that if you don’t have hope then you shouldn’t be doing it, and hope is never something that can be analyzed statistically. It comes from within. In any industry, looking at the odds can be more than a little discouraging but if you believe them then you might as well go back to work as a bank teller. You have to think to yourself, what can I do? How can I think outside the box to draw attention to my story?
These days, the internet can be hugely beneficial if you’re looking to get your story out there as it provides millions, if not billions, of people access to you work. If you’re looking to generate interest then the internet is the best tool you can use. Studios have executives who do nothing but trawl through the internet looking for new stories. The Hunger Games is one of the biggest success stories of the last 10 years in this sense.
I think the gatekeepers are becoming predictable because they’re so enslaved to their corporate owners but what the true creative executives are looking for is someone who’s not saying the same thing as everyone else. Anyone who has a following as the result of their work is a potential line of interest. So, if I were in Nebraska facing that dilemma, I would focus on the thing that I have in front of me – that everyone has in front of them – the internet. You just have to find a way to pierce that golden shield.
What specific advice would you give to the person in Nebraska if they had access to the internet? How can they get noticed?
Well, honestly, if I had an answer to that I’d be a billionaire. This is where creativity comes in. If you were putting together a cartoon, for example, you might start putting it into a small book. Books are easier to get to people than anything else. I don’t recommend putting an entire screenplay on the internet but you could try generating interest by creating a website or blog and doing everything in your power to drive traffic to it.
On there you could maybe share stories, although I also like the idea of doing cartoons or animations because they can end up going viral. You can usually find someone to animate or do a cartoon for your story. Remember that social networks are a key part of using the internet, especially sites like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter which are all vehicles that can reach millions of people. I boosted a post the other day from Naples and over 8,700 people saw it in the first hour. That’s how you get exposure.
Try not to be too shy or humble when promoting yourself. Shakespeare wasn’t shy when he talked the queen into building the Globe Theater and Sophocles and Aeschylus wouldn’t have been remembered today if they hadn’t gotten patrons to sponsor putting their tragedies in the Great Dionysian Festival every year. The most aggressive writers have always gotten their story told and it’s important to push your point across.
As for writers who think “I’m just a writer, I don’t really do marketing and all of that,” you have to snap out of that mindset. As Cher says in Moonstruck; “Snap out of it!” It’s not going to get you anywhere!” No one feels sorry for a poor writer who can’t sell their own work and if you really are that person then you need to find somebody else to sell your work for you.
What about the independent route? Is there a way for a really passionate writer to go out and make the film themselves? How does that work?
In theory, the indie route is always possible because anyone can buy all of the equipment needed to physically make a movie. You can enlist the help of friends, write the script yourself, or do it even without a script as many small pictures have been done. That is the ultimate indie route.
That’s what Robert Rodriguez did with El Mariachi, which is a masterpiece of ingenuity. I heard that he didn’t even give lunch to his actors because he couldn’t afford it; so they had to knock off at noon. Rodriguez also shot all of his scenes so that nobody’s lips were ever facing the camera. He then dubbed all of the dialogue in post-production, completely diverting the chance that any sound problems would crop up during the shoot.
You can find somebody to work with you and to help produce your movie and raise enough money to develop it and so on. There are ways of doing it and every year movies breakthrough that are made unconventionally, but still in a really old-fashioned, pioneering style. If you follow in the footsteps of Robert Rodriguez then you’ve reached a point where you are doing it all yourself because nobody is doing it for you.
Is it true that your company has a division where they do this? They match people with money to producers such as yourself who help in making their films. How does that work exactly?
Yes, that’s correct. We work with writers who have access to resources as well as those who have a great story. Money makes things happen: If they have access then we help them prepare their movie. If you imagine a big conveyer belt with every project that has the potential to become a movie on it, you can see stories, treatments, and even books on the far end of it. These are naked ideas but by the time they reach the front of the belt they’re “fully-clothed” and ready to leap onto the screen.
These movies need to have a professionally prepared budget that shows exactly what the cost of the film is going to be. They need to have that budget bonded by a completion bond company. They will have the locations chosen, along with a director, cast, and start date. They should also have a distributor interested or attached, and so on and so forth.
If you already have the ability to put together some money then you can leapfrog over the other projects on the belt, which is what happens every day, but if you’re on the belt there’s no guarantee that you’ll get to the front of the line because you’ll always be leapfrogged over by another project with better casts, directors or financing. Our goal is to work with people who can find the money they need for their project. With writers have access to funds our goal is to turn them into producers so that they then have control over their project and don’t lose the rights before their movie is made.
If I’m an author that lives in Iowa, or Canada, how can the book that you just released help me turn my 70,000 word tome into a feature film?
Well, that is the exact purpose of the book - sell your story to Hollywood. It’s basically a little handbook that just shows you all the steps that have to happen in order to sell a story. This includes how to get an agent, how to get a manager, how to attract attention of producers, and even how to prepare sales materials that will help you in delivering a short pitch or contacting people via email. The purpose of the book is to provide you with an outline of all the things you have to overcome in order to get the story into the hands of the buyer.
My second aim with the book is to offer some alternative selling methods including some information on making a movie yourself. It gives examples of treatments and other materials that you need to build along the way.
SELLING THE STORY: SIZZLE REELS
What is a sizzle reel and how can someone use one to pitch a reality show or drama?
A sizzle reel is basically a teaser or sampler of a program that’s used as an outline by the creator. The term came out of reality programming because you need a sizzle reel to sell a reality TV show. A sizzle reel is usually three minutes at the most and it’s supposed to be an exciting, well-edited teaser that gives you a vision of what the program is and what it is intended to be. In theory, the reel gives you a strong inkling of how the program will continue and how it will go beyond its pilot episode. Sizzle reels can introduce characters as well as convey the excitement and points of interest within the show.
Knowing how to make a decent sizzle reel is extremely important but very, very difficult because if you’re not actually in show business you don’t know what companies are looking for. Learning how to put one together is an extremely beneficial way of getting into the industry and it’s a great way to show what you have to offer.
If someone had a sizzle reel, would they then upload it on Vimeo or YouTube? Would it also be included in a pitch to a producer?
Yes, it’s important to send it everywhere you can. You can come up with a log line, or short pitch, that would get producers to watch it. Do a short version for Instagram. YouTube is definitely a great tool. People scour YouTube all the time looking for ideas for movies. Facebook is also good. It’s important to send it it in whatever way you can. If you have an email list, send it to everyone. Ask people to share it, pass it on.
GETTING THE RIGHT ATTENTION
For those wanting to enlist your help in producing a project, what’s the best way for people to pursue you? Are you looking for work or simply developing your own projects?
I’ve been in the business for so long now that I’m not really looking for a whole bunch of things. I’m already involved in a lot of projects, but things that do often catch my eye are ideas that I’ve never seen before; new concepts that are truly exciting—and female-driven action, thrillers, and drama.
I recently read a piece on a boy who was born in the US but ended up being taken to Saudi Arabia at the age of seven or eight and raised over there as an outcast because he was half American. He spent his teen years trying to figure out a way to escape and when it finally happened he ended up joining the US marines where, to his amazement, he was treated like an outcast because he was half Saudi. What I loved about the story is that it’s something Americans really need to understand; it’s exactly what Saudis are taught as they’re growing up and what makes a person turn against his country. When I see something that unique and that unusual it captures my attention despite how many things I’m involved with.
If anyone is looking to speak with me then I’m contactable through referrals, emails, and phone calls. Email is the best way to approach people like me and I’d suggest keeping it brief. If an email is longer than five lines long, the chances of me jumping on it are very, very diminished. If it’s only two lines long and says something amazing about you and your story then it will be hard to resist. Use some examples from your work and write-up a short pitch, that’s the best and most respectful way to do it. atchity@storymerchant.com
Dr. Ken Atchity Discusses the Creative Process with Patrick Will
Ken and Patrick discuss how to manage time better, what it means to be a real artist, and why The Meg took 22 years to make.
Loglines
It's not necessary for your log line to mention character names. A strong character trait will do - with a dramatic teaser about the story. All log lines go back to that ancient storyteller's formula, "What would happen if a character like x ended up in a situation like y."
Next add a specific catch word that quickly tell the reader what the story is about. Is it about love, greed, obsession murder, family turmoil? Once you're set on one or two words you can push out from there adding a few more economical adjectives and verbs to make up your logline.
A high concept log line that makes a story out of one of the most universal
human emotions:
fear, love, hate, envy, etc.
deadly sins: anger, greed, lust, etc.
plot motivators: betrayal, vengeance, discovery, rebirth, survival, etc.
virtues: loyalty, faith, responsibility, etc.
deadly sins: anger, greed, lust, etc.
plot motivators: betrayal, vengeance, discovery, rebirth, survival, etc.
virtues: loyalty, faith, responsibility, etc.
and incarnates that element in characters we can care about, relate to, and root for to shape an "original story" that feels both fresh and relevant to today's global market. If you can do that, and your writing equals your vision, you're only steps away from financial success and recognition on the biggest screen of all.
- A woman or family in jeopardy?
"Cape Fear": A lawyer's family is stalked by a man he once helped put
in jail.
- An ordinary woman in extraordinary circumstances?
"Erin Brockovich": An unemployed single mother becomes a legal
assistant and almost single-handedly brings down a California power company
accused of polluting a city's water supply.
- Men on a mission?
"Saving Private Ryan": US soldiers try to save their comrade who's
stationed behind enemy lines.
"American Pie": Four teenage boys make a pact to lose their virginity
by prom night.
- A man against nature?
"Castaway": A FedEx executive must transform himself physically and
emotionally to survive after a crash landing on a deserted island.
"Cliffhanger": A retired mountain climber must conquer an unclimbable
peak to save the survivors of a plane crash from certain death.
Or the system?
"People Vs. Larry Flynt": A pornography publisher becomes the
unlikely defender of free speech.
"Class Action": A female attorney finds that her nemesis is her own
father, and must choose between her corporate client and justice."
- A woman escaping from something or someone she loves.
"Enough": On the run from an abusive husband, a young mother begins to train herself to fight back.
Iconic Loglines From IFilmThings
Blade Runner
A blade runner must pursue and terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space, and have returned to Earth to find their creator.
The Godfather
“The ageing patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.”
The Matrix
A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against its controllers.
The Shawshank Redemption
“Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency.”
The Lion King
Reservoir Dogs
After a simple jewelry heist goes terribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.
The Hangover
Three buddies wake up from a bachelor party in Las Vegas, with no memory of the previous night and the bachelor missing. They make their way around the city in order to find their friend before his wedding.
The Terminator
A human soldier is sent from 2029 to 1984 to stop an almost indestructible cyborg killing machine, sent from the same year, which has been programmed to execute a young woman whose unborn son is the key to humanity’s future salvation.
The Jungle Book
Bagheera the Panther and Baloo the Bear have a difficult time trying to convince a boy to leave the jungle for human civilization.
Finding Nemo
Nemo, after he ventures into the open sea, despite his father’s constant warnings about many of the ocean’s dangers. Nemo is abducted by a boat and netted up and sent to a dentist’s office in Sydney.
American Beauty
Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after becoming infatuated with his daughter’s attractive friend.
Writers Lifeline: Hollywood High Concept
Writing even the greatest screenplay that isn’t high concept is choosing either the indie path or willful self-indulgence.
Dealing with
“high concept” is one of the most challenging and frustrating tasks of
the Hollywood writer, agent, or producer; reducing the story to a
compelling logline is what high concept is all about. As a former
academic not prepared for a world focused on marketing, it took me years
to realize that the term “high concept” means almost its opposite. It
means “simple concept,” as in Fatal Attraction: An innocent smile at a party turns a married man’s life upside down and put his family in mortal jeopardy.
Sometimes a title is its own high concept, as with Margaret Mitchell’s best-selling novel Gone with the Wind,
the extended logline of which would be: “Against the backdrop of the
great Civil War, a narcissistic Southern beauty obsessed with idyllic
love struggles to reconstruct her life and finds that her true love is
closer than she thinks.”
High concept is
a story that will compel the broadest audiences to watch the movie
after hearing a pitch of only a few, or sometimes even one, word(s):
Psycho
Sleepless in Seattle
Armageddon
Unwanted Attentions
Vertigo
Jaws
How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days
American Sniper
Unfaithful
Four Weddings and a Funeral
San Andreas
Black Hawk Down
Panic Room
Selma
Runaway Bride
Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead
Home Alone
Cabin Fever
Die Hard
Ex Machina
These examples
of high concept are pitched by their very titles. It’s enough to hear
the title—and know that Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson star—to compel
audiences to the box office for Anger Management.
“Die Hard on a boat,” was allegedly the logline line that led to the sale of Steven Seagall’s Under Siege.
Titles like The Fisher King, Seven Days in May, Snow Falling on Cedars, The Shipping News
may be evocative, but do not express a high concept that will instantly
lure audiences. Though such titles may get lucky and become successful
movies, in today’s blockbuster market they’d be swimming upstream.
Nothing is more
important to marketing your story than a “high concept logline” that
makes it immediately stand out from all those stories that are subtle,
nuanced, and difficult to pitch, and that depend entirely upon
“execution.” Here are some more examples that have led my companies or
others to sales:
• “Jurassic Shark!” (the two-word description given AEI client Steve Alten’s Meg
by ICM-agent Jeff Robinov, who spearheaded a “preempt” from Disney for
$1.1 million; the story was then re-sold to Newline, and then to Warner
Brothers)
• When the most obnoxious guy in the world realizes he’s become an asshole on a false premise, he makes a list of all the people he’s wronged and sets out to repay them one by one. (John Scott Shepherd’s Henry’s List of Wrongs, sold to New Line Pictures for $1.6 million).
• Life or Something Like It: An ambitious and self-involved reporter is sparked into action to change the pattern of her life when she interviews a street-psychic who tells her that her life is meaningless—and that she’s going to die—soon.
• When the most obnoxious guy in the world realizes he’s become an asshole on a false premise, he makes a list of all the people he’s wronged and sets out to repay them one by one. (John Scott Shepherd’s Henry’s List of Wrongs, sold to New Line Pictures for $1.6 million).
• Life or Something Like It: An ambitious and self-involved reporter is sparked into action to change the pattern of her life when she interviews a street-psychic who tells her that her life is meaningless—and that she’s going to die—soon.
• The Madam’s Family: The true “Canal Street Brothel” story of three generations of madams and their battle against persecution by the FBI.
• The Lost Valentine: A man and woman find the love of their lifetimes when they’re brought together to memorialize the bittersweet story of a doomed World War II pilot and the wife who promised to wait forever for his return.
Consider these further examples, grouped by “genre”:
A woman or a family in jeopardy
The Shallows:
While riding the waves at a remote beach, a young surfer finds herself
injured and stranded just twenty miles from shore on a buoy—as a great
white shark begins stalking her.
Room: After being abducted, abused, and imprisoned for seven years in a small windowless room a mother devises a bold escape plan.
An ordinary woman in extraordinary circumstances
The Danish Girl: What happens if the husband you adore needs to be a woman?
Woman in Gold:
Six decades after World War II, a Jewish octogenarian begins a quest to
reclaim the artwork confiscated from her family by the Nazis and now
proudly celebrated by the Austrian government—including a famed Gustav
Klimt masterpiece.
Men on a mission
Saving Private Ryan: US soldiers try to save their comrade who’s stationed behind enemy lines.
Bridge of Spies:
At the height of the Cold War in 1960, the downing of an American spy
plane and the pilot’s subsequent capture by the Soviets draws Brooklyn
attorney James Donovan into the middle of an intense effort to secure
the aviator’s release.
Man against nature
The Martian: He was left behind—on Mars.
The Revenant: A frontiersman fights for survival after being mauled by a grizzly and left for dead by his own hunting team.
Man or woman against the system
Spotlight:
A Boston news team sets out to expose numerous cases of child
molestation and cover up on the part of the local Catholic Archdiocese.
Concussion:
A pathologist uncovers the truth about brain damage in football players
who suffer repeated concussions and comes up against the corporate
power of the NFL.
People Vs. Larry Flynt: A pornography publisher becomes the unlikely defender of free speech.
Class Action: A female attorney finds that her nemesis is her own father, and must choose between her corporate client and justice.
A woman escaping from something or someone she loves.
The Perfect Guy: After breaking up with her boyfriend, a professional woman gets involved with a man who seems almost too good to be true.
Enough: On the run from an abusive husband, a young mother begins to train herself to fight back.
Sleeping with the Enemy: A young woman fakes her own death in an attempt to escape her nightmarish marriage, but discovers it’s impossible to elude her controlling husband.
Filmmakers long to spot in our onslaught of daily email queries a high concept logline that makes a story out of universal—
• human emotions: fear, love, hate, envy, etc.
• deadly sins: anger, greed, lust, etc.
• plot motivators: betrayal, vengeance, discovery, rebirth, survival, etc.
• virtues: loyalty, faith, responsibility, etc.
• human emotions: fear, love, hate, envy, etc.
• deadly sins: anger, greed, lust, etc.
• plot motivators: betrayal, vengeance, discovery, rebirth, survival, etc.
• virtues: loyalty, faith, responsibility, etc.
—and embodies those elements in characters we can care about, relate to, and root for to shape an “original story” that feels both fresh and relevant to today’s global market.
If you can do
that, and your writing effectively expresses your vision, you’re only
steps away from recognition in the toughest story marketplace of all.
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