Hollywood’s Screenwriting Talent-Discovery Problem
Hollywood has its own version of the chicken or the egg. To staff on a show, you need to have a representative, but to have a representative, you need to have credits — meaning you have to have been staffed before.
If you don’t know anyone who can refer you, and your father isn’t Coppola, it can feel nearly impossible to break through to Hollywood’s decision-makers.
When I was working at Imagine Entertainment, Paramount, Lionsgate, New Regency and ICM Partners, I was often asked by emerging talents how to “make it in Hollywood.” At that point, I didn’t have an answer.
And yet, it is doable.
This is what drew me to Coverfly.
The Problem: How to Break in?
My first experience in the industry was working for a music video production company in Los Angeles. They had just received a Grammy Award nomination for a music video. I thought I’d made it. But little did I know, I was just getting started.
Working on set for a skilled and connected producer taught me invaluable lessons: If you want it badly enough, you’ll find your own way in. Learn by doing; nothing is a substitute for trial by fire.
But no one’s going to give you the keys to Hollywood. You have to create your own opportunities. Easier said than done, as many have discovered.
I did what seemed reasonable at the time and opened my own production company. We produced content for major record labels, #1 billboard artists and Fortune 500 companies. This allowed me to join UCLA’s Producers Program MFA and I ended up working for the president of Motion Pictures at Paramount, assisting the President of Production at Imagine Entertainment, and paying my dues at ICM Partners’ International TV Department. And yet, I felt like I was still just beginning to “break in.”
I quickly realized that I had to expand my network and reached out to industry professionals who kindly imparted their wisdom unto me. Tom Nunan, former president of the United Paramount Network (UPN) now known as The CW, told me “it’s not about who you know. It’s who knows you.” That means you need to leave an impression on people and know how to pitch yourself. And that’s the hardest thing to do for a writer.
At the companies I’ve worked for, we would only receive submissions from writers who were represented. And those writers querying us with unsolicited materials were automatically rejected, unless they came in through a personal recommendation. I made it my task to end this vicious circle. How could we break the Hollywood conundrum?
The NFL has scouts. Record labels have scouts. Hollywood has screenwriting competitions.
As a producer and development executive, my goal is to find great emerging talent and material. I then assess if there is commercial value to the intellectual property based on my conversations with buyers. But where to find these talented new writers and screenplays? As a producer, it is often difficult knowing which writing competitions to trust as effective talent-discovery programs.
This is where Coverfly comes in. And it’s why I’m thrilled to join the Coverfly team.
The Solution: Data
Coverfly is more than a platform that connects writers with industry professionals. It’s a data-driven talent-discovery revolution. Coverfly is unique; it scales and improves the match-making process in Hollywood in a tech-literate way. And while that makes it the largest database of emerging screenwriters and projects, behind the code, there is a team. A team of development executives (like myself) dedicated to finding the writers who are spending nights and days honing their craft, breaking through the noise with the most deserving of all things: great stories.
When I was reading about Coverfly, it sounded like a utopia, and I was skeptical that they’d be able to pull off their stated goal of improving talent-discovery for the industry. Until I spoke with Tom Dever, Coverfly’s Head of Development. He introduced me to the Coverfly team and showed me the hundreds of emerging writers that Coverfly had connected with managers, agents, producers and studio executives.
Coverfly offered me what no one else could: the ability to help solve Hollywood’s conundrum. So I joined the team.
Our job at Coverfly? To find emerging writers and projects which need to be seen by Hollywood. We deal in talent.
Unlike producers and representatives, we don’t sign talent or take credits and have no financial stake in a writer’s success. We have the freedom to explore all options, genuinely seeking what’s best for industry buyers and writers. We are guided by what makes the most sense for a writer or a project. Industry professionals may not have the time or resources to find these diamonds in the rough, but armed with our database, algorithm and passion, we do.
We are curators. Scouts. Guides. Mentors.
There’s no magic formula for making it in Hollywood.
But there are many ways to build a support system. And emerging writers need support. Hollywood needs fresh voices. Coverfly puts writers and industry professionals together so they can make great content. The platform solves the Hollywood conundrum.
This is why I joined the Coverfly team.
