Mentor Series: A Producer's Guide to Navigating Your Screenwriting Career

Mentor Series: A Producer's Guide to Navigating Your Screenwriting Career

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Ever dream of having direct access to an A-lister, so you can discover how Hollywood really works?

Get ready to learn the secret handshake: A Producer's Guide to Navigating Your Screenwriting Career puts you on the fast track to entertainment Industry success. It’s like a graduate film school-level education from an Academy-Award winner at a fraction of the cost!

Edward Saxon, producer of some of Hollywood’s most enduring films, is your instructor through this entire intensive course he created based on his 25+ years in the Industry. He’s developed and produced movies at all the major studios, including Silence of the Lambs, Adaptation and Philadelphia, along with Independent films and projects in development at HBO and Amazon Studios. Combined, Saxon’s films have grossed over $700 million at the box office worldwide and garnered multiple Academy Awards.

In A Producer's Guide to Navigating Your Screenwriting Career, Ed takes you on a deep dive into the real world of the movie business, with eight comprehensive lessons that cover everything you need to know to move ahead in Hollywood. It’s vital intel for anyone who wants to become a working part of the film Industry.

Each lesson is a 60 to 90-minute OnDemand webinar on an essential topic:

  1. The System: Understanding Hollywood’s Inner Workings
  2. The Team: Securing an Agent, Manager, Lawyer and Publicist
  3. The Allies: Building Film Business Networks
  4. The Timeline: Making Hollywood’s Schedule Work for You
  5. The Story: Writing the Script that Gets Sold
  6. The Path: Following the Routes to Screenwriting Success
  7. The Landscape: Discovering Current Industry Opportunities
  8. The Hero: Being the Protagonist of your Hollywood Story

The lessons also feature extensive resource materials specially selected to enhance your learning experience.

Choose the package of all eight lessons at a special discounted rate for the most complete educational experience and a signed certificate of completion from Edward Saxon, or select individual lessons based on your needs.

It’s time for you to stop wondering what really happens behind the Hollywood curtain. Sign up for A Producer's Guide to Navigating Your Screenwriting Career now and get ready to take your screenwriting career to the next level.

The Lessons:

1. The System (OnDemand)

Hollywood has complex structures that are commonly misunderstood by new screenwriters. If you don’t know whom to target and why, your chances of script-selling success are slim.

Delve into the inner workings of all the different Hollywood buyers in “The System.” This webinar gives you detailed information on exactly how these power players function to arm you with the knowledge you need to confidently approach them with your work.

With Oscar-winning producer Edward Saxon as your guide, you’ll cover topics including:

  • Theatrical motion pictures and the major studios, independent distributors, and true independent films.
  • What studios really do and where they get films
  • Independent U.S. Distributors and how they work
  • Independent producers and foreign sales companies
  • Individual independent films and how producers find scripts and package them
  • Television networks and the primary importance of the writer as well as the studio role in TV production.
  • Digital storytelling and sites like “Funny or Die” and Yahoo Originals

2. The Team (OnDemand)

No man is an island (not even a screenwriter), and you need a crew you can count on when it comes time to test the Hollywood waters.

Join Edward Saxon for a revealing session on agents, managers, lawyers and publicists. He’ll give you the skinny on how to target the right reps for you, along with topics that include:

  • The Big Players and other established specialty, boutique and “single shingle” agencies
  • Departments within an agency, including Talent, Writers and Directors, Literary, Sports, Advertising and Digital
  • What agents, managers, attorneys and publicists do and what they don’t do
  • How and why agents choose clients 
  • Agents as packagers 
  • "Hip Pocket" representation 
  • Tips and tricks for building your team

3. The Allies (OnDemand)

As the old saying goes, in Hollywood, it’s not what you know but who you know. That’s why it’s vital to build personal and professional networks that can help you become a thriving member of the film community.

In this webinar, Edward Saxon shares the secrets to building and capitalizing on creative networks, with topics that include:

  • The importance of networks for finding work
  • Becoming a creative entrepreneur
  • How personal movie business networks work
  • Writers’ Groups as a way to form a network
  • Using the web and social media to form collaborative groups and share vital information.
  • How best practices help you get ahead in the face of competition
  • Creative and business partnerships, and the essential reasons you need them

4. The Timeline (OnDemand)

While Hollywood loves to see the ticking clock technique used in a spec script, time doesn’t march forward as quickly on the business end of things.

Fortunately, there are many ways to make Hollywood timeframes work in your favor. In this one-hour webinar, Edward Saxon offers an eye-opening look at how projects move forward, and how to measure, with topics that include:

  • Understanding how long things take in the Industry & key benchmarks
  • Going from initial idea to the big or small screen
  • The 12-week standard for writing a script 
  • Reading timelines from collaborators and talent, and packaging talent
  • Television development and the seasonal nature of TV
  • Deal timelines and negotiations, from approved script to exhibition
  • Using short-form timelines to workshop and innovate
  • Personal timeline and creating great time management habits

5. The Story (OnDemand)

Everything rises and falls in Hollywood based on one thing: The Story. So it’s crucial to identify the kind of tale to tell that will sell to Industry professionals.

Edward Saxon is a story expert and in this webinar, he’ll give you incredible insights on what a story needs in order to be viable in a competitive marketplace. “The Story” webinar topics include:

Writing to the needs of the market, and what’s getting developed in 2014

  • Getting “the read” and spec sales/genre analysis
  • What gets developed and why
  • A breakdown of the releases of the past five years
  • Brand equity and the power of familiar stories that resonate
  • The independent marketplace and genre analysis
  • Writing to the foreign sales market and why castable parts are so important

6. The Path (OnDemand)

It can be a long and winding road to entertainment industry success, but with access to some solid insider knowledge, there are some routes you can take for a much smoother ride.

Let Edward Saxon show you the ropes in “The Path,” a webinar that illuminates the different directions you can take to have a career in Hollywood.

  • What you need to know about film schools and academies
  • The do-it-yourself approach, along with resources and tactics
  • Identifying apprenticeships and how to get one
  • Cultivating a mentor and building a network 
  • Practical strategies for finding your “tribe”
  • Connecting with talent, money, or material
  • Forks in the road, and how to navigate essential intersections
  • The digital gold mine, and making the most of the fastest growing sector in storytelling

7. The Current Landscape (OnDemand)

One of the best ways to break into Hollywood is to understand the unique opportunities available now and how to take advantage of them.

Industry expert Edward Saxon reveals the many prospects open to aspiring screenwriters in this webinar, which also covers:

  • A 2014 snapshot in Film, Television and Digital
  • The ascendency of “tent pole” films and the durability of comedy
  • Continued growth of International markets 
  • The new Golden Age of television and its huge audience for all genres
  • The return of the Movie of the Week and Limited Series
  • The growth of digital delivery, including Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and more
  • Storytelling across Industries and how to make it all work for you as a storyteller
  • New buyers from billionaires to bankers and how to approach them
  • Mobile: the radical rise of the VERY small screen
  • What lies ahead and the forecast for the next five years

8. The Hero (OnDemand)

You put your heart into your screenplay’s plot and characters. Now, it’s time to think of yourself as the protagonist so you can slay some Hollywood dragons!

In “The Hero,” Edward Saxon prepares you for the journey ahead with a webinar that includes topics like:

  • Taking a strength inventory and making a plan of action
  • Understanding what the market wants and providing it
  • Personal branding in 2014 and how to do it
  • Your attitude and how it can make or break your career
  • Characteristics of successful writers, actors, directors, and producers
  • Standing out from the big crowd

Don’t miss out on your chance to study with an Industry insider. Download A Producer's Guide to Navigating Your Screenwriting Career now and get ready to take your screenwriting career to the next level!

The Writers Store does not offer any refunds for the webinar. All sales are final.