I’ve mentioned in the past how hard it is to succeed as a writer.
If it was my only source of income, I would literally starve to death.
Everything you make goes back into marketing.
No lie, in my last 6 month royalty statement, for a five book series that have all been bestsellers, I netted zero dollars in royalties after marketing expenses were recouped.
Sad, isn’t it.
But that’s okay. Luckily, I have other sources of income that keep the lights on here in Casa Claire.
And I have my eyes on a bigger prize. I want to bring The Claire Saga to the big screen. Now that latter term has evolved over the past decade into either/and theatrical release plus/or Cable Network series release – Amazon, AMC, Apple, Paramount, Netflix. 70 inch flat screens in the home has changed the movie experience dynamic. Pause buttons reduce the anxiety level for bathroom breaks and food service.
I luckily retained the film rights to all of my books.
So, the marketing money spent on establishing The Claire Saga as a successful Sci-Fi/Fantasy literary series – Good Fellas meets Wizard of Oz meets Mr. Ed meets Mork & Mindy meets The Craft meets Guardians of the Galaxy – over these past five years has help me build a platform of readers who know my work, but more importantly know Claire the Mule and her motley crew of mystical misfits.
Now, over the past six months I have been approached by a couple of companies that want to shop my books to potential film companies. They basically work as a go between the writer and people who want to invest in film making.
What these companies bring to the table are film industry connections. In exchange they take 10% of your film rights deal. A great ROI for what is basically an introduction of talent to money.
Given that you usually pay an agent that gets you those kinds of deals 15-20% of your gross, that’s not unpalatable.
But in our illiterate entertainment wasteland where, because of social media fueled ever shrinking attention spans, most people – especially men – don’t (can no longer) read,
so these companies demand that you not only give them the exclusive right to shop your books, but that you also pay to create what are called Proof of Concept videos that capture the narrative essence of your book(s). Pablum for the attention challenged masses.
Now don’t get me wrong, I will spend endless amounts of my free time binge watching well written, acted and produced films and series. I have nothing against film as entertainment. I write visually. Any story, told well, in any medium, is worth the investment of my attention.
But given that all creative entertainment of any kind begins – as the Bible tells us, with the Word (John 1:1) – which in this instance, is an entertaining story about the magical and mystical Claire the Mule that I have already spent a great deal of my free time creating, on spec, and my precious time and coin now marketing, I am incredulous over the idea that these companies also want me to do their work for them. They want to play but have no skin in the game.
It’s fucking frustrating.
Anyway, I have rejected those offers in the past.
But then, recently, I was approached by a very creative individual, James Timothy, who operates Lumetrio Studios,
https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-timothy-20386919b
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574940706337
who had read TWA and actually pitched me an already developed video script that he had created, gratis, with an affordable alternative to the $10k per trailer going rate. He even did an audio narrative on spec, to show me his creative chops.
I liked this kid’s hustle and passion. I also like that he was completely responsive to my input and tweaks to his work product. He understands The Claire Saga.
So, I went with producing the TWA POC video with Lumetrio Studios. Three weeks later I had a rough draft of the video to review.
The opening photo above is the opening shot of the trailer. It establishes the narrative’s NYC origin over cool, jazzy music.
I showed the almost completed video to a number of people that I know have read and loved TCS, including filmmakers like Colin Broderick. They have been unanimous in their positive response to the POC video. They all loved it.
So, I showed the almost completed POC video to my contact at one of those go-between companies to see what they thought. Of course, they had to run it up through the corporate hierarchy, who after a few hours rejected the video and tried to upsell me to one of their regular East/West Coast trailer production companies that they work with so that they can all dip their beaks in my continuous monetary investment in their easy sell exclusive pipeline.
The tell was the following line in their response: “Your video already captures the essence of your story and it’s clear you’ve received strong feedback from people who know the industry.”
Well, it did, so, fuck them all.
I’m sticking with the kid who had the vision in the first place.
I’m going to post this POC video for TWA on every possible social media outlet I can find. Even if it doesn’t catch the eye of some Hollywood titan, it will undoubtedly capture the attention of potential readers. A palatable ROI.
But I actually believe that this video will catch the eye of the right someone – another hustler in the film industry who is looking to make a name for themselves by discovering the next LOTR or Harry Potter or Twilight – think Izzy Fortini in The Runarounds – https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30274061/ –
which, btw, is fucking awesome. Definitely worth a binge watch.
So, I will continue on my Quixotic Quest to bring The Claire Saga to the silver screen. I know that everything over the past 69 years has led me to this inflection point.
Claire wouldn’t have taken me this far just to take me this far.
So, you fine, five readers, keep your eyes on the look-out over the next few days for the premier of the POC for TWA.
Once you see it, I hope you post positive comments about it and share the fuck out of it on all of your social media. I want it to be ubiquitous. And I need all of your assistance to do it.
Help this Old Bastard beat the Hollywood system.
That kind of success would allow me the luxury of writing my next series of novels.
And no matter what else we get up to this fine Thursday, let us make today a great one
4 Responses
I have seen the trailer, and it is fabulous! I love this series and it really captures the spirit of the story. Hollywood is crazy if they don’t pick up TWA. I’ll fight anyone who says differently.
😁
The trailer was good, professionally done. One thing I would say, the scenes they passed off as being in Berthoud were shot in Arizona, and look nothing like the scenes from your book. I think your books are really a fun read, and have read them 2X now but I would hope that the movie people would be a little more true to what you wrote. Unfortunately those scenes are really well known, and won’t fool anyone as to the location.
I understand your point, and had TJ go back and add in the Three Witches as background for that reason. The desert bluffs was an easy way to visually suggest the western flavor of the big shift in story and geography, and given that a similar landscape could be found in the Colorado National Monument area, I left it to suggest a more dystopian feel. But I do appreciate your purist eye. The movie people – once I get them interested – will be held to a stricter standard. But thanks as always for your friendship and support.
Clarence and I share that monor quibble