DEVELOPMENT SUCKS

So I'm not doing it anymore. But whatever. Here's a step by step guide to getting shit made.

This one is going to be controversial, but ok.

Other producers might have completely different methods and disagree with everything I say here, but traditionally, this is how I’ve developed projects on my path to getting them made.

By the way, notice my language here. “Getting them made”. This is very much some Yoda shit, but I believe it whole heartedly: if you say you’re “trying to get your project made”, that project is never happening. For real.

There are a few categories and sub-categories below, but there are all kinds of different projects that come together in various ways. So deal with the wonky formatting or stop reading. 😁

Intro P.S. — I completely skip over labs, etc. here — because that has never been a part of my process. I’m not patient enough to work on those timelines. And I got rejected from a bunch early on, lol. But I know for some people they are valuable.

Intro P.P.S. — I usually tell you up front what’s to follow in the post, but this one is straightforward. You’ll learn about my development process and why I’m abandoning it. That’s it.

On with the show.

Narrative

This is what most of you are probably here for — original narrative features. The holy grail of development.

Path One: create from scratch.

Step 1a. SCRIPT. The simplest version is you write something yourself. Your brain to the page to the screen. BOOM. You’re an auteur.

Except if you’re me, you are never happy enough with the scripts you write to actually produce them. So you do something slightly different. But other than that, the rest of the steps are the same. Read on!

Step 1b. You write a treatment, then hire/coerce a writer to write it for/with you. This is what we did on the movie I have in post right now, HAUNTED HEIST. My partner and I wrote a treatment and hired another friend to write the script. Then we gave him notes, and got it to a place where we all loved it and felt it was worth making.

Step 2. PACKAGING. This is where you go from script to something that’s actually worth raising money for. The pieces that will become a movie. Personally, I don’t think you should look for a dollar until you have a director and at least one actor attached. Even if it’s not a big fancy famous ‘value’ holding actor — an investor can see what the movie will look like. PACKAGING means cast and director attachments. Also - can we talk in the future about how fucking gross it is to attach value to human beings?

Sometimes, the director is me, and for the initial actor attachment, I usually call a friend and that also helps other actors know the project is ‘real’. Also I just like making shit with my friends. So that’s easy. If I didn’t know any actors, I’d ask people who might. If you are a first time director, going through agents is going to be a waste of time unless you have a well known producer attached. Even if you aren’t a first timer — unless you have money to offer, the agent route is tough. I almost never go there for my first actor attachment. I hit my Rolodex and ask friends to ask friends, etc. Agents can help you at a certain point, but your first few attachments will almost never come from agents, even once you’re established.

Other times, I don’t think I’m the right director, so I try to find someone who I think would be better. In the case of HAUNTED HEIST, we got our actor and director in one — Lil Rel Howery, with whom we had just made THE MILL. I’ve written about that process here:

I also went deeper there on the financing process, so I’ll keep that brief here.

On HAUNTED HEIST, we worked with Rel and our writer/friend Carl Reid to make sure the script became not just a great representation of our vision as originating producers, but the embodiment of Rel’s vision for the film, as it was now becoming not just our idea, but the movie he would have to direct and stand behind.

I’ll back up a little. Rel is an extremely marketable actor, who has real value (ugh) to distributors and streamers. He’s financeable as an actor. This was a massive cheat code, and allowed us to gain the backing our financing partners much easier than we would have been able to for any other first time feature director. And the process of getting Rel, even though we are friends, wasn’t easy. Here’s a thing no one will tell you — when it comes to work, your best friends will pass on your passion projects, if it’s not right for them. And you can’t blame them. This is their livelihood. And if they did bad work, or work they couldn’t do justice, they wouldn’t be the actor or director who has the value (FUCK) that you want to bring to your project in the first place. Don’t take this personally.

I had a friend of nearly 20 years, one of my first friends in the film business, who was and is my friend outside of work/art, who become an extremely successful actor in the time since we’ve known each other. He backed out on one of my movies the day before filming. We are still friends and working on projects together. I’ve personally developed films with writer friends and I’ve backed out of producing/directing because it’s not right for me once the script is done. This happens. You have to respect people’s creative choices — I repeat, it isn’t personal. You’ll only realize that when you have to back out on someone else. This doesn’t make it hurt any less, it just means you understand this person doesn’t hate you, it’s not personal for them, so don’t take it that way.

But Rel dug the idea, loved the script, and had been secretly plotting to take a swing at directing. So after some convincing (I think he wanted to do it from the jump but was playing hard to get — ANYWAYS) he was on board.

Then Rel did what I do. Called his friends to act in the movie. But they also had to love it and trust in him both as an actor and director. Fortunately they did, and we attached an amazing cast including Tiffany Haddish, Andrew Bachelor, Karlous Miller, and Brett Gelman — real comedians for a wild horror/comedy movie.

A still from the upcoming HAUNTED HEIST, currently in post-production.

People often think of packaging as something involving agents — and in fact there are specific packaging agents. Like that’s a job. But it’s never worked like that for me. Or anyone else I know. The agents come later, when working a deal, negotiating schedules, etc.

Step 3. The Building Blocks. This is everything you will need to physically make the movie. Yes. I consider this development even though most people don’t. This is a budget, a schedule, and conversation with key crew (department heads) to know you can actually do it for the budget and schedule, and that those aren’t fantasy documents, but real blueprints to make something great. Here, you should also develop the look of the movie, and figure out where and when you want to shoot it, so you can bring your prospective financiers something tangible to go make. Speaking of financiers, that brings us to…

Step 4. Financing. I’ve already written about this. See link above. For HAUNTED HEIST it was largely the same process as THE MILL, but different project. And our friends The Coven and Robinwood7 came on to finance it. A bit later I’ll go into some interesting specifics on the financing of this one, but can’t yet because… well… I just can’t. BUT I WILL I PROMISE. Long story short: it took a little over a year from the day we locked the script to lock the financing. This is considered fast, but it felt like forever. And ultimately even though we talked to DOZENS of financiers, spent probably spent a few hundred hours talking to financiers / talking about financing — our original biggest supporters who were trying to raise money for us, stepped up and invested themselves. And a bunch of us deferred our fees. Because we believe in the film (romantically), and could afford to do so (practically). Isn’t that filmmaking at its best? The marriage of romanticism and practicality?

In any case. Step 3 is asking other people for permission to make your movie. This is HARD. But if you have the right package and did Steps 1-3 right? You’ll get there.

Now you’re making a movie. Woohoo!

We will talk about production and distribution in a later post. Gulp.

Path Two: option material.

Step 1. This is when you find something you absolutely love, and you convince the writer or rights holder to let you have exclusive rights to produce for anywhere from 3-18 months. I’d suggest 6-12 months at the least. I know option fees help writers out a lot, but my budget doesn’t always allow for it. When it does, I pay. When it doesn’t, I make the same sales pitch all the time: you can option this to someone else, probably someone fancier than me — but look how many projects they have in development. Because that’s their business. They develop. And often sell to studios who then further develop. I don’t. I only develop to make. If I option your script for $0, I’ll actually make it. Even if I sell my plasma to make the movie for $1,500 — you’ll have a produced original screenplay, the hardest thing to do in Hollywood. And I’m not bullshitting. I’ve won options in competitive situations this way. I’ve also lost them — and all schadenfreude aside, I can say exactly zero of the scripts I’ve lost have been made. Same with books. We will get to that later, including my years long dealings with an extremely famous author.

Steps 2-4 are the same as Path One.

And yeah sure you can option material then hire a writer. That’s Path Two with Path One Step 1a. You’re not stupid, you get it.

There are a TON OF STEPS other people will throw in here. Breaking the script. Getting 14,054 people’s opinions on things. Going through endless rewrites. And yeah… you can do that. But I promise you this — an overdeveloped script isn’t any more likely to get produced, but it is very likely to lose the voice that birthed it.

It’s 4 steps. That’s all it takes. AND THIS IS STILL TOO MANY. More on that later.

Documentary

I mean, it’s kind of the same steps as narrative, with a few differences.

Path One: just start making some shit. Find a story. Grab a camera. Shoot it. Figure out all the rest later.

I’ve done this — a few times. But more often than not, I’ve thought I needed some money for my non-fiction work. This leads to:

Path Two: Gather resources to make something original.

Step 1. Come up with a vision you can sell. Tell yourself what the movie or series is, so you can articulate this to investors or commissioners — likely to be streamers. Make mood boards, write longhand — do whatever is necessary to make it real in your mind.

Step 2. Put together sales materials that reflect your vision. Sometimes this is just a pitch deck, which typically includes an intro to the project, any attachments (creative partners, on camera ‘subjects’ or EPs connected to the world — more on this one later), the overall vision for the film or series, and usually a personal statement about why I feel the need for me specifically to tell this story. I usually source images from the Internet (shotdeck is the spot, also google - duh), unless I have access to some non-public imagery.

Other times, it’s a pitch deck and a pitch tape. The tape is often clips ripped from other movies or news sources, with some text cards to clarify and contextualize. If I’ve shot anything, I include that to show what I’m doing, and make it feel reel.

Step 3. Attachments. Ok I said I’d get back to this — because in many cases you need some kind of materials put together to get attachments on board. This could be a DP you love, an editor, a composer, or producers. They need to be sold on your vision.

In the documentary world, these attachments are extremely important. If you are looking for money from anyone, but in particular a streamer, they want to see that you have attached entities who have made this type of film or series before. It’s also extremely helpful to have a high profile person connected to the subject matter attached. For my documentary series LIVING UNDOCUMENTED we first attached The Intellectual Property Corporation who recently had a hit with their series LEAH REMINI: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH, and then attached Selena Gomez and Mandy Teefey who had a history of bold issue based storytelling with THIRTEEN REASONS WHY and who were passionate about immigration. They helped us craft the creative from their unique POV, which was incredible. And then we took it out to see if we could sell it. We pitched and immediately got offers from a handful of streamers and cable networks, ultimately landing with Netflix, as the Documentary Originals team there really got what we were trying to do.

Poster for LIVING UNDOCUMENTED. More relevant now than ever.

Any partner we approached knew we not only had a vision for this project, but that we had the infrastructure and skills to produce and deliver it. This was a no-brainer package. That’s what it takes to get a streamer to finance and distribute your nonfiction project in today’s market. And even then sometimes it’s not enough if it’s not a sports, music, or true crime doc.

Step 4. Approach financing sources. Streamers, risk tolerant / subject matter passionate individuals, and grant funders.

Personally, I’ve applied for and received one grant ever. However other documentaries I’ve been involved with have been funded heavily by grants. This is a specialized skill I don’t have, but for a very real funding source that does exist. So ask someone else, haha. That’s a game I don’t play.

The good news about documentaries, is there are a lot of passionate people out there willing to support stories they believe should be told. And typically they aren’t too expensive.

The bad news, the market is BRUTAL. No one should expect to get their money back. For a brief window in time in the early days of streaming, there was a real market for docs. That widow has largely closed. But it’s not all bleak, I swear! Keep reading!!

Path Three: Option Material.

All the steps are the same, except there’s a Step 0 before Step 1. That is… option the material. Find a book or photograph, or life story, or piece of music — anything that already exists, option it, then turn it into a film or series by taking the above Steps 1-4.

I love finding material ripe for adaptation. I currently have two books optioned that I’m making into documentary series. But I’m doing it following THE NEW WAY (read below) — not the above Paths.

For the most part, authors of nonfiction books are happy to hear from you. They are excited about their material being adapted, and brought to a potentially larger audience. Similar to scripts, I usually option for $0 and pay well when I actually produce the project. I’ve really enjoyed my dealings with authors when optioning their material, even when the projects didn’t sell. With one HUGE exception.

There’s a very famous philosophy book I’m a massive fan of. I’ve read it countless times. Given copies to dozens of people. I return to it again and again. At one point, I reached out to the author to see if I could option it. He cared a lot about his work, and so this was not a transactional thing at all — we spent months sharing thoughts, talking, working on the creative for the adaption, discussing a plan for pitching, etc. It was a phenomenal process. It felt like a dream to me. I still greatly admirer this writer and his work. And still think it would make a fucking incredible documentary series.

We get to the point where he connects me with his agent to formally option the book. Here we go. I send the shopping/option agreement — a simple two page document giving me the rights to develop/sell the project for 12 months. OFF TO THE RACES.

And the very next day, he calls me. Says he wanted me to hear this from him personally. He called to say he’s heard dozens of pitches for adaptations for his work over the past decade, and that mine is by far the best. But an extremely famous rapper (who may or may not have very recently been engaged in a controversial rap battle that seemingly took over all of popular culture for like 6 months) wants to option the book for a scripted adaptation, and his agent says he should take that offer. So he did. WHAT THE ACTUAL MOTHER FUCKING FUCK. Nearly a year of work and creative bonding. GONE.

And it didn’t get made. At least not yet.

If you knew what the book was, you’d be shocked. Truly. Like, wow.

THIS is the problem with optioning, or really basing your project around any IP you didn’t create. It’s not yours. And someone can take it from you.

That said… one day I will get this book, and make the series — on my own terms. And I still love the author despite this wild outcome.

As you can see, all of these paths other than Documentary Path One involve asking others for permission to tell the story you’re dying to tell. And I’ve never really liked that. In fact, I’ve hated it. That’s why I’m not doing it anymore.

THE NEW WAY

I’ve already been developing the creative for my new projects for a while.

The difference is, instead of continuing to develop and packaging these up for sale, I’m just… making them. My development process will be iterating based on audience feedback once they are released.

I have source material optioned (THANK GOD), I’ve been interviewing people with first hand experience and subject matter experts. I’m immersed.

In fact, one was in the traditional development cycle (Documentary Path Three) for a while now, but I pulled it to take THE NEW PATH. And this isn’t exactly Documentary Path One. Because we are making these projects with a plan to take them through completion, distribution, and marketing.

Direct to consumer, baby. We need a new term for this — URGENTLY. Direct to consumer sounds dumb.

Look, I’ll quickly check my privilege to properly set the table. I’ve been making films for a while, and me and my partners on this venture have all had a certain amount of success in a number of different fields. This means we have institutional knowledge of how to manage processes and run businesses. It also means we know how to market and promote things.

And yeah of course, the big single element most filmmakers see as the biggest advantage we have: access to capital. At present it’s our own money we are investing, but based on past successes we can fairly easily rally investors or tap into credit lines. In fact, we already have other investors interested but we don’t need their capital yet. (Quick note: most savvy financiers invest in people, not ideas. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Execution is where most things fail. People invest in people who they know or believe can execute.)

But here’s the genius part: there’s not a single guarantee that our modestly self-funded projects will be any more successful than a podcast some kid records on her phone and releases on a whim on a Tuesday afternoon. The storytelling (and yes - this includes the branding) has to be compelling. In today’s world, nothing else matters.

Not needing this approval from other investors is a mindset shift. Usually the greenlight from a third party is the greenlight for my brain. And it’s stupid. Because the majority of my projects have started in my brain - no one asked me and my partner to write the story for HAUNTED HEIST. We just… did it. Then hired our friend to write it. And another friend to direct and star in it. As covered before, me and this same partner put our own money on the line to get THE MILL started. But in both cases, we weren’t making those movies until third parties coughed up the real cash. This told my brain it was ok to rest my development muscles and and get those making muscles pumping.

In this new model — me and my partners need the discipline to not just self-start, but see it all the way through.

Sports metaphors are lazy but… how many people play sports as kids, when a parent pushes them to be guided by a coach and pressured by teammates? LOTS.

How many people continue regularly working out / playing sports as adults? Not as many.

Because it’s hard.

We naturally desire approval. It eases our self-doubt.

THE NEW WAY will initially be for direct to consumer documentary series. At least for us — because that’s what we can afford to do. Over time, this will grow to narrative films, and possibly series, as well.

I’ll be talking more about my upcoming projects soon. And the process of making them. I AM BURSTING AT THE SEAMS TO DO SO.

In fact, I was going to drop the trailer for the first one in this post, but it’s a few days away from being ready and I told myself I’d get this post out today.

MORE TO COME.

Shout with questions.

PEACE.

Sean

SOME COOL SHIT I’M READING

The Label

from

Taylor Lewis

and

Ellis J. Sutton

— their vision for the future of film is just awesome. PLEASE READ.

Lauren Greenwood

— amazing screenwriting advise AND now you can follow her as she grants us all access to watch her direct a film. So so cool.

Decarceration

— ok. This dude’s reviews are out of control good, and his perspective as someone who was once incarcerated is fascinating. He also ties the films to issues facing those who are/have been incarcerated, and society in general.

Franklin Leonard

— he’s been on Substack for like 6 seconds and already dropping absolute bombs.