Response from producer within days!

Thought with all the doom and gloom about producers I'd post a ray on sunshine to inspire others who may think sending a script off is akin to throwing it into a black hole.

On the advice of another member i did the following......wrote a script (that wasn't on his advice...i did it on my own ) then i used IMDB to find similar shows to mine, saw who the producers were, googled them for their agents, ignored the DON'T SEND SCRIPTS warnings and wrote the agent a nice letter asking for them to forward them on. Sent 5 on Thursday (in the post), had 2 responses this morning by email from producers! (one cant do anything as he is working on something else but was very nice and had at least read it, the other was good though)

Just shows that (as long as you ask in the write way and dont send shite) people do respond promptly.

As an aside...my letter had ZERO info on the script...i did no synopsis or summary - i figured joe blogs doesn't see that so it needs to stand on its own as a script. Instead i focused on polite begging with a hint of humour in a professional format.

Big P.

In my one experience of seeking out and submitting to a producer, it went very smoothly. They're not all bastards, it seems.

Good luck with the rest of the process, Pete.

But the public do get to see the synopsis, in TV Guides.

Anyway this sounds a good way of going about things, one question though how did you find out who the producer's agents were?

Quote: Pete @ June 14 2008, 4:42 PM BST

Thought with all the doom and gloom about producers I'd post a ray on sunshine to inspire others who may think sending a script off is akin to throwing it into a black hole.

On the advice of another member i did the following......wrote a script (that wasn't on his advice...i did it on my own ) then i used IMDB to find similar shows to mine, saw who the producers were, googled them for their agents, ignored the DON'T SEND SCRIPTS warnings and wrote the agent a nice letter asking for them to forward them on. Sent 5 on Thursday (in the post), had 2 responses this morning by email from producers! (one cant do anything as he is working on something else but was very nice and had at least read it, the other was good though)

Just shows that (as long as you ask in the write way and dont send shite) people do respond promptly.

As an aside...my letter had ZERO info on the script...i did no synopsis or summary - i figured joe blogs doesn't see that so it needs to stand on its own as a script. Instead i focused on polite begging with a hint of humour in a professional format.

Big P.

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You must have someone pretty savvy giving you advice!

Pete, did you send the script with the letter to the agent or just the letter with your contact details?

And to mirror someone elses question, how did you get the agents details on IMDb? do you have to have IMDb Pro to get this information?

Def.

Lots of mountains being made into molehills here.

It's not difficult to contact producers and find places to get in touch with them.

Quote: Seefacts @ June 14 2008, 8:14 PM BST

Lots of mountains being made into molehills here.

It's not difficult to contact producers and find places to get in touch with them.

View original

It's not difficult to produce a set of accounts for a multinational company...if you know what you are doing!

Def.

i used IMDB and Google. Took on average 30 secs per lead!

here's a theory as well....when a script arrives with anyone (spielberg or a cleaner) i cant believe it can be put to one side without even opening it. In my line of work lots of people come to me for help and i have an in tray full of those i may get round to....but no one goes in there without a glance at their situation first because i'm not having a huge bit of business sit in a 3ft high pile of papers just because the average bit of business is small.

working on that theory i made sure the number of words between "Dear Billy the producer" and the first laugh of the script was minimal....that includes the details of the first scenes location, character descriptions, etc, etc. Quite simply, anyone reading my letter and script would be at a laugh within 1 min. I figured if their laughing then they may just carry on reading. It's the Chrissie Watkins theory, let them know what its all about straight away.

Sometimes i read sketches in critique where the set up is so long i cant be bothered to read the sketch - i avoided that.

Very interesting theory, and one that had never occurred to me before.

Congratulations on your commission Pete

Quote: Seefacts @ June 14 2008, 10:41 PM BST

Very interesting theory, and one that had never occurred to me before.

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You need to find someone pretty savvy and get them to give you some advice

Quote: Alan C @ June 14 2008, 10:42 PM BST

Congratulations on your commission Pete

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Only a few emails so far...hold the BAFTA!

Quote: Pete @ June 14 2008, 10:44 PM BST

Only a few emails so far...hold the BAFTA!

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Ah sorry I didn't have time to read all of your post my inbox was full

Quote: Pete @ June 14 2008, 10:44 PM BST

You need to find someone pretty savvy and get them to give you some advice

View original

If only!

Is it necessary though, to go through a producer's agent? Is sending it direct to the producer not a good idea?

If you have their details - i found quite a few dont though or, what appears to be their contact details, are actual those of an agent when you google them.