General Structure:
The OWN ALL THE TICKETS workshop will be comprised of six, 1 hour seminars with 10 minute breaks in between each segment. There will also be a one hour sign-in period prior to the conference starting when a continental breakfast will be available and attendees can meet each other casually. I highly recommend arriving early in order to meet other participants. This networking will be useful for a segment later in the day.
To keep energy levels high, a boxed lunch will be served during the fourth segment. To keep the learning momentum high, there will be no official break for lunch. (Besides, no one does lunch anymore in Hollywood!)
The final 10 minutes of each individual segment will be reserved for questions from attendees pertaining to the subject matter just covered. I highly recommend, and hope for, strong participation from attendees when it comes to each question & answer period. However, in the event of a shy audience, I will pose commonly asked questions and answer them accordingly.
The agenda is as follows:
HOUR 1: MY OWN PERSONAL JOURNEY
From waiting tables at the Olive Garden in Westwood, CA, to working in the mailroom at William Morris, to being the youngest agent at the agency in 1996 (25 years old), to having my first manuscript bought by 20TH Century Fox, to getting fired from WMA in 2001, to my transitioning into management/production, to starting my own business in 2004, and to leading my clients and my company to success in today's challenging environment............ AND, MOST IMPORTANTLY, how & why my personal journey completely relates to yours, and what you can learn from it.
HOUR 2: THE LOTTERY SYSTEM OF HOLLYWOOD
Why it truly is lightning striking in the same bottle, TWICE, and why success can elude someone with 1000 lottery tickets yet embrace someone else with only one ticket. After outlining the challenges to success and the often-times randomness of it all, I will walk you through how to "best your odds" in order to acquire that extremely rare yet obtainable winning ticket. No day should pass without acquiring at least one new ticket!
HOUR 3: HOW IT ALL WORKS
Who are the players and how is the Hollywood system set-up? I'll walk you through how a spec starts in a representative's hands, goes into the market place, sells in the market, starts the development process, and ultimately becomes a movie. How do representatives fit into all of this? What is the mindset of agents & managers, especially in today's environment -- what motivates them, what they look for, and whom they like to represent? "Being connected" - What does that mean? How does that fit into the system? How do connections introduce you to key players? How do you get representation? Finding representation -- It's not as hard as it seems....if you know how to do it correctly.
HOUR 4: THE BASICS ARE COVERED, NOW WHAT? CAREER STRATEGY
After understanding the business and securing representation, what should you be writing? What will get you noticed? What kind of material will create fans of your work? What will sell? What kind of material should you concentrate on? What kind of process should you use to write that material? How do you incorporate your representatives? What kind of material will actually get made by studios? What should you continue writing to prolong a successful career? Do you need to worry about branding yourself? How do you get longevity? Etc.
Stick with what you KNOW, SUCCEED, then EXPAND.
HOUR 5: A MEMBER OF HOLLYWOOD'S FRESHMAN CLASS
Networking Exercises -- At the beginning of the seminar, I will ask each of you to pair up with three others for this segment. Utilize the previous break periods to meet each other and decide on your partners. You and your three partners will officially become your very first networking group post Own All The Tickets. I will walk you through how to take advantage of your new connections while also helping out each of your partners in the process.
Stick with whom you KNOW, SUCCEED, then EXPAMD.
HOUR 6: WHAT WASN'T COVERED? WHAT NEEDS MORE EXPLANATION?
Upon registering for this conference, you will be asked to submit two questions or topics that you would like me to answer and discuss. I will pick the most common issues and address them in order from most common to least common.