CanadianFilmMaker - Producer’s Passion is Key to Broadcast Deals

Producer’s Passion is Key to Broadcast Deals

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Director Michael McGowan on the set of St. Ralph

Find your own partners

It takes an awful lot to get a film made

Generally, Gillen explains, she won’t take scripts from writers; they must come through a producer. “It takes an awful lot to get a film made,” she says. “You may be holed up in your basement writing the most fabulous script, but unless somebody is out there putting all the pieces together and getting it financed, it may not happen. I used to develop scripts myself more often in the beginning, but the relationship between a writer, director and producer is like a marriage and it’s a lot better if you find your own partners rather than have me try to match you with someone.”

Tips:

Sending various materials at different times, often past deadlines. That suggests the team is inexperienced and disorganized.
Applying with a number of different projects. She feels this suggests the team is throwing everything against the wall hoping something will stick. She recommends putting all resources behind the project that everyone most believes in and has a passion for.
No one likes filmmakers who are unreasonably stubborn, but being so flexible and open to input that you’ll change anything is also a bad sign. As Gillen points out: “That’s equally bad because it makes me lose confidence that you have a passionate voice and a strong sense of the story you’re planning to tell.”

For first-time writers, she usually wants to see a first-draft screenplay. But in the case of a writer with a proven track record, she might support the project based only on an outline. Gillen also looks carefully at the team. Even if one of her readers submits a critical report based on many flaws in a script, Gillen might fund it anyway if she’s confident that the writer can improve the script based on the report and she knows there’s a talented producer on board to move the project forward.

A short is a great calling card

In the case of Anagram, Gillen was impressed with Andrew Currie’s script for Mile Zero. “It’s really all about the writing,” she says. “Everybody’s trying to make product, but anybody who’s funding or commissioning or looking to pre-license are all hoping to read a script that stands out and gives them a real buzz. Something that makes them laugh or cry or want to phone all their broadcast friends and say, ‘Hey, have you seen this?’ ” Gillen is based in Vancouver, but she doesn’t feel geography is an issue. “It doesn’t matter where you live in the country, if you write a great script you’ll rise to the top.”

hoping to read a script that stands out and gives them a real buzz

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Delicate Art of Parking DVD sleeve courtesy Maple Pictures Still, there’s also the business side. Gillen knew Currie had a track record as an award-winning short filmmaker and co-producers Blake Corbett and Trent Carlson showed her shorts they’d made. All three were willing to work closely with Gillen through the entire development process. (This led to Gillen supporting Anagram’s second and third features, The Delicate Art of Parking and Fido.) To Gillen’s mind, Anagram is a good model for success.

“They’d gone to film school and formed a company together,” she says. “And they’d managed to make some shorts. A short is a great calling card. Getting a film made is a grueling process and making a short is like making a feature in miniature. So I figured they understood what it was going to take.”

Continued...

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