Why You May Need Me This Time

Let me tell you what I am going to do for you.

Before we begin today’s post, I want to let you know I’ve started a new series of Sunday online only posts. Like the other one on Good Ideas For The Cinema Business, it is partially so I can link to them easily without having to explain them again (that is… if I am able to remember them!). This new collection is on Cinema’s Secret Formula’s — a group of ideas that I feel we should all hold in our pocket, yet I have found are not often acknowledged. I started yesterday with:

https://tedhope.substack.com/p/closed-triangle-of-audience-elevation

Please check it out. There’s more to come, both to the Good Ideas and to the Secret Formulas.

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We could go on forever, but…

This is a fantasy letter, a letter I have not sent, or at least don’t believe I have. I have probably sent a few variations on it’s theme though. If I was writing it to a particular individual and not as an exercise, I would no doubt take a different tone, tailor made for the recipient, whom in this case would be a director I was hoping to collaborate with.

I don’t take the director/producer relationship lightly. I wrote my book so that directors and other collaborators would have a better understanding of me when we worked together. Or perhaps so they could also recognize when I am not the right person for them to work with, at least at this time. It is always surprising to me how quick some are to join forces.  I fantasize what I could say to help any relationship go better from the start.

It is a fun exercise. Even if you don’t ever send it or share it, perhaps it could behoove you to let loose and write such a letter before you say “yes” to the next collaboration. 

Here goes mine. I’d be most curious to see yours. If I ran a film school this is would be a required exercise each semester.

An Unsent Letter On How We Might Collaborate On Your Film

If we have gotten this far, it is because I think you have something unique, and most likely that is both what you want to create and that your perspective is similarly distinct. I am both curious and impressed, and I think I have something to add to the endeavor that is both aligned with your wishes and would be lacking if I did not provide.