Peter Katz, Story Driven CEO: I think it’s a tragedy when you’re trying to do performance art and pretend you’re somebody that you’re not, trying to make things that you don’t like, I think that’s the real tragedy. I think that’s a real waste of time.
Film Courage: We hear a lot about the 99 percent of screenplays written today are quote unquote horrible. What’s been your experience with screenplays that you’ve read?
Peter: Yeah, I don’t think that that many are just total trash. I think that for me when I look at it as somebody to either represent a writer or produce a project, that it’s not something not completely on the level, it’s more does it align with my taste? I’m not being shocked by the bad scripts I’m reading and maybe I’m not being exposed to really bad ones but for whatever ends up on my to-do list to read it typically is actually pretty good.
Film Courage: There’s never been anything where you were surprised that someone would submit something that wasn’t finished?
Peter: I tend to not just take on submissions that the email doesn’t prick my interest. I have to see a log line of something that makes me want to read it and it’s presented professionally in the email or I get a script from a trusted contact or Coverfly or find something on Blacklist and it’s got good feedback on it, it’s probably pretty good. There isn’t an incredible deviation from what I’ll imagine it to be to what it is and how horrible it is. What I rarely find is writing that gets me in the mindset of Oh my goodness this is something that I have to get involved with!, that’s the difference. It’s not about Wow, it’s all bad, it’s more of what’s going to make me care more because I do have to look at all my other responsibilities. What’s going to make me want to open up space in my mental bandwidth and on my schedule to really get behind a project? That’s what we’re talking about but it’s not I’m seeing so many bad writers and maybe through my filter systems because I’m engaged with a network, maybe I’m just not seeing those.
Film Courage: What do you think 99 percent of screenplays get wrong?
Peter: I don’t know what they get wrong because I don’t know the ratio of scripts that I like and then at a certain point it’s also a taste thing because they’re perfectly talented writers that will find managers that have different tastes than mine or I might find a writer that some other manager doesn’t like. So I can’t say a number in a sense that this percentage won’t get it, I could just say that it’s just my sensibilities and those things those things are just subjective and they guide my curation…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
BIO:
Peter Katz is CEO of the management and production company Story Driven. Story Driven clients have worked with studios and streamers including Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Universal, Lionsgate, Orion TV, A&E Studios, Landmark Studio Group and Stage 13. Story Driven clients have worked with production companies including Atomic Monster, Gunpowder & Sky, 87Eleven Entertainment and Ghost House Pictures. Story Driven clients have screened their films at festivals including SXSW, Sundance, Tribeca Film Festival, TIFF, AFI Fest and Fantastic Fest. Press outlets who have covered our clients include Entertainment Weekly, Forbes, Empire, Deadline, Hollywood Reporter, IndieWire and Vulture. Many of our clients are multi-platform storytellers. They create stories that live across the media landscape, as books, comics and podcasts.
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