How To Turn Gatekeepers Into Your Biggest Supporters
Breaking In and Staying In #4 - Breaking Down the Gates
Hey friends,
Thanks as always for reading the newsletter. I’m especially excited about today’s topic because it covers a breakthrough in perspective that has really helped me shift my entire approach to collaboration in this industry, which seems like it’s built to keep people out.
Following up on last week’s post on building a Calling Card, today we’re gonna touch on how to use that calling card to connect with the right people. People that will become fans, friends, and your biggest supporters. This industry is one massive collaboration, and there’s just no way to make it to the top on your own.
But we can’t talk about supporters without first talking about the people who stand in the way. The people whose job seems to be keeping you away from what you’ve been working…
The Gatekeepers
Last week I shared a story about becoming the industry’s youngest gatekeeper when I was tasked with saying a blanket “no” to everyone at a pitch festival when I was a 21-year-old assistant.
Sure I felt like shit, but I learned something incredibly valuable from the experience: gatekeepers don’t have to be smart, experienced, have good taste, or be particularly well-connected themselves. They might not even own a tie, and have to borrow one from their roommate because they feel obligated to “look professional” (reader, I did not achieve that look).
To say the experience was demystifying is an understatement.
The other side of that coin was that I didn’t want to be a gatekeeper. I didn’t want to be the person who said no. I wanted to be the person who brought in a great project because of my impeccable taste and tenacity to find a needle in the haystack for the company that paid me.
And then I wondered… is there anyone whose job is specifically to keep people out?
Sure, that was my task that day, but overall it was clear that bringing an undeniable project into my company as an assistant would only help me because it would help them. It’s a nearly impossible task as a 21-year-old with no connections themselves, but not impossible.
From that day on I started looking everywhere I could. Meeting other assistants, going to film festivals, tracking down books before they were released or indie publications, comics, web series, anything I could find that had a promising voice.
I turned my focus from saying no to saying yes. But that’s where the challenge came in, because there is A LOT of junk out that just wasn’t right for our company, or ready to be shown to decision-makers. My recommendation was a reflection of my taste and ability, so over the course of four years, I think I brought 5 or 6 projects to my boss. More than anything I wanted to bring in a great project, but to do that I needed to find a great project.
Naturally, on my path to saying yes I had to say no. A lot.
To everything that wasn’t the right fit. It wasn’t my job to say no. No one paid me to say no and do nothing. No one has that job.
But it takes a lot of work to find the projects that deserve the work of a yes.
That’s the truth of every single producer, executive, director of development, coordinator, and assistant in this industry. They all want to say yes, but they need help.
They need YOUR help to give them the reason to do it.
The gatekeepers and the supporters… are the same exact people.
So how do we help turn them from your enemy into your biggest fan?
Think of the Gatekeepers up on their castle wall, looking down on the ocean of screenwriters, yelling “IT’S A BUDDY COMEDY WITH HEART! JUST GIVE ME A CHANCE!”
Beyond that wall: your big break or next big career step. You just need the chance. You just need to get through.
We all start off in that crowd, fighting for a way to stand out, climb the wall, and get inside this industry to our goals...
But the walls are fortified to stop the industry from being overrun by the hoards of people who think making a movie or tv series is a quick way to make an easy buck. (If you’re reading this far, you know how insane that is. So, so many don’t know that. Thus… the gates.)
So there we are, part of the faceless mass of voices all shouting for someone to pluck them from this obscurity…
And then every once in a while, someone up top throws a rope over the edge into the sea of screenwriters. That rope is a writing fellowship or one of the very few meaningful competitions. Sure, it’s a way over the gate! But it’s the way that everyone fights each other to climb. They all rush to it and climb and push each other off until one or two have made it over the top, and then the rope is cut and those still climbing fall painfully to the ground...
(And sometimes they make you pay to climb that rope)
So what do you do now? Should you wait for the next rope? Should you hope you’ll be the one or two that gets over next year when the rope is lowered again?
Instead of waiting on someone else to lower a rope, build your own ladder.
A ladder that isn’t built all at once, but rung by rung. Script by script and Calling Card by Calling Card. Because your calling card is the thing that literally helps you stand out among the crowd.
It’s a form of Proof.
You’re now one step up on your ladder, so keep going. And you know what happens?
The gatekeepers on the wall scanning over the faceless horde of screenwriters yelling “GIVE ME A MARVEL MOVIE YOU COWARDS!” will stop when they see you standing three feet above everyone else on your dinky little ladder.
You may not be able to climb the wall yourself at this point, but now you know that these gatekeepers don’t want to say no, they want to say yes! They just need a reason, some proof, and a reason to stop and look a little deeper at you instead of losing you in the crowd.
And some of them might even say “You’re already on your way, so here’s a rope”
That’s right. They said it couldn’t be done. But this is exactly how you turn gatekeepers into advocates because you helped solve their problem as well: you gave them a reason to say yes.
The best proof that you can do something is to not wait for permission. Do it!
Do whatever you can to create and tell stories in whatever medium is available and achievable to you (without breaking the bank).
Being the person who MAKES THINGS in an ocean of people who only TALK ABOUT MAKING THINGS will naturally make you stand out, and draw others toward you.
Plus, creativity begets more creativity. You have to PRACTICE if you want to eventually have a booming creative practice.
Build your ladder step by step, and you will either get someone’s attention, or you will eventually climb over the wall yourself.
But proof alone isn’t enough. There are hundreds of thousands of great ideas and great scripts that will never get made. You need one more thing...
The Personal Recommendation.
We can start with those gatekeepers, but there’s a lot more to it. That’s next time on the newsletter!
Have some thoughts to add? Join the Discord or leave a comment below and lets talk!
Next week:
Step 3 of the Breaking In and Staying In Wheel of Pain / Foolproof Ingenious Plan: The Personal Recommendation. How do you reach the right people and get them invested in you, whether they can buy your current project or not?
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And big thanks to Josh Blake for making an illustration for this series! You can see his work at Gallery 1988 and on his website www.joshsethblake.com