A successful producer ( ?). just asked for $15,000 for what I consider. a shopping contract. What on earth is this new form of hell? nI have a 2 volume novel with 100 % IP, and pilot script with series bible.................
Has anyone ever ever heard of this, and can they explain. I honestly am a tad shocked.
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You don’t pay. Never. The Chef doesn’t pay me to eat at his restaurant. The producer is buying your screenplay. You have a product he is buying.
This is a scam in the first order. I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t even that person.
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Red flag.
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Where did it happen, Katherine?
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Welcome to Show Biz.
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Wait. You were ask to give the Producer $15K for your own work?
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Have I had this happen to me (or some ridiculous form of it?): Yes.... Is this wrong, unacceptable, unethical & possibly illegal: Yes (imho).,,, My personal opinion: run, don't walk, the opposite direction....
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Craig D Griffiths Hello Long time since we chatted. I agree. But he is a somebody. I think I am going to approach him via different means to ensure he is actually who he is.
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Run for the hills. You never pay anyone to shop your work.
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Echoing what everyone is saying here Katherine, a producer should never ask you to pay them.
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Be like Iron Maiden and Run To the Hills on this.
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If he is a successful producer isn’t he cashed up? Move on!!!!
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SCAM!!! Run. Writers -- never EVER pay a producer to work on your projects. Youre the 3rd writer today who ive heard was given a contract asking for money. Name names so everyone can beware!!
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Have had people ask to shop my stuff several times, but never, ever for money. The person doing the shopping gets advantage from having available projects, and you get advantage cause someone is pitching on your behalf. It is a win-win, and decent people do not ask money for this.
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If you're paying guys giving u notes that your script actually sucks or script festivals where a guy from Ghana is a reader, why not paying someone to actually film your script - more/less the way it is? Yes, might not be a measure of a talent or skill, but if it gets the endgame done and if you have an extra cash (you'd waste on tutors, workshops or festivals) - which is more important in this situation, go for it...America's supposed to be 100% capitalist, dunno why's everyone there complaining on having to pay for stuff...
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Interesting!
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Doing your checks.
I had someone ask me if I thought something was a scam. It looked okay. Big Name producer, website was Producer’s surname dot com. Site looked legit.
So I went to IMDB and found his company had a completely different name. My company is Griffiths Creative, but in this case it would be the real company being Aussie Films for example.
I then googled the real company and found 100 articles linking that person to that company. More searches failed to find a link to the fake company.
Doing checks can take a few hours. But in the case of this thread two hours would be $7500 an hour. I’d work any job for that payday.
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Craig D Griffiths It seems to be a common scam, someone either impersonating a legit producer, or else a small-time producer basically making a living by having writers cough up "development" money. For the latter, a red flag is writers credited as co-producers on any films made by the producer.
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Katherine De Bois sounds like a shyster. My rule of thumb - Never pay.
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Admirable, the show of concern and support towards this subject matter! Impressive efforts towards addressing all issues involved!
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Thank you @Geoff
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Benjamin Elliott I agree. It is so disappointing. He is a big producer and it seems ligit..............
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I am tempted to name names. I would respond to you individually but the @ is not linking any of you. Apologies. He seems legit. Has an IBDM, insta and utube. I luckily dont have the money to spare so I am not one to get scammed.
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I agree with Danny Manus about being a scam and naming names. Please warn us which producer is asking for money. Even if he looks good on IMDb doesn't mean he isn't willing to take advantage of screenwriters.
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Thanks for this post Katherine De Bois. I've googled this question before and got mixed answers, so it's nice to hear what everyone on here thinks.
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Thank you everyone. I have not bothered to answer sir marco robinson. I have had other shopping contracts and this was a pseudo working offer that insulted me on every level. Thank you for the responses. My @ button doesn't bring up your names for me to reply individually.
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Anybody remember the "Hollywood Con Queen scam?" https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/11/how-we-unmasked-the-hollywood-c...
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Katherine: I recently had what appeared to be a wonderful opportunity, but I backed away when red flags appeared. Therefore, I can't stress enough the importance of carefully reviewing legal agreements and vetting out your industry contact's credits and recent experience.
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I haven't heard of the Hollywood Con Queen, Ty. Thanks for sharing.
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Katherine De Bois Hi Katherine, just checking in - so how are you feeling today?
Hi @Geoff Hall - I am doing fine. I'm stepping away from this industry for me - at present at least. I put the bad people in jail. I achieved what I set out to do by doing that and protecting other victims. I've built a property portfolio during this debacle, and can pretty much just disappear again. So Im thinking thats what I should do. How are you doing??