William R Ward's Lounge Discussions

Hey William R Ward. Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you here too, Vital Butinar. I remember going to the Hampton Coliseum growing up. Have you been there?

hey william it’s great to meet you! do you have any active projects right now?

Sam Rivera nice to meet you as well. I have a few projects in development phase.

One is is a short film called Bullied that's a drama/ thriller with a ground hog day premise. It's follows the story of a popular college student who has to come to terms with a child hood friend being bullied and committing a horrible tragedy.

Second is a feature film that's super hero inspired that follows a young man during the civil rights era and becomes a super hero. It's an alternate take on real world events.

Third is another Feature film that has a treatment called "Murder in La La Land". It's a comedy that follows a film production assistant who gets caught up in a murder mystery in Los Angeles and parodied Los Angeles and The Hollywood industry.

William,

Welcome, I actually grew up on the NC/VA line. you seem to have taken on many roles. Is there one that drew you into the industry, or was it the industry that drew you in?

My hat is off to you. when I was a teenager I wasn’t willing to take to risk and try my hand. (Something the adult me is now having to pay for)

Nonetheless if you’re interesting in reaching out, feel free. I love talking and sharing. and whether is help you’re offering or help you desire I’m more than willing to accommodate. Best of luck to you.

Yes send me a DM

Hi William, happy to have a read. Feel free to DM me with your e-mail address.

@Karen "Kay" Ross! Are you from Virginia? If what part? Thanks so much for the link to jobs here as well.

William - the Executive Producer is the guy who has or can get the money. Generally they're more business oriented than creative. Are you rich or have lots of sources for big money?

I lived in VA, William R Ward.

Doug Nelson True I guess I am thinking of the smaller projects I have been apart of where I was a producer. Meaning I helped with some production costs ( not a huge sum of money) , location scouting, script supervisor, casting.

William R Ward Yessir! Born in Austin, but moved to Alexandria, VA when I was 6/7 years old and lived all around the area for 20 years - Springfield, Fredericksburg, Ashburn.

Maurice, thanks for your reply. I was also writing to William Ward -- I'm not accustomed to these chat sessions, prefer e-mail. What do I write? Screenplays and stage plays, mostly. I'm also working on a chapter of a memoir/romance. Which genres do you write? Amy Heebner (zrd9000@aol.com)

Welcome!

Welcome!

Welcome William hope you find everything you are looking for on here. It is a wonderful creative community that I know I have benefitted from greatly as a screenwriter.

Thanks everyone! This community is so welcoming and I love it :)

William R Ward If you want to vet someone, there is research to be done and there's no way around it. What Dan Maxxx said is, with respect, entirely untrue. All "comanies in good standing" are registered with some state somewhere, but that doesn't reflect on their capability at all (just their state of registration) and it says nothing at all about the people involved. I would say that over 20 years the number of legitimate investors I have dealt with whose names you are going to find anywhere is... about 1%. As far as producers, do check out their imdb but remember that's crowd-sourced information, and anyone can and do put up fake credits all the time. You also have to look at the credit itself. A "producer" credit on a show may or may not mean anything at all, especially if there are several others. There is a person on S32 here who is touting himself as a Film Financier and Executive Producer... but his listed background is only an Associate Producer on a short and "Executive Producer" on a project he just announced... which means it may not even be written yet but certainly isn't funded. So his XP skills are... nonexistent at least officially. In short, you need to interview these people and ask some hard questions. If they are going to try to sell you on a "pitch package" for several thousand dollars - they have outed themselves as not real. If on the other hand, they are pitching themselves as part of your team and can bring you things you REALLY need (like proper production budgets, development experience, supervisory and production management experience) at reasonable rates, they are likely real. The question you ask yourself then is do you need them on your team?

Investors are easy. Send them your investment contract - if they sign it and write a check that doesn't bounce, they're legit.

For producers, define (before talking to them) specifically what you want them to do and when, how much they'll get paid and when. Be sure and included a milestone before paying them anything. Lay it out and see how they react.

For either investor or producers, if they counter with a reasonable change (that is, negotiate in good faith), they're probably okay.

If they start hemming and hawing and trying to get something for nothing - walk away.