 |
| Photo by Gage Skidmore - Wikimedia |
"You're right," my husband said last night. That was music to my ears. We've been married for over 50 years and have never had a fight, but we've had lots of disagreements. Last week, it was about the crash of the MD-11 and the death of three UPS pilots. When we saw the newscast, I said it was odd—the MD-11 only has two pilots, why did three die? My husband argued, "No, the MD-11 is the DC-10, and there are three pilots; one is the navigator." I wished my favorite producer, Melissa, was around to back me up, but I had seen on Instagram that she's busy producing a TV series. She would have agreed with me because we both knew, while working on the script Hijacked based on the book by Dave Hirschman called Hijacked: The Heroes of Flight 705 about the FedEx crash of a DC-10, that the DC-10 was modified to enable airlines to save money and remove the third pilot/navigator seat and put those instruments on the front control panels for two pilots. But Keith was right too—three pilots did die. Why three?
You might wonder about our many disagreements over the years. Was it about money like most couples? No, we both made good money in our careers. He worked as a technical writer in the nuclear industry and eventually in training for the airlines before going into computer programming. I once was offered buckets of money if I'd move to Hawaii and be the CFO for a group of dealerships, before designing accounting software and starting a tech company. The move to Hawaii was important to this pilot discussion because Keith and I both knew that the airlines consider Hawaii a foreign country and pay international bonus rates to the crew on flights there.
No, our fights were about Kevin Bacon. We'd play a form of this game on our numerous car trips that we took to ferry our four grandchildren from wherever they were living to our house to spend time with them. Eventually, we moved to Florida and bought two houses next to each other to avoid those trips, but in the meantime, we'd play our version of the game. Each of us would say an actor's name at the same time. For example, he'd say, "Sandra Bullock," and I'd say "Pierce Bronsan." Then we'd think about it—they were never in a movie together. Finally, one of us would say I can do this in three steps. Sort of like "Name that Tune." If the other one couldn't do it in less, we'd do our analysis like this: Pierce starred alongside Meryl Streep in the musical film Mamma Mia! (2008) and its sequel. Sandra Bullock starred alongside Brad Pitt in The Lost City (2022). Meryl Streep starred alongside Brad Pitt in the movie Babel (2006). This creates a chain: Brosnan (Mamma Mia!) to Meryl Streep (Babel) to Brad Pitt (The Lost City) to Bullock. Three steps.
Of course, there was always a disagreement; was that Brad in Babel? But it never escalated into a fight because we're both erudite. We're fact finders. While a technical writer in the nuclear industry, his instructions had to pass NRC guidelines, plant policy, and the manufacturer's manuals. He couldn't say things like, "go fix it my way because that is how we've always done it that way." He had to provide references. I was the same way in the tech world and accounting world—it had to be right and I had to prove it. You can't take $50 out of someone's paycheck because "we've always done that." You have to know the law and follow it. I was a CPA, so I couldn't say that. I knew better.
Getting back to the "You're right," my husband did more research, and because the UPS flight was from Kentucky to Honolulu, they needed an international crew relief pilot for that flight to keep the other two pilots from being "illegal" and flying too long. Although the MD-11 only required two pilots, it needed to be "crewed" with three. To their family and those on the ground, I am sorry for your loss.
If Melissa, who has the option for the book and is producing this movie, reads this, I'm sure she will figure this out after the first two paragraphs. Not sure she knew the Honolulu/international part, and she might have thought the third pilot was probably riding the jump seat, like in our script. Over the past year, while producing this movie, I've seen her on Instagram looking at DC-10 cockpits, but most have been modified into MD-11s to reduce the need for 3 pilots and cut expenses. She would have asked like me, "Why three pilots?" The two of us became experts on the D10/MD11 planes. We had done our research.
Since writing this script, I've done a lot of research (with my hubby's help) on how movies get made. Like our software company, movies need investors. It reduces the risk for profit-focused studios and networks. Investors enable independent producers to make movies. But software investors are normally sold on two things: the product and the market. It was easier for us to get over a dozen investors who helped us grow our company before it was sold.
But a movie? They need a third thing—a star. As my screenwriting guru, Cynthia Whitcomb, taught me, "Stars earn their money." A project needs a star to get an investor to jump. Who has all the stars? Agents. But SAG-AFTRA estimates there are over 170,000 working actors. There are over 19,000 talent agents. That's where the problem lies; and where my background in software development is coming in handy.
Just like I saw inefficiencies in accounting software years ago and built a solution, I saw the chaos in the entertainment world a few years ago before I got a manager. Writers that I'd meet at conferences were sending hundreds of individual query emails to producers, agents, and managers who try to answer phone calls and arrange meetings. Agents and managers I met were struggling to track which scripts their clients have submitted, where and who is reading what. Producers today are drowning in thousands of unsolicited emails, unable to find that one promising script they saw months ago AND find an agent with an actor to read it and "attach." The disconnect is costing everyone time, money, and opportunities.
So I created SmilingPitch over 2 years ago, a platform that connects screenwriters, agents, managers, and producers in one streamlined system. It's like having a CRM for the entertainment industry. Writers can manage all their scripts, build professional queries with our Query Builder tool, track submissions, and send targeted pitches. Agents and managers can finally see all their clients' scripts in one place and search by genre when a producer asks for something specific. And producers? They can create wish lists, indicate they're open for queries, and review submissions without the email avalanche—just click Pass, Pass, Pass, Request.
The product solves a real problem, the market is there with over 170,000+ talent, 19,000+ agents, 150,000+ screenwriters and an undetermined number of people who call themselves managers and producers. The platform creates value for everyone involved. That's the trifecta investors look for. But I'm not looking to start another tech company, I'm looking for a star. I have over 20 projects I need to get made. I wonder who Kevin Bacon's agent is? He'd be perfect for six of my scripts, especially First Man, a comedy about our first male 'first lady." See more about that at https://www.sandrajerome.com/ - tell Kevin that I'll rewrite from a former major league ballplayer to a rock star - or a movie star - if he wants. I'm flexible!
Next month, I'll discuss the success I've had so far with SmilingPitch, and yes, it is working; agents are getting their clients to read my scripts. They make me sign lots of forms first, but it is working. I realize this isn't the way things have always been done, but like AI, it is working, and it might be the future.
Stay tuned!
Note: Kevin Bacon at Comic Con photo by Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
