Online Information Sites: Done Deal Pro

The amount and quality of information online about the Hollywood movie business nowadays is remarkable. Writers from anywhere in the world can track the progress of a spec script all the way from its submission to acquisition through development and into production.

Some sites have been around for years, while new ones continue to emerge, so I figured it would be helpful to GITS readers to provide an overview this week of some of the most prominent information sites currently available online.

Today we feature DoneDealPro.com:

Done Deal Pro tracks the various script, book, treatment, and pitch sales and options made in Hollywood each day. Subscribers are able to search our database of over 10,700 feature deals and over 1,300 TV deals by title, writer, representation, company, genre, date, and more. This is an invaluable tool not only for industry professionals but for aspiring screenwriters who want to know each week what material is being set up and with whom, and to track the latest trends.

In each individual sale listing, users can click on agency, management firm, law firm, and company names for contact information. Done Deal Pro also provides development-related industry news, interviews, a searchable database of screenwriting contests, and contest deadline alerts.

We have over seventeen years of experience working in development and production for various film and television producers, directors, production companies, and studios (including 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures, and TriStar). We’ve spent countless hours reading scripts, helping screenwriters, and working on feature films and TV shows. The information we pass on comes directly from our daily experiences in the industry.

I asked Will Plyler, one of the co-founders of DDP, some questions:

If I asked you to describe DoneDealPro.com as a high-concept, what would that description be?

We’ve never thought of ourselves as being “high concept,” to be honest. We don’t offer up secret or taboo information. We’re a very straightforward resource that gathers all the film & TV deals we learn of each day and posts the details on our site. We do the work for you and are able to put it all into a database to make it easier to access at any time. Done Deal Pro is about form and function. Even the design itself is fairly low-key. We’ve tried to keep it fast loading.

We’re more like a documentary (or news site) than anything else. We try very hard to be as timely, accurate and thorough as possible. I think we might be a tough pitch in this current market.

How long has Done Deal Pro been online and what was the impetus in creating the site?

Done Deal was started in September 1997, when my partner/cofounder, Jennifer, and I were working at the same production company. I’d always had ideas for movies, and I kept reading about projects selling that were similar to my ideas. Jennifer was tracking deals each week being set up around Hollywood for an internal office report. This was around the time the Internet was gaining more and more attention in the public eye. I thought it would be fun to learn how to build a website, and I figured this might be an interesting topic to cover to help other writers keep up with what was being set up around town.

Done Deal was first run off some free sever space I had from an Internet account. It was located at an odd-looking URL for the first year or so. We started out as one page and just slowly grew from there as we added deals each month. We went from a few visitors a day to thousands a month, so we decided to register an actual domain name — www.scriptsales.com (someone already owned DoneDeal.com) — and moved our site to a proper server.

Along the way, we added links to other resources, contest info and news, examples of option agreements, interviews with writers, agent contact information, etc. Basically, we’ve added content that we know is valuable based on our experience working in the industry and writing scripts. Content has also been added as our visitors have requested certain things.

After about eight years of providing it all for free, we ultimately switched to a subscriber site (Done Deal Pro) in 2005 so we could offer a more advanced site with a searchable database, hyperlinked company names with contact info, etc. Originally I’d had to build out every page for the site one at a time using HTML coding. With the new site, which was built by a programmer friend, everything is run via a CMS (content management system), which can be updated much more easily.

What information and services does DDP offer that distinguish it from other online script tracking sites?

The “tracking” sites that have cropped up in the last few years are mostly reporting on scripts being shopped around town. They’ll do updates on deals made, but they’re more about what’s being sent out where and offered up as a project for someone to possibly buy.

Our focus has always been on the “done deal” — projects that have been optioned or purchased by studios or production companies, or writers who are brought on to adapt or rewrite a script. Because our site was specially built from the ground up specifically for us, we have a sophisticated search page that lets people search for projects in our database in just about every way imaginable — including title, logline, writer’s name, representation, companies involved, genre, date range, etc. In addition, within a particular deal, a user can click on the agency, management firm, production company or studio name to get more detailed contact information, like the office address and names of staff members. What are your annual subscription rates?

We charge $23.95 a year. We keep our subscription cost as low as possible while still paying our bills. We’re a company of two without any formal offices, and Dave Steinberg (who does the Hollywhooped Q&A column) and the moderators & administrators on our forums all kindly help out for free.

A major source of interest in Done Deal Pro for aspiring and working screenwriters is the daily overview of script and TV sales. What sources do you use to verify those individual sales? How far back in terms of years do your sales archives go?

A lot of what we list comes from researching the trades and keeping up with established electronic news resources that report on the deals being set up. Also, because we’ve been around so long we hear directly from writers, agents, managers and production companies about deals. We try to steer away from the rumor or speculation reports on deals. We like to wait until a project is more officially announced, when possible, because when we list it there’s no room for noting it’s a rumor or possibility.

No site or resource, including ours, can verify all the deals reported. Unless someone faxes you the signed contracts and you’re able to peruse the details, you have to have a little faith in the parties involved. Deals reported by any site or publication should be taken with a grain of salt. The main reason they’re being reported is to make the agent and manager (or their client) and the producer look good. They don’t really care if you know about the project. They want to look like “players” in the industry. They want to generate heat for themselves.

As for our film sales archives, they date back to September 1997 — almost 13 years now. Our TV archives, which we started later, go back to January 2000, a little over 10 years. We currently have over 12,000 film and TV deals in our database.

What other sorts of information do you make available to members (e.g., agents, lawyers)?

In addition to the deals we list, we provide contact info and staff lists for literary agencies, management firms, production companies, studios and networks. We try to include all we can for each company listing, including address, phone number, e-mail, website, the type of projects they create, genres they work with, and staff member names. We can’t really compete with the big services who have a dozen or more people on staff doing updates for their contact info, but I think we list a lot for two bucks a month.

DDP has free resources available for non-subscribers. Could you provide an overview of what those are?

There’s actually quite a bit of free content, including exclusive interviews with writers and other filmmakers, information on many screenwriting contests, and our discussion forums. There’s also a job board, an advice column, examples of legal documents (contracts, option agreements, etc.), and links to other resources.

The DDP Forums are quite popular (4,290 members and over 400,00 posts). What is the purpose of those forums and why do you think they’re so busy?

The forums were started as a way to allow the community to help each other. Done Deal isn’t a full-time job and never has been. It’s always been something we’ve done in our spare time, so we figured if the community could share information and experiences with one another that would be a way for even more people to get advice, feedback and business-related information.

We’ve remained fairly popular as a site over the years because we report on the deals being made, and I think our forums have benefitted from being connected to our main site. At the same time, I guess they’ve taken on a life of their own — we average a little over 90,000 visitors a month to the message boards alone.

I’ve worked in the industry in one form or another over the years so I chime in from time to time, but we’re also fortunate to have a number of working writers using our forums, along with many informed and passionate aspiring writers, who offer up advice based on their experiences. And maybe as much as anything, we’ve always tried to stay true to our vision for the forums and have tried to be consistent over the years. We try to keep a close eye on things while not suffocating our posters. Our forums aren’t for everybody, but we have a number of people who have been with us for years now and new members register every day. We see a lot of good advice being given out.

“Hollywhooped” also appears to be a popular resource. Could you tell us what that’s all about?

We’d started “Hollywhooped” at ScriptSales.com after a visitor offered to write a “peer to peer” advice column. I was busy enough building out the site and answering e-mails, so it was a big help, but eventually he moved on. About five years ago, David Steinberg, whom I’d gotten to know after he did an interview for the site, agreed to step in and offer industry advice from a professional writer. He answers questions each month (he’s done about 200 to date) and offers frank, honest advice.

Dave does the column for pretty much the same reason we’ve always run the site, and that’s to help out writers. We know how tough it can be to get access to insider information and advice, especially if you don’t live here in Los Angeles.

Any new features you have plans for in DDP’s future you can share with us?

For now we’re mainly looking to fine tune the site. In the last year or so we added a feature to every company page (agency, management firm, production, etc.) so a user can click on a link to quickly see what film or TV (literary) deals the company has been associated with.

We’ve also been testing the waters with online, interactive video classes, which Christopher Lockhart teaches. We’ll be doing our third class near the end of May. These have been a fun way to allow writers who don’t live here in L.A. to see, hear and interact with someone who works in the business. (Chris is the Story Editor at William Morris Endeavor.)

In your view, why should a screenwriter join Done Deal Pro?

The main reason for anyone to sign up for our site is to be able to easily track the deals being set up around town. If you want to know which companies are buying which stories/ideas, or which agents or managers routinely rep horror, comedy, drama, or even all three, for example, then that’s what Done Deal Pro can help you with. Again, our search capability is very refined and allows you to be as specific as you want. It’s easy to research, for example, whether any projects about talking bears have been set up in the last 12 years. Or what thrillers Warner Bros. has bought in the last year or last two years or during whatever of time frame you like. There are fifteen different elements one can use to narrow their search in our sales archives.

One reason might be summed up best in what a manager told me at lunch one day. He said whenever he’s on the phone with a client and they want to know what’s going on in town, he goes to our site and can tell them in a matter of seconds. He has access to more expensive services, but he’s found ours to be the quickest and easiest to use. He can even send an e-mail during the call providing specific details.

We have some well-established companies and working professionals using our site. Some so well known it’s even surprised us. But we do feel we can offer solid information to any writer, agent, manager or executive regardless of how far along they are in their career.

Finally we all know how slow the current spec script market is. As an informed observer of that part of the industry, is there anything you can say to GITS readers to talk them off the ledge and give them some hope about the future re spec scripts? Or are we officially in sick, dying, or dead territory?

Don’t jump! Yes, studios and production companies are more interested right now in picking up books, comics books and graphic novels, video games, remake rights for films and TV shows, and also the rights to toys and even board games. They like having a built-in audience — this makes them feel more secure. But even if the studios aren’t buying as many spec scripts right now, a great writing sample is still very useful. It can be a career launcher.

Writers should continue to write their specs, but they should, of course, make sure their writing craft stands out. Their scripts should have solid characters, strong dialogue, great structure, good pacing and hopefully a “voice” that sets it apart from the other scripts. A unique perspective and take on life, if you will, is important — even if it’s a horror or action script — because even if a company doesn’t buy your script, if they like your writing they could hire you to give one of their scripts that “Barton Fink feeling” or bring you in to adapt some hot property or pet project of theirs.

So get off the ledge. Write and don’t worry too much about the trends.

BIO

A graduate of the University of Southern California’s Cinema-Television School, Will Plyler has worked in the film and television industry for 20 years.

Will worked for Oscar-nominated director Mark Rydell for four years on two feature films. Following this, he worked for executive producer William Fay at Centropolis Entertainment for four years on two feature films and a TV show.

Will served as head of development for Mania Productions, the film and TV division of Mania Entertainment. During his five years at Mania, he focused on finding science fiction, fantasy and horror projects for the company to develop and produce.

Currently, Will runs Done Deal Pro while also focusing on his own screenwriting.

Tomorrow’s featured tracking site: The Tracking Board.

EDITORIAL NOTE: The series of posts I’m running this week is not intended as a recommendation for any specific site, but rather to provide information to GITS readers about various information resources that are currently available online.