trackingb.com
I hear this lament all the time: “I’m an aspiring screenwriter, but I’m stuck in [fill-in-the-blank nowhere near L.A. location]. How can I possibly get access to the information and contacts I need to break into the business?”
Fortunately there are some excellent online resources about the business of Hollywood. Specific to TV and screenwriting, the oldest and most well-established tracking site is trackingb.com:
trackingb.com is where the entertainment industry meets online… each and every day.
trackingb.com is the #1 interactive online Hollywood tracking board — a place where film and television executives share and discuss new literary properties hitting the market, the latest hires and fires, hot spec screenplay sales, new jobs, and other insider industry news.
trackingb.com is the industry’s online network. The site draws the tastemakers and buzzmakers of the entertainment community: A-list screenwriters, directors, and producers, top agents, elite managers, and executives from the major studios and production companies.
Key information is exchanged. Connections are made. Projects are tracked as they heat up or cool down. And big deals are made. trackingb.com… get the inside track.
Information is currency in Hollywood and everyone knows that having it first makes you richer… Which would make trackingb.com, a growing pay website that tracks inside maneuverings and the real-time sale and buzz of new pitches and screenplays, a kind of bank vault to which anyone can buy the combination. (The Los Angeles Times)
As the LA Times indicates, trackingb.com has an extremely strong industry presence that includes studio heads and the major agencies.
The annual cost of membership is $79.
In an interview (June 2008) with Jim Cirile at the Coverage, Ink/Writers on the Storm blog, trackingb.com’s “The Insider” provided some this insight into what the site does:
Jim: For those not in the know, gives us a quick primer on what tracking is. Many writers have no clue tracking even exists.
Insider: Tracking is essentially the sharing of information between entertainment professionals. This includes new scripts/books/comics hitting the market, up-to-the-minute tracking reports on which literary properties are getting heat or selling, cool industry jobs, executive hires and fires, and other industry news.
Jim: But why is it beneficial for companies who may be rivals, say, both bidding on a script, to share information?
Insider: If someone is bidding, they won’t share the information… but the agent or manager sure will in order to try and create a more intense bidding situation. People know that sometimes you’ve got to give to get. As more and more members join and start contributing, our site gets even better, and that benefits everyone.
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Jim: Cool. Who are some of the agencies, prodcos, etc., who use trackingb?
Insider: You name the studio or agency, and we’ve got someone from there on our board. The William Morris Agency, CAA, Paradigm, UTA, Paramount, Universal, CBS Films, Fox, Katalyst Films, Flower Films, Gold Circle Films, JK Livin, Infinitum Nihil, Kaplan/Perrone, Energy Entertainment and the list goes on and on… People are always surprised at the high level of execs trolling our board.
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Jim: So clue us in on how subscribing to trackingb can be useful to a writer.
Insider: Obviously, the more you understand the game, the better chance you have of winning at it. Seeing the kinds of concepts and scripts that generate interest from representation and executives can be enormously helpful for a writer interested in selling scripts to Hollywood. As is knowing who the players are and how the process of selling a spec script works. The more informed you are as a writer, the better chance you have of succeeding. We’re just a piece of that info puzzle.
Every year trackingb.com runs writing contests for both feature and TV scripts. Here are some testimonials from participants:
“In the last few years I was a finalist in some of the bigger screenwriting contests and I was kind of jaded about what happens after the announcement. Then I won the TrackingB contest. That experience was very different. First came the e-mail from The Insider saying my script was already being read by many of the top places in town. Then things got really exciting. I’ve signed with management company Abstract Entertainment and I’m thrilled by the way things are going. I absolutely recommend the TrackingB contest. It can really change the course of your career.” Ehud Lavski — Winner
“I’ve placed in several big screenwriting contests before, but none of them delivered anything close to the results of my Honorable Mention in the TrackingB.com contest. I received over a dozen requests from top representatives and production companies, one of which became my first option.” Gabriel Snyder — Honorable Mention
“After placing in the trackingb contest, I was offered representation from a few great places, and ended up signing with a top manager.” Elana Frink — Honorable Mention
Kristy, host of the screenwriting blog “Matriarchal Script Paradigm,” had this to say about about the trackingb.com writing contest:
“The TrackingB contest really cracked open the door for our careers in a time span we never imagined possible. It took us from being two friends who had fun writing a script together to being two writers repped by a top management company — in just one month. Since then, the experience has been a wonderful ride as we’ve been working toward selling The Pupil as well as toiling away at our individual projects to get them ready for the market. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for us.” Kristy Lee Sanders & Tony Robenalt — Finalists
Gabriel Snyder reports this:
“Mike and I just sold a comedy pilot to Spike TV. It all traces directly back to the trackingb contest: sobini films optioned JAILBAIT after seeing on trackingb, a producer there gave it to a friend of his at comedy central, that guy at comedy central asked to pitch some show ideas, we did, he gave one of the tv pitches to spike, they listened to a few other pitches, and then ended up buying one.”
A new resource provided in conjunction with trackingb.com is Contactourage:
Imagine for a moment that you could combine your updated rolodex with everyone else’s in the industry… Maybe add photos and other biographical and pertinent info… Make it easy and fun to update (not like some other industry databases where changing your contact info is Mission Impossible). You’d have the best, most up-t0-date industry contact database out there, right? Well, look no further.
Contactourage.com is the first community built and maintained online industry contact database with up to date (working) e-mails, and contact information for industry execs, reps, producers, attorneys, and more.
To see a sample of the site’s online ‘Rolodex,’ go here.
A 1-year subscription to Contactourage.com is $99 and currently open to anyone. However I hear they will be moving to invite-only status in the near future.
Part of what GITS is about is to provide helpful information to readers, so next week we will run a daily series spotlighting other great Hollywood movie and TV information resources available online.
UPDATE: To make this completely clear, I did this post and am planning the series of posts next week simply to make GITS readers aware of online resources re screenwriting and TV writing. These posts are not intended as recommendations, but rather just to provide information for you to learn about these various resources that are currently available.
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