Answer: The Steeltown Entertainment Project ("Steeltown") is a Pennsylvania non-profit
501(c)3 organization. Our mission is to nurture promising talent and to
incubate meaningful and commercially viable entertainment projects in
Southwestern Pennsylvania by connecting former Pittsburghers who are working in
the entertainment industry with the region's human, cultural, educational and
economic resources. Steeltown accomplishes this mission by educating emerging
talent through specific mentoring experiences and fostering economic development
by nurturing and seeding entertainment projects that will provide employment and
investment opportunities. Programmatic events such as the Steeltown Film Factory
will identify emerging talent and potential projects in the region, incubate
them--(what is called in Hollywood, "development"), and ultimately help
commercial them so at least a part of the profits of such efforts come back to
the region.
By connecting these local resources and entertainment advisors, Steeltown will
help to establish Southwestern Pennsylvania as an "entertainment greenhouse."
Such a greenhouse will help to market the region in a unique and powerful way,
retain and attract talent, especially young people drawn to this business, and
help jump start a dynamic industry that, in success, provides timely returns on
investment.
A: Steeltown is not a studio or a production company, which are the places where
scripts are normally purchased and developed. With its limited resources,
Steeltown is striving to serve the good of the region through its Steeltown Film
Factory which will demystify this process and provide new contacts for aspiring
talent in the region. Hollywood in general can be a frustrating place to get a
script read. Established producers or studios often will not accept unsolicited
material. Many established agents won't read scripts unless they are from a
writer with credits.
Some general advice is--
First make sure the screenplay is as good as it can be. Over 50,000 screenplays
a year are registered with the Writers Guild of America. Of that, only a
handful gets made. It is hard to write a good screenplay, but if you work at
it, you can achieve what Pitt graduate student Stephanie Lord did - she won the
prestigious Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting amongst over 5,000 competitors.
Stephanie learned from re-writing her scripts over and over, reading other good
scripts she admired, and taking classes and getting feedback. There are many
screenplay contests out there like the Nicholl and Final Draft's Big Break.
Studios like Disney and Fox also sponsor competitions. But first you have to
write a good script.
Don't just rely on friends -- get some good critics to give you feedback.
Aspiring screenwriters should look at the FAQ "writers" section of
Pitt In Hollywood which provides references to classic books like SCREENPLAY
by Syd Field, Robert McKee's STORY, and William Goldmann's ADVENTURES IN THE
SCREEN TRADE, all of which are industry standards that many screenwriters have
found helpful. You can also go to the Writers Guild of America website to read
interviews with working screenwriters.
Once you have completed your screenplay, get some constructive critique. Some
screenwriters have found it quite useful to send their screenplays to Steeltown
adviser Asher Garfinkel's company, Readers Unlimited, for a "test run." Asher
is the author of SCREENPLAY STORY ANALYSIS: THE ART AND BUSINESS. (Allworth
Press: 2007). His story analysts have years of experience reading for studios,
agencies and major production companies. For a reasonable fee, they provide
objective, honest feedback to writers. Asher has been a great resource for many
here in Pittsburgh.
Aside from this service, there are many young people who have been nurtured by
Pitt In Hollywood and Steeltown, now working in Hollywood. To get in touch with
them, you might try singing up on the Pitt In Hollywood site and sending a
general email to those who are now in LA or New York.
A word about television. Ideas for TV shows are easy. Anyone can say I want to
do a screenplay about a group who hangs out at a bar, but that doesn't make it
CHEERS or doctors who socialize in hospitals, but that doesn't make it SCRUBS or
GREY'S ANATOMY. Money is not usually made in TV unless a show goes into
syndication, so people who put up tens of millions of dollars are looking for a
"showrunner"--someone who has a track record of writing successful shows to
offset that risk. Television does hire entry-level writers and this is based on
"spec" scripts--scripts written on speculation and not paid for--which usually
are sample episodes of TV shows currently on the air. Agents generally want to
see more than one sample--sometimes two half-hour sitcoms; sometimes one hour
dramas--depending on what market the writer is aspiring to. Again, wga.org has
more information and we are hopeful that if the Steeltown Film Factory goes
forward, television writers will also come back to Pittsburgh to further clarify
and provide access to this world.
A: Please email info@steeltown.org or
call 412-622-1325 to let us know. Or, if you are someone on the list who would
like to update your credits, please let us know.
A: Steeltown came out of a variety of Pittsburgh expatriates who were connected to
the city in various ways desire to give back to the region as a whole. From
its inception, Steeltown has strived to bring together this area's rich
resources of arts and educational and other non-profit groups and institutions.
As mentioned earlier, our mission is to nurture promising talent and to
incubate meaningful and commercially viable entertainment projects in
Southwestern Pennsylvania by connecting former Pittsburghers who are working in
the entertainment industry with the region's human, cultural, educational and
economic resources.
The Pittsburgh Film Office was started in 1990 to promote the greater
southwestern Pennsylvania region as a great location for movie, television and
commercial productions. Once a production has been financed, they bring
productions to the region to help the local economy. Studies have shown that
for every dollar spent in the region directly on film production, up to 2
dollars come into the region in related expenses such as crews staying in
hotels, eating in restaurants, etc. Some of Steeltown's advisers and activities
can benefit the Film Office's mission. For example, in April 2007, Steeltown
brought New Castle native, Pitt alumni and Lions Gate producer John Dellaverson
back to Pittsburgh to speak to the community. At that time, John and the CFO of
Lions Gate also met with Governor Rendell: which may have helped lead to the
recent $70 million plus film tax incentive legislation being passed in July
2007. As a result, many more productions are already slated to be shooting in
Pennsylvania this year.
Pittsburgh Filmmakers is the nation's oldest and largest Independent Media Arts
Center, and services students at the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon
University, and other educational organizations. Many of the students who have
interned on Steeltown projects have gotten their training at Filmmakers.
Steeltown's goal to commercialize entertainment projects is something that
traditionally has not been part a of Filmmaker's mission. However, Steeltown
and the Pittsburgh Filmmakers have been working cooperatively to develop the
Steeltown Film Factory with hopes of debuting the Steeltown Film Factory's short
films at The Three Rivers Film Festival in 2008.
WQED, the first community-sponsored public television station, shares much of
Steeltown's mission in terms of the development of content. Many of Steeltown's
advisers worked at, or were inspired by, this historic institution. Together
with these expatriates, Steeltown and WQED can build on the legacy of Mr. Fred
Rogers, who made thousands of programs at the station while at the same time
challenging others to create entertainment that "makes good attractive." Since
January 2007, WQED has graciously provided office space to Steeltown, and these
two organizations are working together on several upcoming projects.
A: A recent Newsweek cover showed the 23-year-old inventor of "Facebook" who turned
down a billion dollars for the company from Yahoo because his advisers felt that
the company was worth more like $8 billion, comparing the company to the new
MTV. As evidenced by Apple CEO Steve Jobs' relationship with Disney, we live in
a world where entertainment and technology companies often intersect. More
particularly to Pittsburgh, in discussions with Don Marinelli at Carnegie
Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center and Lenore Blum,
director of CMU's Project Olympus, it became
apparent that these are both fields which attract young people, require risk,
but have the potential for delivering returns on investments in a timely way. Too
often Pittsburgh fragments its resources. In building Southwestern PA's
entertainment sector, we must all work together.
A: For most of its four year existence, Steeltown has survived on the volunteer
efforts of many passionate supporters, both in Pittsburgh and elsewhere. Please
feel free to reach out to us if we can be of service in promoting the growth of
the entertainment industry in Pittsburgh, or if you wish to make a contribution
of goods, services, time, money or even a letter of support to the organization.
Steeltown is also looking for sponsorships and underwriting. To make an inquiry
or donation, or to become a volunteer participant at any level, please contact
Jodi Klebick at jodi@steeltown.org or
call us at 412-622-1325
