Thread: TERRITORIES. Trying to share what I learned working for producers for two years that I found particularly interesting as a writer. Biggest one that comes to mind is territories. There are people much more experienced than I who could talk about this but I’m giving it a go

Territories come into play during bidding wars for either a hot spec or piece of IP (book, news article, short story, etc). When a sexy property hits the market, all the different producers must battle for it and it is a battle fought on three fronts. The FIRST is done in house.

To make themselves an appealing candidate, a producer & their execs have to come up with a specific take on the story (if it’s IP), and a package. This is where a producer’s value is highly visible: they call in all their director, actor, and writer (if it’s IP) relationships to

see if they can attach anyone to the project. This isn’t a contract at this point, but it’s on the producer and the strength of their relationships to ensure that their attachments are serious. If attachments fall off after the property is sold, the producer will be seen as

not being able to deliver and people won’t work with them in the future. All of this, building a take and a package, is done within hours. It’s a race against the clock because everyone in the industry is trying to do the same exact thing. It’s a lot of phone calls and using

Those salesperson skills. The SECOND front of battle is done between producers and the managers/agents that represent the property. Again, the producer leans on their relationships with reps to convince them to pitch their take/ package to them and the writer. An inexperienced

writer will sometimes be left out of this a bit, so it’s important to be active and speak up for yourself here. Don’t just default to letting your reps decide for you who to go with. If you do, this decision can be made based purely on how strong their relationships to specific

producers are or money rather than what’s best creatively and for you. The THIRD front is also fought between producers and reps and this is finally where territories come in. There will be a slew of producers they choose to be in the running, and the reps now decide which

producers get to pitch it to which studio. Producers with studio deals will usually be assigned that studio, but often more than one producer has a deal at a studio or maybe they just liked another producer’s take/package better. The reps can also assign multiple territories to a

single producer. This is where relationships can get strained. Not being assigned a territory is a huge slap in the face if the producer did their homework and can strain producer/rep relationships. This is a huge benefit of having reps: the rep relationship softens the blow

protecting the relationship between producer and creative. Once territories are assigned, the producers reach out to the studios they are assigned and pitch the property and their take. The studio then decides if they want to buy. This is also where relationships can get strained

If a producer is assigned a territory, but can’t convince the studio to make an offer, they look ineffective. If producers can drum up interest, and other studios also want it, there is a bidding war, with the writer/rights holder being the ultimate decider of who gets it