Friday, August 18, 2006

Licensing, Agents and Coffee

"Are you planning to make Yenny an animated TV Show?"
Usually I get that question like at least 3 times per month. Not that I'm complaining about that, but I've learned many things the hard way.The first question you get from a producer company is: "What kind of powers does the main character has" "Does the character walks with a group? " "Is it targeted to kids but marketed to adults?" "Who's your agent?"Those question can drain the creative juices from anyone, but that last question had me thinking... "Do I have an agent?"
....Uhm...no...I had an agent once but at the end it turned out that she had a lot of issues in her mind so we splitted.Once I went to a big company, (no names to protect the innocent), because they were very interested in Changuy.Once they found out that I had no agent, they said that all they could do was to offer me $10,000 for the idea and I had to quit to any creator rights. Of course I said no. Later, a movie from their company came out using the premise I showed for Changuy but...badly written. They stole my idea in a wrong way..*snort*That had me looking for those weird creatures called agents for a few years with no sucess at all. Many of them are busy with their own properties and don't have time to see your idea.A friend of mine once pointed me to this important agency. I send them my stuff and made me wait for like 3 months. After that I got a package from them. And guess what? It was MY own package sealed with a cold note that said: "Sincerely we don't know what to do with this material and we don't have the time. Good Luck".Thing is that most studios won't listen to you unless you are properly and legally represented by an agent.But this incident showed me why the heck are we still seeing the same things on TV and in Movies. Simply because they DON'T HAVE TIME to see new stuff! Or they don't want to.Another company once told me how interested they were in Yenny. We talked for months and even send me some primary paper work! Suddenly they had a change of heart and I got an e-mail that said: 'After some research we believe that Yenny needs more exposure". Good Luck.After a while I learned that they licensed another "cartoon girl" inside their company, but they couldn't go far with it because.... nobody liked her! HAHA!Still I get e-mails everyday saying that I should make dolls and animated shows of my characters.And they are right.... I should...shouldn't I?I still have no agent, no licensing deals and no idea why!The coffee you say?....I'm drinking one now.

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