Any feedback on 'The Coverage Company' ?

I've never heard of Vanquish or The Coverage Company, but my guess is there's a scam in the works. Here's the big rule: If any of these companies ask you for money -- if they tell you "We love your script but we need to do coverage on it (or rewriting, etc.), please send us X dollars" -- that's when you tell them to get lost. Lots of scammers out there, so beware.

Let us know how it turns out.

Just googled The Coverage Company and they charge $145 per script for coverage. Plus Vanquish do not appear to have a website... where did you hear about them?

scriptwriter74 said:

I submitted to Vanquish Motion Pictures and they read the script and responded that there is merit with the script and it's concept but want it reviewed by the coverage company.

Anyone have experience with Vanquish Motion Pictures or The Coverage Company?

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Sounds like a typical scam.

Ask yourself why VMP would require it to be reviewed by the coverage company at a cost to you of $145?, when it appears that VMP, a prodco, are confident enough in their own ability to recognise merit in the work, but just in case they'll pass it over to the coverage company.

Hope I'm wrong, but odds on it'll be the same reader/scamster then going over it again ala Bobby Fletcher style, having already baited the hook with the initial *interest*.

If they already read the script, as your post implies, it seems superfluous for you to spend money to have it covered.

Any respectable production company, agency or management company should be able to analyze material in-house. In other words, they should read scripts themselves or pay readers to cover material or, at the least, use interns (in exchange for college credit) to read scripts.

The real movers and shakers in this business don't pass on the cost to you. This kind of thing can lead to a conflict of interest or writers getting fleeced of time and cash.

It's much much harder to get your script into companies that actually produce movies; the vetting process is more militant. But they won't be asking you to pay for script coverage.

Production companies like this one often have liberal solicitation policies because they get a kickback from (or are part of) the company doing the coverage.

These prodcos never produce movies, because they make plenty of cash charging writers for coverage.

Luckily, most production companies don't do this kind of thing. (The few that do seek out the rubes who think this kind of thing is commonplace. Where did you come across this company?) Search for production companies that really make movies. Look for agencies and management companies that make deals and represent talent you recognize.

Whether it's a scam or not, I don't know. But I do know that you'll be wasting your time (and money). I say that with a 100% certainty.

Stay out of the gutter and set your sites higher.

This is one of the things I hate about these kinds of 'companies'.

Have a look at the Release of Liability agreement they have. It's pretty standard. Nothing too questionable. Except for one thing.

Who is the agreement with? They've gone out of their way to hide their real identity. No addresses. No phone numbers. No names.

There is no registered company in California called 'The Coverage Company'.

Don't despair - there is a 'Doing Business As' name registered:

Name: THE COVERAGE COMPANY
Document ID: 2011046611
Date of Registration: 6/13/2011

Ref: http://www.lavote.net/clerk/fbn_search.cfm

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Look at the date. Somehow this amazingly successful company with a long history of being famous (yet nobody has heard of it) has been in existence for less than two months !!

They claim to be an 'exclusive service to high level executives' - yet somehow they also work for everyone else .. so they've obviously redefined 'exclusive'.

They claim to be 'the most prestigious source for literary coverage in the film, television and book publishing industries' - yet they have only existed for a couple of months. (Of course they could have been illegally trading under this name before the registration .. but surely not for that long. The website itself has only been registered for a year or so)

I'm guessing this is just a basic 'Scott The Reader' $60 notes offer. You could use all the same hyperbole on his services. (And he's a hell of a lot cheaper. He's also had a measure of success himself recently - and names the production companies he reads for)

Alternatively it could be another brand of 'Script Shark' - Ryan Williams seems to be involved with both ventures although it could just be a common name.

But why have they taken so much effort to hide who they are?

This really doesn't give the impression of honesty.

If you hide your face and bury any link to your real name - while you are asking people for money .. then you really can't be surprised when you aren't trusted.

I've contacted them with a link to this thread as a courtesy - so they can give more information here (and hopefully add real information to the speculation they are forcing by being so secretive.)

Mac
(BTW-I agree with creativeexec - the confidentiality claim is a bit funny. The only production company who is mentioned is one which has never made anything - it is just a couple of writers who seems to generate a lot of press releases announcing they 'won a bidding war' for a property that had been up for sale for about a year. That's gotta be the slowest bidding war in literary history)

After reading this, I suspect the production company gets money for referring people to the coverage company. A legitimate business would either do it in-house or leave you free to pick a company to do the coverage yourself.

Stijn Hommes said:

After reading this, I suspect the production company gets money for referring people to the coverage company. A legitimate business would either do it in-house or leave you free to pick a company to do the coverage yourself.

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The prodco may not get money for referrals.

It becomes a quid pro quo agreement.

The production company spends no money on coverage (vetting scripts is a costly reality of the business) and, instead, refers the writer to said coverage company, that charges/collects the whole fee, and writes up the reader's report.

In turn, the prodco receives that report (because of the referral) and gets first crack at the script if it ends up being the next AVATAR.

Doing it this way makes it more legit and reduces potential conflicts. Regardless, it still walks a fine ethical line - especially since it's understood that the writers ponying up the money don't know any better.

I don't believe for a second that big executives use this service. Those claims are never backed up with names (for "anonymity" purposes) - which is bullshit. I list my clients all the time, and they're higher than the highest executives.

Note the word "suspect". I have no way of knowing for sure my suspicions are correct, but it tells me to be cautious. Of course, without a single bit of online presence, I wouldn't be doing business with them anyway... It's part of modern business to at least have a presence.

Stijn Hommes said:

Note the word "suspect". I have no way of knowing for sure my suspicions are correct...

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I wasn't making the assumption that you had any knowledge of anything.

I was merely offering up an alternative way these businesses form relationships that don't involve a kickback of dollars.

Vanquish Motion Pictures is a legitimate production company, they’re just new and small. I know both their principals, Jay Douglas and Nav Gupta, and also Ryan Williams who is a CE.

They’re all great guys. I can’t speak for the coverage company they referred you to however, nor exactly why they referred. I suppose it’s possible they get a kickback, though that’s just pure speculation at this point.

As for them, the company is newish and it’s taking some time to get their first projects set-up/funded/produced.

What aspiring writers refuse to understand is just how incredibly freaking difficult it is to get a project made--anytime, yes, but specifically in these days. People do not throw down cash for stuff just because you want them to. Prolific/successful producers often put together elaborate proof of concepts and pitch schemes to get anything going (and regardless of attached talent), and it’s not terribly uncommon for an A-list writer to write on spec because work is hard to come by and/or they can’t sell a pitch anymore.

VMP has several projects in the works but none of them are actually funded yet. They currently (this stuff changes often) control the rights to several properties (a video game, graphic novel, and comic book series) and have dozens of meetings with execs from various studios, but no hard deals have been hammered out and followed through to production yet--or at least that's my understanding. Things may have changed--it's been a bit since I talked to them about it.

They probably won’t be making any spec purchases any time soon (does any company really buy such these days except for one here or there on occasion--a handful a year out of thousands and thousands?) but if a stellar script were submitted, they’d work their contact network and try to set it up.

As for Ryan Williams, he’s a CE there. He reads scripts he likes. If VMP doesn’t want to work with the project, he knows several working producers he’ll pass it onto. Thing is, there has maybe been one script out of probably several dozen that he has actually liked and passed on to anyone--I don't know the numbers, but he basically told me it's an extremely rare occasion when he really likes something. Now maybe he doesn't know what he's talking about, maybe he has bad taste, who knows, or maybe he really does know what a good script looks like, but at the end of the day, those are the numbers and they're going to be the same at virtually any production company.

The website, vanquishmotionpictures.com is probably just for emails. Quite a few companies do that.

Jay and Nav started up a comic book and graphic novel company though with a website and you can find out more about them there:
http://vanquish-interactive.com/

Money should always flow to the writer.