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Ilja von Nagel: Tribe Hollywood interview by Sam Quo Vadis
In New York, he worked in film production as PA and AD before working for many years for the fashion company FUBU, handling their live webcasts from their headquarters in the Empire State Building. He then moved to LA to pursue screenwriting but ended up translating subtitles for international DVDs. Ilja completed seven screenplays (mainly in the action, sci-fi and thriller genres but he has also written a comedy and an adaptation of a classic bestselling novel) and began writing for German action film company Action Concept. He won numerous contests and reached the Chesterfield finals twice. In an effort to get his screenplays out of the drawer and go a step further than writing thousands of query letters, he founded TribeHollywood.com, a networking website for the entertainment industry. His ploy worked - he got tons of exposure, an awesome manager at Little Studio Films and just celebrated his first feature script sale through the site. With a rewrite due and the site to administer, he's busier than ever - but at least he gets up up whenever he pleases. Sam: What was the genesis of TribeHollywood? Ilja: I had all these screenplays I wanted to get out of the drawer. And I knew there was this group of NYU Film School Alumni I was a part of. But I just couldn't get access to them! Since I had a tendency to build online empires from my bedroom anyway, I decided to take the initiative and build a place where everyone could network. It was much work than I had thought but once I had the site programmed, it worked out nicely: I sent out an announcement on NYU's listserv and a thousand entertainment industry professionals signed up within a few days. Then, for a while, the site was exclusively NYU-only. But people wanted to invite their colleagues and friends, so after a while we gave in and opened the site to the entire industry.
Ilja: In my opinion, the best two things about Tribe Hollywood are that a) if you're on the site, you can be sure everyone is a confirmed industry professional and you won't have that "random people problem" and b) that you can network not only based on people, but also on projects. It gives members a chance to get attached to raw-stage projects, which can really pay off. It's also a great way to meet people based on the kinds of stuff they're producing. Page-view-wise, the most popular feature is the stats feature, where you can see exactly who has checked out your profile, your loglines, sample pages, press kit, and so on.
Ilja: Members can get a lot of exposure for their projects simply listing them and making them searchable (and findable) in TH's database. The fact that you can upload pictures, script pages, video, marketing stuff, etc. and distribute queries through TH's own query system gets more info to more targeted people than random query-mailing or press-release blasting. You can also track who's seen your project page, your logline, and so on. Other than that, it's not what you know, it's who you know, and TH is literally made for that.
Ilja: One of the most frustrating things about running the site is that most of the time, I don't know in detail what people are getting out of it but I have heard some success stories personally: One of my contacts on Tribe Hollywood is a composer who scored three feature film soundtracks on Tribe Hollywood by targeting projects when they were in their early stage. I've personally talked to at a dozen people who've found agents/managers just by putting their screenplays and short films out there. I found my manager at Little Studio Films through Tribe Hollywood as well. A mockumentary DVD was recently released through connections made on TH. A producer I know found a distributor who opened her movie on 500 screens. Agents, managers and sales agents often comment that they really dig the exclusive nature of the site when they're looking for projects or talent. As far as I know, many people hook up as writing partners, scene partners or co-producers. At the very least, everyone meets new people. I mean, that's what everybody is here for. Oh yeah. I also sold a screenplay to a producer I met on Tribe Hollywood.
Ilja: We require ONE of these: a)
a decent credit we can verify on web (like on imdb.com);
Ilja: I want Tribe Hollywood to be the highest quality entertainment industry networking website out there, that's it. I love the grassroots-type networking that's happening on TH and I'll do everything I can to make it even hotter and fresher. I see Tribe Hollywood branching out into other entertainment-related areas such as advertising, web design, journalism, and so on. We already have a good mix of creative and business people - I want to expand that. We signed up the first jewelry designer this week and I'm very proud of that.
Ilja: I worked for a long time for FUBU in New York City, doing their online entertainment magazine and web casts. I wrote several $100 Mio. kick-alien-ass screenplays and several low budget thrillers. I worked for a while for a German action film company, Action Concept, writing international projects for them. In LA, I was a translator for a lot of big studio international movies. Right now, I'm rewriting an adaptation of a classic American novel that's being produced here in LA. Between that and Tribe Hollywood, I'm plenty busy.
Ilja: I absolutely never schmookie but I've been caught a few times. What is Schmookie.com? Schmookie.com is what happens when you have a tendency to build online empires from your bedroom...
Ilja: I'm German, so: Total World Domination. The invasion is coming.
Past accolades include being a winner in the Texas Film Institute (TFI) and Telluride Indiefest screenwriting competitions, a CineStory finalist, a top three American Zoetrope screenwriter (twice), and a semi-finalist in the Don & Gee Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, Moondance, and American Accolades competitions. His web page is http://www.studiostar.ca |
