Work one-on-one with an executive at mutually agreed upon times around your schedule. To start, you'll have a 15-minute strategy call with your executive to get the lay of the land for the month. Then, you’ll have email access to your executive throughout, plus four one-hour story notes sessions. Work on a single screenplay or multiple scripts plus get additional notes on your pitch, brand strategy, and career advice - work your mentorship to its fullest potential!
Let's make the pitch feel like a conversation. For feature pitches I want to know the first act. Take your time to lay out the characters, conflicts, hook etc. It is also helpful to tell me why is now the time to tell this story, what are the marketplace comps, and who do you envision packaging this with.
For TV, lay out the hook and premise, then I want to hear about the characters, their season and series arcs, and why an audience is going to invest spending time with them and this world of story.
Pitch the emotion. The jokes. The big moments. Let me feel the story. Grab me from the start and and never let go. Develop a clean line of action for your leading character. Know where you're going in the pitch when outlining the story.
I am drawn to high concept, commercial projects in both the film and TV space. I really like character driven stories across all genres and formats. I am especially interested in reading grounded action, sci-fi, and crime for both features and TV (HEAT; ARRIVAL; TOKYO VICE; MIND HUNTER; SHOGUN.)
I am also interested in true stories (EVEREST; SOCIETY OF THE SNOW; FORD V FERRARI) and stories that could be true (THE MARTIAN; HELL OR HIGH WATER.) I would love to read female driven projects (ATOMIC BLONDE; SICARIO; EX MACHINA) and projects that are diverse in an authentic way as well as adaptations from books, graphic novels, or articles.
I'm also a big fan of genre fare (PACIFIC RIM; DUNE; MAD MAX; JURASSIC PARK; FURY.) Sports stories, especially true ones or ones that could be true are also something I'm interested in reading.
If you have a project that can balance being both good and commercial and it has characters with depth and complexity, then I would like to read it.
Faith based projects, children's animation, musicals, or spoof comedies.
MJ Grogan is a Development Executive and Producer at ACE Content an Academy Award and Emmy winning production company whose credits include FREE SOLO and NatGeo's BECOMING COUSTEAU. He recently worked on the Hulu series MAGGIE, the Netflix adventure thriller BURIED, and Stacey Peralta's surf epic THE YIN & YANG OF GERRY LOPEZ.
With a background in feature films, television, and documentaries, MJ is currently developing and producing an off-road racing feature film with Netflix, a spy thriller with Working Title, a biopic of the Native American rock band Redbone, and an action comedy based on the bestselling novel The Blonde Identity.
Prior to joining ACE, MJ was a development executive at Legendary Entertainment and Disney where he worked on such films as DUNE, ENOLA HOLMES, GODZILLA V KONG, DETECTIVE PIKACHU, A CHRISTMAS STORY CHRISTMAS, THE JUNGLE BOOK, PETE'S DRAGON, TOGO and many others.
Private Month Mentorship
Each month mentorship kicks off with a preliminary 15-min. call to set expectations and lay out strategy for the month. Writer will have email access to the executive plus 4x one-hour consultations with the exec. Exec will read up to 4 scripts in one month (different drafts of the same script or 4 different scripts) and conduct 4x one-hour story notes calls. Calls can also include feedback on your pitch, branding, or career strategy.
If you pay with the deposit/payment plan, your second half will be due the 2nd week of the Mentorship. If you need a different type of payment plan, email dorian@roadmapwriters.com.
**Please note feature screenplays are limited to 120 pages maximum. Please contact terra@roadmapwriters.com for pricing on a Month Mentorship on screenplays exceeding 120 pages.
What To Expect
After registering, you will receive an automatic Order Confirmation email. Then Roadmap's Director of Consultations, Terra Joy, will get your mentor looped in with you! If you do not hear from Terra or the exec within 3 days of registering, feel free to email terra@roadmapwriters.com for an update.
Before starting your Month Mentorship, please ensure you are familiar with our Code of Conduct.