How KimberMark’s Justin Kohlas Sees the Future of Film & TV and What Screenwriters Need to Succeed

Justin Kohlas is a writer/ producer with a wealth of experience in both film and television. His most recent work includes being a staff writer on NCIS: Los Angeles and screening his feature Hide at Screamfest. It all began when his TV pilot King Street was the highest rated pilot on The Black List. Justin shares his perspectives on the current state of the business.

When did you decide on a career in film and TV and how did you make that happen?

I always had a love for movies and TV growing up. My friends and I had these DV cameras that we would film stuff on all the time. I grew up in Northeast Ohio and the winters are really brutal and cold. I remember Band of Brothers had recently come out and we were all obsessed with it. We would go back in the woods with several inches of snow on the ground and pretend we were soldiers in Bastogne and film pretend war scenes with our paintball guns.

In addition, my dad was diagnosed with brain cancer when I was twelve years old and passed away, and I found that storytelling whether in the form of TV, music, film, or video games was the best way I could escape from that trauma, even if it were for just a little.

I found a lot of solace in that and felt motivated to do something in the arts because of it, though I didn’t quite know what that was yet. From there on I later attended Ohio University and at first was a general studies major where I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I met some people including my wonderful girlfriend Emily Hunter who were exploring the video production program at the school and I found a real community in that that resonated with me.

So, I enrolled in the program and discovered a passion for working on film sets and screenwriting that I took really seriously. I was then fortunate enough to get into the Ohio in LA program ran by our professor Roger Cooper which brought me out to Los Angeles for two weeks to network with our large alumni association. From then on, I knew I would move there and pursue a career in it full time and that’s what I did.

How would you define your job title? 

After the writer’s strike, I decided to start my own production company KimberMark, named after my mom and my late dad. I think of myself as both a screenwriter and producer. I pitch, develop, and produce my own writing, while also doing the same with other writers.

With my own writing, I’m somewhat unconventional in the sense that I don’t outline. I typically have an idea or a scene in my head and I will write that and go from there. Sometimes, I find the most creative stuff comes from writing yourself into a corner and having to figure out how to get out of it.

With my role in writing my own material, I typically write every idea I have on spec, even if I know I’m going to have to pitch it anyway and potentially scrap my version of the script entirely down the road. By the end of my writing process for both TV and film, I will have a finished first draft of a script (which I know will get notes by everyone), a visual deck so they can get a sense of the world, and a one pager explaining the whole project in as simplistic terms as possible for those folks who don’t have time to read a ton of stuff and just need the gist of things.

In addition to all of that, I also write up a verbal pitch that I will memorize for actual pitch meetings. I like to go off the cuff as much as I can to make it interactive and more fun, but I do use a blueprint to get through it. I create all of my visual decks in Canvas or InDesign and use Shotdeck, though I’ve recently expanded my company team who have been great at making them as well (shout out to Hillary Cohen, Emma Aikman, and Kelsey Johnson!)

With writers that I’m producing for, I insist on all of the same criteria. I usually start with doing a full proofread of their screenplay for industry standard formatting, typos, all the technical stuff, then I do a pass for the story. I ask questions like does each character have their own POV, even the side characters that are seemingly in the background? Do they feel multidimensional?

I look for overly expositional dialogue that’s trying to tell you the plot instead of showing you. I work to see if the genre this is supposed to be feels authentic to that promise. For instance, a script I read recently and consulted on was pitched to me as horror, but on the page it read way more like a fantasy script. So, I worked with the writer to change it so it was more true to what they wanted it to be. I give notes on that and work with them until I feel like it’s in the best shape possible.

When approaching companies I will typically give a very brief email, pitch the logline, and attach a one pager. If they’re interested in more after that, I’ll send over the rest. But I never bombard with all the material and I never write a novel in an email. You have to be very concise and simple as people don’t have time or the attention span to read your whole life story in an email and why this is the best script in the world for the market right now. That’s essentially my process in a nutshell. I take pitches through my website at www.kimbermark.com I recently signed shopping agreements to produce two great television projects that I’m very excited about and am continuing to look for more.

Discuss your writing work on NCIS – Los Angeles. How did you get this job and what did you learn?

I ended up getting my job on NCIS: Los Angeles in a very roundabout, also unconventional, way. At the time I had been working at a visual effects company as what was called “a runner.” I was basically doing all the grunt work for all the artists and producers… making food for clients, picking up lunch, keeping the building clean, and shadowing.

Because VFX entails so much work I would often be staying at our offices until the last artist walked out the door, which would sometimes not be until 4 in the morning. I was starting to get really burnt out and wanted a change as this was not the area of the business I wanted to be working in. When Christmas rolled around that year, I went back home to the Cleveland area to visit my family. While I was there, I got a phone call from my former college friend who also studied video production named Joe Battaglia. He asked me if I wanted to work on a movie called Fear Clinic starring Robert Englund filming in my hometown of Media that was there over the break and I immediately jumped on the opportunity.

I worked as a PA on the entire film and met a bunch of people who had traveled there from Los Angeles. One of the people I met was Katherine Kousakis, the head hairdresser for the film, whose dad John Peter Kousakis was an executive producer on NCIS: Los Angeles. We had become friends and she asked me if I was looking for a job in Los Angeles and I said yes. I eventually got the call to come work as a set PA on the show. I did that for several years until luck would have it that a position in the writers’ room opened up and I was able to move up there as a writers PA. From there I worked as a writer’s PA, then a writer’s assistant, and then a full time writer.

I learned so much along the way and that’s truly where I got my producing education. Our showrunner R. Scott Gemmill (creator of The Pitt) was a great mentor and insisted that all of the writers produce their own episodes by attending prep, shooting, and post, which is usually not the norm on most TV shows. Because of that, I learned every department, every need, how much stuff cost, and how to adjust to everything on the fly.

It also forced us to confront fears and problem solve in a way that’s usually not typical for a writer hiding in an office. If an actor (they were all lovely on our show) didn’t understand a line you wrote, you had to defend it or explain it to them, sometimes on set in front of the entire crew. Sometimes you’d lose a location and have to rewrite on the fly or an actor would get sick and you’d have to take them out of the episode with nearly zero notice. It really prepared you to be adaptable and able to solve a multitude of problems that arise while filming a tv show.

What other experiences/jobs complemented your skill set?

I think being a PA for as long as I did was one of the greatest learning experiences I ever had. I worked on many shows and films other than just NCIS: Los Angeles from Twin Peaks to It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and it just reinforced my education of the entire industry and business.

Each set is entirely different, but we all have a mutual understanding of the process. Sometimes you work with really big personalities. Sometimes days are really slow and you have to find a way to make yourself useful even when there wasn’t a lot to do. Somedays you have to be in Long Beach at 3 in the morning cause we have a complex makeup thing that has to start super early and you have to be there to support the basecamp AD and the actors that have to come in that early.

In that job you also interact with hundreds of people a day, while you’re sleep deprived and physically exhausted, and you had to learn how to talk to people sometimes in your worst moments. It’s cliché, but it built character and resilience  that I had not had before until I did that job.

As a producer, describe what you look for in screenplays and how you develop them with writers?

I look for a distinct point of view from the writer. Why are they writing this project? That doesn’t necessarily mean the old saying of “write what you know,” but what in your life inspired you to write this?

Are you writing a WW2 movie because you think that’ll sell since they make so many of them? Or are you writing it because you found your grandfather’s diary and there’s an interesting, unique take on a story only you can tell. Even something as simple as just loving and studying something so much you want to tell a story about it is a lived in POV in my opinion.

I find a lot of times (including myself) writers will get caught in the idea that they need to write what they think will sell. There’s always Christmas movies on Netflix so I need my own Christmas movie. Most of the time it’s obvious if a writer wrote something they’re not passionate about, but thought they should do it to appease market trends.

What do your pitch packages look like?

I always tend to have a script, a visual deck, a verbal pitch, and a one pager. I share those based on what the individual needs of another producer, financier, or company are. A lot of the time they don’t want to read all of that, but sometimes they do and then I’m glad I have it prepared already.

What do your meetings with financiers look like? 

In film it is all about cast. Who do you have attached? How valuable are they in the market? How valuable are they overseas? How do their movies perform?

Often this is a frustrating process of the business because agents/ managers don’t want to attach an actor to a project until you have financing, but a lot of the time you need the attachments to bring in the financing. But as of late it is all about cast and even then sometimes that’s not good enough in this market at the moment.

I know producers who have major actors attached to their projects and they’re still in limbo for various reasons. We’re in a tough period of the industry. In TV, unless you are a really proven showrunner or writer, it’s very very difficult to get a show off the ground. Lately, if a project even has a whiff of “limited series” it’s an immediate pass. I had a show I was developing that was very clearly marketed as an ongoing series, but because of the material buyers just weren’t believing it and it came off as limited even when it wasn’t.

Companies I’m meeting with lately want something that has legs. That doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be procedural, but they want to know that it can go on for multiple seasons.

What types of projects do you feel are currently most sought after in the industry?

High concept horror is always a safe bet, especially if you have a franchisable idea or take that’s unique. I think off the success of movies like Weapons and Sinners, more companies are becoming open to original ideas over IP again, but time will tell if that sticks. And in the TV space it’s just longevity. What’s your concept that you can keep interesting and keep on the air for as long as possible. Who’s going to make the next White Lotus basically.

What’s the single biggest mistake you see newer screenwriters making in their careers?

Sending out their material when it’s far from ready. I more often than not read screenplays that are not formatted correctly, filled with typos and basic craft and spelling mistakes, and have little character development. You should always have multiple people read your screenplay and proof read it multiple times before sending it out professionally.

by Staff Writer

From our in-house editorial team.