From Motionflick Studios to Snow Day Film: The Evolution of a Book-to-Film Scam

The Hollywood dream has always burned bright for writers…and scammers and dodgy operators have always been eager to take advantage. The method may change–from the coverage grifts and pay-to-play snail mail catalogs that were a staple of the pre-internet days, to the impersonation and fake film company scams of today–but the aim is the same: to trick writers into spending money for nothing.

Last July, I began getting reports of solicitations from a company called Motionflick Studios.

Everything about this email said “bogus”, from the solicitation itself (solicitation, as regular readers of this blog know, is one of the first signs of fraud these days), to the implausibly large option fee, to the absurd notion that an established Hollywood figure like Paul Dano would be personally creating pitch decks.

Other signs of bogosity: Motionflick appeared to be brand new, with a web domain registered on June 25, 2023, just days before the solicitation was sent. Although it claimed to be the successor of a real film company, June Pictures, that went bust in 2018, there was no independent evidence (such as reporting in Variety) to corroborate this. Its website heavily implied association with films and TV shows there was no proof it had anything to do with. (The website no longer exists, though you can get a glimpse courtesy of the Wayback Machine.) As for the Producer’s Film Pitch event…apart from Motionflick’s own press release via a fake New York Times site, it did not appear to exist, in any month or any city anywhere in the USA.

So what’s the payoff? See the second paragraph of the solicitation, which urges the author to “submit a polished screenplay of your book”. Most authors don’t just have a screenplay lying around, which of course is the point: it’s a referral scam.

And indeed, it wasn’t long before I heard from an author who took the bait. They were passed to an outfit called Swift Start Media, which quoted a fee of $7,000 to create a screenplay. Swift Start Media is registered in Delaware as an LLC; its filing date, June 6, 2023, precedes the registration of Motionflick’s web domain by just 19 days. (Motionflick, by contrast, never had a business registration–a common situation with referral scams, where the company doing the solicitations is just a conduit for the business that collects the cash.)

Many scammers stick with the same approach, or mix and match and cut and paste from a menu of solicitation templates. Motionflick apparently felt the need to evolve. Here’s the next iteration, featuring a different event, the Hollywood Pitch Festival, and a different producer, Scott Danzig:

Note the addition of fulsome praise, designed to make the author feel chosen. The request for material has also escalated: this time, it’s not just a screenplay, but a storyboard that’s required “in order for Mr. Danzig to work his magic”. Note also the addition of time pressure: submission is due in less than a month.

Also different: unlike the Producer’s Film Pitch event, the Hollywood Pitch Festival is real. It’s sponsored by Fade In Magazine–which was not at all pleased by Motionflick’s co-option of its brand, and served Motionflick with a cease-and-desist.

Of course, you can’t keep recruiting for events that have already happened, so whether because of the C&D or just the passage of time, Motionflick baited its hook with a new event, Story Expo, while continuing to misuse Scott Danzig’s name:

And in October, another pitch switch. It’s now the Les Arcs Film Festival, happening in December in France. Scott Danzig has fallen by the wayside; the new celebrity is producer and director Martin Brest, who the writer is expected to believe will personally commit to “crafting a compelling presentation for your book” and advocate for it in person at the festival. Mr. Brest, by the way, hasn’t been active in the entertainment industry since 2003.

Note also an interesting addition, presumably to allay any writerly jitters: a (false) assurance in the final paragraph that “[t]his initiative incurs no expenses.”

On to 2024. New year, new carrot: the Berlin Film Festival. Martin Brest is still pitch deck creator-for-hire.

All the solicitations include strategic egoboo in the form of generic flattery, but this time Motionflick has really gone over the top: the writer’s work is “standout”, a “visual masterpiece”, “compelling”, “richly-textured”, “stunning”, and “will undoubtedly leave audiences enthralled”. Who doesn’t want that? This solicitation also showcases scammers’ odd occasional habit of appropriating famous people’s names as aliases for their sales reps (not always alive ones, either: I’ve seen solicitations from James Dean, Anne Rice, and Leonard Cohen).

At this point, I’d been getting reports of Motionflick emails on a monthly basis. But after the January solicitation, I heard nothing more. At some point (I can’t remember exactly when), the Motionflick website vanished. This is not unusual: such scams often have very short shelf lives, whether because they generate too many public complaints or the people/companies whose names they appropriate take preventive action (more on that below).

Then, in April, a reboot.

They’ve changed their name to Snow Day Film, and downgraded from Martin Brest to his son, Isaac (maybe they finally read Mr. Brest’s Wikipedia entry). And it’s a new event, the Wales International Film Festival (which, not for nothing, is being held online this year, so when Mr. Isaac Brest arrives in Swansea, he’s going to have to find something else to do).

Otherwise, it’s the same solicitation. And see the URL at the very bottom? It’s the Motionflick press release from July 2023, claiming to be the successor to June Pictures, with Snow Day Film’s name slotted in.

So why did Motionflick change its spots? Turns out, karma is a bitch.

As for Swift Start Media, it’s alive and well, as befits the part of the scam that actually collects the cash. It’s got a slick website that names multiple high-profile clients. Like most scams, though, it withers under scrutiny: its vague assurances of expertise are unverifiable, its “portfolio” is bogus (including this ludicrous claim), and its address is that of the company formation service that created its LLC.

It has also switched the testimonial from Motionflick that was on the site as late as January 2024 to one from Snow Day.

For a comprehensive look at how the movie business really works, including why you don’t need third party-created screenplays, storyboards, or any of the other crap that scams like Motionflick/Snow Day/Swift Start want to sell you, see this guest post from industry expert Jeanne Veilette Bowerman: How a Book Really Becomes a Movie.