{"product_id":"selling-a-screenplay-isbn-9780440502449","title":"Selling a Screenplay","description":"\u003cb\u003eThis ultimate insider’s guide to selling a screenplay shows you how to crack open today’s movie and television markets.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“An informative, engaging look at the inside of the dream factory. This is a terrific aid for screenwriters who are trying to gain insight into the Hollywood system.”—David Kirkpatrick, producer, former head of Paramount Pictures\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eEverybody has a story to tell. Everybody wants to write the great American screenplay. But what do you do after it’s written? How do you sell it? Studio honchos. Development Executives. Independent Producers. What do they want? Do you need an agent or manager to get it into production? Selling a screenplay can mean earning $250,000 or more, so competition is fierce. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eSelling a Screenplay, \u003c\/i\u003eHollywood’s script guru\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eSyd Field gives you an insider’s look at the movie and TV industry, packed with essential tips from the pros. He includes key details and information, including sections that:\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e• Break Down the Business of Screenwriting\u003cbr\u003e• Explain What the Buyer Looks For\u003cbr\u003e• Show You What to Do to Get in the Door\u003cbr\u003e• Tackle the Pitching Process\u003cbr\u003e• Provide Personal Insights from Famous Screenwriters\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSelling a Screenplay \u003c\/i\u003eis a must-have guide for every screenwriter, filled with frank real-life advice from Hollywood’s most powerful deal makers and most celebrated screenwriters.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey all started somewhere. | \u003cb\u003eSyd Field\u003c\/b\u003e (1935–2013), the internationally renowned “guru of screenwriting,” was the author of eight bestselling books on the subject, including \u003ci\u003eScreenplay,\u003c\/i\u003e published in twenty-three languages and used in hundreds of colleges and universities nationwide and around the world. He was inducted into the Final Draft Hall of Fame in 2006 and was the first inductee into the Screenwriting Hall of Fame of the American Screenwriting Association. He was also a special consultant to the Film Preservation Project for the Getty Center. | THE MARKET\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe market potential for the screenwriter is enormous. But what is the market? How do you describe it, define it, articulate it?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat was a question I kept asking myself over and over again. In my screenwriting experience, I had never explored the market, had never taken the time to find out what the parameters were and how they effected the writer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI had some notions about the market, yes, but nothing else. The only thing I had, really, was the question, What is the market for the screenwriter today?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe market\u003c\/i\u003e is a vague and nebulous term. You can talk to ten different people and get ten different answers. A producer views a script differently than an agent; an agent views it differently than a studio executive; a studio executive views it differently than a reader; the reader views it differently than an independent producer; an independent producer views it differently than a marketing executive; a marketing executive views it differently than a person in development. And so on.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo I went to a friend of mine, Stan Corwin, an independent producer and publisher, who with his partner found a novel titled \". . .  And Ladies of the Club\" and through sheer marketing strategy catapulted it onto the New York Times best-seller list as the number-one best seller for over a year. If anyone knows what the market is, I thought to myself, it would be Stan, now president of Tudor Communications, a national paperback and film development company.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo, we sat down and talked, and during the course of the conversation I slipped in \u003ci\u003eThe Question\u003c\/i\u003e: What is the market?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"For what?\" he replied.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI looked at him, taken aback. \"An original screenplay,\" I replied.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe looked at me for a moment. Then, \"What kind of screenplay?\" he asked guardedly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI took a deep breath and shifted into my most confident, optimistic attitude. I didn't know what to say. What kind of screenplay would I like to write, I wondered, and immediately thought of \u003ci\u003eThe Last Emperor\u003c\/i\u003e. \"A period action-adventure,\" I said.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"That's a tough one.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Why?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe explained that in today's movie market a big-budget, period screenplay is a very difficult sale. What about a contemporary script, a comedy, or action-adventure? I asked. The first thing you have to do, he said, is see if there are any buyers interested in the material.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Who are the buyers?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe then gave me a thumbnail sketch of the marketplace for film and television. Most feature films, he told me, are produced or distributed by the eight major studios: Twentieth Century Fox, Disney, Paramount, Universal, MGM, UA, and Columbia (which has since merged with Tri-Star). Then there are the many independent production companies that supply the studio with product: Amblin, David Geffen, Weintraub Entertainment, Don Simpson\/Jerry Bruckheimer Productions, Carolco, Cannon, Hemdale, Kings Road, Lorimar, Guber-Peters, and many, many more. These are some of the buyers and the producers of films.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn television, the buyers are the three networks, ABC, CBS,  NBC, now joined by Fox Broadcasting, and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). At the present time the market is proliferating, and cable TV is emerging as a major market; video companies like Vestron, HBO, Showtime, Lorimar, and Prism are becoming the suppliers of product, and they are starting to initiate their own projects rather than buying or renting them from the studios.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eToday, to intelligently discuss the marketplace, you've got to understand that there are many different combinations that can get a movie made. You can create your own, just like creating your own omelet in a restaurant. For example, a producer could buy or option a screenplay, and then generate a combination of financing from Paramount, a studio, Hemdale, an independent production company, and Vestron, a cable TV company; then he could presell the project in Europe so that by the first day of principal photography the production costs of the film are covered. That's the way they did \u003ci\u003ePlatoon\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn other words the market is a living, breathing entity that reflects the time and economic conditions of the industry and, of course, the country. It changes constantly. The market is not just one thing, it's many things, and if you're looking to expand your awareness of what the market is, you can't be limited by what you don't know.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt the present time the marketplace is more sophisticated than it ever was. You can walk into an agent's office, whether it be the William Morris Agency, ICM, CAA, or Triad, and the tables and shelves are lined from floor to ceiling with screenplays, galleys, and books from New York publishers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat's what you're competing against if you're trying to sell the screenplay you hold in your hand. Last year, remember, more than 40,000 screenplays were registered at the Writers Guild of America and less than 120 movies were made.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow do you deal with that? How do you go about trying to get your screenplay read, either by an agent for representation, or by a stuio or a producer, to get it made? Everybody in Hollywood, I began to see, was a buyer and a seller.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI thought about that for a while. Then I remembered something I'd read in a Kurt Vonnegut novel: when you're trying to find the answer to a question, the answer is in the question.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIs that true? If the answer is found in the question, how does it relate to the market and the selling of the screenplay? And then one day, while riding my bike, it dawned on me that when you write a script you create the marketplace. Who you present your material to, and how you present it, is almost as important as the screenplay itself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat would certainly explain why so many terrible movies get made.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen you have a script you want to put into the marketplace you've got to have some kind of a plan, a strategy; your primary goal is to get somebody to respond to your material. Don't just write a letter and start sending your script all over town and hope that somebody's going to be interested. It doesn't work that way.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo get somebody to read your script with any degree of interest or enthusiasm, you've got to find out who might be interested in what you've written. Here's an exercise that may possibly define a market for your screenplay. Take a sheet of paper and make four columns. The first column is for agents you want to represent your work. That's assuming, of course, that you don't have an agent. The second column is for casting the major roles. Who's the best actor or actress for the part? Write it down. Who else? Write it down. Do as many as you can. The third column is a list of possible directors or filmmakers you think would do this kind of material. The fourth column is a list of people you know in the industry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEverybody knows somebody. When you start thinking about who you know in the industry start jotting down names, and before you know it, you'll find somebody--a friend, relative, lover--who knows somebody who knows somebody. You'll end up with twenty or thirty names of people who might be interested in your screenplay.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf you want to get an agent to represent your work, make a list of the agents. You can get a complete list from the Writers Guild of America West, Inc., 8955 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90048, (213) 501-2000. They'll send you a list of authorized agents, some of whom, as indicated, are willing to read unsolicited screenplays. Make a list of ten agents, then call or write, telling them you've written a screenplay and asking if they would be interested in reading it. If you write, you might include a one- or two-sentence story line, but no more. I would recommend calling and talking to the secretary. A secretary can be your best friend. If the agent is not interested in reading your material, ask if they can recommend anybody. This is how you start compiling your list of agents.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMost of them will say no. Keep trying.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen you find an agent who is willing to read your script, submit it and then wait four to six weeks. If you do not get a reply by then, call and ask if they received the screenplay. If they have, ask if there's a good time for you to call, say in a couple of weeks. Call in a couple of weeks. Agents, like other people, respond to passion and persistence, but not to annoyance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYou can send the screenplay to as many agents as you like. You should be so lucky that they all like your material.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePeople sometimes talk about the mystique of the agent. There is no mystique. An agent should serve you the same way your stockbroker, real estate agent, or insurance agent serves you.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne of my students, after writing a screenplay in my screenwriting workshop, spent five months trying to find an agent to represent it. Seventeen agents said no before she found one to say yes. That agent sold the script within six weeks--for $250,000.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSometimes it's easier to get a response from a producer or production company than it is from an agent. Most companies require you to sign a release, stating you are submitting this material and that you release the company from all liability if a movie similar in story and theme ever gets made. Some companies, like Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, will not read any unsolicited material with or without a release.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDetermine the parameters of your market and make your screenplay submission an event. I remember a conversation I had with Tony Bill, coproducer of \u003ci\u003eThe Sting \u003c\/i\u003e(David Ward) and \u003ci\u003eTaxi Driver\u003c\/i\u003e (Paul Schrader), director of \u003ci\u003eMy Bodyguard\u003c\/i\u003e (Alan Ormsby) and \u003ci\u003eFive Corners\u003c\/i\u003e (John Patrick Shanley), and a well-known actor. He told me about a man who sent him a screenplay. Tony was in his office one day when he was called to the front lobby. When he arrived he found an elegantly attired chauffeur waiting for him holding a large gift-wrapped box. He gave it to Tony, then left. When he opened the box, he found another box inside. He opened that one, and inside was a note on a silver tray: \"It arrives on Thursday.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis was on a Monday.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn Tuesday the chauffeur arrived with another gift-wrapped box, and the note inside read \"Thursday's the day.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn Wednesday the same thing happened.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThursday arrived. By this time everybody in the office was curious. Around noon an armored car pulled up and the chauffeur stepped out, picked up a package, and walked inside. When he arrived, he placed on an embroidered maroon pillow a ten-by-thirteen envelope and presented it to Tony, who took it and opened it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGuess what was inside? A script, of course. A covering letter proclaimed that this screenplay was exactly what the movie industry was looking for, a story that would appeal to a massive audience, and that Tony was absolutly the perfect filmmaker for it. Tony Bill couldn't say no. He had to read the screenplay. You can't ask for more than that.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe script either stands or falls on its own. In this case the script wasn't very good; the script was a C, the delivery an A+. But what imagination and ingenuity the writer had in presenting his material! That's class.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo get a broader perspective, I decided to interview a number of industry professionals whose job it is to know the market. I talked to a studio executive, an independent producer, an executive for an independent production company, a screenwriter who used to be an agent, a director of marketing, and a reader.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI really didn't know what I was looking for, or what I was going to find out; all I knew is that I wanted to ask a basic question: what is the market for the screenwriter today?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Anything an audience wants to see,\" says Sidney Ganis, now president of production at Paramount Pictures, and formerly head of worldwide marketing for George Lucas. In other words, there's a market for everything. Ganis, responsible for the marketing of \u003ci\u003eRaiders of the Lost Ark\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Empire Strikes Back\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eReturn of the Jedi\u003c\/i\u003e, and more, is in my opinion the sharpest marketing expert in the business. Since he's been at Paramount, he's worked on the marketing campaigns of such movies as \u003ci\u003eBeverly Hills Cop II\u003c\/i\u003e (Larry Fergason and Warren Skaaren), \u003ci\u003eTop Gun \u003c\/i\u003e(Jim Cash and Jack Epps, Jr.), and \u003ci\u003eFatal Attraction\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEverybody's looking for product. You'll find old TV shows, live comedy, sporting events, anything that's ever been filmed to be a potential subject. It's almost like the book business was fifty years ago.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEverybody I interviewed agreed on one thing: before the writer even attempts to write a screenplay, he or she must research the market to find out if anybody is doing anything similar, or if anybody has any scripts in development along the same lines. Many of my students spend more than six months writing a screenplay only to learn that a movie with a similar idea is just about to be released. Doing some simple research before you sit down to write makes all the sense in the world. Why spend six months to a year writing a screenplay that has no chance of being sold because something just like it is in the works?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTake responsibility for defining the market. You've got to know who's doing what for which studio. You can find out very simply, by reading the trade papers, \u003ci\u003eVariety\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Hollywood Reporter\u003c\/i\u003e. Every Tuesday a production chart lists all films currently before the cameras. If you need to know what the story line is, try calling the production office at the studio. Talk to anyone who will talk to you; as mentioned, secretaries are wonderful. They won't necessarily tell you the story line or answer all your questions, but you could tell them you're thinking of writing a story about such and such and ask if it is close to what they're doing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBefore you begin, you must determine the market for yourself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA student of mine--an actress who came to me to write a mystery thriller--completed a first words-on-paper draft and rewrite during the course of three workshop sessions. She's a good writer; the story was well constructed and rich in character. When it was complete, I sent the material to a production executive I thought might be interested. She liked it but had to pass, as the star she worked for had just finished a detective story.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy student then asked if I could help her get an agent. So I called a few, who read it and agreed it was good, well-written material that showed a lot of potential. But they passed. That's show biz.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow my student calls and wants me to tell her what to do. I don't have the time anymore. I did what I could. Rather than determine the market for herself, she wants me to guide her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe's got to read the trades, call the agents, call the production companies, call the agents of the actors she thinks are right for the parts, call the people she knows in the industry; in other words, she's got to determine if there's a market for her script.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt only takes one person to like it. Just one.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRight now is a wonderful time for the writer of the original screenplay. Everybody's dying for good material. Independent producers and major production companies are springing up every day, and they're willing to pay a lot of money for a screenplay they like and think is commercial.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDennis Shryack is a marvelous example of a screenwriter in Hollywood. Working with a partner, Shryack wrote such films as \u003ci\u003ePale Rider\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGauntlet\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eFlashpoint\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Good Guys and Bad Guys\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Car\u003c\/i\u003e. He started out in the shipping department at Universal Studios, worked on the old \u003ci\u003eGeneral Electric Theater\u003c\/i\u003e, then became a literary agent. He worked first at the Sindell Agency, where I first met him, then moved to Eisenback-Greene-Duchow. He stayed there several years, then started writing original screenplays. When his screenplay for \u003ci\u003eThe Good Guys and the Bad Guys\u003c\/i\u003e was sold, written with Ron Cohen, he left the agency and became a full-time writer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"When I was an agent, I was always on top of things,\" he says. \"I knew exactly what every producer was looking for. I went out every day and talked to them. You have to understand that when you go out with an original screenplay to sell, you have no package, no star, no director. The script has to stand or fall on its own.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Your script has to get past all those initial readers to the head of the studio who reads it and sees nothing but dollar signs. Their job is to pass, so you can't give them a reason to say no. And the bottom line is money. They've got to read it and know if they buy this script (a) they can cast it, and (b) even if they can't get a big name for it, the picture itself, the idea, the action, or whatever else is in it, is going to sell it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"On the other hand they've got to feel free to go to the marketing people and say 'What do you guys think? Can we sell it in Europe? Will it play Japan?' The marketing guys are the number-two guys at the studio now, and they're very important.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSidney Ganis explains the process. \"If the studio is thinking of buying a script, this is what happens most of the time: 'What do you think of this story?' the production executive asks. 'What is it that you think is marketable? What happens if we put Robert De Niro in it? What happens if we put Charles Grodin in it, and not De Niro? In your marketing opinion what elements are going to make this idea work?'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"We have a script right now in production,\" he continues, \"that is about a kid committing suicide (\u003ci\u003ePermanent Record\u003c\/i\u003e, written by Jarre Fees, Alice Liddle, and Larry Ketron). A very serious subject matter. And this story is about what happens to friends. How this has changed their lives forever. We have two marketable lines. We can possibly market it directly to a seventeen-eighteen-year-old audience, to whom the subject matter is extremely important. So we can use suicide as an element to sell the movie.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The other thing we can talk about is the exact opposite of that, that is, what happens to the group of friends? How do they come together, and how do they decide to live their lives after this has happened? What good, uplifting connection is made between the tragedy and moving on with their own lives?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"One of the ways we figure this out is by isolating the elements and creating story concepts and then testing those concepts through market research. We feature different elements of the story in each of the different concepts. We'll write three separate and distinct ways to position the story and send those concepts into the world, via our research machinery. One concept would likely be about teenage suicide, another would be about 'renewal,' and a third would be about the cast of highly talented young newcomers in a story set in contemporary teenage times. As we sample potential audiences, you'd be amazed at how clear people are about what's going to turn them on to see a movie. It's a good technique and gives us a sense of how we might position our advertising. I say 'might' only because you can never count on research to tell you what to do. As long as we're in this business, it's going to be our own instincts plus whatever other intelligence we can gather to finally lead us in an appropriate direction.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is standard marketing procedure within the industry. Using insight and basic marketing skills, the marketing people isolate and select those few elements that can sell a picture. Just look at \u003ci\u003eFatal Attraction\u003c\/i\u003e (James Dearden). The emotional ingredients of a brief extramarital encounter are carried to their logical extreme. It is, as advertised, a \"terrifying love story.\" Sometimes the consequences of an emotionally charged moment can be very high.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere are certain elements in a screenplay that evoke an interesting response from the reader, and that's what marketing people look for. Fanny Couturie, staff reader for the David Geffen Company, argues that \"there will always be movies that cater to the most basic audience interests. But in the last couple of years, mainstream audiences have become more interested in movies that are less obvious, less flagrantly commercial. They seem to be ready for something more thought-provoking or unusual. Movies like \u003ci\u003eAmadeus\u003c\/i\u003e (Peter Shaffer), \u003ci\u003eStand by Me\u003c\/i\u003e (Raynold Gideon and Bruce Evans), \u003ci\u003ePlatoon\u003c\/i\u003e (Oliver Stone), \u003ci\u003eBlue Velvet \u003c\/i\u003e(David Lynch), and \u003ci\u003eBeetlejuice\u003c\/i\u003e (Michael McDowell and Warren Skaaren) might not have been produced five years ago and are reaching a much bigger audience than they would have then. We're on the edge of the culture in this business, so the scripts I recommend change with the times. It's only natural, and I have to say I'm delighted with this particular change.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"When you work as a reader,\" she continues, \"the executives you work for are bound to disagree with your decisions from time to time. So I'm analytical. I don't just give my opinion. I try to explain why I think a script works or doesn't work, why I think it will play well or fall flat for an audience. When executives can understand how I think about a script, I feel they're in a better position to form their own opinions and to improve a script even if they disagree with my recommendations.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnyone who evaluates the market--reader, head of marketing, or studio executive--has to know what elements seem to be the most salable ingredients of the individual screenplay.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What astounds me,\" says one studio executive, \"is that writers go off and spend months of their lives writing a screenplay before they go to the trouble to find out what pictures are being made, and what pictures the studios are about to make. There've been too many occasions where a script, or a story, or an idea that someone comes up with is very similar to Steven Spielberg's next movie, and how the hell are you going to sell that?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I think selling a script,\" he continues, \"is the same thing as getting a job. The talents of getting a job in the movie business are the same talents that are required to become and stay successful. They are initiative, exploration, original thinking, and innovative ideas.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Many writers--and I read more than five hundred scripts a year--do not realize that a screenplay is a selling document. When they're writing a screenplay, they're not writing a movie. They're writing a script, material that's going to be read, not seen. And it's the reading experience that will determine whether the movie gets made or not.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"For example, we read a script about three brothers. They all grew up in the backwoods, hillbilly country. Two of them moved away to the city, and one stayed behind. In the city one of the brothers goes crooked, the other becomes a cop. The script opens with one of the brothers being killed, and the hillbilly brother comes to the city for the first time to link up with his city brother and help solve the murder.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What's appealing about the script is the wonderul fish-out-of-water elements; someone who is out of their familiar environment and the clash of cultures between the city boy and the country boy. There's a lot of richness in this story, and it has some definite marketable elements, but the script was poorly written, and we passed. UA picked it up and bought it, I think, for $600,000.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Not bad. A fish-out-of-water story has many marketable features. Just look at \u003ci\u003eShort Circuit \u003c\/i\u003e(Steve Wilson and Grant Maddock), \u003ci\u003eSplash\u003c\/i\u003e (Lowell Ganz, Bobaloo Mandel, and Bruce J. Friedman, from a story by Friedman and Brian Grazer) \u003ci\u003eE.T.\u003c\/i\u003e (Melissa Mathison), or \u003ci\u003eThree Men and a Baby\u003c\/i\u003e (James Orr and Jim Cruickshank, based on Coline Serreau's French Comedy \u003ci\u003eThree Men and a Cradle\u003c\/i\u003e) to name a few. The elements found in these screenplays are salable; the situation can be expressed in a few sentences.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt's important to remember that most of the people in Hollywood only \"see\" what's on the written page. \"If it ain't on the page, it ain't on the stage\" is the old Hollywood saying. When I was reading at Cinemobile and Cine Artists I sometimes would recommend how something could be fixed, and I would get no response at all; simply a blank stare. The executives had no visual understanding of what I was trying to say about the material. They just checked out. It's no different today. Nobody can \"see\" anything. If the script does not appear to be marketable at the present time, nobody's interested in how it could be fixed or made better.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo people pass.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You can't give people a reason to say no,\" emphasizes Dennis Shryack. \"People in Hollywood only get in trouble when they say yes. As long as they keep saying no they keep getting promoted and one day may run a studio.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe elements that make your story attractive, salable, commercial, \u003ci\u003emarketable\u003c\/i\u003e, whatever, need to be executed on the page. Readers have to be able to \"see\" it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNot many people in this town buy a screenplay or a treatment for the idea, because then they have to find a writer to write or rewrite it. It's too costly a process, and Hollywood spends too much money as it is.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It's the most expensive art form there is,\" says Larry Jackson, now vice president of production at Orion Pictures, formerly vice president of production at the Samuel Goldwyn Company. \"That makes us one of the most conservative industries in the country. Because it takes so much money to mount an individual project. There's no way you can do a prototype for a few bucks to test it with the consumer. You've got to spend millions of dollars to do something. That's the nature of the movie business. Therefore, the financing is always precarious, so there's a tendency for people to take a very conservative approach. Everybody thinks that when they finance something, it should be 'safe,' which means doing something that's already been proven successful.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The whole aura of the movie business that's been built up over the last ninety years has been about fantasy. It's been about selling sizzle to the audience. The biggest danger we have is when we start to believe the fantasy ourselves, and then people on the creative side and the business side start to sell each other the fantasy and the sizzle, hustling each other. That's where you start to lose control. Fantasy and sizzle is what we should be selling to the audience. When we start to lose sight of that reality, we start making the wrong pictures.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I get calls from producers all the time saying they're looking for scripts with sizzle, something like a cross between \u003ci\u003eStar Wars\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eAnnie Hall\u003c\/i\u003e. The truth is that these producers don't have any kind of singular vision or point of view. They don't understand that there is no such thing as a Woody Allen movie. There are Woody Allen movies and other movies. You don't make a 'Woody Allen movie'; Woody Allen makes Woody Allen movies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"People don't get it. It's so simple that they don't see it. Most studio executives don't really look at what the audience responds to in a movie. They only see the result, not the cause, like a doctor treating the symptom, not the cause, of the illness.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"So the schlockmeisters of Hollywood,\" Jackson continues, \"look out there, see the box office results of \u003ci\u003eStar Wars\u003c\/i\u003e, for example, and declare that what the KIDZ really want is a science fiction Western with robots that look like overhauled Electrolux vacuum cleaners. 'I've got one of those in the attic,' they say.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"At one point I went through a list of the hundred top-grossing films of all time in \u003ci\u003eVariety \u003c\/i\u003eand calculated that essentially sixty of them were original to the audience at the time they appeared. That's not to say that nobody had ever made a movie like it before, nobody ever made a success story like \u003ci\u003eRocky\u003c\/i\u003e before, but they were not following an established trend at the time they appeared. They created the trend, they didn't follow it. It wasn't a stab in the dark; it was the recognition of emerging tastes and myths.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eResearch the market before you begin. See whether your idea is in sync with what the market is today. Then you can sit down and spend six months to a year writing your screenplay. Forget trends, they don't work. Forget commercial, because commercial is what sells, not what you think will sell.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNot too long ago I had an experience that illustrates this. I received a letter from an elderly man in Texas who stated he had a screenplay that would ultimately be more successful than \u003ci\u003eStar Wars\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBeverly Hills Cop\u003c\/i\u003e, or \u003ci\u003eE.T.\u003c\/i\u003e He went on to explain that it was the kind of script that would attract everyone, young and old, rich and poor, student and nonstudent. Then he started talking about the Bible and the power and influence of Jesus. Then he pitched me: \"This is a story about Jesus and his dog,\" he wrote. And he went on to explain that nowhere in the Bible does it say that Jesus had a dog, but nowhere in the Bible does it say \u003ci\u003ehe didn't\u003c\/i\u003e!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWell, there it is.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere is a moral to that story. When you sit down to prepare your screenplay, part of your preparation should be devoted to researching the market. Bible films are not being made today, regardless of how good or bad the screenplay is. You might point your finger and say: \"What about \u003ci\u003eKing David\u003c\/i\u003e (Andrew Birkin and James Costigan) with Richard Gere? And I say look at the cost of that film and look at the return: it cost 20 million to make and never broke into profit. (A film has to gross 2 1\/2 times its negative cost to break even.) It didn't do well at all. There's not much difference between that script and the man's script from Texas about Jesus and his dog. \u003ci\u003eKing David\u003c\/i\u003e is obviously better written, with more of a story and commercial appeal, but the bottom line is whether there is a market for your material.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat kind of scripts offer the","brand":"Delta","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304497041637,"sku":"NP9780440502449","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780440502449.jpg?v=1730757525","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/selling-a-screenplay-isbn-9780440502449","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}