Schellhardt Laura. Screenwriting for Dummies
Подождите немного. Документ загружается.
Polishing the Copy You Send
In Chapter 15, I mention the adage, “You never get another chance to make
a first impression.” If there was ever a time to take that phrase to heart,
it’s now, when you’re considering sending work to producers and agents.
Hollywood has thousands of writers, and many of them are newcomers.
Organizations are looking for reasons to reject your script, and although a
script’s progress may not be hampered by one misspelling, why risk it?
A last-minute checklist
Agents and studios don’t mind working with new writers, but they bolt at the
thought of an amateur. If they see a clean, well-formatted script, they assume
that the writing is strong. If the script looks messy and ill-prepared, they
assume that the same holds true for the writer. The script’s appearance is
one thing that you have control over, so take the time you need to get it right.
Here are a few things to double-check before you submit work:
Spelling and grammatical errors: If you’re not strong in these areas,
consider having a friend who is look over your script one last time.
While it’s a good idea to run your script through the computer spell-
check, don’t rely on it. Only a pair of human eyes can determine whether
you’ve chosen the correct word.
Word usage: Are you using the correct version of a word? For example,
“you’re” or “your,” “tale” or “tail,” “desert” or “dessert,” “meat” or
“meet,” “it’s” or “its,” and so on.
Margins: Don’t make margins smaller in an attempt to cram the story in.
Keep the margins at the desired width (see Chapter 15).
Dangling names: Space the text so that a name never hangs at the
bottom of a page while the ensuing dialogue floats at the top of the next.
Scriptwriting software will automatically do this for you, but it’s a good
idea to double-check anyway.
All your writing is meant to be seen: Make sure that your script is free
of editorials or personal reminders.
Page numbers are accurate and in order: Many producers give a script
the five-and-dime treatment, meaning that they read the first five pages
and the last ten to assess the story. They’re primarily looking for scripts
that are between 90 and 120 pages. If your page numbers are incorrect,
they may assume that your story is longer or shorter than it really is.
282
Part IV: Selling Your Script to Show Business
27_345405-ch19.qxp 5/22/08 7:45 PM Page 282
No missing pages: You want your readers immersed in your story.
Imagine their frustration if part of that story is missing.
No quote marks around dialogue: Dialogue is only quoted in your treat-
ment, never in a script. It has its own placement on the page that makes
quotes unnecessary. The only exception to this rule would be if the
character is quoting someone within the dialogue. (See Chapter 15 for
formatting details.)
No camera angles: Camera angles fall into the director and cinematogra-
pher’s domains. They will include them in the shooting script, which is
the production version of your screenplay. They also clutter up your
page and distract a reader from your story.
Scenes are not numbered: A director will number your scenes later, in a
shooting draft of the script. This is your story draft; numbers and tech-
nical notations quickly become distracting.
Font is 12-point Courier: This is the standard screenwriting font utilized
for timing purposes. In Courier, each page of script equates to around a
minute of screen time.
No treatments or synopsis included unless requested: If they’ve
requested your script, send your script. You want them reading the
whole story if possible, so don’t send a synopsis, or they’re likely to
read that instead.
Work is undated or recently dated (unless registered with a copyright
office): It’s always a good idea to offer the illusion that your story is a
new one. If executives see that your script was written ten years ago,
they may assume that it has been rejected for ten years and will shy
away from purchasing it themselves. So if you have a date on your cover
page, make sure that it’s a recent one.
No use of bold print or italics: Bold print tends to distract a reader,
and italics are barely discernable in Courier. If you want to emphasize
a certain line, write the scene that suggests that emphasis or direct the
reader with a line of description. The only exception to this rule would
be if a character is quoting someone or singing lyrics to a song. In those
cases, you can use italics or quotes around the material.
After you scan through the script twice yourself, I suggest handing the script
to at least two other people. One might read for form and spelling; the other
for content. Paying a script analyst to read your work is another option. In
addition to proofreading, script analysts often provide commentary on the
strength of your story and its components. Fees can range from $75 to $200 or
more, but the feedback may be well worth the cost. However, make sure that
the analyst you choose comes recommended from another writer or editor
who you trust. The Writer’s Guild of America and the Hollywood Creative
Directory may provide suggestions for legitimate script analysts as well.
283
Chapter 19: Before You Send It: Premarketing Considerations
27_345405-ch19.qxp 5/22/08 7:45 PM Page 283
Front-page news
Your script’s appearance should scream that it’s professional and direct, and
nothing conveys that more clearly than the title page. The number-one rule
here is no cover art, please. Draw attention to your ability as a writer, not as
an illustrator. The title page includes your working title, centered and spaced
one-fourth of the way down. Some writers put the title in quotes. Just below
that, include your name. Put your contact information in the bottom-right
corner. Include your address, phone number, and e-mail, if desired. Agencies
should be able to reach you if they like your script. Scripts without return
addresses are generally thrown out. If you have an agent, she’ll include her
information on the cover as well. Only date your work if you’ve registered it
with the copyright office and update that copyright as necessary. No agency
wants to read a 7-year-old script, after all. You needn’t include anything else
on the title page. Figure 19-1 shows a sample page.
Screenplays are printed on 8.5 x 11–inch (standard letter size) white paper
and then three-hole punched and bound with 1
1
/
4
- to 1
1
/
2
-inch brass brads. You
can purchase both the paper and the brads at any local office supply store,
and if you’re planning on writing a lot, I suggest buying in bulk. Brads tradi-
tionally go through the top and bottom holes, leaving the middle hole empty.
That’s the current trend, but it’s not a requirement. I suggest buying them in
bulk as well. Choosing a cover for your work is optional. I prefer the clear
"A Sample Title"
by Laura Schellhardt
Laura Schellhardt
123 Success Ave.
Success, CA 12345
(123) 456-7890
Figure 19-1:
A sample
title page.
284
Part IV: Selling Your Script to Show Business
27_345405-ch19.qxp 5/22/08 7:45 PM Page 284
plastic covers, something to shield your work from the numerous hands that
you hope it will pass through. It’s not necessary, though, so if you do cover
your work, make it simple.
Protecting Your Work
Eventually, after the script’s been through readers, proofreaders, and revi-
sions, you’ll be ready to send it. The only thing left to do is to register it. Bear
in mind that you can’t protect everything. Titles, names, short phrases, slo-
gans, historical data, ideas, concepts, and anything within public domain are
up for grabs. You can and should protect your polished draft, though. Here
are a few ways to do it.
The Library of Congress
The current law states that works are automatically copyrighted from the
moment of conception. In other words, you own the material as you write it.
The following procedure then involves registering that copyright, or making it
official. The traditional way to register works is with the U.S. Copyright office.
To do so, you need send only a completed application, a $45 payment; $35
online), and a copy of your script to the following address:
The Library of Congress
Copyright Office
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC. 20559-6000
You may download an application from its Web site (www.copyright.gov), or
you can ask it to mail you a form. You’ll receive a notice of registration after
four to five months. Under the law, your work is protected from the moment
that it receives your application to 70 years after your death. The law used to
state that after you’d registered a work with the Library of Congress, you were
required to place the copyright date on the script. That’s no longer the case,
although it still recommends it. Because it can take so long to receive proof of
copyright, however, I recommend that you send your script registered mail
with return receipt so that you have proof of the sent date while you’re waiting.
The Writer’s Guild of America
Most established writers register their work with the Writer’s Guild of America
(WGA). There are two Guild offices, one on the East Coast and one on the
West. Writers living east of the Mississippi River register with the New York
office, and writers living west of the river register in Los Angeles. The
addresses of both offices are as follows:
285
Chapter 19: Before You Send It: Premarketing Considerations
27_345405-ch19.qxp 5/22/08 7:45 PM Page 285
The Writer’s Guild of America, West
7000 W. Third St.
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(323) 951-4000 (within S. California)
(800) 548-4532 (outside S. California)
The Writer’s Guild of America, East
555 W. 57th St., Suite 1230
New York, NY 10019
(212) 767-7800
The current registration fee is $22, and it protects your script for five years.
However prices change annually, so be sure to check its Web site at www.
wga.org for updated information or to register your script online. The WGA
offers other services to nonmembers as well. In addition to holding your
script for five years, the WGA will
Register treatments, outlines, and a synopsis.
Provide a list of agencies that participate with the Guild.
Provide a script library open for perusal.
Arbitrate artistic disputes over credit and ownership.
Provide standard contracts if your script is optioned by a studio or
producer who participates with the Guild.
After five years’ time, you may retrieve your work or register it again.
If you choose only one method of registering your copyright, I recommend
this one. The contacts and aid that the Guild provides are more than helpful,
especially for beginning writers in search of representation.
The “poor-man’s copyright”
Writers have used this method as an initial protection against theft. After you
have a draft, either mail one to yourself or visit the post office and ask it to
stamp and register it for you there. Whatever you do, don’t break the seal
once it’s registered. The idea is that if you suspect that your work has been
stolen, you have a script postmarked on the date that you completed the
work. I don’t recommend this method as your primary protection, but it
certainly doesn’t hurt. Because you officially copyright only polished or
published works, you might try this method with a first or second draft.
Whatever you do, register your material in some fashion prior to sending it.
Although most of Hollywood is more interested in purchasing your story than
stealing it, you can never be too careful.
286
Part IV: Selling Your Script to Show Business
27_345405-ch19.qxp 5/22/08 7:45 PM Page 286
Chapter 20
Getting Your Screenplay Noticed
In This Chapter
Creating the package deal
Pitching your script like a pro
Finding an agent
Approaching production companies
Knowing what happens after you get their attention
C
ongratulations, you’re ready to launch yourself into the industry. You
have a polished script and a steadily growing contact log, and you’re
fairly market savvy. Now, all you need is what I call a “willing and able” —
someone who’s willing to read your script and able to generate work with it.
This person may be an agent, a producer, a director, or a star — you don’t
know yet. But you’re about to find out.
Steel yourself for a bumpy but enlightening ride. This part of the process
involves risk and rejection. Behind every “yes” lies at least ten “nos,” and not
every “yes” will land you a job. However, you’re also armed with a positive
attitude and an unflagging determination, right? Make the promise to yourself
now: You will do all that you can, and you will not give up.
This chapter helps you strengthen your marketing design and commercialize
your product. It also guides you through the letters, phone calls, and meet-
ings that stand between you and your “willing and able.” Finally, this chapter
touches upon what to expect when (not if) you do sell a script.
Designing Your Own Package
A film’s package includes anything and everything that makes it commercially
(which means financially) attractive to agents, producers, and the audience.
Some of these elements may be
A high-concept story with low-budget needs.
Any director or actors already attached to the project.
28_345405-ch20.qxp 5/22/08 7:45 PM Page 287
Star potential. (Does the film have great roles for Tom Hanks or Meryl
Streep?)
Possible advertising spin-offs. (What products might it inspire?)
Universal appeal.
Current Hollywood interest. (Is there a buzz on the project?)
A resemblance to other financially successful films.
The producer usually assembles the package, but you should consider it as
well. It will affect how you pitch your story to executives when you land a
meeting, and if you can attach people to your project in advance, your story
is more likely to sell right away. So consider whether you know of a specific
director who might like the material. Perhaps you were writing with actors in
mind — would they appeal to a mass audience? Can you come up with at
least two other films that yours resembles? Answer these questions now
before producers surprise you with them later. Selling your story is about
predicting what the buyers are after and convincing them that you can pro-
vide it. Knowing the package is a step in that direction.
Before you begin the process — and this is important — you should be clear
on what is sacred in your script. By sacred, I mean what components of your
story do you hope to protect above all? The characters? The theme? The out-
come? Film is a collaborative medium, and during collaboration, your script
will undoubtedly change. Directors will add shots as necessary, editors will
condense sequences, and actors may request dialogue changes. The time
may come, heaven forbid, when they hire another writer to tweak the whole
script. You’re going to lose something along the way.
However, you can certainly highlight elements you want to preserve in your
pitch, in your query letters, and in any synopsis you hand in. So know what’s
sacred now and plan your marketing strategies accordingly.
Highlighting the universal
Agents and studio executives want the same thing — a writer with universal
appeal. You need to convince them that you’re just such a writer. What does
that mean? It means that your work will sell to a mass audience. It entices the
college student and her parents. It speaks to the human condition. Executives
look for that ability in your sales pitch and in your spec script, should they
decide to read it. So glance through the script beforehand with the following
thoughts in mind. Universal stories:
288
Part IV: Selling Your Script to Show Business
28_345405-ch20.qxp 5/22/08 7:45 PM Page 288
Have a hero or heroes worth rooting for.
Provide a goal or a dream for the hero to pursue.
Evoke passions, such as fear, envy, joy, hatred, hope, lust, and so on.
Include formidable obstacles and opponents.
Offer something familiar: a location, a theme, character relationships.
Suggest elements at risk or at stake.
Pay particular attention to that last item. You’re likely to be asked what’s at
stake in your film, and that answer may very well be the selling point.
So what will be lost in your story if the protagonist doesn’t succeed? It’s most
likely one or the following things:
Someone’s life (Titanic)
Someone’s reputation or integrity (Unforgiven)
Another character’s love or admiration (When Harry Met Sally)
A sense of order or harmony (Lord of the Rings)
Precious objects or information (Raiders of the Lost Ark)
Hopefully, your story combines several of these elements. They usually
ensure you an audience larger than one socio-economic group of people.
When you discover and record the universal elements, you can then summa-
rize them in a catchy phrase or two. This phrase may later become your
pitch. Is your film
A coming-of-age story?
A family reunion?
A fight to preserve integrity, reputation, or personal freedom?
A story of revenge or betrayal?
A quest for redemption?
A story of love in the face of hate?
A triumph of human will and ingenuity?
A “from rags to riches” adventure?
If these phrases sound like clichés, it’s because they are. Most films fit into
one of these categories, so they’re familiar to audiences. Yet each grouping
includes hundreds of stories that differ in tone, content, and scope. Billy
Elliot and Back to the Future are both triumphs of the human spirit. West
Side Story and Life is Beautiful both champion love in the face of hate. Your
film isn’t less unique if it falls into one of these groups; it’s marketable.
289
Chapter 20: Getting Your Screenplay Noticed
28_345405-ch20.qxp 5/22/08 7:45 PM Page 289
Gaining the competitive edge
In order to push ahead of the competition, you have to concentrate your
efforts on portions of the market that your work seems to match. I’m speak-
ing both about the public market and the industry market here. Imagine the
ideal audience for your script. How old is he? What stories excite him? Does
he like small- or large-scale films? What hasn’t he seen in a long time? Where
do his values seem to lie? How should you approach him?
If you give the public something that it wants, it’ll advertise your work. If you
give a producer something that he wants, he’ll buy your work. Either way,
you win.
At the same time you’re choosing a market for your work, consider the com-
petition therein. Other writers want the same job; other writers pitch to that
market. What makes you unique? Is it your professional background? Former
police officers and journalists intrigue studio executives, for example. These
jobs require a person to track stories down, often from unlikely sources. So if
you once held this kind of a position, executives assume that you can do the
same on the page. Perhaps it’s your cultural background. My Big Fat Greek
Wedding is successful, in part, because the writer is able to poke fun at her
own Greek heritage. Maybe it’s who you know. Referrals are the number-one
reason that new writers are read. Whatever it is, find something that distin-
guishes you from other writers in your market.
Another way to fine-tune your salesmanship is to imply both economical and
emotional benefits. If your film has a great female role, make that a selling
point. A great female role draws box-office revenue (an economical benefit for
the company) and makes the film easier to market (an emotional benefit for
the producer). The same strategy applies when courting an agent. A positive
attitude means that you’ll be more likely to work in the industry (an economi-
cal benefit for the agency), and you’ll be easier to work with in general (an
emotional benefit for the agent). If you advertise both qualities in yourself
and the script, you’re more likely to land the job.
Considering the reader
Very few agents or producers actually read the work that comes in. Most
scripts are handed to professional readers who then type up a coverage (a
brief synopsis and evaluation) of the story and pass that up for consideration.
Coverage also includes a line for the reader to recommend your work or pass
on it. If the story earns good coverage, the agent might read the first ten pages.
You can’t control everything about how the reader receives your script. The
reader may be in a bad mood when she reads it, or despise screwball come-
dies, or be writing a script of her own based on a similar premise. You can’t
290
Part IV: Selling Your Script to Show Business
28_345405-ch20.qxp 5/22/08 7:45 PM Page 290
do anything about that. However, knowing what readers are trained to look
for in a script can be helpful. If you know what might make good coverage,
you can work on emphasizing those elements in advance. Figure 20-1 pre-
sents the first page of a standard coverage form.
Other examples vary in format, but they generally include the same information.
The reader follows the front page of the form that’s shown in Figure 20-1 with
a detailed synopsis of the story and a commentary on the overall content.
Success Films
Coverage Sheet
Title: The Coverage Sheet
Author: Jane Doe
Time: 1965
Location: Rhode Island
Genre: Drama/Coming-of-age
Form: Spec
Page: 110
Draft/ Date: 1-11-01
Represented by:
Submitted by:
Submitted to: John Doe
Date Received: 2-2-02
Date Covered: 3-3-02
Log Line: a young and rather high-strung screenwriter rises to stardom
by slaughtering the competition, literally.
Comment Summary: An edge-of-your-seat thriller with a surprising turn
of events. There might be a story here if the writer spends more time on
character and less on gory detail.
Concept
Characterization
Dialogue
Cinematic Structure
Story Line
Setting/ Prod Values
Excellent
Pass for Features Consider for Features
X
Good Fair Poor
Figure 20-1:
The first
page of a
standard
coverage
form.
291
Chapter 20: Getting Your Screenplay Noticed
28_345405-ch20.qxp 5/22/08 7:45 PM Page 291