I made my first short film in 1999. It got sold for TV broadcast. Selling your first short is almost unheard of. Since then I have other shorts up to 40 minutes long on TV, and have won 14 awards at festivals. To win awards, the writing has to be good.
Now I want to sell one or more of my feature scripts to Hollywood. I found out it is hard to do, but not impossible. I do know that I am on the right track with my huge email list and the tips I share in my ebook. I offer it now at a low price to help others and to help with my bills. I confidently offer it with a money back guarantee because I know it is a good deal. Spending just $5.95 on this could change your whole life.
Sincerely, Steve Cosmic
The article below got banned from a reddit group. It is a huge group where they talk non stop about perfecting your script and getting recomended to an agent. Yeah sure, like I can call someone with Hollywood connections, and ask him or her to recommend me. Also, the moderator didn't like my writing style. He said the grammar was so bad he couldn't understand it. I said I can't see any sense in spending a lot of time polishing a blog comment. (Is my grammar that bad, for a blog post?)
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Finding an agent or a producer, seems like the biggest problem.
If there is such a thing as a perfect script, it is useless if it stays in your computer until you get a new computer and then gets put on an external hard drive and almost forgotten. Printing a hard copy and keeping it in your filing cabinet doesn't help either. Also, I think, believe, and have heard, that every script ever produced gets changed a bit before it is produced. This can be during the planning stages, or just a few minutes or hours or days before a scene is filmed.
What I'm getting at, is if you have a unique concept or something very unusual, different or weird even, and you've written a script about it, just stop. Next spend time, energy and money even, on finding an agent or producer.
When you start looking for an agent or producer, and read about how to do it, you'll hear a bunch of blah blah blah about networking, creating relationships, and researching agents and producers and sending it only to the right ones. Oh, and they also tell you to get someone to recommend you, and presumably this is by networking. Well, what if you don't know someone who knows someone who knows someone who can recommend you? I sure don't.
And anyone I'm likely to "network" with doesn't know anybody either. Maybe there is someone here who identifies with this?
There is an option, scorned by "experts" who have never had anything produced, but have read everything about how you are "supposed" to do it. That option is making mass emailings to lists of agents and producers. It starts with a catchy query letter. Yes, most will go into the junk folder, but every once in a while someone might like your query and then ask for a logline. This is what I've been doing, and I am getting requests for loglines. I haven't sold a screenplay yet, but this has been the most productive approach for me so far. I plan to keep doing it. I recently sent a query letter to about 900 agents and got a request for loglines, and I sent them 5. As their reply to me was kind and serious, I took the liberty of making my loglines a bit longer than "recommended". I am expecting replies now.
Another thought by me.... on feedback. Think about the script for Edward Scissorhands. If the writer asked for people on reddit to read it, would people offering "improvements" really help? After the producer decided to produce it, how many changes were made before shooting it? I don't know of course. In a nutshell, I think it is better to think unique, rather than thinking perfection. The money people will make changes, that's how it is. After you have had some big screenwriter sales, you might be able to insist on no changes.
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About hiring script reader "experts".
Here are some things I learned when I sent my first feature screenplay to some "experts" for feedback. I learned a valuable lesson, and stopped doing it. Later I learned how to get valuable, real world, feedback for free, and I'll share how below.
What I learned is that people who charge money to read scripts, feel an obligation to give ideas to "improve" the script. They want to justify their fee. The next thing I learned is that any changes they suggest will make the story different. Then I realized that different does not necessarily mean better! Next I realized that the people I paid had less imagination than me.
So I quit hiring such people and started making short films. I put many on youtube of course, and even sold some to broadcast TV. That was around 2002 and 2003, before there were streaming channels as there are now. I got a few hundred bucks for each film, sold to a short film TV channel.
After a while, I had hundreds of videos on youtube. And here's the exciting part, which will pertain to your scripts too. First I learned that with youtube analytics you can get something called audience retention. How long people watch before they lose interest, and WHEN they lose interest. You can also find out when they lingered on a few words of dialogue, or rewatched part of the video. You can also find out how your video compares to other similar videos. Like have you got a hit, or an average video?
This is more valuable than some book learning comments by a so called expert. And it's free!
Next, I tried something which will pertain to you, and your script or scripts.
I hired an actress to do a cold read of one of my comedies. She read for all the characters, and narration about the locations too. And she didn't just read in a monotone, she acted out the different roles as best she could, including the male characters. The result was very entertaining! And from youtube audience retention data I could see which parts people liked the most, and the least.
So here's some ideas on what you can do, and it's all free. First, open a youtube channel if you haven't already. It's completely free and easy. Next put up a short video... almost anything...... use your phone and record your cat or dog or traffic on a street, or anything. Upload it to youtube and wait 24 to 48 hours. Then find youtube analytics and audience retention. If you haven't done this before, it is very interesting. Some parts which you thought were the best parts might get the worst response for instance.
OK, that was just to introduce you to having a youtube channel and analytics if you don't already know.
The next step is to read all or part of your script on camera, or hire an actor, and upload it. Use a tripod and decent lighting and of course get good audio. Then wait 24 plus hours and you will be amazed at what you will learn from youtube analytics. You'll learn the strong and weak parts of your script, better than you can learn from a paid reader.
What you might want to do instead is pick two or 3 scenes and blend them into a short film script, so there is a beginning, middle and an end.
However, you'll get the best feedback if you put up the full story. If you are afraid of having your story stolen, think of this: The average person, especially the average youtube person, is not a filmmaker with big money, who can make a real movie. Your story or concept is not likely to get stolen. Reality is your story or concept may already be in the works with a filmmaker or production company. And you can take the video down after you learn what you need to learn.
Or you can send it to professional readers and follow their suggestions until you can't recognize the original story anymore.
Sincerely,
Steve Cosmic.
Screenwriter. Former bushpilot, inventor, industrial designer, hypnotherapist,
author, father, grandfather, and survivor of an abusive childhood. All of my past, is in my present, which includes all of my screenplays, and this website.
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Here's my reply to someone on facebook who posted a long comment defending her networking efforts. She said some of the people she networks with will rise in the industry and they will be able to help her in the future.
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In my experience going to meetups to network, the people were beginners. IE: Nobodies. Considering that the success rate for writers, actors, new directors, new crew people, is very very low, it means you are spending time with people who will mostly never be able to help you in any way. The odds are terrible. Less than 1%. How many networking events have you gone to, over how many years, and has anyone ever introduced you to an agent who read your logline, one pager, or script? I just checked my google analytics a few minutes ago, and I have had 48 views of my one pager, with the average view time being 5 minutes and 57 seconds. My page is exclusive, it can be seen ONLY by the agents I mailed to. They are all agents employed by large agencies, mostly in LA and Hollywood area. PS: This is 48 reads of my one pager in 3 days since I started sending out the list. (I send out to the 800 odd names in 3 batches, one batch per day.) I turn 78 on February 3rd. I haven't got time to network for years, and years, hoping that someone I chat with will advance enough to be able to help me some day. And that they'll remember me. And that the one or two agents they might recommend me to will actually look at my pitch. You're counting on a nobody, somehow becoming a somebody, and helping you, years from now. Good luck.
This could be the best $5.95 you've ever spent.
