Okay I am currently writing my screenplay. Now this has probably been asked a million times, but what do I do when I am done. Like step by step.
What to do after writing a script
- Thread starter DesperadoMan17
- Start date
Is your screenplay indie or big-budget Hollywood? If the latter, then you obviously want to sell it.
After writing my first screenplay (action Sci-Fi), I thought it was great.
I thought it would sell and I'd be able to see it on the big screen.
The reality of modern day Hollywood is very different.
Many Hollywood movies costs $60m plus. So to sell my movie would have to be good enough for someone to invest $60m + marketing would cost an additional 50%
...that's $90m!
Who is going to invest $90m in an unknown writer with no credits???
It does occasionally happen - Tyler Marceca's The Disciple Program is a great example, but the reality of Hollywood is that 99% of movies are written by people with solid screenwriting experience and production credits.
Hollywood is also scared of original work. Original work has no ready-made market. So execs have been purchasing the rights to books, comics etc that immediately give the movie a multi-million people following. Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Iron Man etc.
The big issue with my first script was that I thought it was great. It wasn't.
I'm five scripts in now and my screenwriting is hugely better.
I would not try to sell it or get an agent straight away.
I'd enter it into:
Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting
http://www.oscars.org/awards/nicholl/
If it's a great script, it should hopefully do well in that contest. If it places highly in the Nicholl, you will get industry read requests.
But writing a great script is very very difficult.
If you want professional advice/feedback on your script, these folks will give you great notes for $99. Disclaimer: I do some paid work for them.
http://reelauthors.com/
After writing my first screenplay (action Sci-Fi), I thought it was great.
I thought it would sell and I'd be able to see it on the big screen.
The reality of modern day Hollywood is very different.
Many Hollywood movies costs $60m plus. So to sell my movie would have to be good enough for someone to invest $60m + marketing would cost an additional 50%
...that's $90m!
Who is going to invest $90m in an unknown writer with no credits???
It does occasionally happen - Tyler Marceca's The Disciple Program is a great example, but the reality of Hollywood is that 99% of movies are written by people with solid screenwriting experience and production credits.
Hollywood is also scared of original work. Original work has no ready-made market. So execs have been purchasing the rights to books, comics etc that immediately give the movie a multi-million people following. Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Iron Man etc.
The big issue with my first script was that I thought it was great. It wasn't.
I'm five scripts in now and my screenwriting is hugely better.
I would not try to sell it or get an agent straight away.
I'd enter it into:
Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting
http://www.oscars.org/awards/nicholl/
If it's a great script, it should hopefully do well in that contest. If it places highly in the Nicholl, you will get industry read requests.
But writing a great script is very very difficult.
If you want professional advice/feedback on your script, these folks will give you great notes for $99. Disclaimer: I do some paid work for them.
http://reelauthors.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By0pMnhl9Q0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6LUZdt7apc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6LUZdt7apc
After you are positive that your script is the best your script can be... and you are sure that there IS a market for your story. Safely store it on a 'safe' hard drive for few months. Try to forget about it. Clean your brain -- move forward. After a few months go by, read it as if you are reading it for the first time. If you still think it is a fantastic script and story... copyright it with the Library of Congress ASAP. Protect your time and effort!
Then go out into the world and pitch it to all that will listen. IF you think your story/script needs more work -- do whatever it takes. Do a read through. Let other's read your script and critique. Have thick skin and learn... Quality writing is not easy. There are thousands out there harping how good their script is. Everyone is your competition.
Good luck to you (I really mean that) -- but chances are -- unless you have your foot in the door of some one important in Hollywood, (or are filthy rich) you & your script are going to go unnoticed.
There are the competitions. Good luck. There are the pitch festivals. Good luck. They all charge. And unless you live in Southern Calif... the trip to LA LA LAND CAN and WILL be expensive. You can write letters... make phone calls... Every once in a while, someone unknown DOES break through, but the roads to script success are covered with the literary corpses of many who never got to first base. IT IS A TOUGH FIELD to break into.
What ever you do -- don't market your script if it is NOT ready.
Once again, good luck. It's a cold world out there... and there are wolves!
Then go out into the world and pitch it to all that will listen. IF you think your story/script needs more work -- do whatever it takes. Do a read through. Let other's read your script and critique. Have thick skin and learn... Quality writing is not easy. There are thousands out there harping how good their script is. Everyone is your competition.
Good luck to you (I really mean that) -- but chances are -- unless you have your foot in the door of some one important in Hollywood, (or are filthy rich) you & your script are going to go unnoticed.
There are the competitions. Good luck. There are the pitch festivals. Good luck. They all charge. And unless you live in Southern Calif... the trip to LA LA LAND CAN and WILL be expensive. You can write letters... make phone calls... Every once in a while, someone unknown DOES break through, but the roads to script success are covered with the literary corpses of many who never got to first base. IT IS A TOUGH FIELD to break into.
What ever you do -- don't market your script if it is NOT ready.
Once again, good luck. It's a cold world out there... and there are wolves!
I forgot to add that first drafts are usually not great...
A lot of screenwriters do a first draft... Read it a few times... Let a week or 3 pass, think about how their script could be improved...
Then they work on a re-draft. The changes may be minor or major.
All my scripts are in third plus draft state and much better for it.
A lot of screenwriters do a first draft... Read it a few times... Let a week or 3 pass, think about how their script could be improved...
Then they work on a re-draft. The changes may be minor or major.
All my scripts are in third plus draft state and much better for it.
Hold a script reading with actors.
Get notes from a script consultant. Finding a good one in your genre can take time.
See if you can sell it, if not produce it.
I sold a short script on the New England Filmmakers web site. It got made into a vampire short, before getting turned into a web series.
Shoot for the indie market. Even studio people have a hard time selling screenplays to the studios.
Get notes from a script consultant. Finding a good one in your genre can take time.
See if you can sell it, if not produce it.
I sold a short script on the New England Filmmakers web site. It got made into a vampire short, before getting turned into a web series.
Shoot for the indie market. Even studio people have a hard time selling screenplays to the studios.
See when I think of a nobody breaking in the business I think of Quentin Taratino and Robert Rodriguez. I made it look so easy getting "known". And im not saying give me give me. Its just tough to realize that its that hard to get noticed.
What was your guys experience after you wrote your first script? Did you shop it around?
My first script was far from good enough to shop around. I didn't fully
understand that until I finished my fifth. I'm glad I never shopped my
first script.
After I wrote my first script I didn't know how or where to "shop it
around" - this was in the days before internet message boards - so I
did nothing with it. I continued writing, continued making short films
and learned more and more about the business of movies.
By the time I made my first sale (to television) I had written seven
screenplays, directed a dozen music videos, three short films and two
features. That first script sits - never shopped around because it isn't
good enough.
This is the Dunning-Kruger effect. When you're new to a discipline you haven't yet developed the necessary skills to accurately asses the quality of your own work, and tend to significantly over-estimate the quality. The interesting thing is that this relationship can actually invert as you gain competence - you start to assume a higher level of competence in others and thus judge your own work more harshly in comparison.
Loud Orange Cat has the right idea... personally I have a bottle of Johnny Walker Green Label that's whispering like a siren to be freed from her imprisonment and warmed by my hands.
I suggest you step back from the computer/typewriter and take a few days off. Then pick up the script, read it from start to finish (slowly and every single word) and start to rewrite it. If you haven't done any rewrites yet, this is where you have to 'kill all your darlings'.
My first completed script (I think it was for Vega$, starring Robert Urich) landed me an agent with a B ranked agency in Beverly Hills. Didn't go anywhere, and subsequent scripts for Fantasy Island, TJ Hooker, Hunter, A Team, Riptide (although I probably shouldn't admit that one), Silk Stalkings were all read by story editors/producers, but none of them were picked up. Hollywood is full of good writers, I was one of them. But they're looking for great ones. Keep writing, keep perfecting your craft and your product (and it IS a 'product'), and never give up. I gave them Fords, they wanted Chevys. And that's how it goes.
I suggest you step back from the computer/typewriter and take a few days off. Then pick up the script, read it from start to finish (slowly and every single word) and start to rewrite it. If you haven't done any rewrites yet, this is where you have to 'kill all your darlings'.
My first completed script (I think it was for Vega$, starring Robert Urich) landed me an agent with a B ranked agency in Beverly Hills. Didn't go anywhere, and subsequent scripts for Fantasy Island, TJ Hooker, Hunter, A Team, Riptide (although I probably shouldn't admit that one), Silk Stalkings were all read by story editors/producers, but none of them were picked up. Hollywood is full of good writers, I was one of them. But they're looking for great ones. Keep writing, keep perfecting your craft and your product (and it IS a 'product'), and never give up. I gave them Fords, they wanted Chevys. And that's how it goes.
Learn about business models, sales, hiring a team, and raising capital.
It's laughable to even a consider that you need Hollywood these days.
It's laughable to even a consider that you need Hollywood these days.
Learn about business models, sales, hiring a team, and raising capital.
It's laughable to even a consider that you need Hollywood these days (especially when you create your own franchise.)
It's laughable to even a consider that you need Hollywood these days (especially when you create your own franchise.)