How To Shop Your Movie Script

Pro Movie Writer © 2010

Selling a screenplay is like selling anything: You can’t take “no” for an answer.

If you took a job selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door, and you had to sell a vacuum no matter what, what would you do? Even if the model you sold wasn’t the finest on the market, even if you had no selling experience, what attitude would you adopt to ensure landing that vital sale?

How about this approach? You tell yourself, “I’m gonna bang on doors until someone buys one of these damned things.” That’s it. Keep knocking on doors, showing what you have, and asking for the order. Most people won’t even open the front door. Many more will tell you to beat it. But, sooner or later, someone will buy. Don’t take “no” for an answer.

A pair of writers from Pennsylvania sold a comedy script last year. But before it sold, as is nearly always the case, no one expressed any interest at all in the script.

One of these writers, stating that he was getting fired from every real job he had, relentlessly sent out queries time after time. He refused to take no for an answer. One morning, he emailed an agent who was stuck outside her kid’s school, waiting, bored, with nothing to do. For the first time ever when queried this way, she said, “Send it.” She just wanted to kill some time. He sent it, she read it. Then she sold it for over one million dollars.

Write a great script or have someone write it for you, then show it until it sells.

So, who do you show it to? Agents and producers. Where do you find their contact information? It’s now remarkably easy. There are various books and databases you can buy or tap into. Perhaps the most convenient is the Hollywood Creative Directory. For about 20 bucks a month, you can subscribe to their listings of agents, producers and the like. Just find their website online.

Then show the honchos your work. Keep showing your work. And don’t take no for an answer!

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Quick Tips for Writing Your Script

©2009 Pro Movie Writer.com

• Work from your Scene List, and tape a copy of your Sequences where you can refer to them as you write.
• Don’t create a cast of dozens. Keep your cast small and on screen.
• Remember: A Scene is not just an event.
• A scene has conflict and opposition.
• Is best written by thinking about whose scene it is, what the short term Goal for the character is in that scene, and what character opposes that goal and why.
• Example: Your Main Character has to raise money to help reach his Main Goal. He visits a friend who owes him money, hoping to collect. His goal is to collect money. His friend does not want to pay the Main Character. The friend’s goal is not to pay. The scene “belongs” to your hero. The opposition and conflict come from their two opposing goals.
• Enter scenes late.
• Example: A group business associates must make it to a big meeting. You don’t have to show every, or any, character driving up for the meeting.
• Get out early (you don’t have to show everyone saying goodbye).
• Move the story forward by revealing information to the Audience or to the Character or both (use a bit of each of these from scene to scene).

· Keep your dialog short (average a sentence or two) and don’t use complete sentences all the time.

· Don’t describe the characters ad nauseum or use excessive stage or camera directions. Make your script sharp and uncluttered.

· Keep your Hero as Active as possible, defining the action. Don’t have her constantly reacting to events or she will be passive and boring.

· Don’t always “sneak up” on the audience with surprises – sometimes, hinting at what is to come will make them anticipate the action and become more involved.

Excerpted from the Screenwriters Cheat Sheet

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How to Brainstorm Your Movie Script Idea

©2009 Pro Movie Writer.com

At http://promoviewriter.com/ we will write your screenplay for you. But first, you – and we – will need the very best description of what your movie script is all about.

Here’s how to do this without getting lost.

What is the Basic Concept?

You probably have this in mind already. Something like: “A gambling-addicted detective’s wife frames him for murder, and he must break out of jail to prove his innocence.” Try to make this very brief and specific. After you read the guidelines that follow, come back to this section and see how most of the information needed to lay out your idea can be outlined in a single sentence.

What is the Theme or Lesson?

Every good story gives moviegoers a lesson in life, usually as the main character himself gets a lesson in how to live. No, you should not bash the moviegoer over the head with a heavy-handed “moral,” but you do want the moviegoer to see the hero grow and learn how to be a better person.

Whose Story is It?

Who is the Hero? He or she doesn’t have to be a perfect Good Guy. In fact, most movie heroes have some issue that they must resolve in order to live as better people (review Theme, above). In “Tootsie,” the main character must learn to treat women better and not be so selfish. Even our framed detective, in the Basic Concept above, has some character flaw that may have contributed to his predicament. You’ll remember that he has a gambling problem. To solve his external problem of being framed, he must learn why he gambles and how it has affected his life.

What is the Hero’s Goal?

In our Basic Concept example above, the hero’s goal is quite clear: to prove his innocence. But in many of the ideas pitched to us at Pro Movie Writer, the goal is murky at best. Make certain that your main character has a clear, external goal. Don’t confuse the detective’s goal of clearing himself of the false charges against him with his internal need to grow and change by the film’s end.

Who or What is Will Oppose the Achievement of Those Goals?

Most movies feature a strong character (the Villain – but don’t make her a cartoon character!) who opposes the main goal of the hero. There can be more than one villain working in cahoots (perhaps our detective’s wife is involved with another detective who also wants the hero in prison). In some films, the opposition may be nature (“Twister”) or an institution, or even the hero himself. But there must be opposition! And the hero must try and fail again and again, due to that opposition, before achieving success at the end of the movie.

How Does the Hero Try to Reach His Goals – and Fail Repeatedly?

We mentioned this above, but this is where so many screenplays falter - there is no real conflict, nothing standing between the hero and his achieving his goals. Let’s say the hero learns she is going to inherit a fortune. She hops in her car and drives across country, is handed the money, and is happy. But we aren’t!

Try this: She hops in her car and it breaks down in Vegas in a rainstorm. She has no money and calls a cousin for assistance. He seems to help but we learn that he is next in line for the inheritance and wants her out of the way. He and his allies now make her quest a seemingly impossible one. Every plan she makes fails and with every step the danger escalates. As your audience both fears for her safety and hopes for the best outcome for her predicament, they will be on an emotional roller coaster. And that is why they paid their fifteen bucks to see your movie.

Think it Through & Prosper

Spend time outlining your project, just as you would lay out a blueprint before building your home, to assure that your movie script is tightly constructed, engages the audience’s emotions, and is something that producers and agents will want to buy. Good luck.

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