chance? Read their stuff? Give them that money!? Why does Hollywood only play ball with their own players?
Well, let me ask you a question. Why haven’ t you gone over to Kickstarter, my dear screenwriting brethren, and invested in any of these upstart movies people are putting together? I’ m not talking about giving them a thousand dollars. Or even a hundred dollars. Why haven’ t you given them, say, 10 bucks? I don’ t read minds but I’ m pretty sure your answer is something like:“ Because I don’ t know those people.” And for that reason, you don’ t care about them or what they’ re doing. I mean, who knows if they even know what they’ re doing? Why would you shell out ten bucks for something so uncertain? Ah-ha! Let that obvious stance sink in for a moment. Now ask yourself the same question about your script, but from a producer’ s point of view. Why should they read or buy your screenplay? They don’ t have any inkling of whether you know what you’ re doing or not. Why would they give you 2 hours of their time or 300,000 dollars of their money? You may say,“ Well 2 hours is not a lot of time!” It isn’ t? How long does it take before you’ ve ditched one of those Kickstarter pages? 30 seconds? 20? I bet you’ re not meticulously reading every little detail, going through every single prize, watching the pitch video from start to finish. Heck, chances are you made a ten second glance and you were out.
You see, with Kickstarter, we the people visiting these pages are the( potential) producers. We decide if something is worthy or isn’ t. When someone like Zach Braff comes along, someone who’ s proven himself by making a good movie, we’ re way more likely to give him money because he’ s proven he can do it. But when somebody we’ ve never heard of before pitches us something, there’ s no way we’ re giving away our hard-earned money. We simply don’ t know if this guy can pull it off.
That, my friends, is how producers are looking at you. Each individual script you write and send out there is like its own little Kickstarter campaign. And just like the Kickstarter campaigns you don’ t give a shit about because you don’ t know those guys, they’ re doing the same. You can’ t blame them because all they’ re doing is what all of us do every day. We filter out the junk. We choose movies based on our familiarity with the people involved. Even if you’ re one
of the lucky ones and you get a producer to actually read your script and actually LIKE it, you still have no established record. So instead of going with you, the random guy, they bet on the sure thing – the previously successful book or graphic novel or video game.
Now you may think I’ m trying to depress the shit out of you. As I read back through this post, it certainly sounds that way. But the truth is, the Kickstarter approach can actually help you write and market your next script. Ask yourself, what kind of Kickstarter pages( that DON’ T have proven people at the helm) might get you to invest money? Probably people with a really put-together professional Kickstarter page for one, right? A clean synopsis. A well stated business plan. Someone with a really great movie idea. Someone who probably posts one of their previous short movies and it looks amazing, or they post some pre-viz work for this project that looks stunning – stuff that gives you confidence these guys are capable of making something great, right?
Well, why not take that exact same approach and apply it to the writing and selling of your current screenplay? 1) Choose an original marketable concept 2) Execute that concept 3) Write a query letter that excitedly teases your script and demonstrates your professionalism. If you fail on any of these fronts, it’ s very likely you won’ t sell your screenplay. So the next time you complain that Hollywood doesn’ t care, hop over to Kickstarter and ask,“ Why don’ t I care about them?” Put yourself in those producer shoes and ask why you’ re not contributing your hard-earned money to these people( i. e. the idea’ s stupid, they can’ t spell, they look unprofessional) and make sure you’ re not making the same mistakes when you’ re writing your script, pitching your script, or sending out query letters. I can’ t promise this approach will end up in a sale. But I CAN promise it will give you your best possible shot at one. Good luck!.
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