A pitchfest is just what it sounds like: an intense, anxiety-producing opportunity to talk to industry insiders about your script. Selling Your Script at PitchfestsĮver attended a writing conference with a pitch component? Some say that writing conferences got the idea from Hollywood pitchfests. Their motto is “always be writing” every piece you write opens doors to other jobs, and the process feeds on itself. Garant and Lennon have no patience for the writer who’s hanging all his dreams on one brilliant screenplay.
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Instead, focus on how you’ll write a movie that studios love, which must be one thing, and one thing only: entertaining.
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In perhaps the most BS-free book ever on screenwriting, Writing Movies for Fun and Profit, by industry vets Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon (writers of Night at the Museum), you can find the following warning: “A guy who talks about screenwriting but who’s never sold a screenplay is not a screenwriting guru, he’s a lecture circuit bullshit artist.” In a nutshell, they advise that writers stay away from gurus who are prone to blathering on about that heartfelt story that needs to be told. Scriptwriter Jeanne Bowerman, editor of Script magazine, told me the most valuable part of her writing process was finding and working with a mentor. In Hollywood lingo, notes are ideas or revision suggestions about the work it’s critical to be able to accept feedback, because screenwriting is a very collaborative medium. One of the pros of working with a consultant is that you begin to learn what the studios look for, particularly in rewrites, which means beginning to understand notes. In the movie, Nicholas Cage’s character, a struggling writer, attends an industry seminar ( that you can attend in real life) by the infamous Robert McKee, author of the bestselling writing guide Story.
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Should You Use Script Consultants and Coaches?Īnyone who’s seen Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman’s film Adaptation (2002) has some familiarity with the business that’s sprung up around screenwriters seeking guidance on improving their scripts. You must have a spec script to start playing, and it needs to be between 100 and 110 correctly formatted pages for a comedy (a little more for a drama). Remember: An unknown writer cannot sell an idea. However, if you don’t at least play, you can’t ever win, so let’s look at the most common ways that scriptwriters try to get in the game. Pitching your spec with the limited intention of landing an option or sale for that exact story is nearly guaranteed to be an exercise in frustration. Put another way, a spec script’s job is primarily to show off you and your writing chops so you can build a career out of paid screenwriting gigs. If you still have stars in your eyes after reflecting on your chances, there’s yet another reality to consider: the process of selling your spec script-an unsolicited, uncommissioned work-is far more likely to score you offers to write other scripts for the studios. The sober truth is that very few original stories from untested writers end up being made into films. It makes book publishing odds look stellar.
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One film consultant interviewed by the BBC in 2014 said that more than a hundred thousand scripts go into the system each year, and about three hundred movies get made-and maybe ten of those originate from first-time writers. If that was an extraordinary story in the mid-1990s (and it was), then it feels even more like winning the lottery in today’s market. It’s almost an impossible thing to get a movie made that is written by two actors who want to star in it, when no one knows who they are.” Even though the script went through a major overhaul, and it took another three years before the film hit screens, it won Damon and Affleck an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In an interview, their agent said, “I read it over the weekend and I was blown away. When he moved to Los Angeles to live with Affleck (they were both trying to launch acting careers), they finished the story together, making it their first completed script. The script was started by Damon as part of a writing class assignment at Harvard. When I was a creative writing undergrad, one of the most memorable success stories we talked about was the Good Will Hunting script by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. It discusses the most common paths to production for a first-time screenwriter. Also: Want to learn how a book becomes a movie? It has been edited and updated for my site. Note from Jane: This article first appeared in Scratch magazine.