|
______________
*************
This issue sponsored by
BreakingIn.net
~ Where Screenwriters Go to Break In! ~
______________
*************
Dear Screenwriter:
If you subscribe to this
e-mail newsletter then WHITE LIST US PLEASE! Each day more Internet Service Providers are filtering email BEFORE you even see it. Make sure you specifically identify our send address (newsletter@breakingin.net) as a newsletter you want to receive or you may stop receiving this newsletter.
On with Script Market News...
Movie producers only hire professional writers, there's too much at stake to take a risk on an amateur. How can you present yourself as a PROFESSIONAL writer? Format your script like the pros do! The featured article this issue will get you started.
Bombs away....
SCRIPT
MARKET
NEWS
June 25, 2003
IN THIS ISSUE...
WRITER Q + A: How
to Get Requested Scripts Read
ARTICLE:
Format Like the Pros Do
MARKET TIPS: Contests that Offer Public Readings
_____________
********************
Hot Writing Jobs
No more excuses...
YOU can get PAID to write!
Find out how...
www.breakingin.net/hot-jobs-for-writers.htm
_____________
********************
SCREENWRITER Q + A
QUESTION on TIMING a QUERY LETTER FOLLOW UP ~~ I've been sending out query letters for my script and getting requests to read it. When I call to follow up after a month, an assistant will take my name and number and I never hear back. I wait and wait and I get nothing -- not even a quick "it's not what we're looking for." Is this standard practice? Confused - D. D.
ANSWER ~~ Unfortunately, working producers, busy agents and successful production companies are inundated with scripts to read. Of course they have to prioritize their reading. First they will read scripts that are recommended by other working professionals whom they respect (agents, directors, actors, producers, script readers, screenwriting professors). If you are unknown to them, it will take
them a while to get to your script -- even if they respond to your query letter and request to read the script.
You're doing two important things:
1) Sending a query letter to make sure they want to read your script BEFORE sending your script.
2) Following up after you have sent them your script.
One way to increase your chances of being read and considered is to find a working professional to endorse your script. If you don't have a screenwriting professor, filmmaker, script coach or other film industry professional who will endorse your work, you should consider entering some of the script contests. They can create opportunities for exposure.
Here are some tutorials to help you find the professional endorsement you need to get your scripts read by busy film industry pros:
How to Choose the Best Script Contests =>
www.breakingin.net/choosey.htm
How to Target the Best Producers and Actors for your Script =>
www.breakingin.net/target_submissions.htm
How Script Coaches Can Help You =>
www.breakingin.net/coaches.htm
A Final Polish Checklist for your Screenplay =>
www.breakingin.net/checklist.htm
Featured
Article:
Format
Your Screenplay Invisibly... Like the Pros Do
Copyright
2003, Lenore Wright
All
Screenwriting is a DISCIPLINED form of creative writing.
No doubt imagination plays an important role in the creation of a great movie script, BUT (and that's a BIG but) screenwriting is a DISCIPLINED form of creative writing.
Hey, I know I sound like Nurse Ratchet and in fact I look a bit like her too, but honestly I'm trying to help.
WHY ARE MOVIE SCRIPTS FORMATTED?
In order for your screenplay to be transformed into a motion picture, hundreds of film professionals will read your script so they can do their part to make it a motion picture.
These readers have different talents and varying skills: most are technicians, many are artists, others are accountants or secretaries or production managers or teamsters trying out for a walk-on. The script must be accessible to all these people so they can do their jobs.
So if you believe you will revolutionize filmmaking by starting with film formatting -- guess again. You will NEVER revolutionize filmmaking that way. How do I know this? Because I know you will not even get your scripts READ unless they are properly formatted!
So when you're tempted to enhance your title page with artwork or draw attention to the star's character description by using that color laser printer you bought off a dying dot-com, control yourself. Or as they say succinctly in Red Hook, "Furgeddabouddit!"
Next issue I will show you some properly formatted screenplay pages; but first I want you to understand the practical reasons why there is standard formatting for screenplays:
1. Scheduling
The artists and technicians who break down the screenplay into a schedule of days and nights of filming must have parameters for estimating how long each sequence will take to film. Here's the formula they use: one film script page equals one minute of film. If you triple space your florid descriptions or stretch out your snappy dialogue all the way to the left and right margins, the scene breakdown estimates will be awry, perhaps disastrously so.
2. Rhythm
Movies create their own storytelling rhythm through action, camera techniques, use of music and sound effects, the dialogue and the juxtaposition of scenes. The agents, producers, directors and film executives reading your script -- if they are experienced professionals -- will have at least a rudimentary ability to sense the rhythm of your movie. If your formatting is unfamiliar they will be mislead and probably frustrated as well.
3. Marketing
Studios market movies as two-hour entertainments. Theatres schedule a certain number of 'seatings' a day -- just like restaurants. Screenplays usually run 110-130 pages in format which when filmed puts the running time at somewhere close to two hours. Comedies run shorter -- there's probably less action description and though the dialogue might be longer, it is probably spoken quickly or overlapping for comic effect. Unless scripts are formatted conventionally, it's difficult to tell if the movie will run 3 hours or 30 minutes.
4. Attention Span Deficit
Movie pros love the projects they have in development, yet they don't want to miss out on anything else that might be floating around town. Standardized script formatting lets them wade through a lot more movie projects than they'd be able to read if they were all formatted as thousand page novels.
5. Rewrite Demands
Market ready screenplays are printed on white paper with black ink in a 12-point font. Final Draft Courier (12 point font) or Courier New (12 point font) are the current fonts of choice.
Any of you who have worked on movie sets know one important reason for this. Rewritten pages of movies in production are printed on colored paper -- each set of revisions gets pages of a new color so the cast and crew on the movie set don't have to read through the entire script to see what has been revised. They check out the new pages by color.
Once a movie is in production, there is a certain order in which the colors are used. White is used first, then blue, pink, green, yellow, goldenrod, and salmon. Now you know why Joan Didion called her novel about a movie rewriter
BLUE PAGES.
Our next issue will feature samples of properly formatted scripts. If you can't wait,
read my tutorial on script formats here =>
www.breakingin.net/format_tutorial.htm
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Selling Your Work to the Movies?
LET www.breakingin.net
HELP YOU BREAK IN!
Bombproof Query Letters =>
www.breakingin.net/tswquery.htm
Freebie
Script Format Tutorial =>
www.breakingin.net/format
_ tutorial.htm
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Reserve Your Copy:
CONTESTS
WITH SCRIPT READINGS
=> DRAMA GARAGE SCREENPLAY SERIES
This opportunity offers writers a staged reading of their script at Occidental Studios in Hollywood, CA. Professional actors are cast and the reading is rehearsed. They also provide professional press releases to the film industry and a reception afterwards. One script reading each month all year long so there really is no deadline. Go for it!
INFO => www.dramagarage.com/submissions.htm
GUIDELINES => www.dramagarage.com/submissions.htm
=> OHIO INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL
Three awards: Best Screenplay, Best Voice of Color Screenplay and Best Northcoast Screenplay (majority of the story set in Cleveland).
The prizes include cash and a reading at Script Mill, the Ohio Film Festival screenplay reading program.
DEADLINE: July 1, 2003 (Hurry!)
INFO => www.ohiofilms.com/
=> ACTORS CHOICE AWARDS (SANTE FE)
If you are planning to attend the popular Screenwriting Conference in Sante Fe this fall, consider entering your script in the Actors Choice Awards competition. The first ten pages of the winning scripts will be read at the conference.
DEADLINE: September 2, 2003
INFO => www.scsfe.com/
=> CINESTORY SCREENWRITING AWARDS
The three feature winners receive $2,000. cash and free tuition, room and board at the Cinestory Retreat, plus an eight month long writing mentorship. Separate award for short scripts. This is not a public reading, but a workshop opportunity.
INFO => www.cinestory.com/
=> ASIAN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL SCREENPLAY COMPETITION
Writers of Asian descent compete for this opportunity -- a staged reading of their screenplay performed during the Asian American Film Festival. Sorry, this year's deadline for screenplays has passed, but you can still attend the film festival in July and plan to enter next spring.
INFO => www.asiancinevision.org/
=> NANTUCKET FILM FESTIVAL
This popular festival features lots of performance fun. Actors from New York's Naked Angels Theatre Company cold read 15-20 page excerpts from professional screenplays that are works in progress. Not an opportunity to hear your script read, but to hear the first draft scripts of working screenwriting professionals.
FESTIVAL INFO => www.nantucketfilmfestival.org/
_____________
*******************
Harry's Back!
Reserve your copy of Harry Potter V
...and check out our BOOKLIST for
Emerging Screenwriters...
www.breakingin.net/tswbestbooks.htm
_____________
******************
Subscribe
to Script Market News
-
Free newsletter from
www.
Breakingin.net
-
Script
marketing advice:
Tips, Tools, Tutorials
-
Screenwriter
Q + A
-
Submission
opportunities
-
Twice a month by
e-mail (text)
-
Sample
issues CLICK
HERE!
_______________________
Do a writing pal a favor and
FORWARD Script Market News to them.
Lenore Wright, Editor
Script Market News
+++++++++++++
Jumpstart YOUR writing career!
www.breakingin.net/benefits.htm
If
you haven't seen my site for screenwriters... GO NOW
=> www.breakingin.net/
******
Miss the last issue? You can read it ONLINE here => www.breakingin.net/script-market-news33.htm
******
-------------------
SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE by email:
newsletter@breakingin.net
------------------
FEEDBACK: screenwriter@breakingin.net
---------------------
BACK ISSUES of Script Market ->
www.breakingin.net/tocscriptmarket.htm
-----------------
FORWARD Script Market to friends or writing groups.
----------------
|
