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Here’s a question: “How do I get Company ABC to read my script when I am only an XYZ?”

Here’s my answer:

“The problem isn’t that you’re “only” an XYZ, the problem isn’t even that they won’t read your script, because an awful lot of companies actually will read your submission (even though it may take them 6 months or more to get round to it.) The problem is that your script is being read by the wrong people.

Eh?

OK. In my experience a company that is serious about reading incoming material will mentally categorise it into three distinct types: Non Agented and Unsolicited, Agented, and Solicited.

Non Agented and Unsolicited: Will sit on a pile in a room and be read by the lowest ranking script development person in the department, sometime within 6 weeks and 6 months later. That person will write a one page summary and pass that onto someone up the food chain. The script has a chance of being picked up on that is pretty close to zero.

The problem is A. the reader is usually highly inexperienced, and has no real idea what makes a good script. And B, they have next to zero clout in the department, so even if they love your work they won’t be able to get anyone to take it seriously.

Realistically, the best you can expect from this is for the reader to call you in for a meeting, or for them to pass it on up the line, at which point you may get called in for a general meet and greet meeting. (Which you must go to. It’s the start of a very long process of making connections which could pay off in the future.)

Practically speaking, the best you are gunning for with this method is to set your flag in the mind of someone who may rise to a position of suitable power a number of years later. That is always worth doing, but it doesn’t help you in the present.

Agented: This is a screenplay sent to a company after an agent has had a conversation with the development person in question in which they hotly recommended their client (you), and got the development person to agree to read it.

This stands a better than average chance of being read within a few weeks, but a lot of development people subconsciously don’t like being sold to by agents, and so there is still a pretty good chance that the screenplay will sit in a pile on their desk for a couple of weeks/months until the agent has hassled a couple more times.

The readers in this category are more likely to have some sway - at least they have been around long enough to get out the reader position, but they can still range from heads of development to very junior people.

The real problem is that at any given time these people are being driven (even the free spirited ones) by certain requirements set down by their department heads. (eg, “this week we needs uplifting love stories that warm the heart and fill our pockets”, or “this week we need horror scripts. Zombies are back, find me that screenplay.” So the odds of an agent getting their timing perfectly right is low. Depends on the competitive intelligence of the agent of course, but it’s still low in my opinion.

Solicited: This is a screenplay that a development person has actually asked to see. Either because they are specifically looking for a writer for a show in development, or because they are doing a trawl for new interesting writers and they have heard something about you.

These screenplays come from agencies, or writers known to the development person, or on a friend’s recommendation. This category is where your script stands the best chance of getting read within a few weeks. Not guaranteed, but the odds are high.

The problem HERE is the proportion of scripts developed that actually go into production is tiny. Tens, even hundreds of screenplays are developed for every one that ever sees a screen somewhere.

There are many effects of this, but the salient one for you is that it creates an army of development people in the industry with some very very important names for whom (sorry to be brutal, but it’s the truth) there is no actual point in them going into work.

They are paid large salaries to have meetings, talk about movies, see writers, get writers to fiddle about with screenplays on the vague promise of someone higher up reading it and liking it, and give off the air of fevered industry whenever the department head walks past their office. But they will take your time, and they will promise and hint, and seduce in all manner of wily ways - and in the end mostly nothing will happen.

So what do you do?

It’s simple, and if you are the typical diffident writer, hard at the same time. The truth is you need contacts. Of the right sort.

By which I mean that they need the ability to get your script onto the desk of people who A. Have the power to do something about it, and B. Have the energy and indefatigability to beat off the opponents and bring you over the wall into the studio.

If they aren’t those sort of people then, for all your efforts, you may get nice letters back, the occasional coffee meeting, even the odd lunch, but in the end you will actually get nowhere. You need to know people, who know people, who know the right people. You MUST make it your business to make these contacts.

You will need an agent at some point. And achieving that is another whole can of worms! But that’s ok. The thing is you shouldn’t really count on them to open the doors. I see my agent as a fantastic, terrier like unstoppable deal maker. She has literally doubled my fee on more than one occasion. If she gets me any work that’s a bonus. I get my own work, using my own connections.

If you similarly see the onus to be on you to open those doors you will be ahead of the game.

Look, don’t get hung up on the agent thing. That will come in the end. Look for connections. Start with local film groups. Go to your nearest big city and look for groups of interested people. Go to the courses given by the big film schools or tutors like Robert McKee and John Truby, and network like crazy while you are there (proper, working producers and directors have actually been seen at these things). Angle invites to the right parties and work the room shamelessly. (I’m not advocating rest room pitches, but in general it’s ok to let the person know about your story - the real people never switch off completely, so you won’t seem like such an intruder.)

The internet is a great place these days. You can get to email Terry Rossio. it never ceases to amaze me who you can get to on Myspace.

Call in all the friends of friends you can. Try writing theatre - if your play makes a buzz that buzz could filter across eventually. Take every meeting you can because even if that person can’t help you at the moment (and they probably can’t) people do rise in power and one day they may be able to help. Just keep looking for connected people and speak to them.

One more thing - don’t lose focus and allow yourself to be fobbed off with people who have NEVER ACTUALLY MADE ANYTHING! No matter how many screenwriting courses they have run, or degress in screenwriting they have, or how many books they have written on the subject they can ONLY help you if they can get you one step closer to a conversation with people who have A. actually produced or directed a movie, or tv show, AND B. are still in the game (crucial that) and will therefore actually be doing it again!

Just don’t for a minute think that sending your screenplay off blind to a production company is anything more than a high risk long term strategy. ”

Hard words, but said in the right spirit. I hope they help.

Thanks, Luis for the question.