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| So you think you have that next Hollywood blockbuster toiling away in your brain? Or maybe you have it sitting in a file folder with a few dozen others. Believe me, everyone in Hollywood has a screenplay. But what many don't have are the chops. Maybe they don't know the proper format. Perhaps they don't know the first thing about who to send it to. Or, God forbid, they have the next Die Hard with the first ten pages of boredom that get such a goldmine script dropped into the round file. Pick up any book, go to any web site, attend any seminar on screen writing and the very first thing they'll tell you is that the first ten pages are the hook. If you haven't grabbed your reader in those first ten pages, forget it pal. Your script is no damn good, no matter how masterful the rest of the 110 pages are. This is not going to be a how to web page. The best that I can offer is what to expect from most any sources whether it is from the web or books that you’re going to come across as you learn about the art of screen writing. I may also hope to show any prospective agent, or producer that I know what I'm talking about when I say I can get the job done. Most people think that writing is easy work. Glamorous, and big money. For the most part, it isn't. Even if you do manage to sell your first script, it's not actually the script that is being sold. What you're selling is an option for the script to be produced. Being a first timer, you're likely not even going to be the one that writes the script. Remember
James Cameron's True Lies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger? Mr. Cameron
was kind enough to give credit to a trio of screen writers who came up
with the original script. Cameron rewrote it, and gave himself full credit
for the screenplay. The film was 'based on an original screenplay by
Claude Zidi, Simon Michael, and Didier Kaminka'. My point to all this is that such occurrences are daily business in Hollywood. Them's the breaks, kid. But if you've got the chops, the perseverance, the talent, and the discipline to sit in a chair typing away all day long, then you just might have a chance. What most people are not aware of is that producers and movie stars don't read scripts. Hollywood has readers that decide whether or not a script should be passed on to a producer or star. Sometimes, those readers are secretaries, housemaids, or a literary agent's favorite aunt. There's a simple purpose to this. They want a fresh opinion. They want to know what Joe, or Jane average want to plunk down ten bucks to see. What I'm trying to get to is this: know your audience. If you try to give hollywood what it wants, you're not likely to get far. They have known writers to give them what they want. What they want from new writers is something fresh. And when it's all been done before, that's where the real challenge comes in. The best any writer can do is put a new twist on an old story. Hell, I've seen Star Trek The Next Generation steal from the original series, and then Enterprise did a rehash of a Star Trek Voyager storyline. It's all in how you tell it. |
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