ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

3 years, 7 months ago - Marlom Tander

I think it depends on your market.

Certainly a LOT of modern blockbusters seem to have little attention paid to the script. Probably because they are designed to work with other language audiences. "Who's on First?" only works for English speakers :-)

OTOH, good long form TV is absolutely script driven.

3 years, 7 months ago - Jay y

"Who's on first?" not sure what you mean

3 years, 7 months ago - Philip Carr

Joke goes on a bit too long ?
Everybody in the business thinks they are too busy to read a 90 minute screenplay unless they know a credited writer and most agents, producers won’t accept unsolicited submissions so where do you start ?

3 years, 7 months ago - Jay y

So moving forward; perhaps if you've a decent idea and spent time making your treatment tight and have a good pro looking deck, you're on the runway..

3 years, 7 months ago - Vasco de Sousa

To get a your script 'solicited', you write a query letter. Then, if they like the query (or your bio), the agent or producer will ask to see the script.

Now, there don't seem to be as many spec scripts in the news as there were in the 50s, 70s or 90s, but they still get picked up. However, it does appear that a lot more is written on commission. (No treatment either, a writer is hired to adapt something. However, a spec script is probably still useful to get that first job or at least show your talent.)

Pitch decks are for producers, not writers. I think they are replacing traditional business plans as budgets tend to be written after funding is secured. (and income projections was always a guess but are less relevant in the days of online content.) They were really popular with silicon valley recently. I guess as Netflix and Apple and amazon are run by techies, maybe they are more familiar with that format.

A lot of people never read scripts.

What your friend should say is no one reads budgets or business plans anymore. (Especially not income projections for a TV movie on Netflix.)

3 years, 6 months ago - Anca Badita

I think you still need a script Jason. After all if a producer read your treatment and thought this sounds great s/he would want to read the script and wouldn't be impressed that you haven't written it yet.

3 years, 6 months ago - Peter Spencer

I'm presently shopping a series with a director and when we go in (to UK) producers/production companies with our pitch deck a large number of people don't know what it is. Treatment and script are still (for us , so far) working better. On getting an agent. I set a schedule, chose all the agents I was interested in, and sent a query email every four weeks, over and over again, until I got one, where the right query hit the right agent on the right day, which led to a meeting and being signed. I never waited for replies, (very few agents EVER replied) but every four weeks the query went out. When the right moment came (and this was an agency I'd queried before) I had a reply within an hour and a meeting two days later. It was just fated, but I had to put the effort in.

3 years, 5 months ago - Terri Potoczna

I've been reading loads of scripts. I love reading scripts. But that's me and that's short scripts.

2 years, 11 months ago - Elie de Rosen

I think that's an exaggeration. It'd be more accurate to say that first impressions are crucial. Your reader has to find the first 10 pages interesting, otherwise they'll stop reading. At least, that's what my industry contacts have told me.

2 years, 9 months ago - Yuki : the After Effect guy

If anybody here has a screenplay, I can read it and give you a feedback for free :)
Because I want to be a screenwriting consultant in the future !!