Q&A: How do I become screenplay writer?
Question by Dddssd Asfafsa: How do I become screenplay writer?
1. I will be taking a lot of writing classes before I start submitting my scripts so I can improve my grammar.
2. I know it’ll be extremely hard, but how hard will it be to become successful?
3. How much does an average good script sell for? And would they reject me if I asked for small role in the film?
4. If I get a decent agent is their a good chance I’ll be successful?
I only know one person who does movies/tv, but he’s not that famous, but I think that person might help me if my writing is good. I’ve seen a lot of writers make tons of money and their writing is only decent. Writing is something I’m passionate about and if given the opportunity I think I’ll do great. What do I have to do to get my big break? because I don’t think searching for celebrities around Manhattan to give them a copy of my screenplay will work. If I do happen to run into a director who’s interested though, do I make sure my work is copyrighted first?
Hopefully I can get some good answers here. Thanks for your time, guys.
Best answer:
Answer by akaMaryn
Screenwriting is among the most competitive writing fields. The average first sale is the writer’s ninth script, and each may take six months to a year to write.
Which means, great, go for what you want, but be realistic, too, taking classes which can help you earn a living in addition to writing classes.
About four hundred films are made a year in the US, and about four thousand scripts are optioned. However, more than a million speculative scripts are submitted a year. So if all four hundred movies that are made came out of that million spec scripts submitted, the success rate would be four one-hundredths of a percent. (400/1,000,000 = .0004, or 0.04%)
Just to make it that much more discouraging, only about eight percent of the movies made in a given year are from pitched ideas or spec scripts. The rest come from script assignments, novel adaptations, documentary adaptations, true stories, amusement park rides, sequels, remakes, plays, TV shows, comic book adaptations, and game adaptations. The success rate of original spec scripts shrinks to thirty-two one-thousandths of a percent. (0.0004 x 0.08 [or 8%] = 0.000032, or 0.0032%.)
Thirty-two spec scripts are produced for every million scripts. That’s one for every thirty-one thousand two hundred and fifty. These are not good odds. Your script has to be absolutely outstanding in every way to beat those odds. Grammar, format, structure, character arc, production costs, marketability, and everything else.
Your work is copyrighted from the moment you save it to a fixed medium. You would be advised to register it with the WGA before showing it to anyone in a position to represent it, produce it, or cover it for a studio or production company.
Edit: I didn’t really address 3. and 4., did I? Sorry, I got carried away.
The WGA minimum for a screenplay is about $ 50,000 (IIRC), but you only get that if it’s sold to a WGA signatory company, not an indie. Get your payment up front, whatever it is, rather than as part of any profits. They have a way of disappearing before the writer gets paid.
Putting any conditions on the sale of your screenplay, like a role for yourself, gives the prodco a reason to choose someone else’s script. If you want to act, audition like everybody else. (I know a guy who got a role in a movie he wrote that way. The director was impressed with how well he understood his character. Is that great, or what?)
If you get a decent agent, your odds of success improve–because agents will not represent someone unless they believe they have the skills, perseverance, and fresh ideas to keep cranking out marketable scripts for many years. Getting an agent is very difficult.
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