For people like myself it is a disaster that most film companies in USA don't want to be contacted by us who have no literary agent.
How to improve the situation?
As far as I can see, potential customers are looking for something which is cheap to produce. Because those who can afford a big budget, they find it simplest to hire screenwriters who are well established. So the customers would like to have a data base with only screenplays which can be filmed on a shoestring budget. In practice a data base for TV-movies and videos.
And then improve the quality. We need a system which is such that poor screenwriters understand themselves that they should stop trying.
I suggest : "I read your screenplay and send you useful comments for improvements in one single week, if you do the same for me." Potential customers should understand that only persons who are willing to correct their errors will use such a system.
My idea comes from the academic research world, where I am busy when I am not a filmmaker. Peer review in the academic world improves the quality of what is published.
A very trivial idea. So why has nobody used my idea already long ago?
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I read your screenplay, you read mine. Now, how is the system going to reach the potential producers? It's still in the realm of not being discovered by the people who make them!
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"Potential customers are looking for something which is cheap to produce." Exactly, Göran Johansson.
One thing unproduced/unrepresented screenwriters can do is network with indie producers and directors. In my experience, it's easier to get hired by indie producers and directors than mainstream producers and directors. There are a lot of indie producers and directors on Stage 32. Writers can check the Job Board (www.stage32.com/find-jobs) and Browse Section (www.stage32.com/browse).
Stage 32 also has in-person meetups, which are great opportunities to network (www.stage32.com/meetups).
And unproduced/unrepresented screenwriters can collaborate with indie actors to write them monologues, roles for short films, etc. That's a way for screenwriters to build up their portfolios.
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My idea is that the comments can be read by more people than the two involved (the screenwriter and the one who comments). And producers looking for screenplays should realize that it may bee a good idea to read comments before one decides which screenplay to read. But I am open to other alternatives.
No, I don't mind if other persons can read comments on my screenplays.
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Your idea makes no business sense, doesnt appear you know how & why show biz ppl (say Hollywood corporations) do what they do, have their own brand & work with ppl they trust.
Perhaps you can do a real academic study by meeting with studio execs & producers with movie deals. Ask them why hire & cancel finished movies for tax write-offs, hire same ppl to reboot franchise IP's.
Is there a reason why you are not reppped, or don't know filmmakers on the come?
I'd tell everyone to forget "Hollywood" and make your own stuff with your own ppl. That's it. If you are good/better than the field of wannabe's, "Hollywood" ppl will come to you. They will pay $ for your ideas. Start at the bottom (if you really want this occupation).
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Dear friends. Is there some misunderstandment? I don't even try to sell to Hollywood. There are many like me who would gladly sell a screenplay to some small company which creates TV movies or direct to video.
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You can have a producer friend who loves to have long dinners talking about movies with you. He'll produce your script. If not, you can repeat what people have done hundred times before, except you put in the work and do it better. In Sweden crime movies rule so doing that makes your true level easy to evaluate. As a singer you'd do "I Will Always Love You".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ-B8b-saw0
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scriptrevolurion.com is a good database for screenplays ready for sale, and talentville (last I was there) was a peer-to-peer writer review site.
I think your premise has let you down. They are not looking for cheap. They are looking to reduce their risk to zero, while maintaining maximum profit.
So how do you reduce risk?
1) hire a director with chops.
2) this will attract talent that’s wants to work with them, possibly cheap.
3) Find a screenplay which is great and don’t spend years doing it. So we need a filter, like agents.
The years comment isn’t silly. There are millions of unproduced screenplays. At one hour a screenplay, it would take years to read them. Then find the best, well a few more years.
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Peer reviews don't work and neither do attempts at objective analysis. Stories are an art-form and thus always at the mercy of individual subjectivity. On top of that, most aspiring screenwriters don't have any commercial awareness, don't know how to break scripts down, and those who really want to go around rating other's work tend to be dogmatic at best and self-serving at worst.
The best you can do is take a bunch of real union studio readers and have them all do a PCR on scripts, but their time is valuable because it's a really skilled, niche job that requires a remarkable amount of passion and dedication.
When it comes to drawing a line where screenwriters need to give up, I've found everyone likes to draw it conveniently below themselves.
As for a database of shoe-string budget scripts and an audience of indie production companies. Built it. It's working. Nobody wants to talk about it.
Breaking in is mostly about networking like crazy and getting lucky with alignment.
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Dear friends. Many thanks for further comments. I should take a look at talentville since it appears already to work in the way I suggested.
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I heard from somewhere, that no one reads in filmland. What we need is a person like you to provide a place where screenwriters will place their contact information? Pro bono! You see we can advertise on your platform and a percentage is paid to you, IF, we break out? You see we get ahead, you get ahead. A 'you scratch my back, I scratch yours!' What do you think of this idea? There's money to be made...
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Some companies see legal representation as a minimum requirement from the pitching process to ensure correct chain of title from the get-go.
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Ewan Dunbar What would you consider? Registered through? The best way possible and within a poor man's budget?
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For some of the bigger companies they want you to have either an agent/manager, or a reputable and experienced producer attached or legal representation. Legal representation can take many forms but most will go for some variation of an entertainment attourney. Fees will vary as will how they bill. Partnering with an experienced producer is another option. Some companies will accept submissions from unrepresented writers but this also leaves you open to a bad deal without protection. I'd suggest asking on some of the forums on here for lawyers to chime in or if someone at the Stage 32 team can point you in the direction of someone.
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Göran Johansson Script Revolution, a site founded by CJ Walley , does all that's being proposed in this thread, including a Feedback Forum, and it's free to post your script. Don't understand why more people from here are not there, for it is essentially a sister site to Stage 32. Script Revolution does for free what many of these pay platforms charge for--getting filmmakers' eyes on scripts, and scripts are getting sold there.
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@CJ So refreshing to hear those two words “Art Form.”We don’t hear the words often enough as story tellers. @All Business acumen, industry contacts, sales potential, hierarchy, social media counts, fame bad or good etc act as a sponge before writing even begins. These should be no barrier to pure intent. Shakespeare had quill pen, candle light & no vaccine for Black Death. Script Revolution works for some but a best kept secret.
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Probably because of the trends in the current market. All depending on the format, of course. If it's a pilot for a TV series, it has to follow the audience's desires. If it's a film (and I'm sorry to say this), it's a blockbuster.