Producing : Acquiring Screenplays by Stacy Gentile

The reason why producers hire "readers" (those people so hated by writers) is to sort through stuff they don't like to get to the one they do. A producer who can't afford to hire other people to cover scrips for them must read a lot of terrible scripts to find the right one. It's a difficult, time consuming job, isn't it? Where to go to get scripts? Here on Stage32 is one of many possibilities. If you post a notice that you are seeking scripts you will get several dozen.

At Telekinesis Entertainment we are currently writing everything we produce.

Stacy, what are you working on rather what are you exploring? You are sure doing some thinking and something has prompted that question?

Kind of like Lynn. I started as a writer and progressed to an award/contest winning screenwriter – gave a couple of scripts away to filmmakers who said they could produce them – but they couldn’t. I started producing my own but couldn’t find a director who knew his nose from a hole, so I have to direct them myself. I’m fortunate in that I have a modest studio available along with a modest amount of personal financing to make it all go – now, all I need is available talent/crew.

In the beginning, you're probably producing something a friend wrote... a short, maybe... eventually, you make a feature (maybe you write it or maybe, as before, you optioned it from a friend). Eventually, if things go well, and once you have a track record of getting films made, you move up to joining sites like InkTip or The Black List in order to seek out writers and get work samples. The next step up is hiring an assistant or development exec to read the volume of material that comes in (at a certain point, you just won't have time to read it all yourself). Finally, and again if things go well, you list OWA's (Open Writing Assignment's) on the tracking boards and begin to have agencies submit writers... of course, you'll need to have some capital behind you before you hit this level. This is pretty much the way I did it. If you plan to be in the producing game long term, you'll need to limit your liability down the line by not accepting unsolicited material. Make sure you have contracts for everything - a bit of money in legal fees now will save you a lot of money in legal fees later. Good luck!

Hey Stacy, we actually have a webinar on this topic next saturday 2/28 https://www.stage32.com/webinars/Producers-How-to-Find-and-Vet-Great-Scr...

Stacy, I'm a multi-award-winning screenwriter with many short and feature length screenplays available. They're detailed at www.karenbuckton.com.