Found this in an online discussion. Your (helpful) comments invited .
- - - "People in the film industry ... will tell you, time and time again that Screenplays aren’t really sold. It’s a mistake to think so.
Today, Studios as well as Independent companies contact writers and commission them to write a screenplay, based on a story that the producers came up with or optioned.Look, I work in the industry and have done so for the past many years and if there were any other way to ‘sell’ your script, I would tell you. But I feel obligated to tell you about how the real industry works, in spite of all those that make a living from telling hopeful screenwriters,that they can sell their scripts.
Today, the best you can hope for is to use your spec script as a calling card to show what you can do. And hopefully one day, you will land a job as a screenwriter based on your spec scripts, but when you do ( and I hope you will) then you can be sure that they will ask you to write someone else’s story because that is how it works.
Yes, there are still a very few spec scripts being sold. But these are all sold by writers who are already established screenwriters."
What do you say?
Thanks Gary . Is there a story behind how Rocky got produced?
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You know how you get those assignments?
The read a bunch of your great spec scripts.
When a spec script goes wide, everyone in town reads it and meets with you. When they keep reading amazing scripts by you and meeting with you, they eventually hire you.
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Ultimately, this is a business of relationships.
Yes, work hard to become a great writer (trust me, it is HARD AND TIME CONSUMING to become great) - but networking, developing true relationships, will profit you more in the long run. And by "profit," I don't mean just financially, but as a person, too.
Honestly, most of your paid work will come from people who know you (and know you write well) and want to work with you, because of who you are personally.
It's a marathon, not a sprint.
I know I read about the process more than a decade ago from Elmore Leonard's novel Get Shorty which was published in 1990. I thought things would have changed a lot since then.
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Of course specs sell... they sell you as an up-and-coming cheap writer to hire. There wouldn’t be a booming business of script contests, pay to pitch soliciting, webinars & seminars, online gurus, bloggers, film schools. However, it’s nearly impossible to make a living writing specs year after year; full-time occupation writing without hustling income on the side teaching or selling notes to general public. Treat writing as a job and you will find common patterns of success at whatever levels of this business you’re after.
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Specs are like music they come and go in and out of fashion. In the 90’s it was trendy to find specs and pay big money. They needed to feed the home video market. Streaming may see a second wave of specs as we come out of the pandemic.
Are they a waste of time? You may use one as a writing sample. It is easier for someone to read your work than “trust me, I can write”.
My tactic is to create some quality work aimed at low budget production. Then when I have credits reassess. I suspect that I continue to write specs and sell them. This is the market segment that I am most comfortable with.
I'd say only way to make sure - try it for yourself...I've had only spec optioned as the furthest step so far and I don't work in the industry, have 0 connections in US/UK and don't even speak English natively...clearly there's some interest for them...
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I say whoever came out with the original statement is a complete idiot.
It would be good to get a source. People should be named and shamed for dogmatic nonsense like this.
I have had a few screenwriters write for me on spec. It's good as long as they can support themselves without getting paid upfront.
thanks for the feedback, Dan. Show business is risky one that's for sure
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To the OP's initial question: "Is writing specs a waste of time?" The short answer is a resounding no (for all sorts if reasons).
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ROCKY: That's the press release version of the story, the truth is more complicated and can probably be found by Googling "Rocky Force Ten Productions".
The hot screenplay wasn't ROCKY it was PARADISE ALLEY. Everyone told him he couldn't star, so he just sold it to Force Ten. After he sold it, Chartoff/Winkler Productions said that they could let him star if he could get thy budget under $1m. C/W had a deal with MGM that they could make any movie without studio approval as long as it was under $1m.
So Stallone sold the same script twice.
And got sued for it.
And lost and settled out of court.
(technically he didn't lose because it was settled out of court, but F10 had a ton of evidence and it was Stallone and C/W who paid.)
Stallone had hoped that no one would discover that he sold the same script to two different companies after he did the rewrite on PARADISE ALLEY to change the time period to present day and change a brother to an Uncle and a bunch of other details...
But it was the same script.
Most of these amazing Hollywood stories are just PR. Easily debunked by googling.
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Scott show business is no more risky than any other business if you do your research and act appropriately.
I sold a script for virtually nothing. The company had a track record and got a distributor based on the script before the option expired. That isn’t a risk it is a business decision that gives me access to a deferred payment.
I wouldn’t do this with someone with no track record the same deal. It is a business and you have to become business wise. It’s not hard. Just be logical and don’t listen to myth.
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I dunno. I think film is a relatively risky business based on what I've experienced and learned about. I mean, most people I know are pretty much YOLOing their lives into speculative screenwriting and earning nothing in decades. That's before we get into the money, the lying, the disloyalty, and the corruption.
That said, I was once accidentally photographed at a trade show with a military drone and some very dubious members of Russian government, one of whom, and I'm not making this up, was wearing an eye-patch.
Then there was the time I was helping put miles on an early supercar FEU which stank of fuel and later caught fire on a test-track.
Still, jumping from one boat to another in the Pacific while carrying six figures worth of camera gear. Watching a brand new truck sail through the hair and hoping the kick ramp works as it should. Walking into set and finding an actor can't make it that day. Drifting cars down backstreets. Watching a pilot throw a light plane around like they're in the Redbull Air Race. A horse in a car chase.
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Yes, film is a risky business for sure - the reasons are many. It tales a whole bunch of folk to make a movie and a lot of 'em are of the creative mind set. Producing a movie is much like herding cats - yeah, pretty risky.
CJ - I hate that when a new truck sails through my hair. It puts me in a 'bad hair day' mood.
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I'm quite happy writing spec feature screenplays and trying to get them optioned. If and when that happens, I am very willing to let it go and move on to my next venture. I'm not looking to work in TV Writers' Rooms or work-for-hire to write other people's ideas. Fortunately, I'm at the stage in my life that I can enjoy writing without being a starving artist, and I enjoy marketing, too, which I view as a fun challenge that may or may not pay off.
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Writing specs is a tricky proposition, but I love the challenge of getting my voice out into the world.