Break into Screenwriting: Script Marketing Advice, Interviews with Screenwriting Superstars

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Break into Screenwriting Interviews... Film Pros

MICHAEL HAUGE: Writing Screenplays that Sell

Part 1: Getting Started
Part 2: Essential Elements of a Successful Script
Part 3: Get your Script Read by People in Power

Emerging screenwriters: get on the right track to that first script sale. The author of Writing Screenplays that Sell - now in it's 22nd printing - offers advice to get you started.

KATE WRIGHT: Writing the Million Dollar Screenplay

Popular UCLA screenwriting professor - KATE WRIGHT - shares her insights into the mysterious secrets of writing scripts that the marketplace understands.

TERRY ROSSIO: Co-author of SHREK

Terry Rossio The Screenwriter of the summer's biggest box office hit shares insider tips.

MARISA D'VARI: Unlocking Script Magic

Marisa D'Vari, The author of Script Magic: Subconscious Techniques to Conquer Writers Block reveals the subconscious techniques she's developed in her 20 years experience as a script consultant to help you defuse the critical part of the brain and set your imagination free.

Interview with Terry Rossio

Screenwriter of SHREK

Terry Rossio, in partnership with Ted Elliott, has written the animated movie Shrek - the top grossing summer movie this year! Together they have written several other major motion pictures including: Aladdin (co-written), The Puppet Masters, Little Monsters, Small Soldiers, Godzilla, Men in Black (uncredited) and The Mask of Zorro. In 1996, Terry and Ted became the first writers signed to an overall writing and producing deal at Dream Works SKG. Their animated projects at Dream Works include The Road to El Dorado and the (instantly legendary) Shrek featuring Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy. Through their producing entity, Scheherazade Productions, they are developing Jingle at Warners and Instant Karma at Universal Studios with Imagine Entertainment and Digital Domain.

Lenore Wright: Terry, You’ve had many hit movies; you have a whopper out right now. Is that the real reward of screenwriting?

Terry Rossio: There is a deep sense of fulfillment that comes from achieving a heartfelt dream. It's rare that you find yourself in exactly the place where you most want to be, doing exactly what you most want to do. Once you have that feeling, the memory of it serves as a kind of mental and emotional safety net -- no matter how bad things get, how many setbacks you have, how frustrated or despairing you might feel -- you can never feel *really* bad because you had a taste of the best of what life has to give. Even if it's an illusion or self-deception, it doesn't matter ... it still works great. You get this occasional, random, shit-eating grin.

LW: What do you find most challenging day to day?

TR: The big misconception about Hollywood is that it's full of professional people with experience, knowledge, and high standards when it comes to writing. It's a bit astonishing; but what you find is that people aren't very good at reading, reading accurately, understanding what they read, understanding why something is good, and understanding how to keep something good, or make it better and not worse.

Yet everyone has an opinion, usually a strong one. And they have more power and political savvy than the average writer, and dearly want to influence the final product. So it's not just a matter of slaying the dragon of creating the story ... after you do that, there are a hundred other dragons waiting to burn your story to a crisp before you can get it made into a film.

LW: Terry, you and Ted must be one of the most successful movie partnerships working today. How is it writing with a partner?

TR: The best description I ever heard of a partnership came -- of course -- from my writing partner, Ted Elliott. He said "It doesn't make the work any easier, but it does make it better." It's natural to think that a partnership means you each do half the work. He was able to spot the truth: you both do all the work, and get half the credit and payment. Plus, it's more time consuming to come to final decisions; it's an arguably inefficient system, you probably increase the amount of work by having a partner. But -- the final product is better.

LW: There are more than 11,000 members in the Writers Guild right now. Yet the Guild reported less than 2,000 screenwriting jobs last year. Think about those odds. Should unsold writers continue to write screenplays?

TR: I think your numbers are off. If you include features, animation, plays, novel writing, television writing, video games, computer games, television animation, producing, directing, acting, etc -- a lot more of those members are working, even if they're working in related fields.

In any case, it makes no sense to talk about 'odds' as if all projects gain you an equal place at the roulette wheel, with an equal chance of selling or getting produced. That's not how it works. The vast majority of projects have a zero percent chance of selling. Other projects -- very few -- have certain qualities that give them a near 100% chance of selling.

Where the numbers game starts to really become problematic is when it comes to production. My estimate is that there are maybe only really 30 completely 'open' production slots in Hollywood in any one year. That's where a film will get made, with a decent budget, advertising campaign and distribution plan -- and it's not a remake, adaptation, sequel; and not a project originated any of the established people working, like Woody Allen or Steven Spielberg.

This means to land one of those few truly open slots -- against intense competition -- you have to have a project that attracts a director or star. Even great screenplays become no more than 'director bait' and if the right director doesn't bite, the studio will not proceed. Many writers don't realize that screenplays *never* get a green light. It takes four elements to get a green light: script, star, director, and financing. Of the four, any of the other three can create a green light individually -- but not the screenplay.

LW: If you were out now as an aspiring screenwriter, how would you break in?

TR: Hollywood is a game is designed for directors, not writers. The worst thing you can be in town is a screenwriter waving a script around trying to get someone else to read it, like it, and try to make it. Usually they won't read it, won't like it, and even if they read it and like it they won't make it. If they do read it, like it, and make it -- they'll use it as a tool to make their own thing their own way. That's just too much to expect a writer to put up with ... it's not a fair deal from the start.

So if I were starting over, right now: I'd either try to become a director, or make friends with a director -- only work on projects that had a director attached somehow from the beginning. I would create my own creative team: writer, director, special effects guy, and producer. I would try to spend the bulk of my time making movies, not babysitting drafts in development hell.

I would resist the temptation to sell a screenplay. Selling a screenplay is, in the vast majority of cases, a huge mistake. The day you sell your screenplay is the day your project dies.

This is the ultimate irony, of course. Writers look forward to that big sale; it's validation and vindication. And it seems to make sense -- all films that get made come from screenplays that sold ... so you should want to sell your screenplay to get a film made, right?

Here's what really happens. The minute you sell your screenplay, it goes to a particular company -- which doesn't want to make it. They want to put it in their development pile, mess with it, and maybe someday show it to directors or stars. You've taken it off the market of all the other places that might want to make it, and restricted yourself to one place that might not be in the business of making any new movies that year, and if they are, they have a hundred projects in line ahead of yours.

Meanwhile, in order to keep the illusion that it's a worthwhile project, they'll want to improve the draft, and you'll start to get 'notes.' You'll waste years struggling to keep the screenplay from getting nibbled to death, all the uniqueness taken out. If you're lucky, you can try to do these notes yourself. Often, other writers are hired. So even if it does get made, it won't get made the way you wanted -- 'your' project dies, because it's not yours anymore.

The final indignity -- nothing is settled until the director weighs in with his opinion. You could do ten drafts making the producers happy, making the studio chiefs happy ... and the second the director gets hired, chances are decent he'll throw everything out and start over -- working with a different writer. And that's one of the 'better case' scenarios.

One solution to this is to not sell your screenplay, even if there is a lot of interest in it -- especially when there is a lot of interest. Not until there is a director and a proceed to production clause, and even then you should only grant a short option, with all rights reverting to you at the end of the option period.

Truthfully, this is very hard to do, so the better choice is the one mentioned above: only work on a project as the director, or collaborate with a director from the start.

LW: Thanks so much, Terry.

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After you’ve treated yourself to Shrek at your local theatre or video store, I suggest you check out Terry’s elegant website for writers: http://www.wordplayer.com/. He offers an amazing database of articles by accomplished film professionals that provide insider information and solace to screenwriting veterans as well as aspiring writers.

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Interview with Marisa D'Vari

Author of Script Magic

Lenore Wright: I'm an experienced screenwriter (nearly 20 years) and I thought I'd read every 'take' on screenwriting. Your book captivated me. How did you end up in the script consulting business?

Marisa D'Vari: Great question! Circumstances (i.e.career demands on spouse) took me to Boston where I decided to dedicate myself to spreading the concept of creativity through seminars, teleclasses, and books.

LW: You titled your book Script Magic. Tell me about the 'magic'. The many scripts I've written required blood, sweat and tears - how did I miss the magic?

MD: A friend of mine, Mark Levy, wrote the book Accidental Genius : Revolutionize Your Thinking Through Private Writing and has a great concept that answers your question: try easy. When screenwriters tap into the power of their subconscious mind, the blood, sweat, and tears are gone.

LW: Our readers write in all forms and genres so many of them will be interested in your publishing deal. How did Script Magic become a book?

MD: Another great question! I wanted to write a book to spread the magic to others. I bought How to Write a Book Proposal by Michael Larsen and Script Magic sold to Michael Wiese Productions within days. I knew enough from my literary life and Michael Larsen's book to check the competition, and offer a new twist on information. Bookstore shelves groan with the weight of screenwriting books, and I realized what was missing was a fresh approach. Structure inhibits creativity and only breeds frustration.

My book Script Magic was created to put fun and creativity back into the mix for million dollar script sales.

LW: One of your phrases really stayed with me -- 'it's not the hours you put into the project, it's the energy' . Can you expand on that?

MD: I think everyone reading this realizes the times they're "in flow" and everything is working. Usually, it happens when they least expect it, which is why in the Script Magic book and my seminars, I remind screenwriters to take their magic books and journals EVERYWHERE. I get inspired by articles, by conversations I overhear, even great stories in magazines. Then, I rush to the computer of if I'm not near it, my magic book and write, write, write! That's energy. Once that key moment has passed, it can't be recaptured. So everyone reading this, take a notebook everywhere!

LW: Do these techniques continue to work as they become more familiar? Who or what still inspires you when you need a creative boost?

MD: Dreams are a source of inspiration if you know how to use them. I'm a student of Carl Jung and believe dreams have definite magic. Dreams are a conduit between our everyday "reality' and the place we go when we transcend this reality. But beyond dreams, I get inspired reading articles in popular
magazines and newspapers. I myself write for London's Financial Times (lifestyle issues) and receive lots of email from people telling me how inspired they were from reading my colorful takes on people, places, and trends.

LW: What recent movies do you feel reflect the spirit and benefit of Script Magic - whether or not the writer was aware of it. Don't some writers just naturally tap into their unconscious, non-judgmental self when they write?

MD: Two very loaded questions! But rather than defer to one single movie, I'd say that it happens in every movie when the viewer feels a keen association with the character and the challenge they face. Let's go way back to films like Saturday Night Live and Pretty Woman (a film I break down in Script Magic). I used to be surprised when archetypes and age-old philosophy found themselves on the "page" or on the "screen." But now I realize they were subconsciously and instinctively following the philosophy of Script Magic by allowing themselves to be guided by higher forces. I'm not all that familiar with the Bible and the story of Jesus and the prostitute Mary, but wasn't it all about redemption? And isn't it the case in Pretty Woman? I'm not saying the screenwriter sat down with an idea to remake this story for the big screen, but it's a universal message that echoes within us all. Same for Saturday Night Fever.

I'll conclude with a word of encouragement to screenwriters. Don't set out to "tell a message" or make a killing with a "high concept script." Rather, follow the principles in Script Magic and allow yourself and your talents to be used as a conduit by whatever message needs to be told, messages that only you because of your experiences can tell. Good luck!

LW: Thanks for your time, Marisa. Good luck with all your projects.

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Script Magic is available from the publisher’s website: www.mwp.com (Michael Wiese Productions) or by calling 1-800-833-5738. To read an excerpt, you can visit the author’s website: www.scriptmagic.com/. There you can check out her seminar schedule and subscribe to her newsletter - Script Magic.

Click HERE to read a review of Script Magic.

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