#POST YOUR SCREENPLAY ONLINE MOVIE#

You must have a spec script to start playing, and it needs to be between 100 and 110 correctly formatted pages for a comedy (a little more for a drama). Remember: An unknown writer cannot sell an idea. However, if you don’t at least play, you can’t ever win, so let’s look at the most common ways that scriptwriters try to get in the game. Pitching your spec with the limited intention of landing an option or sale for that exact story is nearly guaranteed to be an exercise in frustration. Put another way, a spec script’s job is primarily to show off you and your writing chops so you can build a career out of paid screenwriting gigs. If you still have stars in your eyes after reflecting on your chances, there’s yet another reality to consider: the process of selling your spec script-an unsolicited, uncommissioned work-is far more likely to score you offers to write other scripts for the studios. The sober truth is that very few original stories from untested writers end up being made into films. It makes book publishing odds look stellar. One film consultant interviewed by the BBC in 2014 said that more than a hundred thousand scripts go into the system each year, and about three hundred movies get made-and maybe ten of those originate from first-time writers. If that was an extraordinary story in the mid-1990s (and it was), then it feels even more like winning the lottery in today’s market.

#POST YOUR SCREENPLAY ONLINE MOVIE#

It’s almost an impossible thing to get a movie made that is written by two actors who want to star in it, when no one knows who they are.” Even though the script went through a major overhaul, and it took another three years before the film hit screens, it won Damon and Affleck an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In an interview, their agent said, “I read it over the weekend and I was blown away. When he moved to Los Angeles to live with Affleck (they were both trying to launch acting careers), they finished the story together, making it their first completed script. The script was started by Damon as part of a writing class assignment at Harvard. When I was a creative writing undergrad, one of the most memorable success stories we talked about was the Good Will Hunting script by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. It discusses the most common paths to production for a first-time screenwriter. Also: Want to learn how a book becomes a movie? It has been edited and updated for my site.

Note from Jane: This article first appeared in Scratch magazine.

Post your screenplay online