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how to become a bigscreen writer

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I know I can write some great scripts. Or at least ONE amazing script. I am confident in myself. One day I want to become a great screenwriter who is acknowledged by all of my peers. How can I get to this point? Where do I begin? What are the steps?

Right now I have nothing but an idea for a movie. I am sure than it would be successful. It's being prepared for a script by me. What do I do after that?!
 
I'd assume you'd want to get an agent and then shop the script around to various studies. I could be wrong.
 
What about enrolling in a theatre college etc? I'm sure you'd meet all the right contacts to get started in there.
 
Worry about writing the script before you do anything else...once you've re-written it 5 or 6 times, then you can think about trying to get an agent.

Find some script-writing forums for advice on that. You might want to try reading a book called Save the Cat, I've seen it recommended a lot. I gave it to my brother, who's done some writing, and he liked it.

No studio is even going to read a script from you if they haven't heard of you, if you haven't got an agent. It's just not going to happen.

You might also be better advised starting small. No-one just walks into Hollywood and gets a job on a major film. They start doing theatre or TV or doing small films, and then move up.

Good luck: but your first step really should be writing the thing :)
 
even if you have connects, it's down to the script reader whether you actually get your foot through the door or not. i know there are some who maintain blogs, so maybe those would have ideas to help you get a better picture of what's wanted. that's what it all comes down to, really. your story has to be a commercial success, so it's treated as such from the get-go. it can be an incredible story, but if it doesn't look like something worth gambling on then it won't get made unless YOU finance it.

in cities there are high end camera shops that will actually lease or rent you a high-def cam equal to what's being used to make most 720p TV shows and more and more indie movies nowadays. or you can buy one for 10 G which a bank may consider lending you. if you're really so confident that your potential script won't fail, then i would definitely look into getting ahold of a camera, some film students at the local university, and making the whole damn movie yourself! the universe rewards those who take risks!
 
As a ghostwriter, I find people think that coming up with ideas is the hard part. I'm supposed to do the "easy" part of writing. It's not the easy part at all and many new writers sit down and realize it's not, therefore I make money.

Sit down and write out your script. I'm not familiar with film or anything in that section of writing, but I will elaborate on some of the things other writers have said to me and what I have found from my own search for an agent.

First, sit down and write your script. Undoubtedly, it's going to take you months, so worry about that first. You may give up, so worrying about the other part isn't even necessary.

If you are able to actually finish, go back and edit your work. Perfect it. Many people just can't write. They have no idea what a protagonist is or how to stick with tense. These are the 2 things that annoy agents. It took me about 2 months to go back over my manuscript and fix all the bad writing from a time when I thought there were no rules and I was a genius writer who would be different. Don't think you're going to be a new writer, break all the rules, and you'll be a millionaire. That is not likely going to happen. Read writers.net and read what the agents have to say about writers who have bad writing form.

Now, there is a point where some writers disagree. Some people say that you should never pay for someone to edit your work, but what do you do when you don't know someone who can clean up your script? For some writers, they hire an editor to fix their manuscript. You may know someone who can read through it and help fix grammar errors and let you know if there are any weak points in it.

Then, after you have it alllll shiny and clean, you start to submit to agents. Get ready for lots of rejections! The nice thing about agents nowadays is that they have finally given in and accept email queries. It used to be months before you heard from one, but now you can email and receive feedback within days. Get ready for lots of rejection. You will get lots and lots of "no" answers. I read that Stephen King was rejected 4 times before he finally got an agent. You may have this great script you are proud of, and no agent will take it. Getting an agent is hard. I'm up to 10 rejections out of 30 queries, and I'm close to giving up. To find an agent and their rules for submission, use agentquery.com. This is a great site to find an agent.

Keep writing, even if you are rejected. That is the key. I've also read that agents are taking less clients because of the economy, so it's even harder but this was in reference to book agents, so maybe film is different. Don't give up even if you fail this time around. Many famous, successful writers failed for years before one of their manuscripts was picked up.
 
^
Great post Lysis. Straight from the mouth of an expert.

Another thing that I recall: film scripts have very set layouts/formats. You can't just scribble them down any way you want. There is software that will format your script correctly - you should really, really get this software (I forget the names, but if you can't find any, let me know and I'll ask my bro). Stuff like this, and editing, grammar checking etc is just absolutely basic and necessary.
 
Lysis has awesome advice. i have none, but i know that there are tons of books which cover what you need to do; i've seen them at the bookstore. have you read any?
 
Oh, another thing I forgot to mention is that there are certain ways to propose ideas to agents and publishers. Book proposals are for publishers while query letters are for agents. It's soooo hard creating a query letter. You need to come up with an excellent hook within the first sentence of your query that shows your story and why the agent should even bother. Lots of writers have a hard time with this. Again, read writers.net. They have a section for agents where people can post their query letters and agents will comment on them although some of their comments go against the other suggestions I've read. If you get to the part where you are finally done with your script, google "query letters" and agents and read how to write one. At first it seems easy, but once you sit down and condense alll your ideas into a couple of paragraphs, you'll find it's tough!
 
You need the right tools also. I recommend this:

movie-magic.jpg


It will help you get from point a to z.
 
I cant even tell you how excited I was when I saw this thread!

I am an actress, currently in school as a theatre major. I plan to get into television and film, and to set myself apart from the competition, I am also currently working on a movie, just as a way to show people that I know more about the industry than just acting.

There are some great ideas in this thread. School is definetly the way to go, I plan to go to film school in New York if I dont land anything here soon. Thats also the way a lot of big names in the industry, including people like Steven Spielberg, got their start. I actually saw a movie he made when he was in film school.

There are also a lot of film competitions you could enter, like sundance film festival and lots of others. A lot of them get shown in lesser known theaters (some of my personal favorite movies to see) that are more that style and a lot of big actors will often get their start this way, I would imagine that also applies to writers, producers, directors, anyone.

Do things to set yourself apart, if you have other talents than writing, try incorporating those as well. Good luck! If you need actors, feel free to PM me :D
 
Read several books on screenwriting. Once you are familiar with the craft, write your screenplay!

It's been my experience that books were just as useful, if not more so, than the screenwriting classes I've taken, not to mention a whole lot cheaper. Screenwriting software is an enormous help, but is also unreasonably expensive. I've heard about free word processor templates that do the job.

Like any teacher on how to writing ENTERTAINING fiction will tell you, make sure there's a lot of conflict and action. I've read so many boring scripts by young writers that are overflowing with dialogue and pretense, and lack anything engaging for the audience.

As the posters prior to me have said, writing and rewriting the script is the hard part. If you really come up with a good product, the rest will be relatively easy.
 
Easy. You just goth the nearest theatre and begin writing on one of their screens.
 
Write your script, shoot it, show it.

Its easy. Do it yourself and once its done show it at a festival.
 
hold on to your great idea for later. in the meantime refine your skills by writing smaller stories. or do what i did, write something within your means to shoot, and shoot it.

my first short film is on youtube at the moment, but it's the condensed <7min version for tropfest (got rejected). I'll recut it shortly.

Little Wishes Three (short version)
 
my first short film is on youtube at the moment, but it's the condensed <7min version for tropfest (got rejected). I'll recut it shortly.
Click to expand...
That's a lot of jump-cutting. Maybe you shouldn't condense it further, or re-cut it in a more classical style. Just a pet peeve of mine. Good movie, though.
 
thanks. :)

don't worry, i'm cutting it longer.
 
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