Katherine Herbert - The Perfect Screenplay: Writing It and Selling It

K A T H E R I N E A T W E L L H E R B E R T

THE PERFECT SCREENPLAY

Writing It and Selling It

ALLWORTH PRESS

NEW YORK

2005 Katherine Atwell Herbert

All rights reserved. Copyright under Berne Copyright Convention, Universal Copyright Convention, and Pan-American Copyright Convention. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher.

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Published by Allworth Press
An imprint of Allworth Communications, Inc.
10 East 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010

Cover design by Derek Bacchus
Interior design by Mary Belibasakis
Typography by Integra Software Services
Cover photo: Corbis

ISBN: 1-58115-439-9

ISBN: 9781581158465

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Herbert, Katherine Atwell.

The perfect screenplay/Katherine Atwell Herbert.

P. cm.

Includes index.

1. Motion picture authorship. 2. Motion picture authorshipMarketing. I. Title.

PN1996.H428 2005

808.2'3dc22

2005035238

Printed in Canada

Dedication

To Stephen Tod, Amy Elizabeth,

and Jill Anne, just because

About Your Self-Confidence

Are you ready? Are you quite sure youre ready? You have to be ready. You have to get yourself ready if youre not already ready. Were talking movies, after all. Screenwriting isnt a right youre entitled to when you reach the city limits of Los Angeles.

If you dream of Hollywood success writing Oscar-winning screenplays, expelling onto paper stories that are giving you brain ache, airing your points of view of life on earth, youve got to be ready to take it on.

You have to get psyched up for the battles that await. Youve got to get your mind in the right place to survive.

Youve got to be the Jonas Salk of self-confidence and find the elixir that will keep your self-assurance inflated in the face of possible puncturing.

What makes a person ready? Consider the following scenarios:

Youve read a couple of books about screenwriting, written a couple of scripts, and perhaps attended a workshop or two held by a brand-name seminar leader. You are feeling pretty good about what you know about the art and craft of screenwriting. You showed your work to your friends, including your great aunt and your mom, because they insisted, and, wow, do they love your work. They tell you its got success written all over it. Okay, one friend had a little criticism of one of your characters and wasnt too sure how the plot got from point A to point B, but you fixed the one and ignored the otherwhat does that guy know about writing anyway?

Another possible scenario: Youve seen Adaptation, written by Charlie Kaufman, and figure you fit the description of the brother. You are not the angstridden, sweaty half of the duo whose internal dialogue drowns out all incoming communication. You took a weekend workshop, youre working on your first scriptand ohmygod is it a winner or whatyou make friends easily and you love to party. Success will find you, of that you are sure.

Or, you are doing an Emily Dickinson. You write in the quiet of your home, maybe youve read one how-to screenwriting book, you hate the thought of scrambling with the madding crowd to actually sell your work, but you know that someday it will all work out. Very soon you will send off your latest script, as anonymously as possible. Some filmmakers will reach out to you across the great divide and pull you into a Hollywood haven where good writers have their material produced without slimy agents or venal producers mucking up the script-to-screen process. Charlie Kaufman probably lives there.

Are the people just described ready? Are you ready? Possibly not. Probably not. Why? Lets discuss.

Person number one is living in a self-imposed critical vacuum. This writer needs to get his or her work looked at with the piercing eyes of a couple of good analysts. No friends or favorite teachers allowed. The writer probably also could benefit from writers discussion and feedback groups. This doesnt guarantee that the writer will get better, but it can work that way.

Story number two. The pretender doesnt have a clue. Networking and partying are okay as long as theres also some ability, skill, talent even, for writing. Ultimately, as they say, It has to be on the page. Okay, some writers make it not on their talent but on their ability to formulate high-concept, easy-sell ideas. Whatever scripts they attempt are only purchased because a producer sees dollar signs all over the cover and he knows he can hire a real writer to do the rewrite.

Breaking into Hollywood is tough, like scaling K2 without climbing pins. First exception to the rule: You are the wife, husband, son, or daughter of a major Hollywood playeractor, producer, director, and well, you know. Or you are a very close friend, relative, or someone to whom the player owes something. Second exception: You are a certified writing genius. Your work has gained you praisefrom more than your mother, noticeand has opened doors for you since you were quite young. Tossing off a bon mot is as effortless for you as clarifying the theories of Wittgenstein and Schrdinger is to a PhD candidate.

SELLINGAN IMPORTANT PART OF THE PROCESS

However, if you arent connected into the business or a genius, it is going to take effort. You have to be ready for the challenge so you can stay the course until things begin to happen for you. The good news is that you can get ready; you can do it.

The most difficult task you have before you is to make sure your work is salable. Someone has to want to buy it. Hollywood filmmaking is a commercial enterprise. Theyre in it for the money, and if your screenplay says something important about the human condition or has resonance with the emotions, needs, and desires all Homo sapiens share, then so much the better.

The selling part of the effort is the one usually neglected by college teachers, writing mentors, your biggest fans, and others who dont understand the process and navely assume that if they consider the screenplay good, then it will get made as soon as a producer somewhere reads it.

With the advent of the Internet and the independent film movement, many writers eschew Hollywood and its brutality and hope to film their scripts themselves or to partner with a friend or a local who is a filmmaker. Nice thought. Rarely works. Theres dozens of reasons why, which we will cover later.

Back to Hollywood. The upshot of this navet or academias failure to teach artists how to market themselvesalthough they have perfectly good reasons for focusing on skill-building rather than sellingis that some young students are convinced they are the next Sam Mendes, or Alexander Payne, Tim Burton, or William Goldman.

To counter this attitude, you should probably conduct a reality check. Whether you admit it or not, thousands and thousands of the people you share the planet with are scribbling scripts. Like you, they also assume they shall one day inherit the mantle of Best Screenwriter.

Unfortunately, there are only two writing Oscars given away each year, so you may not be the one who gets to clean off some shelf space for that statuette. In fact, the field is so competitive that if your work achieves nothing more than getting nice comments from a professional who actually looked at your work, thats an achievement about which you can be proud. Seriously. Succeeding in Hollywood is like winning