When you’re trying to sell your screenplay to Hollywood, it’s important to think about how you can touch and move an agent or producer to buy your script with only limited time available.
Time is a precious resource and there is no other industry on the planet with a shorter attention span than Hollywood. The industry is like one big kid suffering from ADD. That’s why it’s so important to be able to capture interest in your screenplay in the fastest, most direct way possible.
Now it’s no secret that human beings are visual creatures. We have evolved over the centuries to respond to visual stimuli. The problem with this is that screenplays aren’t visual mediums. They are simply the blueprint to a visual medium.
Getting an agent or producer to read your script takes persuasion. An industry professional needs to actually be motivated to open your screenplay and read it.
What motivates an agent/producer to read a screenplay? Simply put, the prospect of reading a great story with commercial appeal. Although a lot of screenwriters make the mistake of thinking that all they have to do is send their screenplay to an agent/producer and that’s enough, their screenplay will be picked up and read.
But where’s the motivation to read a script just lying on a pile of other scripts? Have you warmed an agent or producer up and even got them excited about your story beforehand? Expecting a producer or studio executive to immediately purchase your screenplay once you send it through is like a salesman expecting to sell the latest fancy widget right after knocking on someone’s door. It doesn’t happen that often.
You need to first warm people up and get them excited about your screenplay and your story. This excitement then creates motivation… motivation to read your screenplay.
Motivate Agents & Producers To Read Your Screenplay
So how exactly do you motivate someone to read your screenplay? There are many ways you can do this, to name just a few:
– Get someone (like an actor/producer/fellow screenwriter) to champion your work.
– Create a trailer to get people excited about your story.
– Create an excellent and engaging query letter to pitch your script.
– Create a Website to showcase your screenplay.
– Create a visually impressive poster to sell your screenplay.
Now it’s this last item on this list that I want to talk about today. Creating a visually impressive poster to sell your script is a great way to get people excited about your work. It’s also a very easy way to pitch your screenplay.
People respond to visual images and there is no better way to capture the human imagination than to use a poster to promote your screenplay in the early stages of a pitch (remember at this point in time you simply want to capture Hollywood’s attention and make people stop long enough to read your screenplay).
Selling Your Script Visually
Whenever you see a movie poster on a billboard or bus stop, Hollywood is simply trying to persuade you to go to the movies and watch one of their movies.
Hollywood uses posters because they’re so effective at branding a movie and generating interest. If you think of great, iconic movie posters like Jaws, The Terminator and Titanic, you’ll notice that they leave an imprint on the mind and our imagination.
Who can forget the image of an oversized great white shark about to eat a helpless woman swimming on the surface of the ocean? Or the image of a half-man/half-machine terminator? These images are all at once fantastic and visually impressive. They excite us and capture our attention.
A great Hollywood poster ultimately motivates us to go to the movie theater and part with our hard-earned cash. There is nothing more persuasive and exciting than a stunning visual image to capture our attention. And if your query letter is the only one with an arresting visual poster attached to it (and the chances are high it will be), you will immediately stand out from the rest of the crowd.
Now you’re probably wondering exactly how difficult it is to create a poster and how you could even get started on this? After all, this kind of thing is very expensive and requires the talents of a professional graphic designer, doesn’t it?
Well, the truth is it’s not as expensive as you might think. It’s now easier than ever to hire a freelance graphic designer to put together a visually stunning movie poster to capture the power and spirit of your movie. Modern technology and software like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator has brought the power of creativity right to our fingertips.
You can also use software tools on the Internet, like Canva, that can help you create a movie poster within 30 minutes (it’s important to note that I don’t endorse any of these products, I’m simply telling you which tools are available to help you get the job done at the right price).
If you feel that creating a visual poster is beyond your capabilities and you either don’t have the time or know-how to get started, Script Mailer can help you put together a visually stunning movie poster to promote your story and get people excited about your screenplay, simply send us an email and we’ll get back to you with some more information on how we can help you.
*Jennifer Sloane has worked as a screenplay agent in Los Angeles and Nashville for the last five years. Jennifer loves good movies, music and animals. A former television and movie executive, Jennifer currently heads business development at Script Mailer (a company that connects screenwriters with agents and producers in Hollywood).