Okay, so you’ve got a great idea for a movie or TV show. It’s right there in your head, you just need to get it out there. So how can you, the creative genius, give birth to your idea and see it come alive on the silver screen? You have a couple of choices you can make. But first, you need to know what you’re selling and who you’re selling to…
Think From A Producers Perspective
It’s very easy to get so caught up in your idea and think about your movie. But coming up with a great idea is only part of what you need to do… You need to get inside the head of the people who would be interested in buying your movie idea. And these people are thinking one thing; that is, what’s in it for me. They want to know that the movie idea you have can make them a lot of money and be turned into a successful movie or TV show. This is the reality of Hollywood and the mindset of all producers. Once you understand the commercial potential of your idea, you can start putting your pitch together.
Get Your Idea Down On Paper/Computer
Your idea is right there in your head. Now it’s time to get it down on paper or typed up on your computer, this is the first step to making it real. Writing your idea down will help your idea take shape and make it more clear and easy to pitch when the time comes. Once you have your idea written down, it’s time to clean it up and turn it into a pitch.
Making the Pitch
Ahhh, the good old-fashioned movie pitch. For many people, it’s hell. Nothing is more terrifying for a lot of people than actually pitching your idea to a bunch of strangers, who can instantly reject you and sink your hopes faster than a ship smashing against a cliff.
Okay, perhaps that’s a little dramatic, but the feeling is daunting nonetheless. You might have seen movies like The Player (1992), where the main protagonist, a Hollywood producer, is relentlessly pursued by people trying to pitch their movies to him in-person. Fortunately, this is no longer the early nineties and the world of pitching has changed.
It used to be the case that if you wanted to pitch a movie or TV idea, you had to do it face-to-face or by phone. Now, with the modern wonders of the Internet, you can pitch your movie/TV ideas via email too. But first you need to make sure that your pitch is in good shape and you actually have an idea that is worth pitching. Hollywood buys up thousands of pitches and ideas a year, they also buy thousands of treatments and scripts too. But to stand out from the crowd and sell your idea, you will need to make your idea stand out.
Is Your Idea Appealing?
Have you ever listened to someone tell you a story and found yourself getting restless? I had a good friend who used to do this all the time. They would tell me about something interesting that had happened, but they would go into so much detail that I found myself getting bored and impatient. Don’t make the same mistake with your pitch. Don’t describe every single plot device, character, scene and line of dialogue. This will have potential buyers falling asleep instead of reaching for a pen to write you a check.
Instead, make your pitch intriguing and full of suspense. You can do this quite simply: by keeping your pitch short and focusing on the main premise of your idea and the main turning points and resolution. For example, if you had just come up with the idea for Titanic, you wouldn’t describe every single plot point and dramatic turn. You would say something like this…
“After winning a trip on the RMS Titanic during a dockside card game, American Jack Dawson spots the society girl Rose DeWitt Bukater who is on her way to Philadelphia to marry her rich snob fiancé Caledon Hockley. Rose feels helplessly trapped by her situation and makes her way to the aft deck and thinks of suicide until she is rescued by Jack. Cal is therefore obliged to invite Jack to dine at their first-class table where he suffers through the slights of his snobbish hosts. In return, he spirits Rose off to third-class for an evening of dancing, giving her the time of her life. Deciding to forsake her intended future all together, Rose asks Jack, who has made his living making sketches on the streets of Paris, to draw her in the nude wearing the invaluable blue diamond Cal has given her. Cal finds out and has Jack locked away. Soon afterwards, the ship hits an iceberg and Rose must find Jack while both must run from Cal even as the ship sinks deeper into the freezing water.”
This keeps your pitch suspenseful, interesting and the producer will want to know more. Then, once you have a producer’s interest, let them ask to know more and believe me, they will if they are interested in your idea and believe that it has commercial/high-concept appeal.
(Note: treatments aren’t usually requested in the early pitching stage. A treatment is essentially a full-description of your story, told in an interesting way, over a couple of pages.)
Put Yourself At An Advantage
What do I mean by this? Everyone in Hollywood loves a great idea, no one more than producers and studios. But a new idea is always risky and has an element of risk attached to it.
So how do you make your idea more appealing and less risky?
There is an easy way to do this. That is, you need to either (a) talk about the commercial appeal of your idea—this is why your movie will have lots of people wanting to see it; (b) base your idea on a true story; or (c) base your idea on a high-concept story.
(If you can secure the rights to a story, you can do this by optioning a story for as little as a $1, you will have much greater leverage in the market place to sell your idea.)
It’s also incredibly easy to obtain the rights to a true-life story where you can control the rights 100%. For starters, there are plenty of historical and real-life stories that are in the public domain. Also, if you know any real-life crazy incidents that happened to you, a friend, or something else that was headline worthy, then it’s quite easy to obtain the rights to a story for as little as a $1 and a small percentage later on when you sell the idea.
The most important thing to remember here is this: if the idea is based on a true story then it’s important to own the rights to the idea—because the rights make up a large component of the sale.
High Concept Stories
I’d like to take a moment here to talk about high concept stories. These are stories that are very simple and easy to pitch. For example, Aliens was pitched as “Jaws in space” and the movie “Snakes on a Plane” was pitched as just that… “Snakes on a Plane”.
A high-concept idea is one that you can pitch very easily and a producer or studio will get it straight away. Forget trying to pitch a character driven drama like “Schindler’s List” in a high-concept way. The reason I mention high-concept ideas here is because high-concept story ideas are a good way to go if you want to have a good shot at selling your movie idea (this is because they appeal to a producer’s commercial instincts).
How Much Can You Sell Your Idea For?
Realistically, it’s possible to sell your idea for anywhere from a couple of thousand dollars to $500,000 or more. If you are able to sell one story idea each year, then you can expect to make a nice income. But doing this requires organization and putting together a good pitch. In my next post, I’ll talk a little bit more about how to write a successful pitch.
*Liz Fairbanks has worked as a reader, development assistant, and talent agent in Los Angeles over the last seven years. Liz loves traveling, reading and yoga. Liz also works as a freelance consultant for Script Mailer (a company that connects screenwriters with agents and producers in Hollywood).