In the world of Hollywood, the only person who can buy your script is a producer (including production companies). Therefore, these are the people you need to target when trying to sell your script.
In this series of articles on how to sell your script to a producer, I’m going to take an in-depth look at the overall process of selling your script.
So first we need to understand exactly what a producer does?
Producers in the movie industry are known for putting together and packaging films. Starting with the script, the producer must then assemble the production crew, the director, and the actors.
It’s a lot of work and it’s important at this point to distinguish between two different types of producers. There are producers who operate and develop projects based on money alone. Some might say that these are more unscrupulous producers who only care about profit at the expense of creativity–but this is a simplistic way to look at it.
A lot of screenwriters have spoken to me throughout my career complaining that their script has been butchered by a producer who completely changed their story for commercial reasons, and destroyed their script in the process.
If you’re a screenwriter you need to prepare yourself for the possibility that you might sell your script, however, a commercially minded producer or production company has the right to dissect your script and completely change it if they want to.
The other kind of producer is the creative producer who is focused on delivering a quality movie as well as a commercially viable project. All those great movies you’ve seen like American Beauty and Sunset Boulevard have strong artistic integrity mixed with a good commercial sensibility too.
This is the kind of producer that most screenwriters love when they’re trying to get a producer to buy their script. Because this kind of producer is the one who ultimately falls in love with your screenplay first, rather than thinking how much money it can make at the end of the day.
These are just some thoughts to consider before you submit your script to a producer or try to sell your screenplay to a production company. What kind of producer do you want to attract?
You can read Part 2 here.
*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).