do you have a completed and polished
Hollywood screenplay but no idea how to
get it into the right hands let's talk
about all the different ways that you
can market your screenplay so the first
way is kind of not really in vogue
anymore this is kind of the old days and
that is a query letter or a query email
this is where you would solicit a
production company or an agent or
manager and basically just ask them to
read your screenplay don't ever send
your scripts unsolicited to any company
or manager don't stick it in an envelope
and don't drop it off they won't take it
now this really doesn't work they kind
of ignore those everyone small if you
have an amazing story like you used to
be a CIA agent and you have a story
about your career in the CIA or
something that would just make people
take notice then you might be able to
send an email to a production company
and ask if they would like to read your
screenplay but if you just work it Best
Buy and there's nothing too different
about your background you could still
have the most amazing story about a CIA
agent ever but they're probably not
going to take your query email too
seriously so that's kind of an old way
to solicit is query letters or query
emails but a great way to break in is
contest and the website to go to for
screenplay contests is movie bytes com
I'll put a link down below that will
show you all the upcoming contests all
the information you'll get report cards
people make comments about different
contests it will give you the web pages
for the contest and I put down below in
the links kind of the most major
contests because there are a lot of
different contests and some of them the
industry takes seriously and some of
them not so much so I won the Nicholl
fellowship that's definitely very major
in the industry other contests that are
significant are things like the Paige
Awards final drafts big break often just
one top three in tracking B and
the insider as he calls himself he's
awesome so there are a lot of different
contests and those can break you in the
other good thing about contests is we
all make this mistake trust me we all
make this mistake sending your material
out too soon before it is ready so when
you enter your scripted and contest if
six months later you realize oh my gosh
that had so many problems I did a rear
eight I made it so much better just the
contest saw no one important thought it
didn't place high in the contest as
opposed to getting it in the hands of a
potential agent manager and it wasn't
ready for primetime and you kind of burn
the bridge and burn the Reed so contests
they're very low risk way of tiptoeing
into Hollywood then there are also some
what I call like listing services
there's two main ones and there's some
more starting to crop up so one of them
is Inc tip Inc tip is more if you have a
movie that you wouldn't mind going
straight to television or it's maybe a
red box or it's kind of more of a
low-budget movie
there are screenwriters who are totally
making a living selling their
screenplays on ink tip and that's a
listing service where producers can go
on to the site and they can search for
type of script they're looking for they
can look for certain character roles
they're looking for certain genres and
they can read your logline
and I haven't been there a long time I
don't know if they can automatically
download your script or if you have to
give them permission to download your
script either way it's direct access
between you and producers who are
looking for screenplays there's a lot of
success stories there but if you've got
something that's like big-budget that
only a studio could do that wouldn't be
the place to put your screenplay that's
more for lower budget screenplays if you
do have a bigger budget Hollywood giant
spectacular that would cost a hundred
million dollars you don't want to put it
on ink tip you're going to more look at
like the blacklist
what is the blacklist the blacklist used
to just be a list that came out every
year that all the producers voted on
what they thought were the best
unproduced screenplays they read that
year so it was this list that came out
every year and then eventually it became
a website so it's a website where you
can go and you can put your screenplay
up there
and so producers can again search for
different types of material they're
looking for they can directly access
your screenplay you can also pay for I
don't know if they call it coverage they
might call it coverage you can pay for
reads and if it gets a high enough
number of reads they'll sometimes to
feature it to all of their industry
insiders and it gets more attention so
you can also have direct access to
producers by putting your script on the
blacklist
another aspect Scout I don't know as
much about that one but you can also get
your material on spec scout so another
way to get your face in front of
Hollywood literally our pitch festivals
they're in person pitching and this is
kind of like speed dating you basically
go into a big room
where they're all these producers or
agents and managers sitting in chairs
and then like there's a certain ding or
a time changes and then you go and sit
in front of that producer a manager and
you have like five minutes to pitch them
your material and then they contact you
later and say whether or not they want
you to send them the script so those can
be very fun and also allow you to come
to Los Angeles kind of feel like the
dream is a possibility and meet with
other screenwriters that kind of thing
and the ones that I know over like the
great American pitch festival Hollywood
pitch festival and then the story Expo I
think has a pitch fest inside of the
Expo that's the golden ticket pitch fest
so in person pitch festivals I'll put a
link for them down below then another
way to pitch to Hollywood are Skype
pitches that's where you have your
little webcam in front of your computer
and you would sign up to pitch with a
particular agent or a particular
producer or a manager and then at a set
time they would call you on skype and
then you would just on the Skype camera
pitch while you see the producer the
agent on the other side that's kind of
an weird dynamic because it's different
than someone in person you can't really
bounce off them the energy is kind of
weird they just kind of stare at you
like you're a TV so you just have to
know they're not going to interact with
you much they just
that there and expect you to perform
like your TV showing and so you have to
kind of get used to how to do those you
might practice with your webcam a couple
times on that one the places to go for
Skype pitches roadmap writers and then
also stage 32 happy writers they also do
Skype pitches now if the idea of having
to pitch on Skype or actually talk to a
producer makes you break out in hives
because you're so nervous you can also
just pay a manager or a producer or an
agent to read your screenplay you can
just pay them now sometimes some of the
people that you're paying they may might
be like very new at the production
companies they might be the assistant or
they may be a very new producer but
that's fine because they are still a
gatekeeper they can still take it to
their higher-ups that's not a problem
so both set like roadmap writers and
stage 32 you can pick a certain company
that you think would be good for your
material you could just pay them to read
the script and if they like it they'll
want to meet with you and it can go
further or if it's not for them you're
still going to get great feedback back
you could get some great notes you're
going to get more insight into why they
liked it why they didn't like it so that
is another way to go the pain for
someone who is a Hollywood insider to
read your screenplay then there's also
online written pitches this is where you
would do a written pitch like a little
log line a little something about your
screenplay and that would get sent to
either an agent or a manager or producer
and the place to go for that is virtual
pitch fest so you pay for each pitch
that you send but the great thing about
that website is they're guaranteeing the
person is actually going to look at it
and you're going to get a timely
response so you get to choose what
companies you want to pitch to it's not
like they're going to just make them
random you buy little packages of
pitches and then you know for sure your
pitch is being seen and then you can
have your screenplay read that way and
finally there are coverage services with
scouting instead of you paying a
particular agent or a particular
producer to read your screenplay it's
more a will
affected company that you paid them to
have a reader give coverage on your
script but then they have connections
with a lot of different industry
insiders and if the coverage comes back
high enough like they might need to be a
consider or recommend they will then
pick up the phone or type emails or
somehow contact all of their industry
people and get it into the right hands
there's script pipeline script Arsenal
at the writers store their script expert
the blacklist also promotes material
that scores highly in evaluations and if
there are any other sites that you know
of let me know and I will keep the
description below this video constantly
updated with new information so I hope
that helps you come up with a game plan
of how you can get your script into the
hands of Hollywood if you liked this
video don't forget to give it a thumbs
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will talk to you later
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