As someone who has degrees business management, as well as experience writing business plans for real companies, I'm almost ashamed to admit that I currently do my screenwriting thing without having any set plan or long range goals set forth in a written plan. That doesn't mean I'm not trying to hustle my wares when opportunity knocks. However, I'm flying by the seat of my trousers.
What about you? Do you have a set business plan for succeeding as a screenwriter?
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Plan? No. Trying to expand reach, network, skills, and ancillary script marketing collateral? You bet! I've joined the local filmmakers group to get wired into that scene taking Dan MaxXx's guidance to heart. I figure just keep moving forward as I can on multiple fronts and someday I'll have made enough progress to have a breakthrough.
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Yes. BTW, can I interest you in reading my....just kidding.
Seriously though it's not an official business plan but it consists of:
1. Write a really good marketable script.
2. Rewrite that really good marketable script until it's perfect.
3. Rewrite that script I thought was perfect, but wasn't, until it really is perfect.
4. Get legitimate coverage to tell me how it's not yet perfect.
5. Rewrite it until it's perfect.
6. Submit it to legitimate competitions. Inktip, etc.
7. Start the self flagellation of "sending queries".
8. Pursue in desperation any avenue to get it in the "right hands".
And during all that, write one or two other scripts, following the same plan as above, but inserted between some of those numbers. Like 1a would be "start writing another script" and and then maybe somewhere in the later numbers insert a "start writing another script" etc.
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No. Like you I have a postgraduate degree (in marketing, of all things) but absolutely no interest in branding/selling my self/scripts. I'm retired now...so I really don't care. I've had a few scripts picked up and spent some time in the writer's room over the decades; but now it's just for fun. I tried teaching filmmaking and writing - but I'm tired of dealing with bunches of boxes-of-rocks.
I think too, the industry has morphed into something entirely different than it was. Today's market is much more localized, meaning that the days of filmmaking royalty is nearing its demise. Story weaving and filmmaking is a human need and will always be with us but it's more localized and democratized in the digital era. So your marketing plan has to recognize the newer trends or you become the chaff blowing in the wind (which is where the vast majority will go).
So marketing plan: Produce some worthy shorts using your own funds and ingenuity. Put as many eyes on 'em as you can (festivals, Netflix,,,). Nothing breeds success like success and failure is both necessary and teachible. Go for it!
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The plan I had was to write screenplays and send out query letters and call agents and producers after I finished one. I would keep a list of everyone who reads one of my screenplays and thank them for their time and I would let them know when I finished my next one. I also attached a couple of well known directors to several screenplays to market them. I should have included winning the Lottery in my business plan but I didn't.
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I just wonder sometimes if the corporate powers that be realize how badly they are eroding their brand, their customer base, and the ingrained habit and tradition of going to movies for entertainment. There is great indy theater near me (subsidized by institutions) that I happily support whenever I can. But driving by the corporate cinema is like passing by a discarded snickers candy bar that has been baking on the asphalt in Phoenix in August pecked at by crows. The artistic filmmakers that are left are practically saints from what I can tell. Many of them working day jobs to earn a living. If it wasn't for Marvel comics what would really be left of the industry at this point? Studios essentially beg the public to ignore them for long periods of time and then announce a big film which is generally a cultural event and torturous to actually watch. Coercing and pressuring people to attend "events" which they don't actually enjoy doesn't seem like a really promising long-range strategy for a product. I don't go to Starbucks every day because its an "event" that I can share on my Facebook page. Hollywood reminds me a lot of spoken-word poetry right now.
B.V Jottsonne There's a lot of truth there. An analogy that popped in my head (not necessarily a good one) Some people get their food from convenience stores. They go in and grab one of those hotdogs on the rollers, grab a monster energy or 64oz liquid diabetes and boom! dinner. Others go to McDonald's and others go to non-chain, unique restaurants that specialize in a specific type of food. Unfortunately there's lots of money to be made pumping out convenience store food and the masses keep buying and consuming it.
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Yes. I pitch my loglines to directors and producers on sets. Find out what they're looking for and write for them. I will write on-assignment for my contacts until I sell. My philosophy is based on the law of attraction. Songs and scripts are magnets. Weak work attracts no one. Strong work sells itself. I take no other factors into consideration. My business plan is master craft. Write magnet. Get magnet approved by coach. Send magnet to contacts. Sell or not sell. Rinse and repeat.
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Brad, What you say is true indeed - from your perspective. But realize that the massive cinema industry is in the business of making money; it's not in the business of making real films anymore. It churns out popcorn movies on the cheap for profit (and cheap ain't that cheap anymore). An awful lot of starry-eyed folk are working their damndest to break into a true film industry that no longer exists - it's history - but the dreams and myths remain to attract many. The true FILM industry that's emerging reflects small-time Indie filmmaker passions, hopes and dreams. It's beginning to gain some traction. The corporate powers well understand this evolution and realize that they cannot compete with the small-time operators - so they don't. But then too, the small time operators must learn not to compete with the big corporations or they'll fail miserably. It's a good time to be an Indie Filmmaker.
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There are two, often opposing, wievs on this matter:
1)Love and passion for writing alone should drive you to write screenplays. There is no end result but the process itself. The finished screenplay and the feelings it gives you are the true rewards!
Heck, I lost about 5 screenplays to a shut down site and I'm ok with that..:)
2. A screenplay is not meant to be enjoyed by itself, and therefore is not finished until it's made as a movie and therefore is your obligation as a writer to do everything you can to get them in the hands of people who can turn them to films.
In this view, the rewards are mostly financial/material, as a screenplay is but a product, although passion for writing is still required!
No.