For just a moment, I smiled...

Write_At_1st_Light said:

...and then my brow furrowed.

I've been writing long-form drama for 9 years (between real work) and that includes 5 feature-length screenplays.

A few days ago I get an email from these guys in London:
http://www.ifilmgroup.com

Asking me if I was interested in selling them the rights to my script. That single message made me nearly forget the Number 1 rule of screenwriting: Always Be Skeptical.

I responded positively, yet I did hedge my enthusiasm. I mean, you just HAVE to in this racket.

Sure enough, the reply email came back, telling me that I'd first need to have a fee-based "independent script report" done by a 3rd party. Oh, and that this film group could recommend such 3rd parties.

That's when I knew.

If someone genuinely wishes to buy your screenplay? THEY PAY YOU. You do NOT pay them.

Click to expand...

That's still true in the novel world but it's less so in the screenwriting world these days.

People now pay to pitch to legitimate companies, anywhere from $10 (Virtual Pitch Fest) to $45 (Stage 32) to hundreds of dollars at pitchfests. And others pay to have their script listed on the Blacklist at $25 per month with required reads (coverage) at $50 a pop.

Recognized contests are another vetting source -- finalists are requested by lots of production companies, and semifinalists who have the reader's notes can also garner interest. Screenwriters pay to enter those contests, and they pay for notes.

I'm part of a legitimate production company that produces both television and low-budget features and we now require that submissions have independent coverage attached from a source we recognize and approve of -- in other words, trust. Our list (and no, we don't get kickbacks) include script consultants who charge $30 per script, to those that charge $300 per script. The screenwriter can keep the coverage and use it to revise his/her script or to submit elsewhere.

Companies are doing this so they don't have to rely on staff to read the scripts, or interns, or to pay for something that we probably won't need.

The ONLY scripts that are read by in-house execs these days at many companies are scripts by produced writers or material handed off by known managers or agents or people who are familiar to the company and trusted (i.e., staff).

This is the way the wind is blowing -- get used to it.

I have no idea if the company that contacted you is legit, but what they've requested is not out of line for independent production companies provided they don't offer to do the coverage in house for a fee.

Write_At_1st_Light said:

I think it's completely ridiculous for any production company to require a WRITER to, yet again, cough up cash they hardly have to do what that company is supposedly in the business of doing: Reading scripts!

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They're not in the business of reading scripts -- their business is making movies.

99% of producible scripts come through established industry contacts. The other 1% is a crapshoot. No one I know in production likes to read scripts IN ADDITION to their long days occupied with their actual jobs of pre-production, production and post-production.

And no one cares about writers who cry poverty -- the starving writer in the garret is a cliché for novelists -- screenwriters are expected to work their way up in the industry as interns, assistants, or whatever, OR win big contests OR place high on the Blacklist or some other equivalent or graduate with an MFA from one of the top film schools -- before they go to work as an unpaid intern.

Screenplay writing IS NOT ABOUT THE WRITER. It's about writing material that will interest a good director, actors, and come in at budget. Consider a script as bait. Filmmaking is a collaborative process and the writer is merely the first creative in a long process, and by no means the most important or most memorable. The "writer" in this medium who is most recognized by name is either the writer/director or the writer who wrote the source material (novel, non-fiction book, play, whatever).

Because the market is glutted with crap, pay-to-pay is one way to reduce the size of the pile.

There are still plenty of legit companies that take responsibility to vet material themselves without demanding a writer pay for coverage elsewhere. I would ignore any production company that asks this of you, because they clearly have little interest in your material.

And while there is truth to the fact that businesses and contests are popping up as a way to help the industry vet material, it's mostly snake oil sold by the fringe industry. For example, out of thousands of screenplay contests, there's only three or four that command respect from the industry-at-large.

You don't have to be bullied by the pay-to-play mentality.