Ideas For Screenwriters To Break Into Hollywood by Marc Scott Zicree Video Lecture | Screenwriting: From Beginner to a Pro - Career Development

in terms of people not going places yes
let's suppose someone's pitching script
yes and let's say they're in their third
they're very Gentile and they know
and scripts save one or there one
screenwriting contest they've made the
rounds yet nothing's caught on right
that happens a lot yeah and there's a
lot making a living as a writer or tax
person I'm a brain surgeon I know it's
seriously the that happens a lot and
then it becomes a question of how
committed well first of all what do you
try to accomplish and how committed are
you to accomplishing it because you have
to be clear on if your goal is to get
rich and famous or if your goal is to do
meaningful work
I personally am i Crone in my life I
favor the latter is an objective because
if your goal is to get rich and famous
well then what you need to do is find
people who've gotten rich and famous and
have them mentor you because it's a
recipe and you need to follow it so
that's one that's one part of the answer
but the other part of the answer is if
your goal is do meaningful work then get
a Canon 5d you learn final cut on a Mac
you know make the work you know go to
science fiction conventions meet science
fiction actors if you want to science
fiction movies they're very accessible
go where or go to film festivals and
meet actors who aren't science fiction
actors meet actors befriends them you
know get them to be in your project but
make the project for the lowest possible
number you can make for while still
having it be of quality and so that's
where you need to meet people have the
skill sets that you need you have to
have good sound absolutely you have to
have a picture that looks good or well
that you so get a good DP but there's
tons of those people so but on the other
hand if you wanna play the studio game
and sell the studios and climb that
ladder and make millions of dollars the
way you do that is you move to LA you go
to every event you can where someone you
admire is speaking you go to the writers
guild event you go to the events in the
American Cinematheque in the DGA
you
then you learn your craft you get good
at writing you have people read your
script and give you notes form before
professional screenwriters not
screenwriting teachers it's very
important when you're getting notes from
someone to ask yourself have you ever
written its own script if they haven't
that how are you going to learn what you
need to learn that successful career if
you're learning it from someone who's
never done it I mean it's possible you
can learn that but it's much harder so
for instance one thing I advise people
people can hire me to read scripts and
give notes that's fine but they can also
reach out if you had ten of your
favorite screenwriters you could bite
them care of the writers guild you just
put on the envelope please forward the
four letters don't send a whole bunch of
the time it's in one at a time and you
save that writer send these one at a
time let's say you choose 15 of your
favourite screenwriters you say I've
written the screenplay I'd like to pay
you a thousand dollars to read it and
give me notes I promise you one of them
will say yes because they are never
offered money to read the scripts they
were always at having people want money
to read scripts for free the reason you
don't say all fifteen of one says if you
get 15 yeses you're out 15 credit but
the point is let's say you get some
a-list screenwriter to read your script
and give you notes if you response when
he likes it amazing things can happen so
but don't don't require that don't have
that be an expectation because even if
he just gives you know it's your miles
ahead he just has to be someone who's
writing in a genre that's similar to
yours or writing in a tome that's
similar to here so he's going to be get
what you're up to
but but that's what I would recommend
because
you know I mean some of the
screenwriting teachers are good some of
the screenwriting gurus but a lot of
them you know are just going on
guesswork or they're throwing up a lot
of rules in my mind basically I feel
that the more rules someone lays down in
terms of what a script needs to be the
less they know what they're doing
because in reality when you get really
good at writing you hear the music and
structure becomes second nature it's
like it's like the bones of a house
you're building a house you know how a
house has to stand the bigger the story
the more elaborate that bones of the
house but but that becomes almost second
nature it's like breathing and then it's
just finding the truth of the story
having the characters be alive it's it's
answering the music it's not like oh by
page seven I need to have this happen to
my page twelve I need this to happen by
I mean the big structure basically is
simply start with someone who has a
problem you would give them the deepest
ship possible if it's happy I mean they
give themselves out of it if it's a
tragedy they fail to that structure and
you know you can also study movies that
you love and take them apart you can
sort of you know you can record them on
audio and listen to it and it helps you
analyze it better you can listen to a
movie to analyze the the writing you can
turn the sound off and watch a movie to
analyze the directing and see how this
how it works as a series of shots and
movement within those shots so those are
two things that I do
you