Advice On Selling A Screenplay by Steve Kaplan Video Lecture | Screenwriting: From Beginner to a Pro - Career Development

so Steve in your book the hidden tools
of comedy I believe you have a chapter
at the end on how do you actually land a
job as a writer right and there's
something to the effect of be brilliant
and let everybody know about it how do
you do that without becoming Bill Murray
oh well okay first off first off people
ask how do you sell a screenplay and the
first part of that is is be brilliant in
the right of brilliant screenplay
get your craft to the point where it's
so good people can't can't deny it
there's there's a small car load to that
which is in comedy it's great to have a
great comic premise the lie that tells
the truth if you have a great premise
something that's so delicious that makes
other people want to see that movie
so have the movie start to happen in
their own imagination that's a great
selling tool that's that's basically the
the story of Groundhog Day where the
original script not as funny as what you
what you end up with in the in the final
film the structure is all different the
character is very different in the
original draft the character Phil is
just a nice guy he's gotten a lesson to
learn he's just kind of stuck for 70
pages in this terrible time warp and
then he gets out of it and so there's no
you know you don't feel the same
cathartic sense of satisfaction as you
do in the rivana in the final revised
draft but the film had such a great
premise a premise that haven't been over
developed that it just made Harold Ramis
want to buy it immediately so if you
have a great premise a premise that no
one else has thought of or basically a
premise that you have lifted from an
earlier and by earlier I mean way
earlier 1920s 1930s film that hasn't
been explored in a long time that you
can put your own your own twist on your
own take on that's a great selling tool
but then having done that you need to
make it brilliant how do you make it
brilliant you make it brilliant by
exposing it first
to other people like we talked about you
know at another point you want to hear
your stuff read out loud you want other
people to hear your stuff right out loud
and you want to be open to that
experience by being open to the
experience what that means is don't have
a Q&A afterwards give your give your
friends wine and cheese and have them
all you want to know is what parts you
like what parts what parts were you're
not that interested in that's all you
want to know Neal gaming once said that
95% of the comments you get on a work of
art is accurate ninety-five percent of
the solutions you're given are
inaccurate so you don't want to hear
what you know why don't you make them
all you know pigmies from Borneo now you
don't want to hear that what you do want
to hear is I love that part and this
part now you know if if that means that
a human being when asked at a certain
part you got to take that into account
what you know is it true is it not true
is what what is math in that can is
there a fix to it so you want to get
your script as good as you possibly can
get it and there's no substitute for
hearing it read out loud before they may
not at the Opera the Marx Brothers
didn't just go onto the set and be
brilliantly funny they toured those set
pieces like like the state room scene up
and down the west coast in vaudeville
all summer long so they knew absolutely
based upon human beings reactions what
was playing and so when they shot it
when they went to shoot it they knew
exactly what was funny and what wasn't
funny you know shooting it without an
audience once you've done that you then
want to let people know about it how do
you let people know about it one way is
to you don't need to become Bill Murray
but you do need to lose all shame and
shame is oh you know I used to go to
high school with that person but I
haven't talked to them in 20 years
I can't just call them up and why not
why not just call them up because
there's an important thing this isn't
it's true in New York but in Los Angeles
Los Angeles is high school with money
what does that mean
that means that if you're a great a
great transfer student but no one knows
you you're not getting invited to the
party no matter how wonderful you are no
one knows you
so in Los Angeles face to face is so
much is so much more valuable than some
abstract brilliant script first you need
to let people know about it just a case
in point I was I was doing a project for
for HBO several years ago and these
comics from Montreal had written a
script I thought they gave it to me I
thought it was very funny a disco
inferno about you know kind of a spoof
of disaster films and and centered
around a disco that somebody had you
know had inadvertently placed or or
evilly plays because the evil developer
placed in a new room what they thought
was a dormant volcano so disco inferno
and you know they said could you help us
so I said well I know some people so I
sent it around to some people who didn't
get much of a much of a response then I
met a guy at a party a dinner party I
sat next to him for about two hours we
talked made him laugh he made me laugh I
sent him the script he was working as as
an executive at some company script that
option by these people what's the
difference the only difference was he
knew me he met me I was a nice guy was
an OK guy so he read the script
knowing that as opposed to just reading
the script on its own merits whether you
thought it was funny or not funny so
that that taught me the power of
face-to-face relationship now how can
you create face-to-face relationship one
way is to not be shy or or or or shamed
make a list of everybody who you've ever
met or might have met or or or
or possibly met or stood behind in
Starbucks waiting for a coffee
everybody and studiously methodically
get in touch with all of them
what do you have to lose because here's
the thought if somebody came to you and
said I need your help
what would you do you would say okay if
I can help you sure why are those people
different they're human beings too
people want to help other people now
there will be people who are assholes
well they're not going to help you
because they're assholes I once asked
somebody when I first came to Los
Angeles I was looking to get settled
somewhere I asked somebody could we have
together I'd love to pick your brain and
there was this long pause on the phone
and she said I don't like my brain being
picked and then there was about a minute
of awkward conversation I hung up and it
was like well you who you know okay
I mean so she wasn't gonna give me any
help but the other part of the story was
I turned out that a guy who I went to
college with was a top executive of H at
HBO and so I emailed him was I think
this is actually before emails I I
called him left a message
waited three days called again without
saying I've already called once just
called again because busy guy one of the
top executives at HBO called again I
must have called 13 times just to sit
down with the guy and if--and and and by
the 13th time his secretary said you
know he really wants to talk to you okay
I mean one of the things that they
taught me was you know in New York if
you call somebody and they don't return
the phone call that says something but
here in Los Angeles if you call somebody
and they don't return it's because they
have 75 other phone calls that that they
haven't gotten to their 200 emails you
know and and there's only so much time
and you're not on the top of their list
but rather than saying god damn I just
called again and called again I didn't
call every day I didn't call five times
a day I had a calendar and I said enough
time is gone
I just left a message I was
asking for a loan I was just leaving a
message finally we set up a meeting and
I go in there and I say Chris do you
remember me we went to college together
he said you forgot we went to high
school too
it turned out I had gone since I was in
high school with him and I had
completely forgotten that and because he
knew me and we had I he had borrowed you
know french fries for my plate you know
in the cafeteria at Hofstra University
and this is my good friend it's my good
friend Panther he said well what do you
got for me and I told him one of my
ideas he said once you get together with
this guy Dave down the hall and that
started my that started me in Los
Angeles and none of that would have
happened if I had simply given up on the
first try or a second try so what a
writer's shameful about everybody
shameful shameful that you're gonna be
rejected shameful that nobody's returned
your phone call shame shame that that
you might call somebody and they don't
remember you but my feeling is is that
if you called me and said Steve can you
help me out why wouldn't I say yes I
like being a good person I like helping
people out most people are like me so
how do writers get out of that self
effacing introverted mindset seems like
a lot of them have or maybe that's just
a myth no no it's it's hard there's you
give you know in the entertainment field
you there's a lot of rejection and and
the only way out of it is to take a deep
breath and realize that the person
you're talking to is just another human
being and if they don't respond to you I
mean I'm not talking about by your
project I'm talking about just agree to
meet if they don't agree you know if
they don't want to meet with you well
that says something more about them than
it does about you but you more people
have gotten deals or made sales based
upon knowing somebody who knew somebody
who knew somebody who knew somebody and
if you don't get it out there and say
could you show or do you
could you help me well no one's a mind
reader no one's gonna say I can feel
that Karen wants help I'm okay yeah
we're not the x-men all you can do is
ask sometimes you know the answer is no
but but all you can do is ask and and
then there are places that are actively
looking Nickelodeon writers on the verge
the big the big break contest I mean
there's all these places where if your
stuff is brilliant now if your stuff
isn't brilliant it's not gonna you know
you can't pretend to yourself it's
brilliant and blame other people for not
buying it but if your stuff is brilliant
then there's then there's avenues that
you can explore to get it out there or
do it yourself
you