Do Not Try To Sell Your Screenplay by UCLA Professor Richard Walter Video Lecture | Screenwriting: From Beginner to a Pro - Career Development

at what stage of the screenwriting
process would you say it's time to start
thinking about selling it know stage
using everything that's where we have
agents it's funny I'm at my class class
which meets tonight in the first class I
always brag about all of the scripts it
got written in the class that became
movies now most of the people who
succeed don't sell the scripts that they
write in the class much less have them
made into movies they use them as
showcase as they win representation they
win development deals and rewrite
assignments and other kinds of of
rewards but there are something that
actually been written right in the
classes that became movies and I brag to
the eight writers around the table about
those first thing I do the next thing I
do is I tell them now please don't try
to sell the scripts that you write in
this class and then I take a long
silence and I let people think about
what seems like a contradiction I've
just been bragging about all those
scripts that have sold out of the class
and Here I am saying please don't try to
sell the scripts that you read in class
and I point out to the student that you
write in the class and then I point out
to the writers that it's not a
contradiction I didn't sell don't I
didn't say don't sell the scripts that
you write in the class
I said don't try to sell the scripts to
try the place if you're thinking about
the sale while you're working on a you
are doomed you are lost
[Music]
you're intellectualizing you're
calculating you're getting in all kinds
of processes that are that will militate
against successful art you're getting
again to intellectual to into your head
when you think that way it's not to
think about trends what's popular who
might this be right for I once had a
writer who'd been admitted to the
program it's extremely unusual that
somebody's admitted and doesn't enter
the program our so-called take rate the
percentage of people who are admitted
who actually enroll is like 99 percent
but there was one guy who came to me
with rude yellow legal pad
been admitted he wasn't sure he wanted
to come and he wanted to know the
percentage of students that had agents
after how much time the median income
for graduates of the five-year mark the
10-year mark not only the medium but the
mean and also the average I resisted
telling him the mean and the average of
the same the median is different but the
mean and the average those are two
synonyms um and I said though I said I
could get all of those statistics for
you that would show you you know that
this is the best way to succeed in the
movie business is to become a writer to
come to this program I said but I don't
I'm not going to do that for two reasons
the second reason fresh the second
reason is I'm the professor I give the
assignments I don't do the assignment
he's giving me all these assignments you
know and hey I got tenure right I get I
dish it out I don't take it anymore
but first of all I said to him I don't
think you will succeed I know I hope I
didn't say this cruelly I said it
truthfully I said I do not believe that
you will succeed if you come through
this program i if you enter this program
we've admitted you we were welcome you
warmly and we'll treat you generously
but I don't think you're going to
succeed and he's why do you think I said
because you're sitting here asking me
with a drool yellow peas legal pet asked
me about the median and the main and the
average and the Devon who has the agent
that the one about store in and
character and dialogue and stuff like
that fames
lessons so that the sorts of things that
come out of our you know you're already
focusing on
the future and how things are going to
stack up there probably I want to stack
up you know and and I was serious this
is not reverse psychology trying to you
know convince them to come we whenever
anybody there's two kinds of questions I
I never answer one is should I pursue
this you know well the answer is no if
you have to ask then you shouldn't do
this
it's too frustrating again Philip Roth
yes it is
took your time's writing is frustration
its frustration
not to mention humiliation quote close
quote Roth this isn't some newcomer
trying to make his way through the
publishing business this is the
superstar author of the 31 books
bestseller after bestseller after
bestseller after bestseller movie deals
up the wazoo and he says it's
frustration and humiliation don't go
into it if there's something else that
you can do it's kind of crazy it's not
smart I mean I mentioned that my dad was
a bass player he had great success made
a lot of money and what it was he doing
whose dragon horsehair which is what the
bow is made out of it's a tail of a
horse a violin Bors or a bass bow of
course sheep cut the strings are made
out of the intestines of sheep and
imagine doing that for living dragging
horsehair or sheep guts in that it makes
a sound and then claiming that you think
people will pay to hear this sound
they'll line up in the snow and wait
outside for hours to pay big money to
sit in a chamber where for a couple of
hours women and men will do that will
you know blow air through tubes like
flutes and clarinets and so on and I
mean we were I mentioned we were the
Philharmonic on Saturday there's a guy
beating the timpani and somebody doing
bells you know this is like we had soso
seats so they would cost two hundred and
thirty dollars the pair you know I mean
it's crazy arts not smart it's kind of
dumb
and if you really really smart you don't
go into it this is not for really really
smart people you got to be dumber if
than that if you want to succeed in in
creative expression gonna be a little
crazy
you