Over at Selling “No Place”, a blog of the trials of trying to sell an Indie Feature Film, Clive has started posting some interesting thoughts on how to write a screenplay that makes money.
His first post amazingly entitled How to write a screenplay that makes money, he gives the basics of what to do.
Actually the real title of these next couple of blog entries is going to be “How to make a successful indie film that sells;” but, of course that starts with getting the screenplay right.
The truth is that I’m sure that anyone, even if they’ve never written or made a film before can make an indie movie that sells if they follow this basic plan.
So it’s much more than actually the screenplay, it’s going to make for an interesting read. In the first post he outlines the nine steps as he sees them, and each day he’s going to write about each of those steps. From the first step, Step One – Genres that sell, he talks about finding that all important market from personal experience.
The movie industry is insane, at least production is. It is the only industry in the world where someone would invest $500,000 in making a product for which they don’t have guaranteed sales as the end of it; where someone will risk their house on the strength of an idea. As I know to my cost this kind of “I have a great idea, it can’t fail” thinking is all to easy to buy into. I also know that in the end it does lead to tears. If making “No Place” taught me nothing else it taught me that a film without a market is just the world’s most expensive home movie.
There are some interesting things to be said here, and some things you might disagree with. Either way, this guy has been there already, so he’ll have a few gems to impart along the way.
