How to sell screenplay online how to#
How to sell screenplay online movie#
How to sell screenplay online professional#

You’re trying to bait them with the mystery – what happens? How does it happen? If you TELL them too much, they won’t have any questions in their mind, and thus, have less reason to read your script to find out. Notice I didn’t go into any detail – the object of a logline is to whet someone’s appetite. We excised ALL unnecessary words and details, and kept it brisk, HIGH CONCEPT, and mysterious enough to warrant a read. Now, the second logline isn’t perfect – but it highlights A: the love story, B: the historic and tragic setting, and C: just from that one sentence, we know what the movie’s story might be like. What if you wrote something as simple as:Ī journey of forbidden love between a poor boy and a rich girl on the final voyage of the RMS Titanic. Not bad, right? It could use some polish (“villainous Cal” sounds cheesy), but as far as textbook loglines go, nothing stands out as terrible about it. Amidst the opulence of the ship, he falls in love with ROSE, an upper-class girl about to be married off to the villainous CAL. When JACK wins a trip on the maiden voyage of the Titanic, he finds himself in a world he’s unprepared for. The Way The Books Teach You To Write A Logline: If you can write one sentence that entices the reader to want to read your script AND also gives some semblance of what the story will be, you’ve written the perfect logline. Instead, a logline is meant to highlight the aspects of your script that would entice someone who didn’t give a crap two seconds ago into wanting to read or know more. Let me repeat that: Your goal with a logline is not to talk about or encapsulate the story in an exciting way. You write ONE sentence, and ONE sentence only, and you SELL the reader on why he or she should read your script. Some books say you should write a short, 1 to 3-sentence paragraph to tell the reader your script’s story.

How to sell screenplay online how to#

That kind of background lends an air of credibility and is the only time it’s worth writing a short bio.īefore I go over how to execute a perfect logline, let’s clarify first what a logline SHOULD be – what it should LOOK like, READ like, and FEEL like. For instance, if your day job is as a detective and you wrote a murder mystery, include that information. Now, my only caveat with not including any bio information is if you’ve won any prestigious screenwriting competitions, or if your occupation has anything to do with the story at hand. Let the logline speak for itself, the rest is fluff.

How to sell screenplay online professional#

Since all I care about is the logline, give me a professional greeting, a logline, and a professional exit. From my experience as a manager, that exercise is a total waste of time. Most books will tell you to write a one-page query letter that includes a logline that’s 1 to 3 sentences long, a short synopsis, and a bio of yourself. Those 5 pages make or break whether anyone reads any further in your script. Secret #3: Make sure those first 5 pages of your screenplay are absolutely stellar and attention-grabbing – even if they just showcase how brilliantly you write on a technical level. And seasoned pros can tell if you’re a good writer from just a few pages. It takes more time to read a synopsis than it does to read the first few pages of a script. Nobody in the industry has any time, and if someone can’t write a good query letter or logline, we figure they can’t write a script. Secret #2: As a manager, I never once asked to read a synopsis or treatment. Whether delivered in a sentence or two in a letter or email, or whether you just bumped into a producer at Urth Caffé, it’s the one or two sentences you say or write most about your screenplay. Think of your logline as a 5 to 10-second pitch. You will need the logline for more people, in more situations, and it will be the most read or heard thing about your story – far more so than your actual script. Secret #1: The most important of all four of the above is the logline. With that quick primer out of the way, let me tell you: It is more useful as a writing tool than anything else.

How to sell screenplay online movie#

If not included in the letter, it will sometimes be requested by industry players after reading your logline.Ī treatment is a document that details your movie script from beginning to end, and can be requested by industry players in a number of very different scenarios. It is usually 1 or 2 sentences long.Ī synopsis is a short summary of your script, usually a half-page long, and is used in some query letters. Now its time talk about how to get your screenplay in front of agents, managers and producers.Ī query letter is usually a one-page letter or e-mail that you send out to agents, managers and producers to try and entice them to read your script.Ī logline is usually the first thing in a query letter and is the most vital piece of the message. You already learned how to write a screenplay. QUERY LETTERS, LOGLINES, SYNOPSIS, AND TREATMENTS