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5 Screenwriting Secrets Every Writer Should Know

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Screenwriting is a tricky art. When I started my career, one of my first jobs was reading screenplays for a development company.

screenplay writing
Jason Brubaker Writes

At first, I thought reading screenplays was an AWESOME job.

I have to admit. I felt pretty cool leaving the NYC office each night with three to five screenplays in my bag. On the subway, I would pull out a screenplay and start reading.

My goal was to find material that would eventually become the next Sundance award winner. I lived to find something awesome. Something that would garner me a promotion and clout with the producer. Something great!

But what I read was terribly disheartening.

I read hundreds of screenplays. Some were from new screenwriters. Some were from veteran screenwriters. Some were from screenwriters who (I could only imagine) didn’t know English.

And without fail, what I found was a bunch of discombobulated stories with weak plots and unrefined characters.

I felt sick.

Most of submitted screenwriting was garbage.

(I really wish I was kidding here.)

I’m not trying to sound all high and mighty either.

I tried. I really did!

At first, I read EVERY screenplay, cover to cover. I wanted to give the writer the benefit. They worked hard. So I kept reading. I was convinced that the bad story I presently read would improve. I just needed to keep going. . . I just needed to keep reading.

But I was wrong…

The stories never improved.

After some weeks of reading CRAP screenplays, I just couldn’t do it anymore.

I started slacking. And worse, I really didn’t care.

If the screenplay didn’t grab me in the first 10 to 15 pages, I quickly thumbed through the rest of the script.

After that, my next task was to complete coverage reports for the producer. The goal of a coverage report is to either recommend or pass on the screenplay. Most of the screenplay coverage reports I wrote ended up being some variation on the following:

This writer shows some promise. But this screenplay lacks the necessary plot and character arc to grab interest. The characters all sound similar. Additionally, this story requires expensive sets, locations, seasonal conditions, animals and children. As a consequence, this screenplay necessitates a complete rewrite in order to proceed. My recommendation is to PASS at this time.

I don’t know if this sounds harsh or not. But it is a screenwriting reality.

Most producers will never read any unknown screenplay. Instead, most producers will have an assistant to do the horrible job of reading awful screenplays from terrible screenwriters.

The assistant protects the producer from reading crap screenplays.

And speaking as a former assistant, I can honestly say that many screenwriters should avoid submitting unrefined work in the first place. But this rarely happens.

screenwriting secrets

Screenwriting Is The Heavy Lifting

All of this being said, you know that great screenwriting is essential for a great movie. There is no way around this. It is the law of narrative filmmaking. Your screenplay is the blueprint for your movie. And if you are a talented up-and-coming filmmaker, you probably noticed this. The truth is, many produced movies are far from great.

Have you ever asked this question?

…How did THAT movie ever get made?

Good screenwriting question. Somehow bad screenplays STILL get made. And I think there is a reason crappy screenplays get made into crappy movies. There really is no ONE answer. And not to digress too far, but here is my theory on how mediocre writing becomes successful screenwriting:

Fact: Most screenplays are complete crap.

Opportunity: If your screenplay is even marginally better, It will SEEM like it’s TONS better than it actually is.

(Reread that again if you need to.)

So based on this premise, the unknown assistant RUNS to the producer to share his great fortune.

“I found screenwriting GOLD. Let’s make a movie!!!”

But the reality is, the screenplay is not gold. The screenplay is good, but it is not great. But compared to crap, it seems AWESOME. This is because years of reading crappy screenplays have knocked the standards pretty low.

And regardless, the bottom line is this…

You probably think you can do better.

The good news is, you’re probably right!

During my time reading screenplays, I was able to see first-hand how much garbage is floating around. If you have ANY talent as a writer, your material may get noticed. This should be good news for the screenwriting profession!

Here is a quick video on screenwriting. It may help you:

Big obvious lesson here?

Write or acquire a GREAT screenplay!

5 Screenwriting Secrets Every Writer Should Know

I am assuming you want to actually write or acquire a screenplay so you can make your movie. So I am NOT going to provide too much advice on how to “sell” your screenplay.

That being said, whether you plan on producing your own material or selling it, there are still a few factors applicable to your end-goal. The first thing you have to do is get your hands on a great script. If you’re the writer-director type of filmmaker, then starting with a blank screen may feel intimating.

If this is difficult for you, you might consider finding a writing partner and then sharing a story credit. Or you will just have to sit there until the ideas fill the screen. To help you out, here is the down and dirty screenwriting lesson for today:

1.   Get some screenplay software. Final Draft and Movie Magic Screenwriter are the industry standard. Or you could do a Google search for “free screenwriting software.”

2.   Once you have the software, consider writing a feature script on the cheap. Think in terms of limited locations, with limited actors, with a short schedule that you can eventually shoot with limited equipment.

3.   Consider making your story edgy. Drama is hard to market. Horror and thriller and action is universal.

4.  The story should be fun with a STRONG, marketable CONCEPT. People should remember your idea.

5.   The name of the game is FUN. If you can’t have fun, you’re doing something wrong.

Putting the final polish on a screenplay is an amazing accomplishment. But just make sure you’ve created your best work. As they say, you only get one chance to make a good first impression – That same thinking applies to screenwriting.

You only get one chance to grab the attention of a potential actor or department head who may or may not decide to help you with your project. You might get some benefit from The Indie Producer’s Guide To Writing Screenplays That Sell

 

How To Sharpen Your Movie Hook (So You Get Noticed)

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In business they have this thing called USP. A USP is your “unique selling proposition.” It is the one distinction that makes people buy one product over the next. In Hollywood we call this your movie hook. And without a strong movie hook, most filmmakers find themselves lost in a sea of other filmmakers clamoring to rise above the noise of mediocre movie making.

movie-hook

What Is Your Movie Hook?

When defining your movie hook, one of the first questions people ask is, what is your movie about? While this seems like a pretty easy question, if you find yourself rambling on about a complicated, character driven story, full of people reflecting on love and loss.

Don’t do this. A long description is confusing.

A confused mind doesn’t buy (or invest) in your movie.

To sell your title, your movie must be distinct and memorable. You need to make your movie REMARKABLE.

What do I mean by remarkable?

Here’s a brief story to explain how your movie hook influences word of mouth.

Picture this:

Let’s say you’re at a party. You chat with someone and they ask you about your movie.

Your Response: It’s about this guy who falls in love with a woman. Then they have issues. They break up. Then they get back together. It’s really a romantic comedy marketed to every man, woman and child in the world.

Do you see the flaw here? There is no real movie hook.

Do you understand how there is absolutely nothing in this description that makes me want to share your movie idea with other people?

And let’s use another example. Let’s say we start talking and you find out I love martial arts and that I’m really into Bruce Lee. In response, you tell me about the original Ip Man movie. (Ip Man was Bruce Lee’s mentor.)

Then you pull out your phone and share the following fight scene with me:

httpv://youtu.be/MCoH4FVgi7M

You can bet I’m going to remark about this. (I might even figure out a way to add it to a Filmmaking Stuff article about finding a movie hook so thousands of people can see my remarks.)

The point here is this. You can have the best movie in the world, but nobody will care about your movie until they care about your movie.

And you have to make them care.

The only way to make people care is to show them something remarkable. And the only way to do that is to make sure there is market for your movie and that you have a sharp movie hook.

In the Ip Man example above, the market is: Martial Arts Movie Enthusiasts.

The movie hook is: The story of Bruce Lee’s Mentor

How To Find Your Movie Hook

Finding your movie hook revolves around taking your broad movie concept and distilling it down to the bare, yet memorable essentials.

For example, let’s say your movie hook is described as “A boxer fights for the title.”

Obviously this is a succinct log-line, but it lacks memorable detail.

So your next job is to incorporate some flavorful elements into your movie hook.

Here is the same example with added detail: “An impoverished boxer is given a once in a lifetime chance to fight for the world heavyweight title.”

Can you guess what movie I’m describing?

With this movie hook example, you can see how the extra detail adds sizzle to the description.

Taking time to sharpen your movie hook will help you in two arenas.

Firstly, with this description, your prospective audience will immediately understand how your movie differs from all the other boxer movies. And from a marketing perspective, the words “boxer,” “fights,” and “heavyweight title” will help you to target your core audience and later, these keywords will help you jump-start your internet search engine optimization campaign.

Finding your movie hook is the start of your movie marketing. Once you have a movie hook, you can then answer the next, very important marketing questions. Take a moment to answer:

  1. Who Is Your Target Audience?
  2. How Large Is Your Target Audience?
  3. How Will You Reach Your Audience?
  4. What Is Your Marketing Strategy?
  5. How Many VOD Sales To Break Even?

For many filmmakers, the benefit of creating a movie hook, as well as marketing, sales and distribution plan saves TONS of headaches when you actually take your movie to market. And putting together a distribution plan is a lot easier than you think. For more information on how to market and sell your movie, check out my newly updated distribution system at www.HowToSellYourMovie.com

The Minimalist Guide to Internet Marketing For Filmmakers

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If you want success in the film industry, one key area to study is internet marketing for filmmakers. This is because the DVD market is dead, replaced by smart television apps in an ever-growing digital marketplace. Direct to consumer marketing is the norm. You must treat your independent film business just like any other small business.

Your product is your film and YOU must figure out how to sell enough units of your product so you can make a profit. And in order to sell your product, you must find a customer and convince them that your film is worth more than their money. Obvious right?

There are many complicated tools dedicated to helping you find new customers. And if you try to learn all of them, your head will spin. So lets keep this simple. Your film marketing plan will revolve around HOW you’re going to recoup the film investment and exit the deal.

internet marketing for filmmakers

Learn Internet Marketing For Filmmakers

One major place to find customers is the internet. But when it comes to marketing, most filmmakers have no idea how to get started. If that describes you, it’s not your fault! Filmmakers are taught to concentrate solely on making film, without considering how to sell it.

Think about it. Filmmakers traditionally depend on some sort of middle-man distributor to come in deus ex machina style to provide a big fat minim guarantee. But that was the old days…

Now, as a result of DSLR technology, you have a whole world of filmmakers flooding the market with awesomely good-looking backyard indies.  It’s an example of supply and demand. There are too many movies! And there are too few traditional deals.

Sadly most filmmakers have no idea how to get their movies seen and selling. As a result, the entire world of indie filmmaking is belly-up. So the only way you can compete and succeed is to find creative ways to produce movies inexpensively and spend tremendous effort (and little money) identifying places where your audience congregate online.

Great… What’s The Plan?

If you’re still working to raise money, depending on your budget (in addition to the tax incentives and soft-money) you’ll need a strategy for both domestic sales and then foreign sales. In both instances working a reputable distributor and/or sales agent NOW can help you calculate projections.

Digital TVOD marketplaces (like iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Fandango and others) operate on a B2C (or direct to consumer) model. This means that utilizing comparables during the TVOD window may not be reliable. So it behooves you to emphasize your promotional strategies and then make uber conservative assumptions (in ways akin to how one might manage a direct marketing campaign.)

One key performance metric would be your conversion rate. Out of the gazillion people who see your ads, what percentage converts? And what is the profit margin of each conversion? I wrote this article on VOD sales projections that may help.

Hire Name Talent (Seriously.)

The other thing that helps is obviously having a strong NAME cast. Casting a star in your film is one way to pay a marketing expense upfront. And if those performers are also good in social media, and willing to promote, this can also help drive consumers to the buy button.

But even if you don’t have a major star, you still have an obligation to identify an audience for your film. If you take time to do this, and figure out the top 100 sites where your audience congregates online, you’ll be in better shape than the filmmakers who ignore this, period.

  1. Identify 100 top sites where your audience congregates online.
  2. Make a list of these sites and site owners in a CRM like Pipedrive.
  3. Research sties for engagement stats. Visitors? Members? Subscribers?
  4. Compile this data so you can create conservative conversion estimates.
  5. Reach out to site owners and inquire about promotional opportunities.

Out of all of this, remember that people are people. Your goal is to find ways to promote your work so you can bring value into each person’s life. And if you like this sort of stuff, make sure you check out The Indie Producer’s Guide to Digital Distribution.

The Secrets of Successful Online Movie Advertising

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If you want to be a successful filmmaker, you better learn a thing or two about online movie advertising.

The reason I emphasize online movie advertising is because most movies end up in some sort of video on demand platform. And because many of the most popular platforms exist online, selling movies on the internet is very similar to selling anything online

This means you now have the ability to create online movie advertising campaigns to drive people to your point of sale.

If you’ve been reading my filmmaking stuff for any length of time, you know I’ve been sharing similar advice with filmmakers for years. I first published my thoughts back in 2010 – Here’s the article called Financing Movies With VOD Sales Projections. As you’ll read in the comments, most people thought I was crazy.

Fast forward to a recent job interview with a well known distribution company. I kid you not, the whole conversation revolved around this thing called conversion science.

“Jason, WTF is conversion science? I’m a filmmaker. I failed science!”

Look. I am trying to help you. You’re obviously reading this because you want to know the secrets of online movie advertising. And I’m telling you, the big secret is this thing called conversion science.

movie advertising

 

The Secrets of Online Movie Advertising

Here’s the thing about business (that most filmmakers ignore). Everything in business is measured in profit and loss. So if you spend money for online movie advertising, you better get that money back, plus a profit on top.

So here’s the question: How do you know if your online movie advertising is working?

This one is simple. You track your advertising campaigns. If you make more money then you spend, you’re doing OK. But if you start throwing money into an online movie advertising black hole, you have a BIG problem.

And before we get too crazy, there is something you need to know.

The whole reason you want to do your homework is so you don’t end up depending on the glaringly flawed and totally outdated distribution strategy:

“Gee, I sure hope we get into a film festival and garner a great deal.” 

Hope is not a sustainable business strategy. It is a lottery. And it’s outdated.

Online Movie Advertising Formula

Whenever you think about your movie advertising strategy, it helps to think about some real world scenarios. And because we are talking numbers, I am going to share a basic direct marketing ROI (return on investment) formula.

Here are the MAJOR Filmmaking Challenges:

  1. With no promise of pre-sales, or minimum guarantees in a traditional distribution deal, how do filmmakers justify a budget large enough to pay freelance day rates, while at the same time project enough direct DVD and VOD sales to recoup the initial investment?
  2. And assuming only 1% of your website visitors buy your movie, then how many people must visit your website so that 1% recoups your initial investment? (Don’t forget to include marketplace costs.)
  3. How much will this cost in advertising?

Here is a formula you can test and tweak. Plug in numbers and play around with assumptions.

U = Unit Sales Goal.
A = Amount you pay advertiser per website visit.
C = Projected conversion percentage rate.
X = Number of Visitors Needed.

(X)C = U
EQUATES TO: X= ?
THEN:  X(A) = ?

If all of that seems like a bunch of gobbledygook, you’re not alone. In the real world, most marketers utilize software, an online calculator and spreadsheets to help clarify assumptions.

But here’s the rub.

When you actually crunch the numbers on a One-Million dollar budget by selling $20 dollar DVD’s in Amazon (which is a totally high price), and you rely solely on Pay Per Visit advertising at $.05 cents a visit – Even if you’re lucky enough to garner a 1% conversion, you would need to sell 100,000 units (which allows for a 50% marketplace fee).

Or to put it another way, to get these results, you would need 10,000,000 targeted visitors, visiting your website.

Yes, ten Million people! Which is outlandish… 

This means you will have to think very carefully about your movie budget, marketing budget, your distribution strategy and obviously, you’ll need to make sure your movie actually has a market large enough to support the budget.

If you would like to start planning your distribution, you might want to check out my “How To Sell Your Movie” system.

How To Make Your Movie Rise Above The Noise

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Working in film distribution, I can tell you that everything is changing. Production is getting cheaper and easy access to the marketplace is the norm. This is an exciting time to be a filmmaker.

Paradoxically, because more films are getting made each year, this is also one of the most challenging times for making money as a filmmaker. We are experiencing a market saturation similar to what happens when sweatshop factories start producing comparable goods for less money.

While you might argue that many backyard indies are amateur garbage, this doesn’t change the fact that filmmakers now have more competition than ever before. Your biggest problem is figuring out how to make your movie rise above the noise.

Make_Your_Movie_Rise_Above_The_Noise

How To Make Your Movie Rise Above The Noise

Before you pour your heart and soul into your passion project, answer these questions:

  1. What is your movie about?
  2. Who is in your movie?
  3. Who is going to buy your movie?

Most filmmakers never take time to answer these simple, yet essential questions. Or if they do, the answers are often based on hope or delusions of grandeur. My target audience is everybody!

Having well rehearsed answers to these questions (that you can deliver with enthusiasm) will increase the odds that a movie distributor or a fan could potentially (easily) tell other people about your film.

“Zooey Deschanel is attached to your movie?”

Having a name actor or a strong story hook makes your film memorable. Knowing that an audience exists for your type of movie, as well as having a promotional plan for reaching your audience is also helpful. That is what word-of-mouth is all about.

Once your pitch is established, all of your other movie marketing tasks such like your logo, font, artwork, poster and website will be much easier to design.

So I’ll end today’s thought with three questions: What is your movie about? Who’s in it? And who is gonna buy it?  And if you like this sort of stuff, you’ll love my Sell Your Movie System.