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It's hard to sell a screenplay (as if you didn't know). It's hard to get in the door with an agent/producer/studio/development person/whatever. Even if you have a great script (or a good script).
Every door you knock on is slammed in your face. Nobody returns your calls or your e-mails. And they send your unsolicited manuscripts back unopened. Or (and this is really depressing) they send your two paragraph query letter back to you with the information that they are not even accepting these.
Does this mean you should give up? Probably. WAIT. JUST KIDDING. I'm a firm believer in Winston Churchill's wonderful saying: "Never give up. Never give up. Never give up."
I've seen enough people get deals and get scripts made (including myself) to throw in the towel.
But what I tell my screenwriting students is to make their movie themselves. Write a "small" script. Not in length, but in concept. "The Brothers McMullan" comes to mind. Lots of outdoor locations. Small cast. Ed Burns wrote it, directed it and starred in it (and I think he edited too and if the story is true he even worked the camera and did sound on occasion).
It's been a few years since "The Brothers McMullen" hit the screens, but the buzz was that Burns made it for $20,000, ten of which came from his father. Cool. We should all have Dads who lend us money to make a movie.
Anyway, let me pose this question: what if Ed Burns couldn't raise the money. His Dad said no and he kept sending his screenplays out like everyone else. Ed Burns' career might not have happened such as it did. Maybe he would've raised the money somewhere else. Maybe not. Maybe it would've taken him another year or two. Maybe not. But let's say it did. Maybe he wouldn't have gotten into Sundance and not won a prize and get good word of mouth.
You see where I'm going here?
Ed Burns did it himself. Took a shot and it paid off big. Maybe bigger than he imagined.
So did Neil LaBute (my former student at New York University). He raised $25,000 and made In The Company Of Men and now he's one of the hottest filmmakers in Hollywood (and playwrights as well). He did it himself.
I admire people who do that, especially when you learn that they didn't use a huge budget. Less is more is one of my favorite sayings.
Before I started writing screenplays I was a playwright and I was co-found of a theater company in New York. We raised money and produced our own plays. We had budgets for the sets for something like $500. And the people we hired to design and build the sets had to make that go as far as they could.
And they did. And the sets looked great. Anyone can make a stupendous set with a big budget. It's the sets that look great because of ingenuity and creativity.
Same goes for making your own movie. If you can raise $3 million from family and friends, go for it. If all you can get is $50,000 (which is probably what Burns and LaBute would need now) take your shot.
If Hollywood won't let you in the front door and they've barracaded the back door you have to sneak in through the basement window.
Making your own movie might be something to think about.
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