Ok I heard some hollywood big timer complain that he went into a bathroom stall and someone saw him go in so ran back got his script and slid it under the door.
There were all sorts of other references I’ve heard about this; Matt Groening I think said they had to return boucoup unread fan-made scripts for the Simpsons back to sender (and unread so they don’t get sued for plagerism or something).
Ok, so I give up: What is with outsiders wanting to write scripts? I can see the average dude poppin’ a beer and watching the latest hijinks of Cartman on South Park, but bustin’ out the old typewriter and pushing out a script and then somehow finding and sending that script to the south park creators? pretty whack sounding to me.
Well you can either dedicate your life to living in LA, working your way up from the bottom, learning the trade and hopefully maybe someday becoming a writer on a show or selling a movie script…
Or, you can live your life as a commoner and write a script, hoping to sort of “jump the line.” If you don’t succeed, you’re not a failed writer as you would be in the first scenario. You’re still a grocery store clerk or an accountant or whatever.
“Episodic series” here means television series. Most TV shows have a stable of in-house writers, but there are (theoretically) a few opportunities for an outsider to submit a script and get paid for a writing credit.
Except that writers don’t “work their way up from the bottom.” (What would “the bottom” be for a writer?) You “become” a scriptwriter by getting a script done. It doesn’t really matter how. Usually it’s by way of some kind of connection with a producer–or simply by having clout in the first place. Mainstream Hollywood movies rarely germinate as a script per se. It’s not like a script is so good that it inevitably becomes an actual film simply by the sheer force of its quality. Usually there is the mechanism, motivation and resources to make a film, and then those people involved look for the kind of script they want. If their paths cross with someone who has a script they like, it can happen. Of course as a matter of routine those people are going to be in contact with people who already have a track record for scripts they like. They’re certainly not going to be perusing the mailbox of full of unsolicited scripts at CAA.
It seems to me almost every currently successful scriptwriter started out as an outsider, submitting scripts in every way possible, legitimate or not, in the hope of being discovered, be it spec script competitions, making their own films and being discovered by an agent, or giving them to people already within the industry.
But what the OP describes doesn’t work in that same way. They just get way too many scripts to read from every guy and his brother’s massage therapist.
It’s really a question of what you mean by “outsider.” People send completely unsolicited scripts in to Hollywood for the same reason they buy lottery tickets. It’s nice to dream.
This is only sort of accurate. It is possible to work your way up from the bottom and it is also the most common way of becoming successful. Generally speaking, the career path is:
film school - learn about filmmaking and actually write/make a few shorts or even one feature. Connect with your fellow students
crappy film/TV job - Work as a production assisstant on sets, work as a personal assistant to somebody with money and power or as some sort of office drone. Work with people outside of work hours putting together plays/low budget shorts/digital shorts, etc. Also, write screenplays all the time. Hopefully, around this time you find an agent who’s willing to pitch your screenplay to studios.
People get to know you and ask you to help out with some writing problem they have. You deliver and they ask you to do more work. Or maybe your agent hits paydirt and finds you some work.
There is a difference, IMHO, between someone who is trying to hit the lottery by breaking into the entertainment business and someone who is actually looking to pursue a career.
The first is the guy working the regular 9 to 5 job he hates who thinks he will be the next Larry David if he can just get that pilot he’s been writing in his spare time picked up by someone.
For the other group, I don’t really know much about that industry, but like any highly competetive career whether it’s Hollywood, Wall Street, Silicon Valley or whatever, I imagine one does not just “fall into it” unless your last name happens to be Baldwin, Coppela, Howard or Pinkett-Smith. You pretty much have to go to film school, move out to LA or NYC and bust your ass writing and trying to get connected to the business however you can. I see these NYU film students out all the time filming little film shorts. A lot of them join improv groups or work as interns or PAs at MTV or some other studio or production company. Any job that will get them the connections they need.
I think part of the OP question was why people would do it without wanting to get paid.
Wouldn’t it be awesome for the story you came up with could end up on the big screen starring George Clooney* and Catherine Zeta-Jones**? Even if you didn’t get paid, wouldn’t it be awesome?
