Moving the Material: Getting your Script Read
by Steven H. Berman

Congratulations. Writing an entire screenplay is an achievement. It's a feat of determination and perseverance. But you did it. You sweated it out. You poured your best ideas, your whole soul, a tremendous amount of time and energy into a work of truth and imagination. You've given it to your best friend and your mother to read, both of whom have given you high marks and pronounced it "excellent." Or "amazing." Man, that felt good. You've got yourself a "spec" script. Now what?

Now you've got to get somebody who matters to read it.

But first register it with the WGA (wga.org). This is very simple process and can be easily and probably best) accomplished on line. You don't have to be a WGA member to do this (though it costs more if you're not) and it will give you some protection against someone you send your script to simply absconding with your hard work. At least by registering your material you will have a retrievable record of the date your script first officially existed. You can also register the script in person at the WGA building on Fairfax and Third in Los Angeles.

If you have no agent, no (entertainment) lawyer and no uncle or first cousin in the business, that's all right, don't despair. If you don't have real conviction that your script would make a great movie, do despair. Because without your complete belief in your script, your unequivocal and unshakable certainty in what you have committed to paper, you have a big problem. It will be you, yourself and your conviction that will ultimately make the difference in whether anybody gets the script or reads it. You are your own best salesman and that is the phase of the process you are in now...Sales.

Your will realize soon that though writing the script was troublesome toil, difficult work that sent you into fits of despair and irritation, caused you sleepless nights and undermined your whole sense of self worth; all of that...was the easy part. The writing is the fun part. If you finished the script, you succeeded. Everything after that is the work. Now that you have it and want to move it, your patience, in some cases, your sanity, your belief in mankind, your sense of common courtesy, and any ideas of professionalism you might have harbored will be tested. I often say when people ask me what I'm working on that I'm working on getting work. That is my work. Writing is my fun vocation. But my work is getting work. Also, don't expect anything to happen fast. Buckle in...but take heart...I wrote a spec mini-series that took nine years to get made. In those nine year5s I Heard comments ranging from "This is terrible," to "Great, but who'd watch it?" And when it finally did get made I got a WGA award nomination for it and it set a record for viewership for that particular network.

First let's spend a minute on TV. If you want to be a staff writer on a television series, there is a pathway that you can follow that has proven itself again and again. Let's say you're a fan of a certain series, CSI or one of its spin-offs. You've watched it religiously. You know the characters. You know the show's rhythms. Well, sit down and write an episode. Write a "spec" CSI or a "spec" Two and a Half Men. Now you look in the Variety on Thursday and you see the Television Production chart. You find the show listed and the phone number of the production house. Call them and try to get their address. Or Google them and get their address. And you mail them your script. That's it. Unsolicited. You mail them the script and there is a chance that somebody in that office, probably not the Executive Producer or the Co-Executive Producer or the Supervisor Producer or the Producer but maybe somebody. And if they do and if they think it's good, they might ask one of the above list of people to read it and so forth. A show that has been on for several seasons is usually hungry for new ideas and is more willing to accept unsolicited material than a first year show where the writing staff is bursting with stories they can't wait to tell. Many people who are working professionals started their careers in the "spec" episodic TV business. Also, the WGA has put forth something of an edict that a series with a full season order is supposed to use at least two scripts from outside writers (writers not on staff) during a given season.

Now, onward to features: If you truly have racked your brain and don't know a person who knows a person who knows a person who might be willing to give it to some person who knows a person then you have to get radical about your approach. You have to shotgun your script and hope that something happens. Smaller agents and really small novice agents are much more apt to take an unsolicited "over the transom" submission than larger agents who won't. Or major studios who won't. Or networks who won't. Your script will be thrown away not even returned to you if you send it to them. So don't just send your script to Wm Morris, CAA, Endeavor, ICM or UTA or ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox or the new CW or even the cable networks or the major feature studios. But the smaller agencies, places like Metropolitan, Paradigm, Writers and Artists, and there are many others, are places where you might get lucky with someone whose job it is to look over the pile of unsolicited scripts that come in. That person might like yours enough to talk to you about it or give it to an agent to read. Many assistants at these agencies want to become agents themselves and your script could be their ticket away from answering the phones and getting the coffee.

Also, if you believe there is a certain actor that might be perfect for your script. Think of ways to get it to that actor or his people: his manager, his agent, the people that do his/her hair, some might include his maid or gardener or personal trainer. I wouldn't rule anyone out who might have access to the person you are trying to get your script to. Think of it this way, you've got little to lose except the cost of a copy of your script (and possibly a bruise of your dignity) and a feature film deal to gain. So go. Do it. Your script is doing you no good sitting on your shelf.

Steven H. Berman is a veteran writer-producer and entertainment executive. He has been involved in the development of over a thousand scripts from his years as an executive at CBS Entertainment and Columbia Televsion where he was Executive Vice-president in charge of all development and production. His writing and Executive Producing credits include more than a dozen MOW and Mini-series projects as well as numerous pilots and series. He received a WGA Award Nomination for his mini-series "MARK TWAIN'S ROUGHING IT" for best adapted long form in 2003 and his MOW "TWICE UPON A CHRISTMAS" was selected by Laura Bush as the kick off film for her series of family film screenings at the White House. He was an Executive Producer on the feature film "BEWITCHED" starring Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman.