Marketing a script is harder than writing it. Try these two approaches to landing the right producer for your work: the Target Method and the Shotgun Approach.
By Charles Deemer, Edited by Stavros C. Stavrides
Our previous post covered how to write a query letter
that may entice a producer.
The Target Method
First, do some research to find producers who have produced projects similar to yours, in terms of theme and audience appeal. Make a list of all the movies you can with the following statement in mind:
“The people who made “x” movie would do an excellent job with my story.”
Spend some time on this. Your list should have as many movies as you can think of that share a similar audience as you believe your story would.
Go to Internet Movie Database. We suggest that you sign up for IMDB Pro, or at least take out a trial membership for this.
Make a list of all producers and production companies associated with the movie. Do this for each title. You should end up with a long list of producers, whether title Producer, Co-producer or Executive Producer. Some of them could be in other countries, as many films are co-productions. These are important too.
Now take this information and search for production companies associated with the producers’ names, and add to the list.
Here’s a time-saving hint:
Disregard producers whose addresses are at studios and major entities (production companies you’ve heard of). They won’t have time for you.
You are looking for independent producers who are more likely to connect with your story. Here is how to seek them out:
Study the head credits of each film; you’ll see a big name you recognize upfront, like “Dreamworks,” but you’ll also see something like, “In Association With (Company Name).” That’s the place you want to target with your query letter!
Very often, such companies actually start and develop projects and then partner up with the biggies.
IMDB Pro may list their contact information – phone, email, and snail mail address. Once you have the names and the companies they represent, add their contact info to the list.
The Shotgun Method
The shotgun method is a second list. It’s not quite as targeted as the first but does have some level of qualification. These are producers who, for one reason or another, may have possible interest in your kind of story.
For example, they may be genre-specific or interested only in series, one-off films, etc., without necessarily having produced a like-minded film like yours. You now have a “second string” list of email addresses.
Finding these prospects will take some work because you’re not simply searching for a film title that drills you down to names. Search for delegate lists of film markets, festivals, and producers’ organizations – and don’t limit yourself to one country. Many nations co-produce with several countries.
As an ongoing hobby, read entertainment trade journals frequently such as Deadline, Hollywood Reporter, and Screen International. You’ll read about producers and their films. Perhaps you can reference some detail in your query letter relating to an article your read. That personalizes the message.
What you are looking for here is anything that can eliminate them from having a possible interest in your story, in other words, a slim chance that they may bite.
Sending the Email Query
We covered the format of the query letter here.
Direct the letter to a specific person, either the producer on your list or if found, the name associated with “development”.
Now bear in mind, many producers are represented or managed by agents. Write the letter to the agent, in the same manner, you would the producer, with equal respect.
Begin with your first list. Put the word QUERY in the subject line and send out your query letter to every email address on your Target List list. Repeat this with every name on your Shotgun List.
This will be a huge job, so break it into small parts. Send out 10 or 20 emails a day, for example, until you’ve exhausted both lists.
In case you haven’t figured it out by now, marketing is a numbers game. The more queries you send out, the more reads you’re going to get.
If you haven’t sent out at least 100 emails, you aren’t working at marketing hard enough.
Waiting for Results
What kind of results can you expect? In the old days, it used to be at least ten percent or one reply per ten queries.
Today, more and more screenwriters, whether deservedly or not, are sending material and crowding inboxes. If you’re not getting a reply after, say twenty or twenty-five letters, jazz up your query letter.
Most emails go unanswered. A small percentage will respond with a polite no and a smaller percentage will request a script.
Follow-ups
Don’t make any follow-ups to the query letters alone. Drop it.
However, do follow up on those who have requested a script, but don’t follow up until three months after you have sent it. Give them time to read. Then just send a short paragraph asking if the script has been read yet.
Here is some advice for while you await a reply: Now is the time to start a new script!
You need to do this for several reasons:
- To get in the habit of being a productive screenwriter who is ALWAYS working on a new script; and
- Get the old one out of your system so the mountain of rejections coming your way will be less painful.
Marketing is harder work than writing. Trust me on this. But without biting the bullet in this area, your script is doomed to be unread.
You CAN get producers to read your script but you have to do the hard labor
to earn these readings. What’s keeping you from starting?
