Frustratingly unmarketable.

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  • #16
    Re: Frustratingly unmarketable.

    Originally posted by AE35-Unit View Post
    "Standard marketable fare for features consists of action, thriller, horror, and young adult movies."

    Yeah I know. And nothing I've written falls into those genres. I do smaller stories aimed at lower budgets. I think I've put myself into this rut thinking a smaller cap script would sell quicker but that was before the market reversed itself a few years ago and moved away from romance, sci-fi, and personal drama.

    I can't write an action script for ****. Hate horror and have no idea about young adults. I've done one psychological thriller but was told there wasn't enough action.

    Maybe I'll just keep adding to my stack of adult romance and down home corn-pone tear jerkers in case they come back into vogue after I die.
    Isn't there a market for these adult dramas and tear-jerkers on something like the Lifetime cable channels? Maybe you could research that arena.

    In terms of your technical script, I liked Manchester's advice, too. And also, remember that you can write it technical in the first draft, and then start dialing it back and simplifying it after the fact. You don't always have to explain as much as you think you do.

    Good luck!
    "The Hollywood film business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." Hunter S Thompson

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    • #17
      Re: Frustratingly unmarketable.

      "Isn't there a market for these adult dramas and tear-jerkers on something like the Lifetime cable channels"

      Believe me, I'm thinking about it.
      We gain our innocence by taking yours.

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      • #18
        Re: Frustratingly unmarketable.

        An astronomer convinces himself that a nearby star will go supernova in a matter of weeks and wipe out most of life on Earth. When he attracts the attention of the government, they try and silence him.

        During a business trip, a married man enjoys a night of steamy sex with a beautiful stranger but his life is turned upside the following morning after he finds her dead in his bed.



        A fifty-something novelist relocates to a small coastal Georgia town to finish a career saving book. When he decides to take flying lessons and falls for his flight instructor, his life becomes a re-write.
        We gain our innocence by taking yours.

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        • #19
          Re: Frustratingly unmarketable.

          The first two don't sound like touchy-feely dramas. They're actually not bad. Doesn't look like concept is your problem, except for your last one.

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          • #20
            Re: Frustratingly unmarketable.

            I agree the first two look like normal loglines. Even the third sounds like one of those (boring) Oscar worth materials.

            I don't think the loglines are the problem.

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            • #21
              Re: Frustratingly unmarketable.

              Originally posted by AE35-Unit View Post
              An astronomer convinces himself that a nearby star will go supernova in a matter of weeks and wipe out most of life on Earth. When he attracts the attention of the government, they try and silence him.

              During a business trip, a married man enjoys a night of steamy sex with a beautiful stranger but his life is turned upside the following morning after he finds her dead in his bed.



              A fifty-something novelist relocates to a small coastal Georgia town to finish a career saving book. When he decides to take flying lessons and falls for his flight instructor, his life becomes a re-write.
              I don't see what's so unmarketable about these either --

              The first one is half of the opening to at least one disaster movie I've seen recently.

              The second one...we've seen that too, but I haven't seen it anytime recently. Noir?

              The last one...sounds Indy for sure. The conflict all sounds internal.
              But hey, some of my favorite movies are like that.

              The loglines could be a lot zing!ier but apparently that's not the problem.

              Got a paragraph-y logline you care to reveal?

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              • #22
                Re: Frustratingly unmarketable.

                A good story is always marketable, whether as the movie or the writer. Just ask Ham.

                HH

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                • #23
                  Re: Frustratingly unmarketable.

                  Originally posted by haroldhecuba View Post
                  A good story is always marketable, whether as the movie or the writer. Just ask Ham.

                  HH
                  Ham's script may be a dramatic biopic, but it's still pretty big in concept.

                  As for those loglines, the first two both outline a fairly marketable inciting incident, but they don't really tell us what the protagonist's goal is, or what he must do in Act Two. Act Two IS the movie, so the marketability is largely going to be based on the protagonist's goal and what happens during that act.

                  Are your protagonists active?
                  QUESTICLES -- It's about balls on a mission.

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                  • #24
                    Re: Frustratingly unmarketable.

                    It's important to remember that there are a million ways to say "no" and only one way to say "yes" when it comes to selling screenplays.

                    If you write a terrific script, people will get excited, no matter what the genre. People will get excited, and they will hire you.

                    The problem isn't your logline or your genre. The problem is that the scripts didn't blow the readers away.

                    Alan Loeb makes a lot of money. His first script was far from commercial.

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                    • #25
                      Re: Frustratingly unmarketable.

                      I don't know, it seems to me, just hanging out on these boards, that the story goes like this:

                      -rep finds script that she likes and thinks has a shot.
                      -rep makes an offer, becomes writer's rep.
                      -rep takes the script out.
                      -(in 9.9999 times out of 10) rep does not sell script, but writer gets some meetings out of it, and rep and writer work on next script, to repeat step 3.

                      I'm sure there are a trillion exceptions, but from peeps' experiences here, reps take on a script they THINK they can sell. They don't take on a writer with a stunningly beautiful period piece that they can't take to market, thinking, the Writing is going to Wow everybody, even though I'll never be able to sell the script. Taking a script out is what generates buzz for the writer.

                      Again, just based on what I've seen in these threads, it seems to MOSTLY ALWAYS start with a script that the rep wants to take out. Maybe if the writer is a Nicholl finalist or something, or there is some other mysterious reason for the brilliant script to not be taken out but still get buzz, okay.

                      Many reps won't even read a query, let alone a script, based on the genre alone. That's why I think with some genres, you need to go directly to production companies that specialize in that kind of material, especially if we're talking about low budget stuff that doesn't have huge commercial potential.

                      I've always heard that good writing is all you need to get attention on a script, but on the other hand, I've rarely heard of writers breaking through with a script that nobody wanted to try to sell. I'd be delighted to be proven wrong!

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                      • #26
                        Re: Frustratingly unmarketable.

                        Look at PRIMER. It didn't reach a huge, mainstream audience and wouldn't anyway because of the..."technicality" of the dialogue. By no way is the film complex, but the average viewer (if there is such a thing) would be scratching their head every so often because the characters converse in terms you'd expect to hear in a laboratory teacher's breakroom over coffee.

                        PRIMER found it's little niche audience. Hard sci-fi lovers and filmmakers who wish they could make something similar for next to no money.

                        I've got friends who know they will only ever find their true calling writing weird, unsettling films like ERASERHEAD, but they do it and they love it. And they go searching for Producers who have similar interests. And they find them. Will they ever sell something that makes them lots of money? Probably not. But they don't care. Their success isn't riding on a $50mill opening weekend for their first film to launch their career.

                        IMO, if you write for a niche market, grab that sucker by the balls and show it who's boss.

                        Good luck

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                        • #27
                          Re: Frustratingly unmarketable.

                          Many writers broke in with scripts that aren't commercial, and are just good writing samples. It's a very common story. (The feature that got me attention was a black comedy about the industry.)

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                          • #28
                            Re: Frustratingly unmarketable.

                            I just saw the loglines you posted. They don't really seem that "niche". Maybe the last one, but even that sounds like it could be a solid indy film.

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                            • #29
                              Re: Frustratingly unmarketable.

                              I'm just seeing logline issues, and maybe your presentation. It's bland. You need to spice up these ideas so they can compete in the marketplace. If you think the competition is tough selling scripts, then consider how hard it is to sell the movie once it's made.

                              Think of it this way, when you submit a script to an entity, you're asking them to take a risk with millions of dollars on your idea. IF they buy your script and make the movie, that company has to compete with thousands of other movies just like yours. You have to offer ideas buyers can compete with. To put it in "screenwriter" language, think of an average Joe who inspires to be a writer-- then tries to sell you all his ideas so that you can write the script and then query managers and prod. cos with it. Multiply the average joe with 1000 other aspiring idea creators who are emailing you daily. How would you choose which ideas to pursue?

                              Don't be discouraged. You just have to freshen your perspective and soldier on. (*Candleshoe has a great scene where Jodie Foster educates the other kids on how to repackage their plain old eggs in the marketplace. I know it's a movie, but it really does get to the point with precision).

                              Originally posted by AE35-Unit View Post
                              An astronomer convinces himself that a nearby star will go supernova in a matter of weeks and wipe out most of life on Earth. When he attracts the attention of the government, they try and silence him.
                              He convinces himself? Is he convinced by thought or by talking to himself? First 4 words killed it for me. Also,

                              "nearby star will go supernova in a matter of weeks and wipe out most of life on Earth."

                              If this is the basic premise, it would seem unrealistic. We have Earth's nearby stars mapped out, and as far as I know it would take a while for these reactions to occur. More than weeks. It seems you just replaced an asteroid with a supernova, which is a bland pitch, not to mention dealing with two completely different things.

                              Here's a recent supernova timeline.

                              Originally posted by AE35-Unit View Post
                              During a business trip, a married man enjoys a night of steamy sex with a beautiful stranger but his life is turned upside the following morning after he finds her dead in his bed.
                              This has been done over and over in various ways. Recent example of a fresh take would be "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang". Not an ultimately breathtaking story, but I love that film's style and visual design. You just need to dress up your logline with more style and uniqueness.

                              Originally posted by AE35-Unit View Post
                              A fifty-something novelist relocates to a small coastal Georgia town to finish a career saving book. When he decides to take flying lessons and falls for his flight instructor, his life becomes a re-write.
                              A guy in his 50's won't get much sympathy I am afraid. I can picture the lower 2 quads cheering on his retirement. At 55, he might walk away from a career -- No, he probably would walk away. Maybe 40's would be more appropriate and more commercial and more sympathetic.

                              Why does he relocate? Why a coastal town in Georgia? How and why is his career in jeopardy? And if it is in jeopardy, why is he adding to the stress with a move to Georgia? And if he's on a mission to save his career with a move to Georgia, why does he take flying lessons? It all sounds contrived. Shouldn't he fall into these dilemmas rather than orchestrate them?
                              Being a screenwriter is not enough for a full creative life. ~ William Goldman

                              homeslice

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                              • #30
                                Re: Frustratingly unmarketable.

                                Remember that one that Mazin reviewed here that had The Best Title Ever?

                                "I Think My Facebook Friend Is Dead" ?

                                I googled it recently -- it's in development over at Amazon.

                                Not sure if that's a good or a bad thing...

                                "Scott The Reader" won back-to-back Amazon contests, and was finally able to quit his day job.

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