Top 5 Ways to Get Noticed as a Screenwriter
by Jaden
1) Go To Film School
Go to film school at USC, UCLA, or NYU. If you are young and in high school, have great grades, this the best option for you. You will get experience writing and making movies. You might win awards at film festivals. You will make invaluable friendships who will later become your references when they get into the working world.
2) Move to Hollywood
Move to Hollywood, meet people, work in Hollywood, write scripts, make independent movies, socialize, and earn a real personal writing reference.
3) Enter Screenplay Contests
Enter legitimate screenplay competitions where the winner has access to legitimate writer agents.
4) Use the Internet
Use the Internet to develop a creative writing blog, self publish a novel or short stories, exhibit your screenplays online, and build a following of people interested in your writing. By establishing yourself as a writer and building an audience, you will eventually get noticed by someone with the big bucks who can get your career going for you, like an agent, publisher, producer, or filmmaker. You have to do the initial work to get noticed.
5) Make Movies
Make movies. Connect with local filmmakers. Either direct a movie yourself or find someone else interested in your writing who will make a movie from your script. Make the movie! Submit your short film or feature film to film festivals. Load up short films to YouTube. Film your scripts and be seen! You can make movies with your cell phone and YouTube is free, so don’t tell me you don’t have equipment or money. One thing I did was buy a nice video camera and use my friend’s editing software; after I finished filming my movie, I sold the camera immediately and got all my money back. Give screen credit in your film to anyone who helps you. Get creative!
If you want to be a screenwriter, you need to…
- prove that you can write entertaining stories that people like,
- prove that you can inspire paying customers by building an audience,
- prove that you understand the business of filmmaking and television by having experience in the entertainment industry from jobs or making independent movies,
- and make some friends with entertainment industry people who will one day be your references and know these things are all true about you.
Patience and persistence my friends.
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FAQs
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More about references will be provided in a separate post.
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