The Business of Screenwriting: Everything You Wanted to Know About Specs
Part 13: Targeting Specific Buyers
Part 13: Targeting Specific Buyers
“Targeting people specifically means the material can evolve or shuffle between different parties in a gradual way. You can afford a few no’s before you’re finished.”
I’m guessing that perhaps 90% of the people who follow this blog at some point in their lives will write a spec script. And the other 10% are involved in buying and selling them. In light of that fact, last year I interviewed a top manager and some Hollywood screenwriters about the ins and outs of what is involved in bringing a spec script to market. I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to do something with that inside information, so a few years back when Vanity Fair came out with this article — When the Spec Script was King — a decent piece, but pretty surface level, I figured it was a good time to dig into the subject in a comprehensive fashion.
Note: Original posts updated to reflect current market.
In Part 1, we looked at the genesis of the spec script in Hollywood from 1900–1942.
In Part 2, we covered the emergence of the spec script market from 1942–1990.
In Part 3: Boom, Bust, Back Again, But Now…?[1990–2019]
In Part 4, we surveyed the buyers, both major studios and financiers.
In Part 5, we examined the screenwriter-rep relationship in terms of developing a spec script.
In Part 6, we explored rolling out a new writer’s spec script.
In Part 7, we delved into the subject of attaching producers.
In Part 8, we considered the value of attaching talent.
In Part 9, we learned about reps wanting to “own all the tickets.”
In Part 10, we dug into how reps generate buzz for a spec script.
In Part 11, we looked at the practice of slipping a script to someone.
In Part 12, we acknowledged the role that serendipity can play in the process.
Part 13: Targeting Specific Buyers
Sometimes a rep will slip a script to someone. Occasionally, a script can take on a life of its own through serendipity. But more often, reps will come up with a strategy that — broadly speaking — goes one of either two ways: They target specific buyers or they go wide. Today we look at the former. Observations from screenwriter Justin Rhodes:
Targeting people specifically means the material can evolve or shuffle between different parties in a gradual way. You can afford a few no’s before you’re finished, if that’s the way things shake out. The advantage, hypothetically, is that you’re more likely to sell the thing if you take pains to mitigate any hurdles that come up. The disadvantage is that it can take a couple of months for the whole process to play out, especially if the project isn’t seen as a “slam dunk.” And slam dunk means: star parts for stars the studio likes, clear genre, clear simple concept that’s easy to market, and an obvious place in the studio’s slate. It doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with how well you’ve written the thing.
Much of this choice is determined by the script itself. It could be a project that by its very nature, whether through content, genre and/or budget, would appeal to a limited set of buyers. It could be so unique, it requires a company with an established openness toward unusual fare. It could have a distinctive angle or hook that might slot into a handful of buyer’s slates.
As Justin indicates, the process can take months. We’ve seen this happen with several Black List scripts. For example, Murder City, a 2012 Black List script didn’t get set up until March 2013. Another 2012 Black List script Don’t Make Me Go found a home in April 2013.
Scripts like these can require more finesse, commitment, patience and luck. There are other scripts, however, where the concept, genre and execution are so mainstream, they deserve to go wide, out to dozens of buyers at the same time. That’s the subject of next week’s Business of Screenwriting post.
The Business of Screenwriting is a weekly series of Go Into The Story posts based upon my experiences as a complete Hollywood outsider who sold a spec script for a lot of money, parlayed that into a screenwriting career during which time I’ve made some good choices, some okay decisions, and some really stupid ones. Hopefully you’ll be the wiser for what you learn here.
For more articles in The Business of Screenwriting series, go here.