Tweetstorm: Daniel Kunka on Writing Feature Spec Scripts in Golden Age of TV

Tweetstorm: Daniel Kunka on Writing Feature Spec Scripts in the Age of Peak TV

“Even with Netflix and other streamers and the endless TV season there’s just no more room. For every show you see on the air there’s a hundred shows that didn’t make it.”

Yesterday, screenwriter Daniel Kunka (@unikunka) posted a series of tweets on why aspiring screenwriters should not write spec TV pilot scripts, but instead focus on feature spec scripts. Reprinted here by permission.

When I emailed Dan, I wrote this:

I concur with your advice. As an additional talking point, I have talked with plenty of showrunners and TV producers who say they read feature scripts as writing samples, so a spec feature can serve multiple purposes.

Also, it’s funny how people tend to forget how cyclical the entertainment business is. TV is hot now, but we already see signs movies are going to go through an expansion period. Example: Netflix is structured to produce 55 original movies next year, not including animation and docs which brings the total to 90. Also employment numbers of WGA feature writers went up in 2017 for the first time in years. Five years from now, we may be talking about “The New Golden Age of Movies.”

You can write original TV spec scripts. Don’t do it because you think it’s a hot area. Do it because you’ve got a great series concept, story universe, and central characters you’re passionate to explore. But go in with your eyes open. The TV market is saturated.

Meanwhile, a feature spec script can sell… get optioned… or land you representation and secure meetings with talent, producers, financiers, and studio executives.

Daniel Kunka is represented by ICM and Madhouse Entertainment.

To read my June 2013 interview with Dan, go here.

To read all of the screenwriting tweetstorms I’ve aggregated on GITS, go here.