A: I broke in writing Hart To Hart scripts. It was a show I loved when I was in college and thought I could write well (hell, if I were 30 years older I'd probably have been writing The Thin Man movies...).

I wrote a spec (speculative) script and sent it to everyone I could find who'd read it. I KNEW it was good, the problem was getting it to the right people (no matter what, you MUST believe what you write is good...or else, why are we doing this???)

Finally, frustrated, I found out who Mart Crowley's agent was (Crowley wrote "Boys In The Band" and was exec producer of H-to-H) and brazenly called his agent. I told him I was a young, itinerant writer who loved the show and thought I could write for it. He said it wasn't his or Mart's habit to read unsolicited material (i.e., scripts not submitted by an agent) and hinted I should give up till I got an agent (yeah, right). That's the Catch 22 here: You need an agent to sell a script and you need to sell a script to get an agent...!

Instead, I pleaded if he were ever talking to Crowley or at a party with him or ANYTHING just please let the man know there was some guy out there who really wanted to write for his show and thought he had a damned good spec script to prove it!

The agent basically said "Fat chance. Good luck" and we said goodbye.

Well, a week later he called and said "I was at a cocktail party last night and ran into Mart. I couldn't help thinking what you said and told him about you, thinking we'd have a good laugh. Instead he told me have you send the script." Bless you, Mr. Crowley, wherever you are!!

I sent my script in and, though it never got made (they'd already had something similar in development) they liked my writing enough to ask me to come in and pitch ideas. Out of ten they liked one and that one went on to be my first professional script sale. The Story Editor I worked with on the show even recommended me to his agent!

It happens...you just have to believe you're good enough and keep plugging. There are no right ways to break in. It's whatever works for you.

So, I guess the short answer to your questions is: Write a spec script or scripts. Either Film or TV. Write for a show you enjoy. Common knowledge here says don't try to get it to the show you wrote for (???), but just use it as a sample of your writing with similar shows. Bull!! The Producers and Story Editors on the show you wrote for would love to know there's someone out there who can write THEIR show well...!

If it's a film, your market 's bigger and your chances better...and worse. There's over 10,000 unsolicited spec scripts written each year, and only a handful ever get picked up. And out of that maybe one or two actually get made.

At this stage just write your best -- it's your talent people want to see, not the story. You have to want to write because you don't want to do anything else with your life. If you're only doing it because the money or fame or lifestyle appeals to you, forget it. You haven't got anything to say worth hearing.

FWIW, YMMV, IMO, yadda-yadda...

Mike
Back to the questions

Q: Hey Mike, I'm very new on the writing scene and I have a buddy in Calif. whom I have been writing stories with and we want some raw advice on how we can learn about how to format our work and organize the plots for potential movie scripts?

A: The short answer: The quckest and easiest way to get up and running is read Syd Field's book "Screenplay." It's kinda the grandaddy of self-help books and offers the most fundamental examples of what and what not to do re formatting, plot points, etc. -- a lot as "evolved" recently in the writing world re formats, structure, etc. (mostly because of script readers' changing tastes), but Field's paradigm (Act I and Act II 'turning points') is still the standard referent in Hollywood.

There are several other good books out there that attempt to explain structure, motivation, intent, what-have-you, but Field's book is the keystone of most of them, IMO.

Once you're familiar with the basics, the best thing to do is just WRITE. Write a little every day, write often and rewrite more often. Get a feel for pages and scenes and Acts. Write something, then walk away from it and let it ferment. Come back and look at it afresh. See where it can be tighter, more explanatory with fewer words, simpler yet more complex. Go see a lot of movies and really "hear" the dialogue for a change. Imagine what the action must've looked like written out.

Also, read as many screenplays as you can, both professional and friends'. I started writing as a Reader and believe me, nothing helps your own style more than reading others. And sometimes the badder the better. It's easier to see mistakes in a bad screenplay than a good, seamless one.

And good luck!
Back to the questions

Q: I was told to send someone a treatment. What exactly does a treatment entail?

A: A treatment is usually 1 - 3 pages in length and covers the highlights of your script. This is your chance to try "novelistic" writing for a change and attempt to cram as much excitement, interest and curiosity as possible into those pages. What you want is to titillate and intrigue the reader enough that s/he'll ask to read the script.

Don't put anything in a treatment that's NOT in the story; OTOH, feel free to NOT mention all those mundane little details you needed for exposition's sake in Act II. <g>
Back to the questions

Q: And how long should a synopsis be, and what should be included when sending it to an agent?

A: Ahh...agents are different fish entirely. When agents read ANYTHING (contracts, menus, etc.) their lips move, so you want to keep it very short and sweet. <g>

Just kidding. Please don't tell my agent I said that...

A synopsis is your introduction to an agent. S/he will be hoping you're as clever in a script as you are in one paragraph, so chose your words well.

Here's the order as I see it (but remember Wm. Goldman's caveat: No one knows anything <g>):

Logline: Brief 1 - 2 sentence "TV Guide-like" summary of your script Synopsis: Brief 1 - 2 paragraph "Cliff Notes-like" summary of your script Treatment: Relatively detailed 1 - 3 page summary of your script, including asides (as -- sparingly -- needed!) detailing characters, locations and objects d'intrigue Step Outline: 10-15 page scene-by-scene breakdown of your script, including samples of dialogue and your writing style in the description. This is usually done in 1 - 2 (brief!) paragraph "bites" per scene.

Here are examples from one of my kids' features, a modern-day adaptation of Goldilocks & The Three Bears:

LOGLINE: Goldi Lockner lives with her engineer father in Colorado. When he begins working on a new ski resort in a mystical mountain valley she discovers the land's guarded by an ancient family of talking bears.

SYNOPSIS: Based on the Brothers Grimm classic fairy tale, this is the story of Goldi, a young girl who lives in a pristine Rocky Mountain valley. While downhill biking one day Goldi discovers the valley is also home to a family of magical bears. When Hal is attacked while trying to defend the valley, it's up to Goldi, Bruno, Ursula and baby bear Spike to save the valley from greedy villagers and land developers alike.

TREATMENT: HAL LOCKNER is a survey engineer for WindTek, a huge, multi-national conglomerate. A widower, Hal is having trouble coping with his 11-year old daughter GOLDIE, who would much rather be in a mall than in the mountains.

Hal and Goldie live in a cramped, pre-fab cabin high in the Rocky Mountains, in the middle of a vast valley owned by WindTek. There are no roads in or out and they and their supplies had to be helicoptered in. The only enjoyment Goldie has is riding her hi-tech mountain bike Hal bought her ("Bribed me, more like it!") for the trip.

While surveying the valley for an exclusive, very expensive corporate retreat, Hal meets an old Indian, SAMUEL STORM-BRINGER, and invites him home for dinner. Goldie is intrigued with Sam and his stories of the history and lore of ‘Kryndar — the sacred mountains.’ Though Samuel’s people have all died or moved away, he decided to stay and guard the mountains.

He tells her his people have a legend that "when the mountains cry the animals will rise up and cry back." Spooky stuff...!

The next day Goldie takes her hi-tech dirt bike up the narrow trail into the mountains, trying to find Sam’s cabin. She comes around a corner and runs smack into a family of bears snuffling some delicious food out from underneath a fallen tree. Papa Bear, Mama Bear...and especially Baby Bear: "Mama says life’s like a handful ‘a grubs... you never know what you’re gonna to get till you bite into one."

Frightened, Goldie does a mid-air flip off a low rock and high-tails it back down the trail. "Look, dear" says Papa Bear. "Meals on wheels." Spooky indeed...!!

The following day JOSHUA CRANE, the president of WindTek, copters in to talk to Hal. He’s upset that Hal hasn’t expanded the corporate retreat site upstream as ordered. Hal tells him to do that they’d have to divert the river, creating an ecological disaster. Joshua tells him to stop worrying so much about things that don’t concern him. He’s already greased the necessary palms in Washington and the plans have been approved. It’s Hal’s job to lay the site out...not play Boy Scout. He orders Hal to follow the blueprint and leaves.

Yadda-yadda...

STEP OUTLINE:

1. MAIN TITLES. ND sedan along a two-lane country road. INTERCUT with a hand (Hal’s) spray-painting large neon orange X’s on tree trunks. END to reveal HAL LOCKNER: a weathered engineer, reclusive and dreading what’s about to happen. He checks his watch, sighs and trods off.

2. TIMBER LAKE. A small, one-horse, ten-pickup town. The sedan pulls to a stop in front of the general store where Hal waits in dread.

GOLDIE LOCKNER, Hal’s 10-year old niece, gets out. Goldie’s defensive, hiding her fears behind a cocky attitude: a big-city girl ‘forced’ to live in the great outdoors. With her are two Welfare Workers.

We discover Goldie’s parents died at the beginning of the year while she was at boarding school. Now that school’s out she has to come live with Hal, her only relative. The Workers leave after Hal assures them that, per court order, Goldie "has her own room".

An uncomfortable silence. Goldie looks around in dismay. Hal ventures he’s glad to see her. Yeah, right. About as glad as Goldie is to be here. Is there a mall in this town? Is there a mall in this state?!

3. IN THE PICKUP. They leave the main highway, bumping onto a narrow dirt road that gets worse the deeper into the mountains they go. Goldie’s thrown around, which doesn’t help her mood any. What small talk Hal tries to make is immediately shot down.

4. High above the road three bears sit on a precipice, watching the truck rattle up the valley far below.

5. Hal and Goldie finally arrive at ‘base camp’: a small clearing beside a crystal spring. The only buildings are a large geodesic dome, a smaller geodesic hut and a newly-built outhouse. Waiting with them is KITTY McKOON, a pretty Forest Ranger who’s there to lend Hal moral support. It doesn’t work.

Goldie looks around, aghast. "I’m stuck in Dudley Dooright’s back yard," she whispers, her heart sinking. "I’m dead." She demands to know where the room is Hal promised the welfare workers she'd have. He points to a small hut next to his larger, high-tech dome.

Oh great! I have to sleep in a radar dome!

Everyone’s uncomfortable. Knowing of Goldie’s avid interest in biking, Hal hopefully unveils the new, "rad" 18-speed mountain bike he’s bought her. She snubs it and stomps off to her radar dome to watch MTV.

Hal apologizes to Kitty for his niece’s rudeness. "It’s gonna be tough for awhile," Kitty assures him. "Yeah," Hal agrees. "For Goldie, too."

"I meant Goldie..." Kitty gently chides him. Oh.

Kitty leaves and a minute later Goldie runs back out. Where’s the television?! Where’s the stereo?! No TV, he tells her. The valley’s isolated. And he never got around to buying a stereo...

Great! Just great...!! Stomp...stomp.

Yadda-yadda...

As you can see, as I went along I was also refining my story. I sold the idea based on the Synopsis, then did the Treatment and after a lot of notes from TPTB you can see how radically changed the Step Outline became (for various reasons like cast, locations, expense, etc.).

In situations like that I insist everyone involved (usually producers and director) sign off on a step outline (which is, after all, basically just a play-by-play breakdown) so when I turn in the first draft there are no surprises or "This isn't what we wanted/expected."

That's usually how things happen -- unless, of course, you write a script THEN go back and cobble together a Synopsis, Treatment, etc...
Back to the questions

Q: Exactly how specific do you have to get when writing the actions and reactions of the characters in the script?

Hmmm. Interesting question. I think specificity depends on the type of script more than anything else. IMO drama, comedies and romcoms call for more reaction (as they're mostly dialogue driven) than adventure, sci-fi or westerns, which calls for action.

As for HOW specific, you're only goal is to get someone to say "Yes" to your script, and anything that helps that along is a Good Thing(tm). The object is not to innundate the Reader with how clever a writer you are, nor leave h/her in the dark by being too sparse. some pros are lean to the point of aridness, others revels in cute asides to the reader, still others write so well their floweriness is actually poetic and enjoyable.

On top of that, different people react differently to any of the above...! Sheesh, as if it's not hard enough!

When I sit down to read a script, I want to 'see' the movie play out in my mind's eye. If the specific time of day is important, put it in. Is it rainy, cloudy, so bright you have to squint? Day? Night? Dusk? Dawn? Is our hero wearing something specific? Walk with a limp? Why? If it's not important don't mention it.

Does our heroine laugh at all his jokes? Frown while working the crossword puzzle? Use lots of demurers (those "ums..." and "ers..." and "uhs..." and "y'knows..." we all do occasionally)?

A caveat I also try to drum into my students is "Write characters, not characteristics." It helps to have someone in mind for each role, either an actor or your Aunt Lily. Get a feel for their speech patterns and stick with it. Don't let a character change in mid-stream -- one moment flippant, shooting off one-liners a mile a minute (because that's the frame of mind YOU'RE in that day...) and the next morose and monosyllablic. Be consistent in dialogue and description. And be true to each character throughout. Study your friends or co-workers. How much do they change speech patterns, rhythyms and inflections from day to day...?

A lot of newbies overuse parentheticals, also. I think it's a fear the actors and director wont "get it" if we don't specify every reaction and mood our characters have when speaking. I usually go back and cut 90% of mine out. But sometimes you need to indicate direction, or who someone's speaking to or about. Pick your battles...

Another lapse is overdescription. Like expensive perfume and champagne, you want to leave give a hint of its flavor, not overpower someone.