Writers, producers and an agent reveal secrets of successful spec screenplays during session at Showbiz Expo on Sunday, April 25th

By Robin Rowe - Note: Rowe is one of the spec screenplay panel organizers

How to Train Your Dragon, with animation no screenplay necessary

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 4/24/2010 – “The amazing thing about writing a spec script is that for that moment you’re your own boss,” says writer-producer Sascha Rothchild, who’s currently adapting her memoir How To Get Divorced by 30 into a screenplay for Universal Studios. “You can and should write the spec exactly how you want to write it. Only worry about expressing your memorable voice, characters and tone. Make it a spec that is so good and so original it has to sell. And if it doesn’t sell for whatever reason but is a great sample, you can use it to get open writing jobs.”

“We look to live action for our writers,” says DreamWorks Animation How to Train Your Dragon co-producer Karen Foster, who’s worked as a development exec at DreamWorks Animation and at Disney. “If you have writing samples, that’s excellent. Something you should know is people don’t write spec scripts in animation. We don’t need a script. We’ll just buy your idea. It’s a very narrow target at DreamWorks Animation, Sony animation, and Disney animation because we’re trying to make blockbusters. We’re trying to do something that hasn’t been done before, but that appeals to children and adults. “

“Attention spans are slightly shorter than before,” says Tron screenwriter and co-producer Bonnie MacBird. “It’s always been a moving target, and people don’t know what they want until they get it. One remarkable improvement now is the addition of online marketing places like InkTip where smaller projects seem to be hooking up more easily. It doesn’t lessen the need for a good agent but gives beginners more of a chance.” MacBird teaches screenwriting at UCLA Extension.

“With how tight the market is, I’m trying out spec writing scripts based on ideas that have already had interest from a producer or studio,” says writer-producer Gabrielle Pantera, who wrote a spec screenplay based on an optioned best-selling novel only to have the project forced into limbo during the WGA strike. “The studios are much more inclined to go with something they feel they know.” In the hay days of specs in the 70s, it was common to sell ideas as a pitch, to not even write the spec script. Today the studio wants more. For a writer like Pantera, who’s willing to work with successful producers on spec, it’s a way forward when the producer has an idea with studio interest but lacks the resources to hire a staff writer.

“I think the spec market is tougher right now than in past years but as always, people are looking for the next big thing or the next indie gem,” says Rothchild. “I try to figure out what the market is too saturated with and avoid those types of movies. When 900 spec scripts about bachelor parties were written right after the success of The Hangover, I won’t be writing a bachelor party movie any time soon.” MacBird, who’s currently writing a TV script on assignment, says “If I knew what they wanted I’d write that next.”

The Showbiz Expo panel “How to Write and Sell a Spec Script” is Sunday, April 25, from 12:30 to 1:30pm at the L.A. Convention Center.  The panel includes APA literary agent David Boxerbaum, Karen Foster, Bonnie MacBird, Gabrielle Pantera, Sascha Rothchild, and Robin Rowe. Rowe and Pantera are co-presidents of the 4,000-member TV and film industry association ScreenPlayLab.

How do you write and market the modern spec screenplay? What do writers, buyers and agents think? Format of the session is 5-minute introductions then Q&A from the audience.

http://www.screenplaylab.com/2010/showbizexpo.html