Carole Kirschner, Entertainment Career Coach, Speaker & Author: My friend Doug who I hired
at Amblin which is Steven Spielberg's company was at his grandmother's funeral
and he was walking back to the car with the Rabbi and the Rabbi said
“I have a script in my car. Could you please give it to Stephen?”
Film Courage: Is it easy for a great script to go nowhere?
Carole: A great script, a truly great script, if you have any connection to anybody
in the entertainment industry who can look at that and know it's a great script,
it's going to go someplace, you're going to get recognized people, will call you, they'll want to
take you out for lunch or drinks, they'll want to hire you to write for them, they'll want to
be in business with you in some way. A great script now if you are living in
Oshkosh and you don't know anybody and you're not willing to submit your scripts to contests
it could go nowhere but if you're willing to get it out there in a way that someone
in the entertainment industry would get eyes on it you will go somewhere for sure
so if someone's script is not quote unquote going anywhere is it safe to assume it's not any good
well what I say is scripts need to be blazing hot my first boss said that writing is choices and
when you have a character who has to make a choice the first choice you come up with anybody could
come up with my dentist would come up with the second choice pretty obvious the third choice a
little bit less and then four five and six if you can push yourself to there it's getting better if
you're at 8-9 and 10 and not many people are ten that you've forced yourself to try 10 different
choices until you get to the very best choice then that script is good but if you're if you're at
four or five and you try four or five things and you said no this this is this is good enough then
if it's been out there in the marketplace for three or four or five months it's not
the marketplace it's your script it's not ready and I encourage you to either rewrite
it or write something else because every time you write a new script
it's going to get better so it's not them it's me yes okay and what we talked about earlier was that
when you meet a storyteller you can kind of tell that they see the world in a very different way
they're very dialed in to little details and is that where the the real beauty of a storyteller
takes over is that that taking it beyond level four in terms of how little nuances to the to the
script yes I think so great storytellers are at 789 brilliant Aaron Sorkin 10 right but the rest
of us humans regular people it's not fair yeah seven eight nine that if you're willing to bleed
for it to get to seven eight or nine then I think you're probably a really good storyteller what are
the best ways for a new Rider to get industry Pros to read their script really good question
if you don't know anybody there are first of all beware be really wary of
coverage Services they're not all made equally you need to know who's reading your script it could
be a junior executive it could be a bartender and what I tell people is if you are getting coverage
only listen to what resonates and if you re and be really honest with yourself is that a good
note is that a note from somebody who doesn't get what I'm doing at all so one way is contests you
don't have to know anybody to enter your scripts into contests and if you come in first second or
third in a prestigious contest agents managers producers will find you if you don't do that
there are services but always check and see who is behind the service what their real credits are
and if they've been doing something if they were a reader for six months that's not who you want
okay so having never entered a contest would they say who some of the industry professionals are or
they say have worked with but you don't actually know the person's name can't check their credits
you mean in a contest or coverage service right if they're not telling you then don't go there
right yeah I'm always wary of websites whatever industry where you don't know the family name or
the person behind it even if there's no picture but just to have a general sense of who someone
is behind it that you're giving your money to if they're not willing to tell you who they are
they don't have to necessarily give you a last name better if they do but what that person's
credentials are if they're not willing to do that specifically don't spend your money there
okay so what if a new writer has identified maybe five contests that are definitely legit
they see it on screenwriting Twitter people are discussing it should they
continue to enter them even if they haven't won and they haven't gotten any favorable notes back
yes continue to write and get better at writing I've known people from icbs program that have
applied four times and it wasn't until the fifth time that they got in because it wasn't until the
fifth year that their material was good enough but if year after year after year you're not
getting any traction then there's then you're missing something and maybe you should take a
class maybe you should do an online course but again only reputable ones don't waste
your money on I always like to say in terms of contests coming in third place in the schmegegge
film festival is going to do nothing for you yeah push yourself to that seven eight or nine
sure sure yeah you can you can check in on what screenwriters are doing on on Reddit on LinkedIn
on Twitter and so you see people who are very proud that they've placed and and to to follow
suit I guess yeah fortune favors the bold absolutely why do you love this is this a
saying or a proverb yes it's a proverb and do I remember who said it no but it is a famous saying
this if you're not willing to take a risk sell insurance if you're willing to take a risk if
you're willing to boldly say this is my vision I stand behind it I'm putting in my 10,000 hours I'm
going to get better I have a story to tell and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to tell it
then interestingly the universe comes along and gives you a push that's what I think
okay I like that what if there are responsibilities you talked about a
woman that you're working with who who had a child to raise and understandably had to put
things on the back burner for a while how does someone navigate that I don't know I guess it's
specific for each situation I think so but you don't have a number of clients in that
situation and we come up with a plan for how they can get time in even if it's a little time
on a daily basis I 30 minutes a day and I know some writers that get up 30 minutes early before
their kids get up I know some writers that stay up 30 minutes later if their brain is still working
if you do that and I say only work four days a week I really believe you need to have a life and
in order to write about something you need creativity in to have creativity out and
just carve some time for yourself I know it's really hard I don't mean to be flip about it but
30 minutes even if it's 15 minutes a day you will find yourself making progress
okay what if someone is lucky enough to have that time but they feel selfish we talked to
another both writer and Mom and that there is a connotation sometimes that it's selfish
that what I'm doing is is why why am I doing this I should be taking care of someone else
codependent read Melody Beatty right read Melody Beauty for that codependence okay
you have to find the strength inside yourself that says I deserve this I don't mean leave
your children in the street but carve out 30 minutes you have to find inside yourself the
essential you that yearns to be an artist and say I'm going to devote some of my time and energy on
a regular basis to that I just saw the documentary Judy Blume Forever and she had to ultimately (I’m
not suggesting this) but she had to ultimately leave her husband because he didn't want her
to pursue her craft. Don't leave your husband, don't leave your wife, I'm not saying that. Sure
I'm saying it's good to surround yourself with people that support you in your in your desire
oh I want to see that movie I did not I love Judy Blume so it was a documentary actually okay right
yeah and that just came out just came out wow because now her Are You There God It's Me Margaret
yeah it came out good times I do will well that's a that's a tough comedic it is not everyone's
going to get some of the humor there yeah things like that but that was that's a landmark book
for it and many many people he is and was and is still is yeah and has been banned so but I
want to see that documentary that's good I like that what is the general timeline for getting
a screenplay read if you're a new writer and you're sending it out to professionals yep okay
here's what I say first of all I have a pet peeve that I want to share with the people
who are watching this do not ask somebody you've just met to read your script it I did
a Blog about Hollywood etiquette don't do that because I just want people to think about this
you're asking me a person that you don't know and I don't know you to
take two hours out of my life away from my family and my work to read your script
wait until somebody so please please please don't say nice to meet you will you read my script
but let's say you have been able to put it in the hands of somebody who is in
the industry what I say is give people six weeks to start and then reach out to them
every month after that every three or four weeks and always be respectful and say I know how busy
you are I just wanted to circle back and see if you've had an opportunity to read it and if not
no worries I'll check back in again in another month I know somebody who gave it to a showrunner
and it took that showrunner a year to read it but she finally did and she gave her feedback but if
you've been reaching out to people and don't annoy them just do it regularly but not annoyingly and
if they haven't responded to you in a year stop reaching out and find somebody else
what about if someone sends it to someone or or email someone and says I know so and so fill in
the blank can you get it to that person now you're asking that person to risk that relationship their
reputation protocol yeah that is the same thing as asking somebody to read your script you ask
me to give it to I have a funny story if you want to hear it? I do yeah. Okay, my friend Doug who I
hired at Amblin which is Steven Spielberg's company was at his grandmother's funeral
and he was walking back to the car with the Rabbi and the Rabbi said “I have a
script in my car. Could you please give it to Stephen?” Oh don't do that, don't do that okay.
You're asking me if you say well you get it to so and so I don't know you to use up one of my chits,
to use up one of my credibility chits. Don't do that you're asking too much
now if I meet you and we have a relationship and I really like you I'll ask you to read
your script let me read your script and if the script is fabulous I will pass it
along don't ask me to pass it along but if I love it let me tell you I'm going to pass it
along because it makes me look good I discovered this person but you don't ask you let it happen
well what ended up happening in that situation or is that too personal no she got wrapped with
the the person whose Rabbi asked oh nothing happened nothing happened right because Doug
would no more take that person's script and give it to Stephen his boss then he would walk
on the moon what happened is that Doug would not hire that Rabbi to do his grandfather's funeral.