Something I think everyone should be aware of when it comes to scripts repped, optioned, sold, etc... Especially those high concept and/or over 5 million dollar budget scripts that are best meant for a studio release. Indie, low budget, or direct to DVD/Cable projects are another story for another time.
First off. There are no rules. What I am writing here is not the gospel but what I notice to be applicable for many (not all) scripts sold.
Fact: There are tens of thousands of scripts written every year (some people say up to 50,000) and not just by un-produced writers and newbies. You are not only competing with Joe Blow who took third at the Sundance Workshop, but also Shane Black, the likes of him, and also lesser known "produced" writers with agents and connections in the biz. I have a friend who options and sells at least one script per year since 1982, yet he has only five produced credits. Why?
Assumption: The numbers are tough to find out but I suspect that less than a few thousand scripts are optioned and/or sold each year.
Fact: There are somewhere around 400 to 500 or so films made each year.
Assumption: A high percentage of films picked up to be repped or optioned or even sold to a prod co/studio are never made. Why?
An agent may love it enough to rep you, but a producer must also love your work enough to option/buy it. The producer must then convince a studio to fund it and if they don't see potential profit versus cost, then no matter how much the agent or producer loved it, it will sit on a shelf. The producer may try to get attachments or partial funding to make it more appealing to a studio but if an A list actor or director doesn't love it, then it stays in limbo.
Someone has to love it to option/buy it. The studio has to see dollar signs and marketability to fund it and it has to fit within their slate for releasing. Screen gems has 30 films slated for release in 2009. Can they afford to shell out 30 million so a movie can sit on the shelf for over a year? But if they have a film slated for August and that film fell behind on production, then they have an open slot and could push something else already being made on time ahead or fund a new project to go into that slot.
Where do competitions come in on all this?
It gets you noticed. Any script that places high in Nichols gets the attention of the agent or producer and if they love the concept, they will read the script. if they love the script they will take it to the next step.
Now a nichols press release gets read by everyone in the biz, whereas a press release announcing a win from Slamdance may only be heard by 10% of those in the biz. Also some comps are read and judged by people in the biz and they may be interested in optioning, buying or at the least tooting your horn to others.
Putting it on your resume is not worth anything and takes away valuable space on a query letter. An agent could care less if you took 1st place at Shriekfest and if you won at Nichols, trust me they would know it already, but go ahead and mention that one just in case. The only thing an agent cares about is can they sell it? The only things a producer cares about is "do I love it, want to spend three years of my life on it and can I get it made?"
Competitions are a good way to get noticed but there are a lot of crap contests out there that give you nothing but a couple of hundred dollars and a certificate. Do the research. Only submit to comps that have a track record. Nichols, Disney, etc... Medium to large sized Film festivals with screenplay category are good. And only submit your work to comps that have a liking to the genre you are in. Don't submit a slasher film to Nichols. It will never make the Quarter Finals.
Bottom line. only 500 films are made.
If the script is not a small indy project, it will most likely go against the studio system as I described.
