How big the Bible?

fractal said:

So I'm writing a Musical. Yes, what was I thinking? Truth be told, I wasn't thinking at all... it just started happening. Now I am at a state where if I don't finish it to a point that I can let it go, I will go to my grave with regrets. So I soldier on.

I have had some great advice from a playwrite friend of mine, and combined with some reading here and on other sites, I have written the Bible (complete with logline etc.). The problem is, I don't know when enough is enough.

My question is: how far do you take this before it is a saleable entitiy? I have the high concept, the logline, the character devs (their paths through the story and their inter-relationships), the general plot, a couple of musical numbers (to illustrate the style) and a sample scene.

Maybe I dreaming, but what I'd like to have happen is for someone (insert industry pro here) to say "That's fantastic. Here are some thousands of dollars to finish". Every writer's dream I'm sure.

I don't mind if I have to relinquish some control, I don't mind that there are better writers or composers than me that may be brought on board... I just want to get this thing done to some "standard" so that I can let it go knowing I gave it the shot I think it deserves.

Oh... and I'm reluctant to post it anywhere as I worry that someone will steal it. Must I reg with the WG or some such place before I do that here?

Any advice is welcome, thank you.

Click to expand...

Well, the above is a bit confusing. I'm presuming (and maybe I'm wrong) that you're talking about a musical "feature film." That is, not a stage musical, or a -- musical tv series?

If the former, this is probably the wrong forum, since we're focused on movies and TV. The only reason I raise the question about TV is because you reference the "Bible" -- and that is a term that is generally only used in reference to a TV series.

Either way, whether it be a proposed TV series or a feature -- nobody is going to pay you to finish anything.

To write any kind of feature and sell it is a long shot for a beginner. For a TV series, multiply the odds, easily, a hundredfold.

For a musical that's never been produced anywhere -- again, for a beginner, who also (I'm guessing) doesn't have any kind of established musical career or credentials, the odds go up even higher on both fronts, because the work in question not only has to succeed as a screenplay, it also has to succeed musically. If it falls down on either front -- you lose.

And you can't expect any pro to come along and give you that help.

I don't know if you have a musical collaborator or not, but either way, you really have to look to do this all yourself (or yourselves).

That is, it's not like a novel, where you can submit a few chapters and an outline and expect someone to pay you to finish.

No. Because with a novel, the "finished thing" is the novel. With a screenplay, the finished thing isn't the screenplay -- it's the movie.

So from the perspective of a producer, the most finished, polished screenplay in the world is really just the equivalent of those first few chapters. It's just the bare beginning from which they then have to build toward that finished product -- the movie.

So if you want to have any hope of being able to sell this thing you need to have a complete, finished, polished screenplay -- as could as it can possibly be. And you also have to have a complete, finished, polished score -- and you have to record it as professionally as possible and you have to submit the two together. So that whoever you're submitting it to can both read the script and listen to the score.

And they both have to knock down the house.

Because anything less will not sell.

And if you're talking about a potential TV series, you'd have to write a pilot episode, as well as a series Bible, and record enough songs to show that you can produce the music for a bunch of episodes.

And even then, I'm not sure what it would have to knock down to sell -- more than a house. Maybe a building.

That's pretty much where you're at. You've set yourself an extremely high goal post and it's inevitably going to involve a great deal of work.

NMS

Oh boy.

Couple of things.

You can't sell a novel on an outline, only non-fiction.

T.V. series require a bible, nothing else does. (And producers usually want to see the script from at least one episode, but that's another issue.)

For plays or screenplays, you need to have it finished and polished.

No one is going to pay you to finish anything.

For a musical, you need to have the music and lyrics already written as well. Helps if you've already written for voice, which is different than writing music for any other instrument. If you haven't, you'll need the help of a composer.

Musicals are are much tougher sell, we can get into that later.