Is there a best time of the year to query your script?

I don't know what all your asterisks are about, but I do know it takes a lot longer to hear back from producers when major film festivals are going on.

scriptwriter74 said:

Are there certain times of the year that Prodco's are more interested in reviewing scripts than others? Are there any patterns that writers have noticed?

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The only "pattern" I'm aware of is the time leading up to the Xmas holiday and the month thereafter, which would include November, December, and January. Things really slow down in H'wood during these months, most in December of course.

Other than this, I've not ever seen any particular period that's better than any other. I would expect that the economic downturn has affected the rate at which prodcos and studios will be greenlighting new production projects and this could slow the rate at which they respond to queries. Didn't I read recently where banks have withdrawn a lot of production financing from the industry? And that the "credit crunch" has hit film production as much as it has anything else? Seems to me I've seen articles go by on this topic.

Keep plugging!

There is one period of the year when the TV networks are trying to finalize their upcoming television seasons, so they are busy busy busy.

I totally forget WHEN that time is. But I was chatting with a friend-of-a-friend via telephone about "the Industry" a few years ago, and this friend-of-a-friend is an agent (no, she's not MY agent, nor did she desire to become my agent either--darn!) and I was asking her about the fact that I had not yet heard back from a prodco about my script which they had recently requested from me. She was at first explaining that she NEVER is willing to accept a "silent pass" from ANY prodco (if they actually requested the script from you), and that a polite reminder e-mail from the writer (or the agent) to that prodco is perfectly aceptable. But .... here was her one exception to that: she immediately said to me during that phone call "This is the worst time of year because the networks are all finalizing the upcoming season. Give them another month before dropping them a polite reminder about your script." And I wish I could recall what time of year it was. Someone else here probably knows.



And I also asked her: "How often should you keep sending these 'polite e-mails' before you start looking like a psycho?" And she said "No more often that once a month."

Goodwriterguy said:

Didn't I read recently where banks have withdrawn a lot of production financing from the industry? And that the "credit crunch" has hit film production as much as it has anything else? Seems to me I've seen articles go by on this topic.

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If you saw them, the bankers doing so are idiots. First off, investing in stuff that isn't covered so you lose other people's money is a cardinal sin. Withdrawing financing you've already given is worse. It's against contract and doesn't actually help the economy. We need money to be spent to get it rolling again.

If people stopped worrying about the "credit crunch", spending and stock exchanges would go up as they should be. It's all imagination, fear and bad actions.

As others have pointed out, there's not a good time necessarily but there are potentially bad times.

Christmas & Hanukkah -- most of December honestly. This town completley shuts down.

The late summer is really slow (Late July and all of August) -- there's just less people in the office.

It's less about major festivals and more about major film markets. Leading up to Cannes & AFM were the only time I've noticed Prod Cos go completely radio silent. But Sundance or Toronto doesn't seem to slow anyone down significantly.

So if you can, I'd just avoid weeks when you know no one will be in the office, it makes a bigger backlog which is a lot more likely to be ignored.

PD, the Upfronts are in May.