Tony Tost @tonytost

19 Feb • 41 tweets • tonytost/status/1362597125503266816

It's something of a screenwriting cliche to say that the first

few pages of a script are essential for hooking a reader.
But for an non-established outsider trying to break in, I
think that the cliche actually undersells things. Those few
opening pages are pretty much everything.
At the start of things, those 5-10 pages may be more important than the entirety of
your script simply because those opening pages might determine whether or not the
industry person reading your script is gonna toss your script aside with a shrug and
never think of you again.

Now, maybe if they love those opening pages, they'll read the whole thing. Or at least
half. But sometimes, even if they do really like those first 5-10 pages & decide they
want to chat with you, that's all they'll read at first. It just depends on the person &
the situation.

As an outsider, you're not really selling a script so much as you're selling yourself as
someone who has an original, potentially hire-able voice. In 2021, industry folks
aren't really looking to buy original scripts so much as they're looking to hire cheap
original voices.

They're looking for cheap original voices to staff on their shows, or to adapt their
intellectual properties, or to develop a vehicle for a specific actor or actress or
director. And those are the jobs that you need to string together to start having a
career.

So your initial script, to be a success, needs to persuade industry people in these

Hollywood rooms that -- out of the hundreds of thousands of writers wanting to
break in at any given moment -- you in particular are someone worth taking an hour
out of their busy day to meet.

That's why those opening pages are so important. Not to sell your script, but to get
you into conversations and potentially into relationships. Now I'll try to sketch a
plausible scenario where an non-established outsider is having their script read by
someone in the industry:

Let's say there's a junior executive at a small studio; last year he was an assistant, but
he impressed his boss and got promoted. That boss, at this week's staff meeting,
informs everyone that they've optioned the rights to some recent blue collar crime
news article.

That boss wants to develop this piece of intellectual property into a movie, maybe
because the lead role could be a good fit for an up-and-coming actress he thinks is
gonna be a star. If nothing else, such a project could develop a key relationship for
this boss.

So this junior exec -- who doesn't yet have his own long list of writers he's already
worked or met with -- calls up some agents and managers and other contacts and pals
in the industry and spreads word about this new potential project.

That junior exec gets some sample scripts and takes them home for the weekend with
this project in mind. Say just 25 scripts. In that stack are a few scripts by recognizable
names & a bunch of scripts by working screenwriters like me. Not famous writers, but
working ones.

Say, as an non-established outsider, your script somehow got into this stack. If it is,
it's probably at the bottom. Now, when this junior executive -- who has a newborn
child and family visiting for the weekend -- gets to your script on Sunday night, he
looks at your name.

It doesn't ring a bell. No credits on imdb. Maybe he doesn't even remember how your
script got into his stack. Maybe a friend of a friend. He's already read 24 scripts in 48
hours, now he picks up yours. One of the last of the bunch.

How likely is he gonna keep plowing through an unknown writer's script to get to
your big twist on pg 30 where the drama actually starts cooking? Or to the
emotionally devastating confrontation scene on page 85 that the whole script has
been building to? Sadly, not super likely.

Because, remember: he's not reading your script looking to buy it. (Not many spec
scripts are sold these days.) And he's not reading your script to give it a high or low
score. Or to see if you checked all the right structural boxes all the way through.

He's not even interested in its totality as a script. He's simply looking for a handful of
writers who may be a good potential fit for this new blue collar project at his studio.
Why? Because he's looking to get a win with his boss & build a track record and
advance his career.

So when this junior executive gets to your script, it's probably at the bottom of the
stack: not because he's a jerk but because he rationally believes he's more likely to
find writers who are potential fits for the project among those writers who have a
track record of doing it.

So, he's a bit burned out, a bit tired, a bit skeptical, by the time he finally gets to your
script. He already has six good candidates. But he's a pro, so he'll at least give your
script a glance.

Your script is now in his hands. That means, you've probably got 5-10 pages max to
persuade this tired, overworked junior exec that you might be the hidden gem in the
crowd who that junior exec can bring onto the project, impress his boss, and jump
start *his own* career.

That's why, as an outsider, you can't just be good enough. You have to be potential
rocket fuel for some exec or some agent. You have to be someone who'll make *them*
look like a star. In the opening pages, you have to start looking like their potential
career lottery ticket.

So, first piece of practical advice: start your script with a showcase scene or sequence
that shows off your voice & your best qualities as a writer. Remember, with your
break-in script as an outsider, you're not actually laying out a blueprint for a TV show
or a movie.

As an outsider, you're simply trying to get into rooms so you can begin these
relationships. So don't start off your script with long descriptions & slow non-
dramatic scenes & so on. That's not going to get you into these rooms. But an
undeniably great scene might.

Examples? Aaron Sorkin's first scene in THE SOCIAL NETWORK. Now, that's a bit
unfair because I think Sorkin is maybe the best dialogue writer going (I'm not cool, so
what). For a moment, let's pretend that movie doesn't already exist.

If any of us put our names on that script with *that* scene as the opener? Once it got
into peoples' hands & circulated, we'd be up to our neck in meetings. As an outsider
without connections or leverage, don't you want your opening scene to call out "hey,
great writer here"?

I'm a big Tarantino guy. (Also maybe not cool?) One of the reasons I think he does
non-linear storytelling is not to just be clever or cheeky, but because it lets him start
off so many of his scripts with really killer showcase scenes. I'm talking, the *very*
first scene.

The "Like a Virgin" discussion at the start of RESERVOIR DOGS. Pumpkin and
Honey Bunny deciding to rob the diner at the start of PULP FICTION. Hans Landa
coming to the farmhouse in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS.

He didn't start RESERVOIR DOGS with Mr. Orange waking up, hitting his alarm,
taking a shower, then having some cereal, and so on. Instead, he drops us right into
the middle of a great dialogue scene, grabs our curiosity, and fills in the blanks later.

Imagine if Tarantino was an outsider now -- like he was a true outsider when he
started -- & his script for DJANGO UNCHAINEED was in this junior exec's pile.
Unless that exec has terrible taste, by page 10 that exec knows he's calling this
Quentin guy in for a meeting next week.

And when he does, most likely, this junior exec is going to start talking up just about
every property his studio has, trying to lure this Tarantino outsider to make a pitch
on it. Because that junior exec -- by page ten -- realizes that he may've just found a
lottery ticket.

A junior exec or an agent can send DJANGO or SOCIAL NETWORK to his boss or
client and say: "Just read the first ten pages, and you'll see what I mean." For an non-
established outsider, what could be a better passport than that?

So, maybe try to start your script with your version of one of those unexpected,
memorable, showcase scenes. Then justify it however you have to with the rest of
your script. But sell yourself & your unique voice right away.
Now, maybe you have reservations. Maybe you've seen TV critics on twitter making
fun of pilots that start with a big scene followed by a "two weeks earlier" card because
it's an overused device and so on.

And to that, I say: those TV critics aren't competing with thousands of writers in
trying to grab the attention of burned out industry people w/ the opening pages of
their scripts. You are. Do what it takes & worry about critics later (or, better yet, not
at all).

Is a flashy, show-off writer's showcase scene the best way to actually start a TV show
or movie? Not always! It really depends on the TV show or movie. But remember, at
this point of your career, you're *not* making a TV show or a movie.

Right now, you're trying to get into a Hollywood room on the basis of nothing else but
the strength of your writing. Remember that. Don't pretend to be playing a different
game than the one you're actually playing at this point of your career.

What could be better for a non-established outsider than to have a script where an
industry person can say: "I know she doesn't have any credits, but just read the first
ten pages and tell me this isn't the next great voice in horror?"

When you're trying to break in, I don't think your script should settle for just laying
down plot points, or introducing characters, or even telling a story in the opening
pages. These pages need to be making your reader *feel* something: excitement,
surprise, terror, laughter.

If you can make a jaded, seen-everything, burned out executive feel an actual emotion
in the opening 5-10 pages of your initial script, that's really gonna help you get into
rooms. But it can't be a cheap emotion. Or cynically rendered or too familiar. So, it
won't be easy.

Of course, the rest of your script will *also* need to deliver the goods, but if your
opening 5-10 pages don't give your jaded junior exec those "oh shit I'm gonna get
promoted" tingles, it doesn't really matter what great triumphs the rest of your script
achieves.

Why? Because that junior exec will already be moving on to the next script in his
stack, which is a script he has to read because it was written by the nephew of a
powerful producer who his boss also wants to work with, & that script -- unlike yours
-- only has to be good enough.

Okay, once again, there's a video version of these points that pretty much says the
same thing. As always, take or leave the advice. If nothing else, hopefully these little
rants will help demystify the practicalities of breaking in, at least as I see it:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/1rD6X8T2XBs

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