Speaker 1: No matter how excited you are about your screenplay, you need to remember that the industry isn't. Not in the slightest. In fact, agents and producers receiving unsolicited scripts open them with the same trepidation and dread as the family of a foreign aid worker who wake to find a hand-shaped parcel on their doormat, postmarked Burkina Faso. So before you send your script out into the industry, it's important to understand why they feel this way. The main reason that the industry hates unsolicited screenplays is because there are just too darn many of them. Most agents and producers would love to put up a big sign that says, unless I've asked you to send me something, f*** off. The reason they don't, however, is because they don't want to miss the next big thing. Film production is a non-linear process, which is to say it's not as straightforward as somebody having a script and a production company going into production with it. There are far more factors involved in the process, from set design, actors, special effects, sound effects, lighting, wardrobes, props, pre-production costs, post-production costs, prints and advertising, finance, finance and more finance. Big studios make sequels because they know they'll make money, and this allows them to finance smaller productions that are likely to lose it. Producers already have a pool of talented writers, so why do they need somebody new? Production companies pay readers to manage their slush pile, so your script that you think has touched the hallowed hands of a Hollywood producer was probably rejected already by somebody like me. Producers love best-selling novels. They do that because they have a track record for sales and there is an existing market waiting for the movie. There are literally thousands of screenplays plopping through the letterboxes of agents and producers every single year. One of the main reasons that they're rejected is because they are simply underdeveloped and not yet at the standard required by the industry. Independent production companies are generally very small entities, something that swells once a movie goes into production. Those producers involved don't have time to work as well as read spec scripts. It actually makes far more commercial sense for a production company to make a movie from a video game than it does to make a movie from a spec script. Trying to sell an unsolicited screenplay is similar to somebody who is interested in architecture, drawing up plans for a multi-million pound viaduct in their bedroom and then going out to the construction industry to find somebody to build it. All of this, of course, with absolutely no track record of success. If that were you, would you invest your millions? And yet, like gold speculators of yesteryear, the industry knows there's treasure to be found. And who knows, once you've honed your craft, that could be your project. In the next video we're going to cover how to actually find an agent to read your work. Thanks for watching. Please take time to like and subscribe. If you have any comments, stick those in the comments section below. If you want the free worksheets that accompany these videos, please visit www.clickimagination.com. Thanks again for watching and hope to see you in the next video.

Speaker 2: Selling a spec screenplay is the equivalent of going out to the construction industry to find somebody to build it.