Adapting Your Novel for Film

by Pauline Baird Jones

  2. A Pitch Hook

  Your pitch hook comprises your logline that you can use in an email, a letter or over the phone.

  3. A Brief Story Summary

  This is a brief expansion of your logline. Combined with your logline, it comprises your two-minute pitch (all the time you’re usually allowed during in face or phone pitching.) If you’re a novelist, this would be somewhat the same as your back cover copy, but with a beginning, a middle, and a hook at the end. A good summary lets you know who the major players are, what they want, and what stands in their way.

  4. A Synopsis

  We’re still talking brief, but this is an expanded story summary, no more than one or two pages. Something that can be attached to a letter or pasted in an email, or delivered with an in-person pitch. Remember that you’re dealing with people who have amazingly short attention spans. Brief, brief, brief.

  5. A Treatment or an Outline

  There is a lot of disagreement about whether the treatment is in vogue in Hollywood. My advice is to do one IF you’re asked to. Otherwise, don’t bother. I’ve never been asked for one. Additionally, it is a complete telling of your story, which means you have to protect it the same way you would a script. That costs money to get it registered. Your goal is to get someone to read your script, not just your ideas. And yes, they do get stolen.

  Planning to Take Hollywood

  There are three planning steps to any business enterprise: purpose, audience and strategy. If you don’t know what your purpose is, you won’t be able to create an effective strategy. Your purpose isn’t about your script, it’s about what you want to accomplish, what you want to sell. Presumably, that is your script, but it can also mean selling yourself as a writer. Quite often, producers consider your script a sample of writing and use those samples to make writing assignments. So you need to know what you want to accomplish as a screenwriter. Do you only want to sell your script or are you looking for writing assignments?

  Next you need to identify the individual/s who can give you what you want. There are a variety of ways to do that. The most direct way is by using the Hollywood Creative Directory (www.hcdonline.com). It is expensive, but it only lists production companies who have actually made movies and the people involved in them. Buying the print copy means that some of info can be out of date. Getting the online version means that sometimes you don’t get all the information. I’ve had both, and found both useful for different reasons. In the online version, you can set parameters to search by (for instance, by producers with email addresses) and then filter further by looking at the types of films they’ve made. I found the production company that optioned my script this way.

  As I mentioned before, make sure your work is protected and keep good records of who you contact with what. Again, theft occurs all the time in Hollywood. That’s not to say that two people can’t come up with the same idea (note the year of the meteor when three movies where released with similar themes, but very different styles of storytelling.) The best way to protect your work is to register it and keep good records.

  Another important aspect of marketing to Hollywood has to do with attitude and confidence. Show no fear, be confident (not arrogant!) and be careful. Everyone loves you to your face. You need enthusiasm and persistence. You need to not be difficult to work with, but not roll over either. It doesn’t hurt to know the “hero's journey” and other buzz words either.

  Next, do your research. It’s all good and well to decide that a certain actor or actress would love to have your script, but getting it to them is like running a gauntlet blindfolded. They have lots of people whose job it is to keep you from getting to them. That’s because they don’t like being sued by writers who think their script was stolen.

  The other thing to keep is mind is what type of script you’ve written. Is it high concept or avant-garde? Is it more suited to mainstream Hollywood or the independent producers, i.e. Sundance, market? Take your time. While you’re doing your research, hopefully you’re writing another script AND letting your “perfect” script sit untouched and unlooked at. You need some distance from your script if you’re going to effectively market it or be able to see any weaknesses.

  Other places you can find info:

  Read the trades, such as Variety & Hollywood Reporter. Also read scriptwriting and movie magazines such as Premiere, Creative Screenwriting, Scr(i)pt, etc. The above mentioned Hollywood Creative Directory is also very useful. There are also some online sites that list info about producers, who is doing what, and who is looking. There are tons of sites that will post scripts for producers or seek to put writers and producers together. Some are fee-based, some aren’t.

  Another thing that can help you with your research is your personal preferences. If you don’t go to movies or watch television, you are at a disadvantage. You need to see what in your genre is being produced, where, and by whom. When you watch a movie, notice who the producers are and who directed it. Also notice what the cable stations are producing. There are a lot of movies being made by Lifetime, TNT, HBO, Hallmark, etc. These are original movies. Places such as Lifetime premiere at least one new movie a month. Other options include ABC Family Channel, Showtime…well, you get the idea.

  You want to find the people behind the production companies, but remember that it is producers who get movies made. And it’s also important to be realistic about what your script is. If it’s a Movie of the Week (MOW), then don’t waste your time and effort marketing it to feature producers. Also, a lot of films are being made for the foreign movie market. IndieGals, who optioned my script, were targeting it to the foreign market. That meant rewriting it to strengthen the male lead and lessening the female. Find out what the market peculiarities are and try to play to them, or least let them know you know your stuff in your query.

  Also, keep in mind that Hollywood is built on people knowing people. Nurture contacts. Network. Create connections any way you can. The lowly person of today is the heavy hitter of tomorrow. Even the person answering the phone is planning to move up. Be nice. Keep track of anyone who comments favorably on your work. While they may turn you down now, they might be interested in your next script.

  Tell everyone you know that you’re writing a script. You never know who might have a television contact. I got an actress “read” because a writing friend was her stepmother. You just never know who will know someone who can help you. So always, always, always be nice, be polite, be helpful. Particularly in your online contacts with people.

  I was on a screenwriting list where a lot of flaming took place. After several months of this a producer posted that he’d hired a writer from the list: someone who was invariably polite and helpful and had never flamed anyone. He wanted people to know producers were on the list and had taken note of who would be easy to work with and who wouldn’t.

  As in print publishing, Hollywood has agents. There are a lot of advantages to having an agent, but it is as hard or harder to get an agent in Hollywood. There are also “managers.” Basically, the manager position was created so that agents could get around the “ten percent rule” that agents have to operate under. Agents also are prohibited from taking part in deals and managers aren’t. So be careful about how you deal with managers. Many people have both, because they do different things—to some extent. But they can do damage if you don’t have the right ones.

  As in finding a producer, getting an agent or manager is always easier if you’ve sold a script or won a contest. When my script placed first in a very minor contest, I got several calls from managers and producers. The script was already optioned, so not sure how much help it ultimately would have been, but it did help jump some hurdles.

  Just be careful what contests you invest in. Check them out. Contests run by producers can be thinly veiled attempts to get you to pay for a reading. There are very prestigious contests that can really help your career, but the competition is keen. A couple of the better ones are the Austin Heart of Film Festival con
test, Carl Sautter Memorial Scriptwriting, Chesterfield, and the top of the top is the Nicholl Fellowship Competition. Information about all contests can be found at moviebytes.com.

  Pitching

  We’re in the home stretch now and hopefully you’re getting close to knowing what you need to know to begin to market your script. Again, I’d like to stress that taking a few ideas to the Hollywood pitching mill does have its downside. If you don’t have more ideas behind the main ones you’re pitching, you may lose an opportunity. This was brought home to me by my manager, who emailed me recently to say that she feels like producers want to suck her writers dry. Always, they want more ideas. The usual complaint is that producers may not know what they want, but they do know what they don’t want. So there is a lot of luck in the process. Which means you need to throw your net as wide as possible. You just never know when you might hit a producer at the right moment.

  Okay, let’s talk pitching. We start with the pitching sheet. This is particularly important if you’re pitching by phone. Have one for each script in front of you and make sure you have it solid and only need to refer to your sheet in moments of panic. If you’re pitching in person, the pitch sheet can be left behind, with contact info, for the execs to refer to later. I’ve included a sample pitch sheet, provided courtesy of the late Sally Merlin.

  1. Pitching Sheet

  A SAMPLE PITCH/ONE SHEET

  The Usual Suspects

  "A boat, believed to have $91 million in cocaine on board, is docked at a pier in San Pedro, just south of L.A. Suddenly an enormous explosion rips through the still of the night and you know that whatever or whoever was unlucky enough to be on that boat was blown halfway to hell.

  Within hours, a charred floating carcass is all that’s left. That, and twenty-seven dead bodies. Miraculously, there are two survivors: a Hungarian gangster who lies, clinging to life and burnt to a crisp, in a hospital bed; and Roger "Verbal" Kint, a crippled con man from New York.

  As U.S. Customs Special Agent David Kujan conducts his grueling inquisition, Kint weaves a tale that begins six weeks earlier, at a police lock-up in New York. Five felons, accused of hijacking a truckload of gun parts in Queens, are brought in for a line-up. The cops don’t have much in the way of evidence, so the five are held overnight.

  Five criminals. Five criminal minds. One night. One plan. They are suspects. Strangers. With one thing in common: Keyser Soze – a criminal so feared, so fabled, even the icy glares of these cold-blooded killers burn with terror at the mere mention of his name.

  And now, the only one who can identify Keyser Soze, believed to be at the heart of this dockside massacre, is the hospitalized Hungarian. So while an FBI sketch artist struggles to complete his rendering of Soze before the witness dies, Verbal Kint sits in the D.A.’s office, taking Kujan through the steps that led him there.

  The inquisition is arduous. Kujan is relentless. Hour after hour he probes. Kint wavers and, finally, breaks. In the end, a pathetic, low-life con man is outwitted by a smart, shrewd U.S. government agent.

  Or is he?"

  Used with permission of Sally B. Merlin, The Complete Screenplay. Copyright Sally B. Merlin

  Ways to a Means

  As I mentioned previously, there are many ways to reach producers with your pitch. Obviously the most desired method is they call you, but that is fairly rare, unless you win a prestigious contest, so here are the typical ways to reach producers:

  Email pitching

  Phone pitching

  Snail mail pitching

  In person pitching

  Email pitching is slightly different from pitching either by phone or in person. For one thing, you have to “hook” the recipient into actually reading it. That’s why you start with your logline/hook right at the top. You want it to be seen, just in case they don't plan to open your email, and hopefully hook them into reading more, then requesting the script.

  I’ve tried email pitching, and it was the way I secured the option of I Love Luci – When I Don't Want to Kill Her. I’m quite sure that the title of the script was a HUGE help in getting producers to actually read the email pitch, but I also had to have a good pitch to take them to the next step: requesting the script. (Note: I had to change the title to Do Wah Diddy Die because Desilu Productions owns the trademark to I Love Lucy.)

  This is my email pitch for Luci:

  TITLE: I LOVE LUCI - WHEN I DON’T WANT TO KILL HER

  LOG LINE: Luci Seymour - sexy & free spirited - returns to steamy New Orleans in search of the father she’s never met. She finds murder, mayhem, love and adventure when her timing puts her directly in the sights of an elderly hit couple and a con man’s last scam.

  REVIEW QUOTE ABOUT THE NOVEL SCRIPT WAS ADAPTED FROM: “Pauline Baird Jones has definitely carved a niche for herself in the category of romantic comedy, with talent that rivals the best and a sense of humor that is sure to leave readers breathless with laughter. If you love romantic comedy and haven’t had a chance to read DO WAH DIDDY . . . DIE, you don’t know what you’re missing. This one is a must read!” —Reviewers Choice Award from Scribes World.

  To read additional review quotes about DO WAH DIDDY DIE, the novel, click on this link: http://www.paulinebjones.com/dowah.htm

  You’ll note that I use the book’s review quotes to back up my pitch and that I keep it short and to the point.

  Here’s the email pitch for The Last Enemy:

  TITLE: THE LAST ENEMY

  LOGLINE: An author must script her own survival when she’s targeted for death by a hit man.

  SYNOPSIS: Two men need her. One needs her dead.

  http://www.hardshell.com/Thenemy.asp

  Betrayed by those who were supposed to protect her, author Dani Gwynne is plotting her own survival, working against time, terror and her fear of heights in the mile high city of Denver.

  Deputy U.S. Marshal Matthew Kirby is the lonesome lawman in charge of finding Dani. Hunting is what the Marshals do best and Matt is their top tracker, but even he hasn’t been able to close the law and disorder gap with an elusive killer who’s never missed his mark.

  Until now...

  Jonathan Hayes is a hit man with two obsessions: to kill Dani and to find Willow, his online lover. He doesn’t know he can’t have it both ways.

  With the clock ticking on their macabre game of hide and seek, find and near miss across city and cyberspace, Dani must face all her fears to defeat a killer who won’t stop until he gets everything he wants. Or destroys them all trying…

  This script is an adaptation of my award-winning novel, THE LAST ENEMY, published in hard cover in 2000.

  BOOK REVIEW QUOTE: “A highly suspenseful, should-be-a-movie, totally entertaining tale of derring-do, THE LAST ENEMY defies categorization--at least by me. All I can tell you is: I enjoyed every word and was sorry when I reached the end. If you really liked the movie, ROMANCING THE STONE, then you will absolutely love THE LAST ENEMY and be clamoring at Hollywood’s gates to make this book into the next ‘really great movie.’ Very Highly Recommended,” Under the Cover Reviews

  “THE LAST ENEMY is a brilliantly crafted psychological thriller. It is a compelling story of obsession and bloodlust combined with edge-of-your-seat action scenes and a powerful attraction and love that will not be ignored. The suspense is almost painful in its intensity, the sexual tension is taut and the insights into the mind of the killer are as fascinating as they are horrifying. Pauline Jones has proved again that she is a talented author. I recommend The Last Enemy highly.” ~ Reviewed by Dee Lloyd

  Additional information about me and my published novels at: http://www.paulinebjones.com

  The snail mail pitch isn’t that much different from the standard query letter you’d send to a book publisher, but again, I start with the logline, then a brief paragraph about the script, followed by any additional information that I feel might make the proposal more interesting. My experience with snail mail pitching is not great.

  Maybe it’s
easier for a producer to hit reply or maybe it was the markets I targeted. There’s no real way to know, except to keep trying. Typically, with a snail mail pitch, you’ll either get no response at all, or a letter returning your pitch with the information that they don’t accept unsolicited queries. They are deathly afraid of being sued. That’s one reason why I primarily email pitch. That and the fact it is cheaper and quicker.

  I haven’t done a lot of phone pitching, which is why I provided you with articles and links to people with experience in that area. I have pitched when a producer called to turn me down and have gotten requests. What I’ve learned is that if they like your writing, they are open to more submissions, so make a note of positive responses. These are the contacts you want to nurture and hit with future pitches.

  If you can’t be in Hollywood, it is helpful to have a manager or agent who will do the pitching for you—if you can get someone good. As with a book agent, you need someone who is passionate about your work and hungry to sell.