Advice — richard walter

Write a Worthy Script

Posted by Richard Walter on

Our reader, Jimmy Pearson of Minneapolis, MN asks: I've got 3 scripts under my belt. How can I get someone to read my work? Professor Richard Walter, longtime Screenwriting Chairman of the legendary UCLA Film School, answers: Writers never stop asking me how they can get read by agents, managers and producers. My response is always the same. You "merely" need to have something WORTHY of an Industry Insider's time and attention. They aren't inaccessible. Writers want to continue to think they are, though. That's how they can blame Hollywood, rather than their own work, for why they're not getting...

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Pop Culture to the Rescue

Posted by Richard Walter on

Our reader, Kathy from West Hollywood asks: How I can hold the executive's interest who's already read a million screenplays? By now, most probably hate to read! Richard Walter replies: Place yourself in the mind of the reader. That's what you do when you write, isn't it? You create persons and place them in situations, and also give them words (dialogue) to say, right? When you submit your screenplay, your tangible, "thumbable" script submission, a real person reads it - maybe a development exec, maybe an agent or manager - each with plenty of other scripts in the reading pile....

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Winning Spec Scripts

Posted by Richard Walter on

Our Reader Allen Ventura from Springfield, IL writes: I am a professional writer who has recently turned his hand to screenwriting. Can you give me the insider's view of "spec scripts?" Is this a sound way to proceed or are there better ways to get my scripts noticed? Richard Walter responds: Writing spec scripts is not only the most traditional journey to make your screenwriting career happen, it's also in your best financial interest. Virtually all the writers I know who make huge bucks "selling their daydreams for dollars" started out by writing spec scripts. Their craft and talent seduced...

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Richard Walter's Greatest Hits Or The Reader's Backflip

Posted by Richard Walter on

When I speak to screenwriters they remind me of rules I wrote in my first screenwriting book. The following rules - principles, actually - come from my 27 years chairing the graduate Screenwriting program in the film school at UCLA: 1. It's quite possible to succeed in what is in fact a thoroughly democratic enterprise; from my perch in Westwood I see it happen all the time. 2. You must be willing to give it the time. 3. When you give your script to a producer or an agent he or she is actually going to give it to a...

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Hang Out With Writers To Succeed!

Posted by Richard Walter on

Our Reader Mark McC from Canyon Country (not too near Hollywood), CA writes: Coming to L.A. has not at all been what I expected. I've tried to follow the experts' advice, like get a job in a production company, but that was impossible. My boring job in property management is not why I left St. Louis. How am I going to morph into a working screenwriter? Richard Walter, Chairman of UCLA's Screenwriting Department, responds: First off, time is what makes up your life - your precious time is limited, so pick and choose wisely. First and foremost, you gotta write...

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