When I was in film school, I had so many creative ideas for movies. I was passionate about telling stories that would change the world. I wanted to create art and communicate philosophical ideas through my stories. I was a dreamer. I was reaching for the stars with my feet firmly planted in the clouds. I don’t remember if I heard that expression somewhere or if I actually came up with it. Regardless, you get the point. My frame of mind back then was not focused on turning my passion for telling stories into a lucrative business. In fact, I recall telling my first financial and production partner, who’s now a dear friend of thirty years, that I didn’t care about making money; I just wanted to tell socially beneficial stories. Thankfully, he said that my statement was silly and encouraged me to be more balanced between art and business. He took a chance on me, and the rest is history.

 

My first film out of the gate, “Placebo Effect,” was an artistic attempt at telling the story about the atrocities that took place during The Bosnian War between 1992 and 1995. It also touched on corruption in our own intelligence circles—all fictional, of course, but inspired by that horrific conflict. I cast the late Francesco Quinn to play the lead, and since I was on a limited production budget, I was limited in the number of locations. It was necessary for me to tell the story and have the action unfold in three physical locations: the interior and exterior of an old wood mill, as well as my mother’s restaurant and bar. It worked on some level, but had I known back then what I know now and what was tried, tested, and proven to work, that film would have been a lot more financially successful. That said, the film did get a five-city theatrical release and won three awards at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival—Best Original Screenplay, Best Feature, and Best Cinematography. It made headlines, and I was invited to appear on various morning and late-night shows at CBS and NBC affiliates in the cities where the film played in the theaters. From an artistic point of view, it was very successful. 

 

However, if we want to continue making movies, we should think of ourselves as being in the film BUSINESS not film ART.

 

That’s what this article is all about. I want to suggest techniques and tricks of the trade to make your screenplay appealing to production companies, distributors, and ultimately film buyers around the world. Keep that last element in mind—film buyers—because if film buyers think your story, screenplay, and ultimately feature film would work in their territory, then the distributors and production companies will want to be in business with you. 

 

So, how do you know what film buyers want? I’ll give you some highlights, but you can also reach out to a sales agent or distribution executive and get their perspective. They’re often a great source of information because they’re seeing firsthand what buyers are responding to in the marketplace. I also cover this subject in my new book, Aspiring Filmmaker: Greenlight Your Screenplay. One of the ideas I explore is how to reverse engineer your film project—looking at the project from the perspective of the marketplace and then working backward to make informed creative and business decisions. No, this isn’t a sales pitch. Believe me. If there’s a harder industry to make a living in than the entertainment business, it’s publishing.

 

Let’s get to it. What’s the most important element of a film project?

 

In my humble opinion, I’d say that the most important element of any film project is story. The most important element of story is character. The most important element for a character is dialogue. Let’s take it a step further. The most important element for a film buyer is cast, followed by structure and then story. In order to satisfy the buyer’s desire for cast you must have a story that attracts professional and notable actors. Do you see why story is still the most important element? Without a good story, you won’t attract a star. So, let’s break it down.

 

Why cast?

 

I remember meeting with the president of the film distribution/sales company while I was in development with one of my feature films. The purpose of the meeting was to go over script notes his screenplay analysts submitted for consideration. During that meeting, I asked if he had an opportunity to reach out to the film buyers of several major territories in Asia and Europe. Just like any writer, I was eager to find out what their thoughts were about my writing. I wanted validation, right? The buyers, most likely, didn’t even read beyond the synopsis. They wouldn’t have time to read every filmmaker’s screenplay. The sales executive told me that the buyers were fine with the premise of my story idea. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear. I wanted to hear that the writing was brilliant, that the dialogue in the scene with such-and-such characters was out of this world. Isn’t that what any writer would want to hear? But let me say it again, we’re in the film business. It took me a long time to realize that. We’re in the business to make money for our financial partners such as the film buyers and investors so that we can create a platform for ourselves and then, if we want to, in our spare time we can produce that arthouse gem we kept dreaming about. Instead, my dear friend and sales partner said that the number one question and the first question that each film buyer asked was—who’s in it?

 

That’s why cast is so important. However, as I mentioned before, in order to attract cast, you must write a compelling story, and in that story, you must create characters that would be attractive to a professional and hopefully a popular actor. I’m talking about characters that would stretch an actor’s talents. Characters that are flawed. Characters that are complex in their simplicity. They may be ordinary on the outside, but a fire burns inside just waiting to burst out into incinerating flames. Create obstacles for your characters and struggles that are external and internal. Your job as a filmmaker is to create something in your protagonist and antagonist that would attract notable actors. 

 

Why structure?

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Because it’s how you tell the story that makes a buyer license the rights. It’s about pacing, it’s about action sequences every so often throughout the script. I’m not talking about car chases or gunshots, although those elements sell like hotcakes. I’m talking about staying away from talking-head scenes and putting the scene on its feet. Get the characters to move around. 

 

Here’s a step-by-step explanation of what I mean.

 

STORY — what is your story about? What genre is it?

 

Do your research and find out what genre is needed in the marketplace. From my experience, action seems to do well and it kept its value throughout the decades. It did well back in the 90s and it’s doing well today. That’s not to say that other genres wouldn’t work. You’ll have to make that decision and settle on a genre and type of story you want to tell. Make sure your story would play well with audiences domestically and internationally. If you write a drama about a person in a small town in the USA struggling to grow crops, it may not do well with audiences in Berlin, Paris, or London. The same can be said for a comedy. Jokes don’t translate well in different languages. Romantic comedies might be a better fit if comedy is your thing. Physical comedies may also work. Do your homework and make sure you understand if your story elements work or don’t work across the board. 

 

CHARACTER — Who is your main character, and is this person relatable to audiences domestically and internationally? Is this person complicated? Is there more than meets the eye? Do they have layers and baggage and a sordid past? In other words, make your protagonist interesting to watch. The same goes for the antagonist. Why would the audience root against the antagonist? What are some of the personality traits or actions of this character that make them bad? They don’t necessarily have to be bad, but they will need a reason to stand in the way of your protagonist. 

 

I recently hosted a podcast for the Writers Guild of America, “3rd & Fairfax,” where I sat down with Chris Brancato and Michael Panes, the creators of “The Westies.” For those of you that aren’t familiar with that show, it’s similar to “The Sopranos,” but “The Westies” is based on the real, 1980s, New York Irish gang. As you can imagine, the characters are criminals for the most part. One of my questions to Chris and Michael was, how do you make a criminal character likable or relatable? The quick answer was that you make the other characters worse. The guys had a more in-depth answer of their approach to writing the criminal element. You should check out the entire conversation; it’s a great discussion on story, structure, character, and writing a period piece. I’ll leave the link at the end of this article. By the way, the show is worth watching.

 

DIALOGUE — Keep your dialogue believable. When you write a dialogue line, read it out loud and listen to how it sounds. Does it sound like what someone may say? Go over it again and this time perform it out loud. How would the actor playing this character say that line? The way it sounds in your head may not be the same as when you read out loud. Dialogue is always tricky. Master it, and your screenplay will be that much more enjoyable to read.

 

STRUCTURE — Dissect your story into several components. A feature film screenplay can be broken into three acts—Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3. Go a step further and dissect Act 1 into a beginning, middle, and end. Divide Act 2 into two sections, 2a and 2b. Act two is the longest act of the story, and by dividing it into smaller bites, it will be more manageable. Decide where you place your inciting incident—the one event that’s life-changing for your protagonist. Do you smash cut from a black screen to THE EVENT? Or do you open with an introduction of your character, their everyday life, and then get to the inciting incident? There’s no right or wrong decision, but in either case, try hard not to have an obvious exposition. Break the exposition up into little nuggets that you sprinkle throughout Act One. The audience will find out more and more about your character throughout the act instead of one long, boring scene exposing all there is to know about this person. 

 

Save important story moments for the end of Act One, the middle of Act Two where you can actually have a story reversal scene, or some discovery that sets the protagonist on a different course, then the point of no return at the end of Act Two. This is where the superhero, for example, is devastated and weakened by the antagonist. It doesn’t look like the hero will survive. This is where, in a RomCom, the relationship appears to be unsalvageable. Everything is a lost cause at this point in the story. But then at the beginning of Act Three, the protagonist rises out of the ashes. It’s an unexpected breakthrough, and the chase begins. In the superhero’s case, the hero chases the bad guys. In the RomCom situation, one of the love interests makes a mad dash to the airport to stop their lover from leaving. The question should be, will they make it? Will the hero be victorious—well, no surprise there. Will the lovers end up together? If you have watched enough romantic comedies, they typically end up together. It’s a formula audiences expect, and most importantly, it works. 

 

I mentioned the action element. It doesn’t matter what genre your story is categorized as; make sure you get your characters moving. Get the actors on their feet and block the scene so that the viewer can see the action from different perspectives. This is as much the writer’s responsibility as it is the director’s.  The writer should write the scene that lends itself to be put on its feet on set.

 

Think of it as a car accident. Let’s keep it light and say it’s a fender bender. No injuries. Just some bent fiberglass. Now, imagine you’re in your house and hear the crash. You immediately look out the window. That’s your point of view of the accident. Someone walking down the street has a different angle from which they witness the event. The people involved in the crash have yet a different perspective. Write the action on the page from different perspectives, different points of view. Most importantly, show, don’t tell. We’ve all heard that one before. 

 

Do you see where I’m going with this? I’m saying that placing two actors on a couch with the camera on sticks in a medium shot makes for boring storytelling.

 

Sure, you may pop in for close-ups, but that’s the extent of it. Instead, try something along these lines. Get the actors on their feet and put one of them in the kitchen. The other may be lying on the couch scrolling on their smartphone. Now you can move the camera around and get your establishing shot of the room. Then you move to another point of view, as if an audience member is standing in one corner of the room, another audience member’s standing by the door, another by the window. Then the one on the couch may get up and walk to the kitchen. You have an opportunity for yet another angle. When you write your screenplay, include opportunities like that in the action section. Imagine watching your scene from all corners of the room and from the perspective of all characters in the scene.

 

Based on my conversation with the sales folks, I found out early on that the first thing a buyer may ask is not about the story or the genre, or if the writing is good; it’s about “who’s in it?”

 

Do you have a recognizable face in the first five minutes of the film? Do you have that recognizable face on your movie poster? 

 

In addition to cast, there are other elements the film buyers look for. 

 

Buyers especially like to see the film open with big cinematic images. City skylines, aerial shots, city streets, and so on.

 

Buyers also like to see action in a film. That’s why I stress the idea of getting a scene on its feet. Even if, in your opening shot, someone is pushing through a crowded street in Manhattan, or London, or Tokyo. Regardless of where it takes place, open it with some sort of action or suspense. Grab their interest from the beginning. 

 

Remember that film buyers don’t have a lot of time to sit there and watch fifty movies all the way through or read fifty screenplays from filmmakers around the world. They just need good quality content for their viewers. They may watch the first five to ten minutes, and they’ll be able to tell if your film is a match for their roster. The takeaway is to make sure your opening scenes and sequences are dynamic, exciting, suspenseful, funny, or all of the above to get the buyers hooked. 

 

Again, this article exposes just the tip of the iceberg. It’s an introduction in rather broad terms to how to write a screenplay that appeals to film buyers. The subject is so vast that it would take a lot more ink to get into more detail. If I were to do that, this article would turn into a “how-to book.” Oh, wait, I already wrote one called Aspiring Filmmaker, now available on Amazon. See what I did there? 

 

If you got to reading this far, I’m grateful. Thank you. 

 

If interested, you can watch the “3rd & Fairfax” podcast with Michael Panes and Chris Brancato, creators and showrunners of “The Westies.” CLICK HERE

 

About the Author

Luc Saber is a filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, director, author, and story and production consultant with more than 30 years of experience in the film business. Through Aspiring Hollywood, he shares practical insights, advice, and stories about screenwriting, filmmaking, and the entertainment industry. For more information click here.