This will be the first in a series of articles on how to go from an idea to a completed film or TV show, whether you find an agent or manager, a producer or production company to take over your project, or decide to raise funding to produce the film or series yourself. These articles will become a book once completed.
The first step is coming up with the idea and deciding if it merits being turned into a script or TV treatment. Think of your idea like a logline for a film or TV show – a one sentence description of about 20-35 words that sums up what your idea is all about.
At this idea stage, it is good to get feedback from others, and also do a little research to see if the idea is new and hasn’t been done before or at least represents a novel twist on something that has been successful in the past. You can do this research by putting words related to your idea in the IMDB or other search engine. This process will also help you avoid using a title for a film that has already been made. While no one can protect a title, unless it has become a trademark, such as for a franchised series, you don’t want to use a title of something that has been done before. Even though your title is simply a working title, since any company that produces your film may decide on the name, sometimes with input from distributors, you still want to call your film by a new name.
When you run your idea by others, it is best to limit this feedback to trusted people you know, since an idea by itself can’t be protected. You have to develop a synopsis, treatment, or script in order to create a copyright and later register you can register this with the Copyright Office (and some scriptwriters also register the script for 5 years with the Writers Guild of America (WGA), though you actually get the best protection with a Copyright. Once you do have a written synopsis, treatment, or script, you can hear what others think of the idea, and they may even give you some input on how they see the scenes developing, which you can use or not.
Another approach I have found helpful for getting input on ideas or on the later phases of development for a script, film, or TV show is a small focus group of associates in the film industry. While friends and family might be supportive in giving you opinions, the danger is that they may be too receptive to your ideas, because they want to be nice, rather than giving you honest feedback. Also, associates in the film world are usually a good source for feedback, because they are already generally familiar with what works and doesn’t work.
If you aren’t already connected to some people in the film industry, a good way to start is through some local film groups, which may be affiliated with a local art school, college or university with film programs, or a Meetup group for films in your area. Or start a local group yourself and reach out to others in the local film community who may want to participate in such a feedback group. If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, I already have some Meetup Groups that have a meeting called a Film Exchange about once a month (www.meetup.com/bayareafilmandtvconnection ; www.meetup.com/filmandbusinessconnection; and www.meetup.com/sanfranciscofilmindustry, and I have two groups in L.A. as well, which have assistant organizers.
Then, at the meeting, ask what people think of your idea and take notes. You can pass out a description or read it aloud for feedback.
If you have several ideas, you can use this feedback to decide which idea to pursue next. In this case, you might list a series of short descriptions on a single sheet of paper and pass this out to others individually or in the group, and ask them to tell you which they like the most or don’t like. One good way to do this is to ask them to rank the ideas on your list from 1 (the one they like best) to the highest number on your list (the one they like least). Either let them read the list themselves or read it aloud with them. Finally, review the responses and see which idea or ideas got the highest ranking. If it’s not immediately clear, you can get averages for the rank of each idea by adding up the numbers and dividing by the number of individuals in the group. That’ll give you the average ranking, with the lowest number the most popular idea.
Then, based on this input and your own feeling about which idea you like best, start by developing that. The next phase is to create an outline for your script, and that can be further developed into a synopsis or treatment. Or if you have a more intuitive fluid approach to writing, use your initial idea as a guide to writing the script and develop the synopsis or treatment after that.
In short, find the idea you want to work on, and the next step is to write a synopsis or treatment or write the script. In either case, if you are an unproduced writer, you will generally need a completed script, whatever steps you take next to get there.
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Gini Graham Scott, PhD, writes frequently about social trends and everyday life. She is the author of over 50 books with major publishers and has published 30 books through her company Changemakers Publishing and Writing. She writes books and proposals for clients and has written and produced over 50 short videos through Changemakers Productions. Her latest books include: HOW TO FIND PUBLISHERS AND AGENTS AND GET PUBLISHED and THE BATTLE AGAINST INTERNET BOOK PIRACY.