Lois Said:

Hollywood business -- I took a course at UCLA and have written seven scripts... How to market? I have heard so

We Answered:

We market through WGA reccomended agencies.
If an agent does not want to represent your script, take it to another, the general rule is, if 3 don't want your scripts, you are not a good writer.
It takes up to a year from the time our scripts are optioned to the time a film goes into pre-production (and we are given a down payment)
Although, 70% of films fail in pre-production, and once this happens, you've made no money and waited over a year.

The problem with the WGA strike right now, is that while there are 10% of our television writers walking the picket lines right now, the other 90% are polishing up and working on their feature film screenplays.
Production companies won't even look at a script right now, until the strike is over, and once it ends, they will be FLOODED!
Phones ringing off the hook and treatments and spec scripts in the mail in the hundreds per day.

Marketing is an intense process if you want to do it without an agency...
First you need to choose your market,
is your market the small independant companies, that have a greater chance of producing it, but you would make substantially less money, and it could take longer to obtain rights and funding for production? Film festival production perhaps?
Or is your market the major production companies, Disney, MGM, Paramount, Miramax, The Weinstein co... Ect...
These companies take up to 6 months just to have the script reviewed, AND it takes longer to get in (near impossible without a one-look deal)
But the rewards could be substantially better than an indy film.

There are just so many ways to do it...
One way, is, by obtaining The Hollywood Reporter Bluebook, it is an annual volume that contains listings and names of story editors for almost every production company in Hollywood.
You choose your favorite five from this and begin to market, write your query, short synopsis and treatment and send it off to the story editor.
Within 6 months, if you don't hear from them, it is simply because they will not accept unsolicited submissions, and won't even try to contact you, your package just goes straight to the shredder.
(it goes to the shredder to prevent any lawsuits to do with copyright infringement)
Techniquely, if you send a treatment to a company, and they steal your concept, it's not stealing if you don't sign a release form or anything, if you send them a script, and your concept is stolen, you've got a case...

But you have to realize, who is going to spend 100,000 dollars paying someone else to rewrite your script, when they could save time, and possibly money if the film fails in preproduction by buying yours?

If your screenplay is a MOW, you may be able to market it towards lifetime and CTV.

I can't really put it all in a message but if you are serious about it and feel as though you have your script polished off, you can send me a private message and I'll help you by narrowing down your best bets for marketing.

(I have experience in Television Pilots, writing a marketing screenplays ect, and have one in production at the moment)

Feel free to message me (alot of people do) and I can help you with whatever information you need.

Lloyd Said:

What is the most important factor in getting a business loan?

We Answered:

Financial institutions look for a couple main things when approving a loan:

How will your company repay the debt? Include any projections, rental income, etc that will be used to repay the bank.

Collateral - what will you be securing the loan with? property, assets, etc.

Your money - on average, banks will want you to put down 15%-20% of the loan amount into the company of your own money, especially if you're buying a building.

Personal credit - you'll need to personally guaranty the loan if you're a 20% or greater owner - make sure you're credit report is excellent

Experience - banks can be somewhat leery lending to a new company. This is because so many new companies fail. Make sure to include all experience you have in your field. If you'll have any partners, etc make sure to include their biographies/experience as well.