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EntertainmentIndustry.name
More often, an established writer “pitches” an idea for a script he or she would like a studio or production company to pay him or her to write.
A) This may result in the Development Executive contracting the writer as a “Writer for Hire” to flesh out a treatment on the idea and/or commission the screenplay (which will then become the property of the hiring entity upon completion).
B) It is equally possible that the Development Executive may express interest but not sufficient to hire the writer to write the script based on the pitch. In this case, the writer may choose to write the screenplay speculatively in order to return later in a revised effort to sell his or her wholly-owned and now fully-executed (and more expensive) literary asset.
The first step in getting a deal in Hollywood is getting someone to read your script. If “nobody reads,” how do you convince a potential buyer — or his or her minions — to read your script? As a writer, you’re best served to use that skill: write your own coverage — a treatment that truly markets your work and makes it leap off the page — hopefully convincing someone in the daisy chain that what they have been solicited to read might actually be worth their time and attention.
But treatments are strange breeds — not quite fish, not quite fowl. They are almost the bastard children of screenwriting. If a screenplay is the blueprint for a film, the treatment is the blueprint for a screenplay. And often written last — much like the introductory overview in the executive summary of a business plan — sometimes what comes first must be written last. But not always.
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