The Screenwriting Blog

I wrote my first screenplay when I was 15. It wasn’t great—in fact, it was pretty bad. I didn't know the basic rules of structure or format. I had a sense of what storytelling was and the kind of stories I wanted to tell, but that was it. I also didn’t know that a first draft is never a finished script, but that is another story. The Naive Ambition Once I typed “The End,” I was (or so I naively thought) ready for production. Another thing I had no clue about. So, I took what I thought was the next step and researched production companies and their contact details. I'm talking about Disney, Warner Brothers, and Sony—because why not? I gathered their phone numbers and dialed long distance. Yes, I called all the major film studios directly by phone at a time when calling long distances was EXPENSIVE. The Cold Calls Out of all the calls, I managed to get through to three studios. For one of them, I was put through to the Department of Content and Development, where decisions are ma