sw-industry-business

Industry & Business (行业与生意经)

Output language = question language; terms are always anchored back to the original word, see sw-workflow/terms.md, do not invent translated names.

The operating logic and survival strategies of the American screenwriting industry. Core consensus:"This is a business, not a fairy tale"(Diamond & Weissman); "Screenwriting is not about the film industry, but the film industry is related to screenwriting" (Walter's Principle 56); "The smartest marketing strategy is to deliver a good script" (Principle 62). This skill covers: idea checkup, logline and pitch, submission and representation, contracts and credit, coverage notes and revisions, film vs. television, professional mindset. For the writing process and format see sw-format-adaptation. For the complete self-check list, query letter samples, and contract terms see reference.md。

1. Writing from the Buyer's Perspective (Diamond & Weissman)

Submitting a script must benefit everyone at every stage — every link in the industry chain says "this benefits me" (agent → producer → director → executive); "it is the screenwriter who bears the burden of helping others realize their dreams."
A movie idea ≠ a script idea: something that actually happened is not in itself a movie idea.The three Cs: character, concept, context ("this person, in a certain situation, in a specific environment… until he does the right thing"); the concept of Groundhog Day could be shot as sci-fi horror thriller, add "a grumbling weatherman" → comedy, add "Groundhog Day" → tone.
Check the idea: do not write the synopsis first; tell it out loud to people you trust and watch whether the reaction is "I have to have this" (launches a career), "okay, I get it" (has potential but is common, cannot pay the bills), or "I don't understand" (back to the drawing board). The dining-area epiphany: "What would it look like if Disney made our movie?" — examine it top-down from the studio's perspective.
Blockbuster (larger than life) vs. indie (dependent on execution); "is this idea right for me" — write the genre you most like to watch; list multiple ideas first (choose 1 out of 16).
Sample film list: same genre/similar protagonist/similar engine, list both good and bad films; "being original for originality's sake earns no points"; what earns points is respecting genre conventions and being original on the foundation of predecessors.
One-page nine-step synopsis(do the reader's job for them, "make the reader the hero"): setup → opportunity/challenge → first turning point → page 45 turn → midpoint reversal → page 75 escalation → worst at the end of Act Two → even worse final test → showdown/set piece. Clarify the film'sargument(theme = the belief system that wins the debate).
Character action chart: tell each of the nine steps once from each character's perspective (Han Solo appears at minute 45 purely for money → "how much money?" → takes the money and leaves → charges in at the crucial moment); "can you tell the story once from each character's perspective?"
Set piece= "trailer moment", one each in Act One and Act Three and several in Act Two; "what is Act Two? Where are the set pieces?!" — a version without set pieces may still sell, but set pieces make executives "feel as if they have seen the film with their own eyes."
Submission: "Don't lose the reader's interest" is the first principle; make the opening original; register with the WGA; rely on personal connections (entry-level jobs in Los Angeles, a collective of strivers, first friends, then a producer, an executive, then an agent); contests and the Black List are supplementary; don't pay for script reads; "an agent will appear once you have a sellable script."
Coverage Feedback: If multiple people agree, change it; distinguish diagnosis from solution ("It's just an old car, guys"); use a one-page synopsis and character list as a benchmark; "following bad advice is one of the most common mistakes screenwriters make," but ignoring it is also a serious mistake; "getting fired means you already got the job."
Stress Tolerance: 47 projects produced 15 films (0.319); "as screenwriters, the only thing we can control is what we write and how we write it"; learn at least one takeaway from every work.

II. Idea Checkup: The Seven Elements of PROBLEM (Bork)

The three common missing pieces in rejections: a good idea / emotional resonance / an enjoyable experience.60/30/10: 60% of success depends on the core idea (conveyable in a one-page summary), 30% on structure, 10% on execution. Before writing, turn the idea into a one- or two-sentence logline plus a one-page summary and seek objective feedback.
The Three Elements of a Logline: Who the protagonist is and the connection / the catalyst / the nature and difficulty of the mission (most important); do not write the inner journey.
P Punitive: Story = protagonist + tree + rock; of 300 paid scripts, only 8 were recommended, with frequent comments like "the story starts too late / scenes lack meaningful conflict / the conflict is inconsequential"; the seven traits of "perfect competition"; when adapting true events, find "that big question" and "the perilous process."
R Relatable: A protagonist is present in almost every scene and never passive; "how you treat others" determines likability; a flaw = "not living the best life" rather than "being mean to people"; the first ten pages establish the status quo before introducing the catalyst; eight types of story problems; an antihero must at least face a problem big enough (Walter White is the most sympathetic person at the opening).
O Original: A familiar genre + one key element that changes it (Bond → Bourne → Mr. & Mrs. Smith → the spy's child) + the author's voice; when you encounter a competitor, study it; "buyers care less about freshness than writers and critics do."
B Believable: The first 10–15% explains the rules clearly, then follow "what a real person would do"; simple concepts beat complex ones; the villain's motivation is humanly logical.
L Life-Changing Stakes: External stakes come first; the eight-level stakes table (life → justice → freedom → going home/preserving family → the best partner → career prospects → a life-changing award → a chance at happiness); once life-and-death stakes are introduced, they must be present throughout; seven kinds of stakes that don't qualify (career success, inner learning, vague military stakes, vague happiness, a single moment of decision, a jerk becoming a good person).
E Entertaining: Ten emotions; a "drama" without life-or-death stakes must layer at least two entertainment elements (humor, prestige, high-end settings, betrayal and manipulation, music, spectacle events, sex and competition, outrageous characters, exotic worlds, uplifting love and family); "being highly entertaining is the trump card."
M Meaningful: The theme is a competing value with no simple answer, carried through influential characters/B stories; make them feel it, don't tell them.
TV workplace dramas are limited to heroic/high-risk/highly entertaining jobs (police officers, doctors, lawyers, and their variants); Levitan's "two people, one line" method builds a web of conflict; characters need a credible mechanism forcing them to coexist; each episode's small problem can be solved, while the core big problem and the "unmet need" are never solved.
Finding ideas: cross-pair items from multiple lists ("aliens + baseball?"), 15 minutes a day, quantity before selection; "talent depends almost entirely on attitude and practice."

III. One-Sentence Story, Genre, and Pitching (Snyder/Hicks/Hoxter/MasterClass)

Snyder's four elements (ironic hook + mental image + audience and cost + title) plus an adjective for the protagonist, an adjective for the villain, and the primal goal; "anyone standing still is my pitch target"; high concept never dies (international markets account for 60%); when pitching, don't say "X plus Y"; positioning among the ten story genres (divided by "what it's about"; for the beats each genre must hit, see sw-genre-anatomy）。
Hicks on pitching: reduce the script to a few lines ("a cop alone trapped in a building taken over by terrorists"); three reasons (bosses hear dozens or hundreds of pitches every week; film is spread by word of mouth; producers probe the writer's temperament); "this business is built on 'no'"; preparation: create atmosphere and emotion, clarify the protagonist, capture the basic conflict, one sentence ("a baggage train in space"); in the meeting, speak rather than read, don't memorize, watch their eyes, be brief.
Hoxter's terms: logline ≠ tagline ("they're young, they're in love, they kill" is post-release marketing); treatment is a prose pitch; elevator pitch ≤30 seconds; coverage is the initial screening report kept on file and affecting the next script; bake-off is competitive bidding; gross vs. net (net profit is "never seen"); MBA is reviewed every three years; & = team, and = written separately.
MasterClass (Richards): "raised a tiger but it gets handled like a kitten"; put a one-sentence synopsis plus two or three similar films in the script file ("The Godfather plus Fast & Furious 7"); has written 150 synopses; introduce a two-hour movie in one minute; Banks: answer twelve beat questions within five minutes, talk only in archetypes not details, "clarity rather than completeness," and if you're still introducing the background at four and a half minutes, "the investor has already taken a call."
Walter:Don't write a synopsis for producers(when a script and synopsis are submitted together, the producer reads only the synopsis; a synopsis for an unfinished script is not taken seriously); if a query letter asks for a synopsis, keep it to no more than one page, double-spaced, and write it like a trailer.

IV. Market Entities and Six Principles (Hicks)

Four entities: producers (place bets while avoiding risk as much as possible; a film may go through more than 12 writers); directors (the first to be hired after the script is set, and there is always a reason to revise it again); stars ("you write for stars and for the stars who might emerge"); the public ("they are not like you; they are like you"). All four want the same thing: a good story.
Six basic principles: an indisputable single protagonist; a clear problem and external goal; a vivid, focused opponent; the protagonist is forced to act and faces a time limit; values are involved in the problem and change clearly by the end; emotional driving force takes priority over cleverness.
The parable of the portrait of the dog Spark: only the first original painter's signature is most valuable; "the portrait world is absurd, the film world is entirely reasonable and natural."
Once a screenwriter sells a script to a producer, the script becomes the producer's property; an average blockbuster costs 60 million; "what appears is not the movie the producers wanted to make, but the movie they were able to complete"; the customer is "people who wear suits to work," and the only question is "how much will it cost?"
Coverage report: readers/story analysts write a 1–2 page summary evaluated by creative role, craft, and budget; producers look at the summary; most readers are intelligent professionals.
The WGA receives over forty thousand scripts each year, while Hollywood releases only about three hundred films each year.

5. Agents and Submissions (Walter/Hicks/Diamond/Hanson)

What an agent is not(Hicks): not an employment agency ("you yourself are the seller"), not a nanny, not a banker;What they are: businesspeople (take 10%), team members, business partners ("go talk to my agent!"), bring recognition (most companies do not accept unsolicited material).
Query letter(query letter) is the only way: first paragraph a minimal premise summary that arouses curiosity; second paragraph personal background; ask whether there is interest in reading; include a self-addressed postcard; target two to three first;No legitimate agent will ask for a "reading fee". Walter's experiment: query letters from four classes sent to WGA-list agencies96% agreed to read; sample: "I am an MFA graduate student in the UCLA screenwriting program. I have written a screenplay, Ghost Family, an action/adventure story set in contemporary New York and 9th-century Scotland. May I send you the script for your consideration?"——no script, no synopsis attached, the less said the better; write to a specific agent's name (the switchboard-name method); do not call, do not request a receipt, do not pull stunts (fortune cookies, carrier pigeons); old-fashioned paper letters stand out (Principle 65).
Do not use the phone: agents ignore most calls but reply to all emails; never call to ask whether it was received, never call to say "don't read what was just submitted, I revised it"; when leaving a message, state your name and number first.
How to break into television(Walter): write fan letters to that show's writers (forwarded by the WGA membership department), praise specific strengths, ask about writing habits,do not say you are a writer and do not ask them to introduce you to an agent——Principle 63 (every successful writer started out unknown), Principle 64 (every writer is looking for an excuse to avoid the work in front of them); after building a relationship, then presumptuously mention your script.
Agent commission is legally 10% (taken only from money received, no fees paid upfront); ninety-day clause; an oral contract is enough;sign the releaseno matter what (it has no practical effect); new writers should choose an aggressive small agency or "a new agent at an old company"; the big-company "rotating submission list" trap; "treat well the people who helped you while your career was rising."
Hanson: write at least three or four polished scripts before seeking representation ("you need a full range of goods"); professionalism is the only standard, "although I am an amateur actor, my performance cannot be amateurish"; know your script cold and rehearse a one-minute phone pitch; from script to screen is often 3 years or more (E.T. 8 years, Forrest Gump 10 years).
Snyder: order of contact is in-person meeting > phone > query letter > email; after every rejection ask "is there anyone you would recommend?"; the first buyer matters most, take it even for little money; do not enter contests without real judges; special pitch cases (simultaneous alarm clocks, radioactive script containers) all closed for 1 million.
Gatekeeper theory: secretaries, receptionists, and script readers hold real power far beyond their job titles; "turn them into allies."

VI. Contracts, Credits, Money (Hicks/Walter/Master Class)

Option: Independent producers acquire exclusive handling rights for about 10% of the future purchase price, and during that period go raise funds and find star directors; when it expires, the rights return and the money is kept;Never sign it yourself: first go through an agent or entertainment lawyer; be sure to add the line "The screenwriter must be recognized as a professional screenwriter and be covered by the WGA Minimum Basic Agreement". Walter: a option is very good for the screenwriter (publicizes the name, allows repeated collection of an "annuity," and the copyright still belongs to you); reselling = "marked-down merchandise"; automatic reversion clause (if not filmed in seven years, you can refund and get the copyright back).
Development: what is most likely to happen is that a more experienced screenwriter is hired to rewrite, and you get full payment but exit; or you wait until principal photography begins before getting paid in installments.
Credit arbitration: decided entirely by the WGA and unrelated to membership; a second screenwriter must contribute more than 50% to be selected; four forms: Written by / Story by / Screen Story by / Screenplay by; "George & Martha" = team, "George and Martha" = equal contribution, not a team; if you wrote the entire original version, you get at least Story by;Arbitration requires submitting supplementary materials(Walter's lesson from American Graffiti: he submitted only the screenplay and not a comparative analysis); ten creative rights (the original screenwriter has the first rewrite right, must be consulted on every revision, must be arranged to meet with the director, and must be invited to the first test screening).
Money: contracts customarily state 5% of net profits—"opportunistic accounting,"you will never see net profits, you only earn 5% of zero net profits; if someone offers points on gross revenue, accept immediately; sign a cash-payment contract and sell to the highest bidder; MBA minimum rates; distinguish rights (novel/stage play/sequel) from character/merchandise/ancillary market rights, which are negotiated separately; work for hire does not own the copyright; **step deal** has a floor price at each stage; overproduction bonus; deferred compensation for a beginner = "no payment at all." "Do you need money, or do you need your credit to be included in the end credits?"
Walter: fight for as much script payment as possible ("money is a metaphor with numbers, symbolizing the degree of respect");never write for free, and do not get involved in projects whose copyright you do not own(a pencil will not write by itself; "a writer should never endure the humiliation of asking a producer for payment"; the higher the pay, the more the producer values it); leave money matters to an agent; while writing the screenplay, put contract and copyright splits out of your mind.
Copyright: takes effect automatically upon completion, and after registration you can seek statutory damages; WGA registration is $20 and available to non-members; ideas cannot be protected (Darwin/Wallace); "never be paranoid"; "character dialogue and story are worth worrying about, plagiarism is not."
True-life stories: consult a lawyer first, sign a Life Story Option Agreement, and family members too.
Union: join after selling your first script or first paid contract; initiation fee is 2,500; "writing the best screenplay is the way into the union."
Package: the screenplay is the vehicle; the role of box-office elements (stars, directors) is not to make audiences flock in but to make banks willing to invest and executives able to shift responsibility;Principle 66: the only factor in box-office success is word of mouth。
Master class (Stantz): partner credit "with" (collaboration) vs "and" (rewrite); three anonymous WGA judges; "I'm not the boss and you're not the boss, the story is the boss"; film screenwriters do not hold copyright, novelists retain it; screenwriters have WGA pension and health insurance.

VII. Coverage Opinions and Revisions (Multiple Sources)

Walter's "good, but..." truth strategy ("good, we can change Latvia but we'll lose this and that"); fire hydrant effect (every producer's assistant wants to make a mark); "the producer subconsciously hopes the writer will defend his creative choices... is he a screenwriter or a stenographer?"; the executive's "strengthen the protagonist" nod-through; red shirt/green shirt syndrome and the 5% phantom are both self-destructive; "keep the anger in the script"; for a rejection, reply only "thank you for your time."
Master class (Richards): find 4–5 people for an "asshole circle" who do not defend, only record and probe; "your plane never took off" = no real turn from Act One to Act Two; "something strange needs to happen in Act Three" = the protagonist's character is too flat; several people's feedback differs greatly and none yields = a major problem; "if there's a problem in Act Three, the problem is definitely in Act One"; after shooting starts, obey the director.
Banks: "remember all the edges from the startup phase, shrink the weird-shaped ideas enough to fit into the client's box, but never reduce the story's layers"; "bad suggestions can drive better ideas" (baseball ghost movie adds a dog → only children and dogs can see it);Screenwriters who refuse to revise all go bankrupt(Hollywood Boulevard apartment vs Beverly Hills); saying "no" requires capital (5 successful films).
Hicks: before criticizing a collaborator, say it to yourself once; show it to two friends who will tell the truth; the first professional reader should be a consultant, not an agent.
Hanson: distinguish nitpicking collaborators (take it as chicken soup) from consistent structural criticism (face the rewrite); if six people read it and five like it, you're safe.
Mei Feng, Mildred: the producer can decide the script's direction (flashbacks, adding a murder, deleting the singing career), achieved by first asking for an outline and then assigning the best screenwriter, hiring a script doctor to write 62 pages of comments, and frequently changing people.

VIII. Film vs. Television (Bock/Stantz/Walter/Diamond)

Television is a "series" rather than a story with an ending: each episode's small problem is solved while the core big problem and the "unmet need" are never solved; do not treat character growth as the show concept; "film is director-driven, television is writer-driven" ("whoever pays the money gets listened to").
Stantz: four narrative modes (anthology/unit drama/standalone per season/continuing series); leave a hook in every episode; bottle episodes save money to spend at the end of the season ("conflict is cheap, suspense is cheap, but audiences just like it"); a style guide unifies multiple directors; television is 8–14 days and 3–8 million per episode; television emphasizes character while film emphasizes concept (Ex Machina vs Westworld); "if you want to rewrite ten pages a day, never hire a film screenwriter"; development changes: platforms order a full season or first order three or four episodes.
Walter: television pays most generously (rerun residuals "flow endlessly in your lifetime"); television treats writers better (a second discussion must be paid ten thousand); cable has far more courage than mainstream commercial films; but freelance writers disappear (they become long-term employees); to write a television series you must live in Los Angeles.
Bock: one-hour television dramas especially need "rich, sexy, fascinating" when there is no life-or-death and no procedural case; three golden professions for workplace dramas.
Diamond: the original screenplay market is shrinking (173 sold in 1995, 55 sold in 2010) but it is still the best way for newcomers to enter; IP double standard (craving IP yet seeking new voices from unknown screenwriters and then hiring you to write the sequel).
This section is only an overview from a screenwriter's perspective. When actually writing a series, switch to the series skill: for the engine and bible, see sw-series-engine-bible, for episode and season structure, see sw-series-structure, for the writers' room, spec, pitch episode, job levels, and step deal, see sw-writers-room, for half-hour comedy, see sw-sitcom-comedy, for domestic drama project approval/filing/review/delivery, see sw-chinese-series-practice。

IX. The Oscars and Market Logic (Mei Feng)

The screenplay award is more avant-garde than Best Picture and represents potential popular trends; the Academy favors realistic criticality, a sense of history combined with humor, low cost with high returns, and innovation within recognizable traditional forms; be cautious with horror, comedy, and ensemble experiments; promotional spending (DreamWorks 774,000) also affects the screenplay award.
The year of independent film (1996, the first year with no major-studio nominees); "the major studios deciding what screenplay is good is one thing, deciding which screenplay to put into production as a film is another"; Hollywood's attitude toward screenplays is more conservative than its visuals; for Kaufman-style works, "Hollywood has not yet formed a systematic method to package and sell them."
A three-way game (screenwriter/director/producer) determines the final form (Good Will Hunting cut realistic branches to cater to the mainstream).
Hitchcock's copyright economics: treat every copyright acquisition as a challenge to reduce costs or even earn profits; use intermediaries to avoid fame driving up the price.

X. Professional Mindset and Habits

Walter: it is too late to chase trends (principle 60); the most dangerous strategy is seeking safety (principle 61); writing a screenplay expecting it to sell will bring disappointment, "a writer must write in order to write"; do not be a victim, write and write and save during dry spells; "be grateful for being abused by this industry, for far worse than abuse is being ignored"; after a rejection, allow yourself to curl up for a few days, "you only need to be accepted once" (Platoon was peddled for ten years); being rewritten by others is a privilege; "art is pain"; two selves (the artistic/professional); put yourself inside the heads of agents and producers.
Diamond: "more haste, less speed" (the screenwriting factory wrote eight screenplays and sold none); learn at least one piece of knowledge from every film.
Bork: "stop doubting whether you have talent, remove it from your awareness."
Hanson: "writing it is easy, selling it is hard"; adapt on the fly + passion; writing screenplays is a calling, think about money later.
Masterclass: Richards, "your skin must be thick enough to take melodramatic blows and sensitive enough to create"; "making films is a war with people who do not care about art"; Banks, "others may mistreat me a thousand times, but I treat others like a first love"; Stantz, "it took twenty years to become an overnight success"; "the quality of a professional screenwriter is persuading others to spend money for you" (self-funding to buy rights is not recommended).
Field: "an overnight success takes fifteen years"; a director can take a great screenplay and make a bad film, but can never take a bad screenplay and make a great film.

XI. Checklists

Idea checkup before submission

Are all three Cs present? Have you told it orally to three people and gotten "this must be made"?
Have you passed the five-item checklist for each of the seven PROBLEM categories? Are punishment and entertainment running neck and neck?
Have you written the three elements of the logline (protagonist/catalyst/mission)? Paired with two or three reference films?
Is it a blockbuster or an independent film dependent on execution? Is it suitable for me? Have you listed the sample film list?

Before submitting 5. At least three or four polished screenplays? WGA registration? Minimalist PDF cover? 6. Query letter of two or three sentences, no synopsis attached, written to a specific agent? Start with two or three first? 7. Have you rehearsed the one-minute oral pitch? 8. Want to get into television: have you written a fan letter to a writer on that show?

Before the contract 9. Has the option agreement been reviewed by a lawyer? Was an MBA line added? 10. Only recognizing gross revenue points? Want cash and a step deal? Negotiate rights separately? 11. Have you been writing for free or getting involved in projects whose copyright you do not own? 12. Have you prepared supplementary materials for a credit arbitration?

After receiving feedback 13. What is the issue that multiple people agree on? Is it a diagnosis or a solution? Have you checked it with a one-page brief and character list? 14. Is the "yes, but..." ready? Have the edges been preserved? 15. After being rewritten/removed from the credits: Is the sample still there, and has the next idea started?