I was wandering if anyone knew how much money you can expect to get for a good, inie feature film script if you were to sell it. Please respond if you have any ideas. Thanks

~Jonathon

50k, if you came up with the title yourself.

how much if you didn't come up with it yourself?

It's up to how good the script is!

So who do you send it to for review?

Check out http://www.ncwriters.org/ they have “an ongoing literary critiquing and manuscript consultation service” they have at least 2 produced and respected screen writers in their DB. They charge $2 per page, $30 processing fee, plus SASE for return of manuscript.

Sounds like a scam I should get in on.

Your mission should you decide to accept it:

Make a list of your 10 favorite Indie films.

Find out who wrote them.
Check to see if that person also directed them.
Check to see if that person also produced them.

What you will find is that Indie films are, well, indie. They are usually written-directed-funded by the same person. Someone maxes their credit cards, mortgages their house, sells their body to science... and makes their film. After the first film sells to a distrib and makes money, that distrib usually will fund the rest of your films. So CLERKS was paid for out of Kevin Smith's pocket, but the rest of the films were funded by Miramax. Same thing with Robert Rodriguez, Ed Burns, etc.

So instead of selling your script, you pay to make the film!

If you want to sell a script, you have to have a script that the mainstream (commercial) film biz thinks will make them a lot of money... and even then it's not easy.

- Bill

Your mission should you decide to accept it:
Someone maxes their credit cards, mortgages their house, sells their body to science... and makes their film. After the first film sells to a distrib and makes money, that distrib usually will fund the rest of your films. So CLERKS was paid for out of Kevin Smith's pocket, but the rest of the films were funded by Miramax. Same thing with Robert Rodriguez, Ed Burns, etc.

So instead of selling your script, you pay to make the film!


B-I-N-G-O .... Bill just accurately defined the "independent filmmaker". Thanks Bill! and welcome to the boards! :idea:

Is that what you did?

Are you asking me or Guerrilla?

I sold my scripts to producers - they were commercial stories that I was passionate about telling - and I made the producers a whole bunch of money. One film made 5 times it's cost in PROFIT.

I found methods to put my personal stories in a commercial genre and managed to get 17 scripts on film and sold a few others to studios that haven't been made. I write the same movies I pay to see every week.

- Bill

PS: If you're in L.A. and interested in my screenwriting class, click on the link in my sig.