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What do you think about these websites? Could they work?

V

victortiti89

I found some websites where you can send movie ideas to producers and agents or managers, without the " need " of having a screenplay. They accept scripts, if you have them, but their focus is solely on ideas. You submit your movie idea(for a price) and, if people are interested, they'll buy it...Another such website, although primarily built for people with screenplays, also accepts just ideas or synopsises. There is even a contest for movie ideas. I currently have more movie ideas than screenplays, so I was just wondering if it's possible to sell movie ideas to Hollywood even if you don't have a screenplay for them...Do you think such websites are ok to try, or it's best to avoid them as producers aren't interested in ideas, but only in screenplays? Thank you for taking your time to read and answer this!:)
 
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I've seen sites like this but have yet to meet anyone who has had success with them. Not that they're not out there. Even though Hollywood can be said to be out of ideas, I don't think they're necessarily thirsty for them. Everyone and their mother seems to have a movie idea. A great idea could be a horrible screenplay and a horrible idea could be a great screenplay. So, to me, it seems like ideas themselves aren't valuable. Only the execution of them.

That being said, I guess it depends the price. But I wouldn't invest too much into it. There may be a reason the industry has screenwriters and not idea writers.

But that's just one guys opinion :)
 
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Be careful. You can't copyright an idea. Most sites have fine print which says you indemnify them if a company takes an idea and develops it. Personally, I'd be very wary. I register my screenplays and document who gets sent what and when. Many of these sites can be very lax about reporting. Unless you're established and pitching directly to a producer or executive, you're probably just giving away free ideas. I don't know of any sites that pay you when an executive wants to read your synopsis. Often you're paying for the privilege of hoping someone will read it for free. As such, you need to exercise diligence over your creative ownership.
 
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From "hollywoodpitcher":
As soon as you use our service, your idea is automatically copyrighted and time stamped. This automatically protects your idea and ensures that you are registered as the legal copyright holder of your idea.

This is absolutely untrue. Look up the names of the people who praise
the service. See any produced credits with their name on it?

All seem shady to me. They make broad claims but offer no actual
success stories.
 
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Like directorik says about the missing success stories. Everybody knows that is the key. An honest service would be very clear about why they still don't have a produced movie out. Here they try to avoid the subject like they were hoping you won't notice. And this while they appear to have been around for a long time...

Conclusion. If they are honest, they are lousy at expressing themselves. At the same time they express themselves pretty well, as telling us how we can benefit from participating.
 
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