Spec script

A spec script is a "speculative" screenplay, one that the "Variety" slanguage dictionary defines as being "shopped or sold on the open market, as opposed to one commissioned by a studio or production company." [ [http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=slanguage Variety - Slanguage Dictionary ] ]

Spec scripts are written for various reasons:Fact|date=June 2007
*by writers, who hope to have a script optioned and eventually purchased by producers or studios;
*by writer/directors, who want to direct a film themselves;
*by amateur writers hoping to convince a literary agent to represent them or a producer to hire them.

Spec scripts have not always held as much cachet in the business as they do now. Ernest Lehman describes how his original script for "North by Northwest" was unusual at that point in his career:

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Attracting producers

The process of 'going out' with a spec script can be an extremely tense and nerve-wracking one for a writer. If the writer has an agent, the agent will identify a number of prospective buyers who may range from small independent producers to executives working in the major studios, and attempt to build up 'heat' under the script. The script is sent out simultaneously to all the prospective buyers, usually to be read over the weekend, in the hope of attracting a bidding war.

If the script sells, the writer may receive a payment of anything from a few tens of thousands of dollars to several million. If not, the script is sometimes dead in the water because it is now in the databases of the studios and development executives, and has been marked as having been 'passed' on.

However, most of the hundreds of thousands of spec scripts penned each year are written by unknowns who are trying to attract attention and find it difficult to generate the kind of “buzz” that more established scribes count on to sell their scripts. (See the screenwriting documentary "Dreams on Spec".)

ample script

A sample script is usually not intended for production, but to showcase the screenwriting skills of the author, in hopes of attracting the attention of an agent or producer. Often a spec script which fails to sell goes on to be a sample script.Fact|date=June 2007

ee also

* Screenwriter's salary
* Storyboard
* WGA script registration service
* Dreams on Spec

References