Latest / Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast / IFH 743: The Guide for Every Screenwriter with Geoffrey D. Calhoun

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IFH 743: The Guide for Every Screenwriter with Geoffrey D. Calhoun · Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast

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You are listening to the IFH podcast Network. For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting
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podcasts, just go to ifahpodcastnetwork dot com. Welcome to the Indie Film Hussle
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Podcast, Episode number seven forty three. You sell a screenplay like you sell
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a car. If someone drives it off a cliff, that's it. Rita
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may Brown broadcasting from the back alley in Hollywood. It's the Indie Film Hustle
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Podcast, where we show you how to survive and thrive as an indie filmmaker
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in the jungles of the film biz. And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
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Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Indie Film Hustle Podcast. I
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am your humble host Alex Ferrari. Today's show is sponsored by Rise of the
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Film Entrepreneur. How to turn your independent film into a profitable business. It's
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just head over to www. Dot filmbiz book dot com. That's film
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bizbook dot com. Now today, guys, we are going to tackle the
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elusive Corey letter, how to do it properly, does it work? How
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not to do it? And mistakes that we've seen things like that. Because
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I have been getting a lot of requests for me to cover this topic and
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here it is, so I decided to bring back to the show. Screenwriting
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doctor and author Jeffrey Calhoun, who is the author of The Guide for Every
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Screenwriter and also a instructor at IFH Academy, whose course the Screenwriter's Guide to
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Formatting, which, believe it or not, a lot of screenwriters still have
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problems with. And I didn't even know this, but screenwriting formatting has changed
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a whole lot since ten years ago. There's new things you got to learn,
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all this kind of stuff. So Jeffrey covers all that in that course,
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but today we are going to tackle the Corey Letters. So, without
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any further ado, please enjoy my conversation with Jeffrey Calhoun. I'd like to
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welcome back to the show, returning champion Calhoun. Thanks good to be here.
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I'm good, but I'm good. I reached back out to you,
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man because I want I've been getting a lot of emails and requests about Corey
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letters, and we've never done anything like that on the show. I don't
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even think I have an article about it in Bulletproof Screenwriting. So I was
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like, you know what, I'm gonna call a man who knows about these
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things, and you know, you obviously created the Screenwriter's Guide to Formatting course
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that we have on IFH Academy, and this kind of goes along with that
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beginner level kind of stuff. Was like Corey letters and all that kind of
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thing. So I felt that this would be a good match. So just
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to answer some of the questions that I'm getting from the tribe and see if
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you can provide some value to the audience today. So I appreciate you.
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So yeah, absolutely, So first of all, what is a Corey letter,
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sir? Well, I mean, a Corey letter is you're pretty much
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pitching your script to producer, director, a agent, manager, manager or
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an agent, any of those things. But it's just like a real quick
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email. It's not anything too involved, so simple as that. And generally
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it is an email, not a snail mail. Yeah, no, you're
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not. You're not stand mailing anymore, not so much as or or the
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facts or not the facting. You don't to do the facts. You're not
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gonna use a pager that stuff. When I was first starting out, though,
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you could send letters, and so we did do that back then.
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But yeah, no, you're not mailing scripts anymore, none of that stuff.
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So what are some of the biggest mistakes you see with Corey letters.
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I mean, one of them is they'll they'll try and pitch themselves, like
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you know, I won all these awards and I'm in this big fancy writer.
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But I think one of the one of the worst ones I've seen is
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like, you need to read this script or else you don't know what you're
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bus I mean, nothing was office or desperate or arrogant or that is it.
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But isn't it funny that you're saying like, oh, yeah, like
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I've won all these awards, I'm such a hot shot, big screenwriter.
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But yet you're sending a quory letter. So that kindas is like John August
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not sending the Cory letters. Yeah exactly. You know, Aaron Sorkin not
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sending the Cory letters. So it's kind of counterproductive in that sense. Yeah,
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it doesn't make sense. Yeah, I would say, I mean,
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having bad grammar is a big issue. What does a big issue period,
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even in script? Yeah, well some writers try and justify it, but
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yeah, no, that's a big problem to see. The thing about query
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letter is that, I mean, you're introducing your skill as a writer right
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there. So it's an introduction to who you are and whether you're talented or
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not. And if the query letter reads well, then it's an indication that
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you could be a decent at least a decent screenwriter. Now, how long
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should it be? It's not long. I mean, you were not sending
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out pages. You're just gonna do your intro and then you're gonna do You're
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gonna do a log line, like a one to two centens log line.
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And there's two schools a thought on this, and it kind of has to
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depend how it works for you. So you could do the log line and
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then what we call the elevator pitch, or you could do the log line,
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the elevator pitch and a short synopsis and that's about it. I wouldn't
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go beyond that. And again, like I said, there's two schools of
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thought and that some people do the synopsis, some people don't. So it's
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just for people who don't know real quick, what is the log line?
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So just for people who don't understand. Yeah, of course, So the
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log line is just a brief one to two sentence explanation of your script,
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simple as that. And then the synopsis obviously is the synopsis of your script.
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But I would do a short synopsis though, so I would do like
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three four census tops, right, and the elevator pitch is some as far
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as the lens is concerned. So the elevator pitch is just like it's back
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to the Future meets pulp fiction, you know, something like I will see
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that movie. I will watch that movie, which was that was another question
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I was gonna ask you, should you do the whole you know, back
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to the Future meets pulp fiction world or better yet, pulp fiction meets Jurassic
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Park. That's a movie I want to see. But like, do you
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do you do that? Because I know a lot of people like it's so
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hollywood to do that, But it does get the it gets the message across
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really quickly, like in the nineties, die Hard on a boat, die
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Hard on a plane, die Hard in an arena. I'm gonna I'm gonna
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be honest with you. It's a dealer's choice at this point. I mean,
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you can do it, you can get away with it. You cannot.
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I mean, I guess it comes down if you're doing it. Well.
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I haven't done it. But when my query the success I got,
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I did my log line and I did a short synopsis and then that and
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then ended up getting in to Fred Sebert's hands. Next thing you know,
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I was getting a call from Freederator and they were asking me if if I
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if I had a TV children's animated comedy and I didn't, so of course
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they said yes. And then you know, called up one of my best
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writer friends. It said, guess what we're writing tonight? And uh,
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and then we wrote a pilot and we pitched it to them. So so
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that's how I got success. But if you were to do the elevator pitch,
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I would make sure you only did films that were successful and well known,
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So like Cats, Cats meets Ishtar not not. It's not that shouldn't
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be. I've had nightmares of that one. How did you know you're in
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my dreams? Scared Cat meets We should do a whole show on Combinings meets
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Rolls too. Oh no, no, no, Cats meets Cats Meet the
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Room. I'm sold. Cats Meets the Theater with director Tommy wissoll Can you
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imagine? Can you imagine giving Tommy Wiss two hundred million dollars? I think
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you just figured out his next project. Thank you. I think Tommy,
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that's free. If you're listening now, Yeah, you were saying earlier,
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don't focus on yourself, focus on the story, focus on the screenplay.
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How formal should you be because a lot of times like hey, bro,
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little too informal, but also don't want to be, but you also don't
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want to be like to make concern, don't do that. So where's the
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where's the balance? Yeah, well you're gonna well, when you're gonna querry
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somebody, you're gonna target them. So you'd already done your research on them,
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and you can find people through IMD pro or there's even books you can
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find. But whoever you are a querying, let's talk about this for a
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second. Make sure that they accept unsolicited materials. We'll be right back after
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a word from our sponsor, and now back to the show. On solicity,
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meaning you don't have an agent or a manager, so that's that's first
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bar. So if they do accept on solicit materials, then you can querry
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that person because they're open to it and it's just high hello, and then
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you know Alex or whoever their name is. You don't get too formal with
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it, but you don't get too casual. So I would say it would
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be like the writing version of business casual. So you're you're appropriate, but
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you're a little loose, got it exactly, And let's let's talk a little
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bit about how to find that right person to send it to. Because both
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you and I get Corey letters for screenplay, which is still mind boggling to
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me. I mean, at least you're a screenwriting you know, instructor and
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guru and consultant. I don't I interview people who are in the screenwriting space,
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I thought, I mean, I run away. I just want to
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make this two hundred million dollars script I wrote. I you know, I
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don't want which is Cats Meets the Room. But but anything Cats meets you're
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it's it's solid, it's money, it's money, it's solid, it's cats,
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meat, Star Wars, Cats meets you know, Harry Potter. I
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mean, every every it's all it's just money. It's you're all good.
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But I get I get Corey letters, and I mean I just delete them
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right away because I'm like, I'm not even gonna respond because I don't want
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to. It's like I don't want to be legally responsible or anything like that.
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The big thing, Yeah, you don't want to get you don't want
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to get sued for that exactly. And so but they also like the best
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one I've ever got was like similar, similar, like you need to you
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need to read this. It is the next Star Wars, the next you
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know, Mission Impossible series or something some grandiose kind of theory, and you've
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got to read this. I've also And then they go into who they are
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and all the amazing film festivals they've won and awards they've won which I've never
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heard of. But regardless, that's just not the way business is done,
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uh, in our industry. Anybody who's actually if anyone who actually has won
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real awards, like real awards, things that like an Oscar an Emmy,
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you know, the Nickels or something of some sort of magnitude in the space.
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You say that maybe once or twice in the letter, like Hey,
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I'm a Nichols finalist. That's that's good. You drop it. You don't
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slam it over people's heads, and you definitely don't brag about it. Yeah,
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because it would you fair? Would it be fair to say, like
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the career letters should be kind of like having a conversation with someone you just
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met at a party. Like, if you meet somebody at a party,
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you're not going to go up to them and go, dude, I am
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the best. My next screenplay is going to be awesome, you need to
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read this book. Is that fair to say? Yeah? I think that's
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absolutely I think that's totally accurate. Yeah, because you're not too formal,
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right, but you're not too relax with the way you're talking with people and
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pitching your your project. Now, I think that's good. Now is this
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coming to with the tone as well being formal or nonf like should the tone
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be? Like? What is the tone? Because you could be aggressive,
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you could be you know, do you start telling jokes? I would be
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just purely desperate. If you could just come if that's a Jakar despera,
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that's that's the actual cologne therself that you put on the problem. Yeah,
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no, I would, I would. I would keep the tone as far
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as the query goes, you want your tone to match kind of uh,
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the genre of the script you're writing it. So if you're doing like a
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short synopsis, it should be in that kind of a tone of of of
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of like a thriller comedy. But you don't want to get too like I
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said, you don't want to get too crazy with it, right, So,
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like as far as like being too funny, look, a joke or
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two is fine, especially if you're if you're pitching a comedy, yeah you're
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not doing slapstick, yeah exactly, but a little bit of that, just
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a little bit to kind of give it a personality, maybe something to stick
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out slight. It's all less is more, exactly, less is more.
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Now I have to ask you the question, though, where can you go
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wrong with Corey letters? Because there seems to be it tends to be kind
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of like a crutch for a lot of screenwriters. So what do you think,
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Well, I mean, having been achieved a little bit of success with
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the Query letters, I'm starting to understand that that's like the one percent with
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Querry letters. There's this whole I don't personally, I don't believe in them.
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I think that's something you can do, but I think it's something you
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should do and then walk away from and have really no expectation with it,
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because what I found with Query letters is that people will become kind of addicted
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to them and have this slot machine like mentality where they've written the script and
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if they just pull that arm enough times, eventually they're going to walk away
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to win. And it just doesn't work that way. I think the best
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way to get your screenplay made is through networking. But I would even argue
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past that because what I find with screenwriters is they write the screenplay, they
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get really excited about it, which is wonderful, but they expect, you
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know, fame, fortune, you know, making it in Hollywood. And
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I think the mentality is the issue, because there's a difference between writing a
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screenplay and expecting it to be huge and then being a paid writer. Because
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if you just want to be a paid writer, then it's about using that
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screenplay you wrote as a resume to provide what you can do as a writer,
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and not expecting that to get sold. One of my scripts, I
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did a huge circuit around the country, well and even the world with my
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script, going to festivals and meeting people and getting to know them, and
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yes, they would read my work, but I would get hired because of
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my work to work on their project, and that's how I became a paid
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writer. I would recommend branding yourself around your writing and less about holding on
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to that script as a golden ticket. So that's a really good point here
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because a lot of screenwriters, well there's two things. One a lot of
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screenwriters think because I know the screenwriter's mind, I know the filmmaker's mind,
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because I have that mind myself, is that the Corey letters, Like,
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Okay, I've sent out ten Coreyer letters today. I don't have to work
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on my craft today, like I'm good now, And they and they use
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that as the excuse of like I'm working towards it, but really it's not.
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It's just like it should be. If you're going to do it,
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you know, send it out and don't shotgun it. Please be strategic with
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it. Do not shotgun it because you will get people will remember burned.
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You're going to get burned. Don't do that. Just be strategic about do
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the research about who you want to send it to. And there has been
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successful career letters, of course there has, but it shouldn't be the only
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strategy in trying to get your work out there. But branding yourself more as
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the writer than the screenplay is so much more important. Like I mean,
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if you look at Shane Black, he didn't just he wasn't just the lethal
17:21
weapons script like that. That wasn't the only thing he had, you know,
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Aaron Sorkitt wasn't just the one script. It wasn't just for fig a
17:30
few good men. That's not the script you know, Tarantino definitely just wasn't
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reservoirt docs. You know, there's they set themselves up as writers in the
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space and then got like even when Tarantino started out, he started getting a
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lot of rewriting. He did a lot of rewrites, of script doctoring,
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uncredited, credited, all that kind of stuff. Because of that mentality what
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you just said, right, yeah, I mean, it's it's what you
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want. I would not look at your script as the golden ticket and instead
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trying figure out how do I want to become this paid writer, and then
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you start branding, finding the niche that you can fill, finding your strengths
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as a writer, and then building towards that. I mean that that's the
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path that I've done and that's how I found my success. Well, my
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friend, I appreciate you taking the time out to talk about Corey letters.
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It is something that the tribe was asking me for and I think we have
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covered it and told you how to do it, how not to do it,
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maybe you shouldn't do it. And also even also played a little bit
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in the philosophy and philosophy but the psychology of screenwriting and getting in your own
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way, because trust me, like I remember when I was, you know,
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like, oh, I just sent out you know, I faxed out.
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I faxed out twenty resumes. I faxed out twenty resumes. Today,
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I'm good. Let me go sit down and watch the latest reality show that
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was back in the day. I think at one point when I first started,
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I think I queried every manager and agent in LA And how that worked
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out for you? Yeah, I mean I learned a lesson. Let's put
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it that way. I'm assuming that was I'm assuming that's a to who may
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concern because you didn't don't individ. No, it was like the worst query
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letter you can think of. I was like just just green and desperate,
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and I just I just went through hundreds. I mean it was hundreds and
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and I just didn't know what I was doing. And after that I realized,
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yeah, this is this is not the way to do it. And
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then I just I matured and over time said Okay, this this is how
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I start to get paid. And I just want to put one more thing
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before we go. The desperation. We've joked a little bit about the desperation.
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If the desperation spills over into that quary letter or into a phone call
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or into that stuff. People do not want to work with desperate screenwriters or
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desperate filmmakers. They don't because, trust me, I used to be doused
19:51
into card despara. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
20:00
Now back to the show. I mean, I used to have so much
20:06
desperation you could just and professionals in the business they see it coming from a
20:11
mile away. And the thing is that you need to not come out at
20:15
it from a point of desperation, but have to come at it from a
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point of service. How can I help you get to where you want to
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go? Is that a rewrite of the script is creating a script that's going
20:27
to help you make money? How can I provide value to you so much?
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It's so much more important than I need you to read my script to
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make my dreams come true. You're done? Yeah, no, And that's
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absolutely right. And we've all been there. I mean, I think that's
20:45
why you and I do do things like this is because we have We have
20:48
dripped and sweated, and you know that's where it wasn't for email, they'd
20:52
see my dried tears on my query letters, you know. I mean,
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it's just that We've been there and we know it and we don't want people
20:57
to go through it. The problem is when you are in that desperation,
21:03
you kind of don't realize it. You have to have that aha moment where
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you go, Okay, yeah, I need to refocus and need to change.
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And you'll know that if you are looking at these query letters as your
21:14
only hope, then you are in that mentality of being desperate. But there
21:18
is ways to get around it. You just have to kind of retake control
21:22
of your path and start strategizing and planning your way to success. Because the
21:27
one one be concerned I have about querying is if you're not strategizing, you're
21:32
not planning, then you're just being blind faithing blind faith about it and hoping
21:38
and praying. And I just think you need to take more control of that
21:44
direction and be more active. If we're going to use screenwriting terms, be
21:48
more active in your own story and a little less passive right without question by
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them, listen, thank you again for being on the show talking about the
21:56
Chory letters, and hopefully this has helped out a few people and maybe just
22:00
maybe a couple of AHAs are ringing out in the world today as they listen
22:03
to this episode, so thanks again by that, thanks again my pleasure.
22:08
I want to thank Jeffrey for coming on the show and clarifying what is a
22:14
good Corey letter. If you want to get a couple more tips and outline
22:18
of what we discussed in this episode, head over to the show notes at
22:21
indiefilmhuscle dot com forward slash seven forty three and if you have it already,
22:25
please head over to Filmmaking podcast dot com, subscribe and leave a good review
22:30
for the show. It really helps us out a lot, guys. Thank
22:33
you again so much for listening to guys. As always, keep that hustle
22:37
going, keep that dream alive, Stay safe out there, and I'll talk
22:40
to you soon. Thanks for listening to the Indie Film Hustle podcast at Indie
22:44
Film Hustle dot com. That's I N D I E F I L M
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h U S T l E dot com.