“I never got a script read by cold-submitting to a gatekeeper. I built my own door: I turned my novels into a fan-funded short film and a YouTube series, then used that proof to start conversations. If you have no agent and no connections, make the smallest version of your film yourself, or turn one scene into a short people can actually watch.”
“I built a 76-title catalog from Auburn, New Hampshire, with no studio or VC, and I can tell you the gate isn't the script, it's the package. A cold script in a pile gets ignored; a script with a logline, a lookbook, a budget range, and a clear audience signal gets forwarded. Invest in the business around the screenplay before you ask someone to bet on it.”
“I have never sold a screenplay cold, but I have watched Lisa N Edwards spend eight years getting a film made through friends of friends, and George Stevens Jr. told me straight up that the door is either an agent or a producer you admire whose address you can find.”
“I pitched my own script around Hollywood and got the same wall: producers won't sign NDAs, and the gatekeepers want a logline, a sizzle, or a warm intro before they'll read anything.”
“I got my first read by entering every contest and fellowship I could afford, because a quarterfinalist badge is sometimes the only thing that gets an assistant to move your script off the slush pile.”