Jaws in Space: Powerful Pitching for Film and TV Screenwriters (ePub)

When the script for the future blockbuster Alien (1979) was almost ready, its authors came up with a three-word pitch for it: "Jaws in space." After the resounding success of Jaws (1975), it was immediately clear to the producers what the new film was about. Until now, this pitch serves as a vivid example of a short, capacious and intelligible presentation of the essence of the project. Charles Harris is an English writer and screenwriter whose work in film and television has won many awards. His experience in promoting books and screenplays forms the basis of this book. According to Harris, writing a brilliant screenplay is not enough. In order to interest producers or investors from the first words, it is necessary to present this scenario no less brilliantly. A lot of preparatory work allows to achieve perfection of the formulations. The screenwriter must build a strategy and tactics for his actions, know the film market well (the principle of the four quadrants), understand budget issues, advertising, learn how to improvise and treat possible failure as an invaluable experience. In addition to fundamental knowledge, the book provides a lot of important advice that will help everyone who promotes their projects to gain confidence and achieve creative implementation and recognition.