Silvestri Storyworks

People often say to me “You must have read a lot of bad screenplays in your career” and yes, I’ve read many scripts that didn’t work on one level or another, for whatever reasons. But much more often, the problem isn’t that the scripts are simply “bad,” it’s that they haven’t been designed to appeal to any particular sector of the motion picture marketplace, which today spans the entire world.

 

Sometimes screenwriters don’t recognize what’s best in their own work. In that case, all I have to do is encourage them to emphasize certain aspects of their script and downplay or eliminate others. But if filmmakers don’t get the maximum help from their support group – whether that group is composed of friends, instructors, business partners, or whoever – they run the risk of reducing the artistic and commercial potential of their own projects.  Many times I’ve listened to a writer describe a proposed screenplay and said to myself, “Yeah, that should work pretty well” – only to read the completed script later or, even worse, see the finished film and say, “Oh no, they left out everything that was good about the movie!”

 

Everyone wants their screenplay to be “good,” but it must also be good for the right audience. And so it’s never too early for a writer, producer, or director to start thinking about just who is the ideal audience for his movie. Having worked in story development for dozens of motion picture and TV companies over the years, my goal is to help you determine the best market for your movie and then write your screenplay so as to win over your target audience as completely and successfully as possible. If you and I do our jobs well, people will line up to see your movie…even in the rain and snow.