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."^[1]

Spec scripts are written for various reasons:^{[citation needed]}

• 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.

[edit] Interest in originals

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:

Originals were not smiled upon in those days, believe it or not. There was very little interest in originals in those days. [...] Studios, distributors wanted the assurance of someone else having thought a property worth publishing[...] In those days, if you went to a party in the Hollywood community and somebody would ask, "What are you working on, Ernie?" and you replied, "I'm doing an original now," the response would be "Oh." [...] Like they were a little embarrassed[...] If you were working on something that you were going to create all by yourself, they'd secretly think, "He's in bad shape. Working on an original." That definitely was the climate at one time in this town.^[2]

[edit] Attracting producers

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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 tens 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.)

Although pitching spec scripts to producers is an uphill battle, many producers look at spec scripts with original concepts that may attract specific talent. Rarely is a spec script purchased for its quality of writing. Most often if they are unique in content and concept, a Producer will have more confidence in selling it to the studios based on the speculated end result of entertainment... and of course a ton of rewrites by studio-hired scribes. ^[3]

[edit] Sample 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.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] See also

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

[edit] References

1. ^ Variety - Slanguage Dictionary
2. ^ John Brady, "The craft of the screenwriter", 1981. Page 204
3. ^ http://www.tvfilmrights.com