Conference helps aspiring screenwriters

Kirk Baird

Wednesday, July 10, 2002 | 8:17 a.m.

Film producer Frederick Levy has a theory about would-be screenwriters.

"Everybody in the world has either written a screenplay or knows someone who's written a screenplay," Levy said. I've traveled all over the world. And whether I'm at a wedding or wherever, as soon they find out what I do for a living, they want me to read their screenplay."

"It used to be the great American dream was to write the Great American Novel. In 2002 it's to write the Great American Screenplay."

That aspiration is the fuel behind the second-annual Las Vegas Screenwriters Conference at the Tropicana. The four-day event begins Thursday and features 36 Hollywood executives giving seminars on script writing, as well as listening to pitch sessions from those who think they already have written a great script.

"Judging from the response you get from Hollywood professionals at this conference, you'll have a good indicator on whether or not it's time to come to Hollywood and go full swing," Levy said.

Levy has authored two books about the film industry, including his most recent effort "The Hollywood Way: A Young Movie Mogul's Savvy Business Tips for Success in Any Career" (St. Martin's Griffin, $14.95). When not writing, he looks for up-and-coming screenwriters. In fact, it is his primary role as vice president of development and production with Mary Katz Productions, which helped bring "Titanic" to the big screen.

Even on his own, Levy works to develop new talent. The independent psychological thriller "Frailty," for which Levy served as associate producer, was written by Brent Hanley, a virtual unknown in most Hollywood circles.

"His script was the best I've read in several years," Levy said.

Levy said Hanley's success is proof that getting a development deal is not all "who you know."

Contacts are important, Levy said, but so is talent, the drive to succeed, and ability for the screenwriter to market him or herself and the finished script. Even if all those elements go the writer's way, there is still a bit of luck involved.

"How many screenplays that have been sold to Hollywood have been sitting on shelves for years and years and have never been made?" he said. "It's an extremely frustrating and tedious job to be a screenwriter in Hollywood."

To aspiring screenwriters, Levy offered these tips:

Do the homework. "Do as much research on the companies you're contacting as you can," he said. "Nothing annoys me more than a letter (addressed) to me that says, 'Dear Executive.' Know my name, and know the movies that my company has produced so you have a sense of the movies that we're looking for."

Read trade publications, such as Variety and Creative Screenwriting. "You need to read them," Levy said. "It is integral to your success. You have to know who's who, you have to know what studios are buying what projects, you have to know what's No. 1 at the box office."

Master pitching the concept or script verbally and in writing. "So many times I'll be at a screenwriting conference and people will get up to talk to me and they're so excited to pitch their idea they can't communicate it to me," he said. "I hear bits and pieces of what could potentially be a good screenplay, but they're either so nervous or unprepared that I don't get the essence of what they're trying to tell me and the opportunity passes me by."

Above all, Levy said do not get discouraged. He said he is hears rejections from movie studios daily.

"Hollywood is an extremely competitive industry and you need to be realistic about that from the get-go," he said. "That said, if (screenwriting) is your passion -- if you're willing to commit to do what it takes to make it -- I truly believe that anybody can find some degree of success in this business."