Gain Development Experience On Your Own
Seeking development interns for an unpaid internship (school credit available). Position includes heavy reading and coverage alongside mind-numbingly menial work. Ideal candidates will have 1-2 years of prior experience at a major production company or agency and should be well versed in script coverage. Please send your resume and coverage sample to UnrealisticExpecations@fake-email.com.
If you are trying to break into the entertainment industry in development or screenwriting, then you’ve probably seen dozens of posts like this. Unpaid internship, experience required. Don’t these people understand what an internship is supposed to be? Oh, they know. They also know that people are desperate to break into the industry, which means they have the pick of the litter for no/low pay. The struggle is real.
I came to the entertainment industry with virtually no experience. I had high school projects and a few screenwriting classes to my name, but my background was in academic research. I knew an internship would be an ideal way to gain experience and learn the ins and outs of the industry, so I applied to internship after internship. And virtually no one responded. And the few that returned my emails asked for coverage samples I didn’t have.
So, I decided to gain some experience on my own. I looked into coverage structure and style at all the big agencies, and what their readers looked for in scripts. Armed with this knowledge, I just needed to cover a few scripts, attach them to my application emails, and watch the offers roll in. The only question left was, “Which scripts?”
I chose some childhood favorites, Hook and The Sandlot. Don’t do that. Learn from my mistake and do not waste your time. No one wants coverage of decades-old scripts for your samples.
The entertainment industry changes quickly. What worked in ’93 didn’t work in ’98 let alone decades later? The industry is about the now. Box office successes influence movies already in production. Audience expectations are shaped and molded by social media. Nothing stays current for very long. If you want to write a coverage sample, the material better be fresh
But I couldn’t even get an internship. How the hell was I supposed to get access to the best scripts going around town? Turns out, there was actually a really easy way: the annual Black List.
I’m not talking about the website where you can post your script, but the annual Black List compiled from the suggestions of a few hundred film executives who nominate up to ten of their favorite unproduced scripts from the previous year. The list arms you with their titles and the screenwriter’s names, and a quick google search will give you access to the scripts themselves.
These current scripts are the perfect material to write coverage to be used as samples. The producers will be familiar with the material and that gives them the ability to assess your skills as a reader. It also tells them you know what’s hot in the industry and aren’t some schlub whose peddling wares from 1993
I landed an internship a few weeks after I started attaching coverage samples of Blacklist script to my applications, and the company actually mentioned it specifically as one of the things that caught their eye.
These scripts aren’t only helpful as coverage material, but also provide insight into producers’ current tastes, industry trends, and are an opportunity to read a script that the industry considers good. Learn the tricks they use to get their script noticed and apply them to your screenplays.
Just because you didn’t make The Black List this year doesn’t mean it can’t help you get there next year.
