I don’t usually advise because: numero uno, I don’t want to pour cold water on anyone’s aspirations…and whatever I have to say is colored by my own experience, so it should be taken with a large rock crystal of salt firmly in hand, but…
.
I used to get called into meetings with some interesting producers (when I wrote screenplays) and then never see them, it would be a development person… I got to calling it (excuse me) the hunchback harelip test. Those lower on the scale were meant to vet me, and if I passed muster, I would meet the executive at a later date. When people would ask me about it later — the initial meeting with whichever production company it was — I always used to say, they wanted to make sure I didn’t drool.
.
Sometimes a script would be optioned and I would go into rewrites, and I still would never meet the person in charge…
.
It’s a tough road. I can tell you all sorts of things, but what I think is most important to know is that filmmaking is very much a meeting of minds — and things get done by legions of people. This means, as a writer, you must play well with others.
.
Be prepared to alter your work radically, and not be upset when others are hired to rewrite your screenplays to a point where you don’t recognize them.
.
I’m just putting this out there, keep at it, it can be very hierarchical, just keep plugging away — or, take matters into your own hands and do something digital, make a short movie and post it on vimeo, or start your own weblog, or self-publish…
.
You know what I’m saying 😉 .