Every screenwriter dreams of seeing their words come to life on the screen. We spend countless hours alone at our computers, conjuring concepts, creating characters, developing stories, writing dialogue, and envisioning cinematic moments that an audience may someday enjoy.
Selling a screenplay is one thing. Getting paid to write on assignment is another. But actually seeing your screenplay produced with actors speaking your dialogue, directors bringing your action to life, and audiences watching something that once existed in your imagination? That’s an entirely different experience.
I’ve been fortunate enough to experience that feeling multiple times (thirteen at the time of this writing) in my twenty-plus years as a professional screenwriter. And while the many journeys from script to screen haven't always been glamorous or easy, I can tell you that there’s nothing quite like seeing something you wrote come to life on screen. It’s a surreal experience that never gets old.
Before I get into the experiences of seeing my miniseries or feature-length scripts on screen, I want to share a little of my screenwriting journey to put things into perspective because I believe the years of struggle, rejection, and perseverance make those moments even more special than one could possibly imagine. And hopefully my story can offer some inspiration and perspective for screenwriters still working towards that dream.
From Wisconsin to Hollywood
I grew up in Wisconsin and graduated high school in 1994. After spending five years figuring out what I wanted to do with my life, I met the girl of my dreams, fell in love, got engaged, and we both moved to California in 1999 so I could pursue my dreams of becoming a professional screenwriter. I had virtually no connections. No representation. No industry experience. I was just a kid from the Midwest who loved movies and wanted to be part of the magic of Hollywood.
Working Entry-Level Jobs to Get on Sets and Behind the Scenes
While I had various non-industry jobs like selling hot tubs and working for an internet bubble-era startup to make money while my wife attended graduate school, I eventually shifted my focus to taking jobs that could get me on movie or TV show sets, or any place that offered a behind the scenes look into the Film/TV industry.
One of the first things I did to accomplish that was going to Hollywood to sign with a movie extra casting company. I didn’t have any aspirations to act, but I knew I could get on major sets and see how the cinematic “sausage” was made.
I worked on films like Bedazzled, where I met and conversed with the late, great actor, writer, and director Harold Ramis (Caddyshack, Ghostbusters). I spent a few hours around a pool with Steven Soderbergh and Benicio Del Toro during the production of the Oscar-winning Traffic, and was then invited up to a towering hotel suite to be a stand-in for an FBI agent during Benicio’s lie detector scene. I even spent a day with a young Jake Gyllenhaal and Dustin Hoffman playing a hotel doorman in the little-known Moonlight Mile.
Those experiences, and many more, gave me a chance to see the filmmaking process firsthand, watching directors work with actors, getting to know the crew members who could recommend me for additional work, and discovering how the scenes screenwriters write on the page are brought to life through collaboration of hundreds.
Getting a Job at a Major Studio
Eventually, my wife and I moved into a new apartment in Culver City. To my utter delight, it was right across the street from Sony Studios. This studio lot was formerly the iconic MGM lot where The Wizard of Oz and my favorite TV show of all time, The Twilight Zone, were shot, among many other classics.
I did everything I could to try to get a job on the Sony lot, to no avail. I used to jog around the lot, looking into the gates and seeing people come and go with their Sony ID badges. One day, I couldn’t stand waiting anymore. I walked up to a Sony security guard and asked how I could get a job there. Two weeks later I was a Sony security guard. I worked the VIP gate and met some of the biggest Hollywood actors, directors, producers, and executives. I then worked my way into an office position, eventually becoming a studio liaison working with all incoming film and television productions, as well as incoming executives.
I was living a dream. I had my own golf cart to explore the studio with. I even met and played basketball with Adam Sandler. But one new job changed the trajectory of my screenwriting career.
The Studio Job That Changed My Life and Career
I had interned for director Randal Kleiser (Grease, The Blue Lagoon, Flight of the Navigator) briefly, reading query emails and doing script coverage for him. During my studio liaison work, I was making an ID for an incoming development executive. I decided to take a chance and told him if he needed any script readers, I had samples and experience with a major director. It turns out he needed one. I sent him samples and two weeks later I was a script reader and story analyst for Sony Pictures. I’d work my studio liaison job during the day and then take home a stack of scripts (this was before the industry shared PDF scripts through email) to read and write coverage for.
This position was the best screenwriting education I’ve ever had, reading scripts from both big name screenwriters, as well as newcomers. I learned from the good, the bad, and everything in between.
Finally Getting Studio Meetings for MY Screenplays
Keep in mind that this whole time, I had been writing scripts. Per usual, the first few were horrible. I was learning through effort and failure. But in 2005 I wrote my marquee script that managed to get into the studio system, leading to me signing with a manager who set up meetings at Sony, Disney, Warner Brothers, Universal, and Dreamworks. Nothing happened with the script, sadly, but people were waiting for my follow-up.
Signing My First Hollywood Deal AFTER Moving Back to Wisconsin
Priorities change when you have a child. When our firstborn arrived in 2005, we decided to move back to Wisconsin to raise him close to family. My manager said I didn’t have to be in Los Angeles to write, as long as I could come back for meetings. In 2006, we moved back to Wisconsin. In 2007, my follow-up action thriller script was picked up by Lionsgate via a development deal. Eight years since I first moved to California in 1999, I had finally become a professional screenwriter.
The First Produced Script
As I mentioned before, it’s one thing to sell a script or get hired to write one, and a whole different thing to actually see a script of yours produced. So many screenplays are bought or written on assignment and never see the screen.
It was 2011. I was still writing scripts, but most of my time was spent being a work-from-home father. My manager and I had gone our separate ways after the 2008 economic collapse, and Writers Guild strike rocked the industry. The Lionsgate deal wasn’t renewed, and the action thriller was never produced. But thankfully I got the rights back.
An executive at a production company and I had a chance encounter through email, which gave me the opportunity to pitch my writing. I sent him some of my spec samples and he loved them, which led to an assignment that didn’t go to script. However, he had a script that was already pre-sold in foreign territories. But they weren’t happy with the draft they had. I pitched them a page-one rewrite (starting from scratch while keeping the core concept and a few characters), wrote 250 pages for a two-part miniseries in just two and a half weeks, and just a couple of months later, the miniseries was being cast with major names including James Brolin, Sean Patrick Flanery, Eric LaSalle, Bruce Boxleitner, Billy Zane, Haylie Duff, and the late Anne Heche.
I flew out to Los Angeles to be on set for a single night of filming. It was surreal to see my dialogue and action coming to life on screen. It was one of the most thrilling nights of my life.
Seeing My Scripts Come to Life On Screen
Jump ahead to almost a year later. The miniseries became a Top 20 show overseas. For a brief period when it debuted on iTunes in 2012, it beat out the likes of True Detective and Game of Thrones for rentals.
And then I watched it.
I would say that about 80% of that two-part miniseries was mine. However, the 20% that was changed during production rewrites with another writer changed a surprising amount of the story. Action scenes were cut in half. Suspense sequences were cut out. Dialogue was changed or deleted.
It was mine, but it also wasn’t. I had written a part for the late, great James Earl Jones. He wasn’t available come production time, so they rewrote the part for James Brolin. That entire storyline changed drastically.
On the bright side, there was a lot of cool stuff they kept.
I also quickly learned that casting is so important. The production was fortunate enough to have an amazing cast for most of the leads. Their performances elevated the material, which was written fast and produced with a very low budget. But some of the casting was a bit off as well.
This is what it’s like to see your script come to life on screen, though. Making movies and TV series is difficult. Every project that even makes it to the big or small screen is a little miracle.
You’ll see your mistakes. You’ll see production, casting, and editing mistakes. But you’ll also experience the magic of seeing your words come to life. This magical feeling will make you quickly forget any negatives and teach you to appreciate the opportunity and experience you had, as well as help you become a better writer for the next one.
My Lifetime Feature Thrillers On Screen
About eight years after the debut of my first produced script, the very same executive producer of it and I were reconnected during the pandemic. He had an opportunity to pitch some Lifetime thrillers and asked if I wanted to partner with him. We pitched two Lifetime thrillers, shared Story By credit for both, and each of us took on writing duties and sole credit for one of the two. Both were produced.
We then went our separate ways and I stayed on with the production company that made the first two and created a prolific collaboration that has since led to a mind-blowing 10 produced Lifetime features (with an 11th one currently shooting at the time of this writing), one of which made it to #2 on Netflix’s Top U.S. Movies List. They are all available for rent on Amazon Prime and other platforms, and also show up often on the Lifetime channel.
Lifetime thrillers are written under very tight deadlines and shot with very tight budgets and production schedules. Things happen fast once the script has been greenlit for production. I am so proud of every single one of mine, even if I track mistakes I made (plot holes, logic issues, dialogue choices), or those that were made during casting, production, and post-production. I don’t even really look upon most of them as mistakes. Luckily, in my case, the triumphs outweigh the mistakes, thanks in large part to the amazing directors, casts, and crews who made my stories come to life.
What Is It Like Watching Them?
It’s a thrill to watch them make their primetime debuts on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday nights. The buildup is great. Friends, family, and work acquaintances gather in front of their own screens to watch them.
I don’t do watch parties. I believe a lot of pro writers feel the same way about them. I’ll watch my movies with my wife and sons. But beyond that, I always want to have full focus on watching the movie come to life on our TV without distractions.
The only real way to describe the experience of watching your script on the screen is that it’s magical. There’s really no other word to describe it because you remember when all of these visuals, characters, scenes, locations, and storylines were rambling around in your head. Then you put them on the page the best possible way you could and waited for someone to say, “Yes.” To me, it doesn’t even matter how good or how lacking the movie is in the eyes of others. I don’t care. All I see is the magic of filmmaking. People took my words and made them come to life.
Seeing Your Name on the Screen
This is where it gets you every time. Seeing your name on the screen is always a thrill. I get chills every single time because I remember the days when I longed for seeing a sole onscreen credit of my own on the screen. I dreamed of such things for decades.
Seeing your name in the opening credits is the final testament that you saw not just the job, but the story through. You conjured the visuals and dialogue, you turned them into written words, you did what you had to do to either sell the script or get hired to write it, and you were blessed enough to have dozens or hundreds of people make it come to life on the screen for all to see.
When you see that credit on the screen, you know you’ve become a professional screenwriter. And that is something no one can ever take away from you.
Good and Bad Reviews of Your Work
When you’re a pro, your work is out there for all to see. Especially in this day and age of social media and the internet, reviews can be rough. I’ve had people tear apart my miniseries and movies. I’ve also had people praise the very same miniseries and movies.
Cinema is subjective. The kind of movies I’ve been hired to write the last few years are geared towards a certain niche audience, and most of that audience has loved my work. And the ones that didn’t? Well, you learn not to care. Sure, you can and should listen to what they have to say. And, yes, you can and should, at the very least, consider their input while you’re writing your next. But you can’t let negative reviews rule your writing. Learn from the good. Learn from the bad. And then move onto the next project with the sheer thrill that you, and many others, saw your script come to life on the screen. Mission accomplished. Now it’s time to get excited and move onto the next.
And that is what it’s like to see your script on screen. It’s magical, and why we do this in the first place. I hope one day you get to experience it too.