[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Film Courage: What’s the difference between writing something that can sell and writing something that can’t sell?
Ron Mita, Professor of Advanced Screenwriting at College of the Canyons/Screenwriter: Writing something that can sell means you’ve studied the market and you’ve paid attention. It doesn’t have to be films you love, it just has to be films they’re going to buy.I started my class by I tell the kids this is what you want to focus on.
One of the places I talk about, I have never written a horror film.
I guess my Boggy Creek movie could have gone down that avenue.
I say look if you want to break in one of the places to look at is horror. Because horror A) it’s low budget, they rarely replace the writers. They don’t have the money to replace the writers.
They like to go from script to production pretty fast and they’re willing to take on new talent.
I encourage my students to go there because I feel like that’s a buyer’s market, if there’s a buyer’s market at all in the screenwriting world.
Story Questions book — Now on Payhip here!
But as far as what can sell and what can’t, I focus again on what the studios are interested in buying and what has been working in the recent years.
One place I like to look at is I like to watch television.
Television to me is a quicker reporter of the zeitgeist of what’s going on in the world than films.
Any movie you see has been planned and filmed and been in the process for three or four years.
But a lot of the TV shows you see whether it’s episodic or even the movies that might be on made for television productions have a much shorter window of time from concept to go and it’s a much better…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
About:
After beginning his career as a graphic artist, Ron quickly realized his true passion was storytelling. That realization led him to Loyola Marymount University, where he pursued a graduate degree in screenwriting and before graduating, sold his first screenplay to Columbia Pictures in 1993, launching a career that now spans more than three decades.
That early success opened the door to work with many of Hollywood’s major studios, including Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Warner Bros., DreamWorks, HBO, TNT, Screen Gems, and CBS.
Ron’s produced credits include the animated hit Robots for 20th Century Fox, S.W.A.T., starring Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell, Sniper II, starring Tom Berenger, and 24 Hours to Live, starring Ethan Hawke.
Since 2002, Ron has helped shape the next generation of filmmakers as a screenwriting professor at College of the Canyons and as a filmmaking instructor at Antelope Valley College.
Early in his career, Ron developed the Magnificent 7–24 Method, a screenwriting architecture that helps writers move from idea to page with clarity and confidence. Built as a flexible framework rather than a rigid formula, it removes the fear that often keeps aspiring screenwriters from beginning. The method remains the foundation of both his professional work and his teaching.
A working screenwriter and dedicated educator, Ron continues to move between the classroom and the industry, where story always comes first.
MORE VIDEOS WITH RON MITA
STUDY SCREENWRITING WITH RON MITA
CONNECT WITH RON MITA
Advertisement – contains affiliate links
(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)
New book from Film Courage! – See it on Payhip here
