The Sales Dossier: Give Strength To your Script
The competition in the audiovisual market, specifically in the world of cinema and fiction series, is very high. For the authors, giving out their scripts is an arduous task, especially for those with less background and experience. In this post, we will talk about the sales dossier, an indispensable tool to add assets to your project. A fundamental help for your script to come true.
As a screenwriter, make your work get to production companies capable of turning it into reality is quite complicated. The offer of scripts is far superior to the demand of an industry that, despite living one of its best moments (on the big screen, but especially in television and multiplatform), is saturated with jobs, ideas and projects.
Differentiate your work is essential. It is very possible that the script that you just finished already means a work of a lot of quality, original and very interesting, but it will be nothing if you do not get the interested parties to read it. For this, the sales dossier is almost indispensable support. So let’s try to specify its content and its usefulness.
The sales dossier is also sometimes known as a production dossier. The difference between any of them lies, fundamentally, in the state in which your project is and the team committed around it. What does this mean? Basically, if you are a screenwriter who has just put the end to your script, a sales dossier will be very useful. But, at the other end of the process, if you have already sold your script to a producer, you have part of the technical and artistic team involved and very advanced production plans, a sales dossier is still as necessary.
In essence, the sales dossier has to help producers, investors, artistic team or technical team join your project. A document that, as its name suggests, will help you sell your work.
Creativity. Lots of creativity
Before we start analyzing what are the interest containing for your sales dossier, let’s start with the end: the container and form.
Although the scripts have a very specific format, the sales dossier is a much more creative document, which offers you the possibility of differentiating yourself through its design and aesthetics.
The producers receive many dossiers in their search for material, so yours will go unnoticed if it does not have something that makes it different and attractive to read. If you have skills for graphic design and layout, nobody better than you can do it. But if not, putting this job in the hands of professionals will be a great investment.
And how to differentiate? Try to create a coherence relationship between the design of your dossier and your script.
Let’s go with an example. The agency User T38 was in charge of the design and art of the feature film Automómata (Gabe Ibáñez, 2014) and among many other works, also of the sales dossiers. Adapting them as the production progressed, the concept is in perfect harmony with the plot of the film: the dossier simulates being an instruction manual for a robot.
Do you have a horror movie? Bet on a dark design, with traces of blood between its leaves. A movie about ancient Egypt? Simulate that it is an old papyrus. A family comedy of entanglements? You can make it look like a photo or a souvenir album.
In short, put all your creativity into action. The more original (and coherent) the dossier is, the more likely you won’t be picking up dust on a shelf or from the bottom of a drawer.
Content
What to include in your sales dossier? Your document must contain all relevant aspects related to production and technical issues. Think, as we have already said, that there is no dogma when it comes to classifying or nourishing your dossier, so there are probably issues that are not important for your script and others that do. But above all, everything will depend on the status of your project and to whom the document is addressed.
- File. Name of the film, duration, format, author, production companies involved, subsidies received … The most technical and essential aspects.
- Synopsis I usually bet on a brief synopsis at the beginning, like a hook (as a logline might be worth) and a more extensive or detailed one. You have HERE an excellent article of FilmLab on how to make the perfect synopsis. Tell your story clearly and concisely. And if you have a grand finale with a screenplay worthy of Goya award, suggest it but do not include it. The purpose of the sales dossier is to sell your script, that is, to awaken interest in reading that script. Let it be there where they discover it.
- Characters. They are the engines of your story, so devote a section to them. Their psychological descriptions, their motivations, some visual reference… What makes them different, attractive and interesting.
Here I leave another example. The sales dossier of my feature film Riada (initially called Olvido) simulates being a classified file of the 50s, since it is a thriller set in the flood of Valencia in 1957. The two main characters are outlined as old police files.
- Context. Historical or geographical information in which your story is framed. The race riots in Detroit of 1967, a lost island of the Pacific famous for its enigmatic statues, the mansion of a wealthy businessman… It situates the how and the when as context as long as they suppose a differentiating element. You will help the reader to frame the story and to get a general idea of the project.
- Locations. Part of the plot takes place in the Retiro Park in Madrid? Include it. Does the action take place in the palm grove of Elche? Let see it. All visual references and locations through photographs help to situate the story and get an idea about filming and production issues.
- Equipment. As long as you have the technical and artistic team committed and involved, you must include it in your dossier. Producers want to know who are they going to work with!
Another example. Fishbone is the next film by director Adán Aliaga, which will be released in 2018. The action takes place halfway between the islands of Manhattan and Tabarca. His sales dossier evokes the magic and mysticism of the sea, the environment and nature, themes of the film. The document includes references to the cast and the director.
- Others. We keep insisting: leave space for everything that you consider interesting and differentiating in your project. If it is already under development, you may want to include a section for the budget and financing, the production and filming plan, the marketing plan…
Give diffusion to your dossier
To conclude, always think about who is going to read your dossier. Adapt it if you are sending it to a production company, a sound technician or an actor’s representation agency.
A tip, both for the dossier and for the script: do not send it if you have not asked for it. If you want to contact a producer, send them a brief email first, telling them that you have the finished script of a movie that -insert your logline here- and that you would be happy to send them the sales dossier or any information that might interest them. Unfortunately for the writers, the producers are tired of receiving material and many of them already warn that they discard all the material that arrives without prior request.
And remember: differentiate yourself. Investing in getting an attractive sales dossier will give wings to your script and increase the chances of your text reaching the right hands. Cheer up!
* The outstanding image that accompanies this post belongs to the sales dossier of the Colombian short film “Agri = dulce” and is the work of Bryan Medina.
