*“How to Write a Christmas Movie”*

I have long been a writer, but one project has eluded me thus far: A Hallmark Style Christmas Movie Script. Will this be the year?

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I have always been a writer. In addition to my corporate executive and production jobs over the years, I never stopped writing: books, blogs, web content, video & podcast scripts, and so much more. But for someone who consumes more content and movies than most, one project has eluded me thus far: A Christmas Script.

You know those corny Hallmark/ Lifetime / Netflix type Holiday movies? I have watched many of them, even as they progressively got worse and more outrageous, and studios can’t stop making them - they get views and are cheap to make. The formula is somehow comforting in its predictability, and I personally leave them running in the background around the holidays like a dull festive hum. I wrote about watching a bunch for “research” a few years back (Shouts & Scripts: The Christmas Prince(s)) and the article still gets heavy traffic both here on this blog, my newsletter, and on my old Medium page. So I am not alone. Face it, you always want to see someone return to a small town from the big city, where hijinks are abound. It’s Christmas crack / craic.

Needless to say, I have ideas for various plots and scripts. I have stacks of notebooks where I keep my ideas, and I think this may be the year to tackle them. So after reading some articles of other screenwriters, producers, and random folks who sold their projects (more than you think would), I thought I should step it up an watch a course or two. Last year it was Story Summit’s “How to Write A Christmas Movie” , and this year is was Stage32’s “Write A Christmas Script You Can Sell” (I also saw plenty more, like ProPath Screenwriting and more, but they were wildly expensive). And while Hollywood certainly has been struggling over the past four years, the content machine is hungry for cheaper, niche content (like Christmas stories or romance novels) they will likely film in Canada year round, so shoot your shot - both scripts and books (Publishers like Hallmark regularly ask for writer pitches on Christmas and more). If you need some encouragement, these folks were in some of the courses - so while I won’t share the details of their courses, that wouldn’t be cool, I will share some general notes, they can also be found in articles and on podcasts talking about this topic - check out their IMDB pages for more information:

John Burd (Producer of multiple Christmas films) suggested Spring pitches to both producers or at pitchfests, when companies are buying scripts. WGA) certainly get paid more + residuals, but Christmas scripts are a good way to get your foot in the door for non-union writers, especially with so many networks buying. Main story rules for this genre: Female driven, romance, escapism, and must have characters with empathize or care about. Keep low budget, 7-15 speaking parts with minimal locations, and script length ideally 90-100 pages.
Karen Schaler wrote the popular Netflix movie “A Christmas Prince” with no real prior experience, and blind pitched it to producers she found handled similar content via her IMDb Pro account. She talks about her experience often, so you can like find clips of her talking all over the internet. Looking at IMDB, it looks like another screenwriter helped brush it up as well. She still writes on this subject, and recommended that writers retain book rights when they sell their script (in case they want to write a book adaptation after, which also sell).
Rick Garman specializes in holiday romcom movies and has written 17 (!!!) Christmas movies. He has taught a few workshops so I suspect there will be another by him this year, for which he follows a detailed formula that works for this genre.

Brad Krevoy (producer of over 75 Christmas movies) says when he evaluates a project, it’s always about the idea which must be easy to explain and market (you can practice this through your logline and pitch)

Jeff Arch (writer) says the biggest problem he sees with scripts is that the writer isn’t clear about what they’re writing. He advises writers to create a logline (a one-sentence description of the story, like Brad said above) to help them focus and to use as a pitch.
Spyder Dobrofsky (screenwriter and producer) wrote one-page treatments for all the projects he’s pitched, and he keeps 10-15 ideas in his pocket in preparation for any producer meetings.

Networks buying Christmas stories include: Hallmark, Lifestyle, Netflix, Hulu, Starz, Freeform, OWN, BET, Tubi, Roku, GAC Family, Ion Television and more.

Good luck, start writing and have fun!

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