Before I write this section, I want to just state that I am not a lawyer and there are a lot of issues about optioning scripts, buying scripts and intellectual material that could be an entire website in itself. Be safe; call a lawyer to find out the details you need to protect yourself. I am not legally responsible for what I put up here and this is not legal advice, just some dumb-ass, know-it-all, short-filmmaker’s humble opinion.
There are lots of places to find good scripts.
If you don’t write, start with asking around to your friends who write.
Even if they only write poems or short stories, these can be converted to scripts. My first project was pulled from a short story. I asked my friend to convert her short story into a script and it came out great.
There are websites that provide scripts that you can download and read. If you like a script, go back and ask the writer if you can buy the project. You don’t need to spend a lot, but you should hand over a nominal fee to make the sale legitimate, and both of you should sign the proper forms to confirm the sale.
You can skip the optioning phase with shorts unless there is competition for the story or you do not plan on shooting for a while. Again, there should be a nominal payment to make the option legitimate (I have a friend who options feature scripts for $1) and consult a lawyer on the paperwork.
By the way, “Optioning” means that you (the producer) are making an agreement with the writer that you are the only one who can produce the script for a particular amount of time (like 2 years). It is mostly used with features scripts because features can be difficult and time consuming to get off the ground and most producers don’t want to do 2 years of work to find out that the script was sold yesterday. They also don’t want to flat out buy the script because that’s usually much more expensive than an option, and the writer doesn’t want to flat out sell the script because it could then end up on a shelf for all of eternity.
But in the case of short films, I believe optioning is usually an unnecessary step and that a producer should go strait to the purchase.
