Obviously, it depends on the nature of the expert. People who are experts for a living expect to get paid. But if you simply need someone to give first hand accounts of what a time and place were like, or some details of life in a certain profession, you can often help things in your approach. It helps to find someone through personal means--a friend of a friend, etc. I've found that simply saying, "I want to get the details of X right. Could I buy you dinner and pick your brain?" It's a good faith gesture, first of all. Secondly, many people are flattered to have their life experience treated as expertise or simply want to see something close to them represented accurately. And perhaps most of all, it gives them sense of scale as to their contribution. You're writing for months on spec; what you need from them is forty five minutes. Again, though, this sort of experience doesn't apply to things you'd really need to option or the sort of expertise that would inform three quarters of the action in your script.

It really helps if you know the person, too. For instance I'm researching the modern military for a story right now. One of my friends from high school has been to Iraq and Afghanistan with the Corps multiple times. He's coming over for dinner and beers and a digitally recorded interview. It's a nice tradeoff.

As someone who likes to consider himself an expert in a highly technical field (supercomputers and computational science), here's my 2 cents: First thing: there are just as many crazies, assholes and egomaniacs in Silicon Valley and academia are there are in Hollywood. Trust me: http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=297 Second, two things drive us nuts: i) the wrong look. ii) the wrong tech. One of my biggest gripes about computer use in a movie is the fact that it very rarely looks right. The Matrix movies got things right, as did Jurassic Park. But when the art department goes nuts, say in a movie like Hackers or Crackers, it's annoying. Here's the thing: most tech companies will be happy to help during production, as they get what amounts to a product placement. the 2nd one is a little more complicated. Let's be honest, most screenwriters have a "limited" understanding of science, so it can be difficult to get something plausible. I read one script where the characters were accelerating light. Good Will Hunting does a good job of representing the math, and of the world of pro math, to some extent. otoh, there are well known tropes, such as hyperspace and FTL travel, that are so engrained they can taken for granted. At the end of the day, the fact that it's impossible to build a light saber with the properties it has in Star Wars, doesn't detract one bit. I, for one, believe that there are many great stories in science and engineering that would make *great* movies, such as the argument between Einstein and Bohr about Quantum Mechanics, or the building of the SR-71 Blackbird.

That post rambled, to say the least. What I really meant to say is this: unless you have a really good relation with the expert in question, if you need expert advice you should approach organizations first, rather than individuals. Many organizations, from companies such as IBM and Dell, to the armed forces, all the way to museums and high end universities, have departments to deal with media inquiries and are used to dealing with screenwriters, location scouts, producers, etc... The other way to go, particularly when you need to deal with technical issues, is just to visit a bulletin board that specializes in the issue you're interested in. A lot of the time, people are happy to share knowledge, and educate noobs. However, if you can avoid it, don't mention that you're writing a script. Many smaller orgs will simply ignore your emails if they know. You might need to get ethically creative in those cases.

Thanks for the suggestions, Amos, Nick and pliny. Pliny, you might be interested in a book I reviewed for the Journal of Screenwriting.

Of course, regarding The Social Network, Trigger Street Productions had the rights to The Accidental Billionaires before the book was even finished. They've worked closely with Mezrich since making 21 (they also have the rights to a couple of his others). The book was in the mind of the producers before they talked to anyone, including Sorkin - but research is tricky in that example...because both the book and the movie took liberties with the truth. But I guess the lesson to be learned there is that it may be worth cultivating a relationship with an expert, because they may be able to help you out at multiple points in your career. Or maybe it's to not sweat the details, use research to get a foundation and then let story take the lead. I'm not sure!

I think one has to be careful about getting too much detail- you can get too close. I used to work in advertising and would always wince at the way it was portrayed. Everyone else thought it was great - that's what they 'wanted' it to be like. And they were the audience. Wherever possible I do my own research, that way I know that I'm not getting such an 'inside' view of the subject that it only rings true to insiders. Unless the point of the movie is to tell people that the 'thing' isn't the way they thought it was, stick to easily digestible research.

The problem with experts can be that they do not tell you what you need to know because they don't know you well enough. Like when I asked an antique expert about falery and and a cop about how to escape. Some things they don't tell just anybody, and some things they won't tell you because you claim you are a screenwriter either.

Respectfully, this is the wrong way to approach an expert. Do some preparation, and learn enough basic stuff, so that you're in a position to ask specific questions, which is really the way to use an expert. This will do two things: first it will show that you care enough to respect the expert and their precious time. Secondly, it will focus your own time and efforts. With the current rash of forensic procedurals on TV, a good crop of books, written specifically for novelists and screenwriters, have appeared on the market. Also, there's a magazine called the Forensic Examiner, that I picked up at Barnes & Noble, that points to a lot of resources that could be used by a screenwriter. They're running a conference in October. Not suggesting you go, but you might want to look at the schedules to see just how broad their agenda is, and what topics they're covering this year: http://thenationalconference.com/schedule/

Thanks, Scott! And everyone who chimed in. Gives me some good ideas on how to approach research.