Screenwriting

Hi everyone!

I want to apply for freelance script reader jobs (as we all know, the more scripts you read, the better - and if it starts paying even a little bit, well...), but for that I need a couple of coverage samples.

So, I am looking for scripts to read and do free coverage for! Please message me if you'd like to share your work with me, I'd really appreciate it and will come back with a review ASAP.

Thank you in advance! x

Caveat Emptor ~ Buyer Beware

Why Are So Many Wannabe Screenwriters Getting Scammed? by Stephen Galloway

From "pitch fests" to online script coaches, an entire cottage industry has sprung up to help aspiring scribes crack the movie business, and while some offerings are legit, many are schemes designed to prey on the Hollywood dreams of gullible strivers.

A few weeks after Manny Fonseca arrived in Los Angeles in the early part of this decade, having left his native Michigan with the hope of becoming a Hollywood writer or executive, the then 30-year-old was at a party when a producer asked if he’d “like to make a hundred bucks.” Sure, he replied. What would he have to do?

The answer was to show up the next day at a “pitch fest,” one of the dozens of such gatherings each year in which hopefuls pay hundreds of dollars to serve up their story ideas to agents and executives who, in theory, will buy them if they’re good. Fonseca would be there as one of the buyers, which struck him as strange — not only was he not an executive, he didn’t even have a proper job: he had been interning with producers Arnold Kopelson and Irwin Winkler.

“I was completely overwhelmed,” says Fonseca (now a screenwriter whose work has yet to be produced), who was soon invited to other such watering holes on behalf of Kopelson Entertainment. “There were writers that I knew by name because they would literally go to every single pitch fest. There were a couple of people that drove around in their RV. It was like following the Grateful Dead for two or three years straight.”

Pitch fests are part of a multimillion-dollar industry that thrives in a dark corner of the mainstream entertainment business, catering to thousands (and possibly hundreds of thousands) of would-be screenwriters, most of them clueless about how to get their projects made. There are writing festivals, competitions, workshops, websites, extension classes, seminars, script analysts, coaches, and a Writers Store in Burbank (which offers software, books, and a “do-it-yourself MFA”), not to mention rapacious producers and hungry managers, all making money from putative scribes often oblivious to Hollywood reality.

“What I learned — and I know it because I was the one being sent to these things — is you’re sitting there with no power,” says one literary agent. “As an assistant at an agency, you’re not allowed to sign people, and most of the time you’re talking to amateur writers who shouldn’t be repped.”

It would be wrong to dismiss everyone toiling in this ecosystem out of hand. Many have solid credentials (among them writing professors Robert McKee and John Truby, and Black List founder Franklin Leonard); others, however, are schemers eager to hook starry-eyed newcomers.

Pitch fests are a prime target of critics. Having exploded in the 1990s, when the spec script market was at its peak, these gatherings dropped in popularity but appear to be regaining momentum with such deep-pocketed, content-hungry buyers as Netflix and Amazon entering the market. The best known include the Hollywood Pitch Fest, Ken Rotcop’s PitchMart, Virtual Pitchfest, and the Great American PitchFest. Most are based in Los Angeles and New York, but they can also be found in other parts of the U.S. and Canada. Each promises the chance to meet agents, producers, and executives; the reality of many, however, is that the “executives” are usually low-level operatives dispatched by higher-ups to field pitches that usually go nowhere. With no power to spend, these junior-level reps are typically paid a small sum along with perks such as restaurant vouchers.

The agent recalls listening to a typical pitch: “The guy said, ‘I traveled all the way from Minnesota to pitch you a script for this A-level talent, and it’s about a former rock star who ends up on an island, and the movie is him trying to figure out how to get off it.’ Eventually, he digs to the bottom and finds a treasure chest, which was the end of the pitch — and that was one of the more normal ideas.”

Nick Iandolo, a Boston-based aspiring writer, recalls how a positive experience at one fest turned sour. After the weekend-long event, “I felt inspired,” he says, even though he had spent more than $1,000 on his ticket and airfare to L.A. “So I decided to go back. I had written a family holiday adventure and a crime drama, so I’m all psyched: ‘I’m gonna go, and I’m gonna be an exhibitor’ ”— that is, he would purchase a stand where he could display his projects, including a book he had written. Like so many others, he came away empty-handed. “I didn’t sell one book. I was like, ‘My God, how is this possible?’ I’d spent a total of $6,000.”

For those uncomfortable with pitching, there’s a host of other ways to lose money, including a slew of writing competitions. The most legitimate and prestigious of these are run by the Academy; the Nicholl Fellowships are worth $35,000 apiece and are awarded to as many as five new writers each year, often launching their careers. Previous winners include Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich) and Allison Anders (Gas Food Lodging). With other competitions, however, it’s advisable to read the fine print. Even well-intentioned contests can end up having strings attached.

The LAUNCH Screenplay Competition was started with considerable hoopla by two young producers, Jason Shuman (Lone Survivor, Rebel in the Rye) and Zachary Green (Spartan), promising that the winner would have his or her script made with a budget of $1 million, funded by an anonymous donor. Green says their goal was to give student writers a chance to have their voices heard, with their projects read by well-established judges including casting director Barbara Fiorentino, APA agent Chris Ridenhour and director Ali LeRoi. But Green admits he and his partners made a mistake in asking all 25 finalists to grant them a free 18-month option.

The prospect of giving up rights to a script for a year and a half — with no pay — horrified several entrants. But, says Green, “We’ve revised that. It was an admitted overlook on our end. We’ve emailed the finalists to say we’ll negotiate a new option agreement for the screenplays we want to move forward with.” Even so, contestants still have to sign the free option agreement and will have to take him at his word that it will change.

Before submitting to such contests, writers may wish to turn to coaches such as McKee, if they are ready to pay the $850 he charges for a three-day seminar that he now conducts in Los Angeles, New York, and London; he’s held others in Moscow and Beijing.

Then there are freelance script analysts who charge anything from $45 to $2,000 for notes. A writer who moonlighted as an analyst says he got fired by the company that hired him for being too blunt in his verdict. “I had a guy write a sequel to a 1996 movie [F. Gary Gray’s Set It Off],” he recalls. “It was so God-awful. He literally misspelled the main character’s name throughout the script, and he paid for seven pages of notes. Ultimately, I got fired because I did not blow him. The problem is that if you give too-harsh notes or any shred of honesty, that person is probably not going to come back. That hurts the business model. The idea is to hook them.”

Roadmap Writers is one of several companies that provides script analysis and other forms of counsel. Among its offerings are brief telephone consultations with executives who will read the first few pages of a screenplay and chat about it for 15 minutes at a cost of $45 (or $275 for a full hour). Among those offering their insight: two junior managers who have no clients listed on IMDb and a “development assistant” with an independent production company. (Roadmap CEO Joey Tuccio did not respond to a request for comment.)

“Caveat emptor!” warns a fledgling writer.

That also applies to some dubious producers who charge money to get pictures off the ground. One “took my best friend for roughly $28,000 that she never got back,” says Fonseca, adding that many writers end up giving so-called producers money to move a project forward. “It ruined her spirit, and she ultimately left town and ran back to Detroit.”

Iandolo discovered that agents don’t always guarantee success either when he was approached by John W. Benson of the literary agency and lecture bureau B.K. Nelson Inc. “I get a letter in the mail saying, ‘We love your script! We want to represent you at the American Film Market. We just need you to spend a thousand bucks on materials,’ ” he recalls.

In fact, in two separate letters (which THR has reviewed), Benson offered to represent Iandolo at a pitch fest for $395 and at AFM for $995 — even though it’s been illegal for agents to charge fees for securing work since California passed the Krekorian Talent Scam Prevention Act in 2009. Iandolo never reported Benson to authorities and B.K. Nelson Inc. did not respond to an email requesting comment. Its listed telephone numbers no longer work.

That writer got lucky and thought twice before paying Nelson. “I called this friend who’s been dealing with the Hollywood scene and said: ‘Dude, I’m really excited! What do you think?’ ” he recalls. “He was like, ‘Man, this is the biggest scam I’ve ever seen in my entire life!’ ”

Says another agent: “A lot of these things are fairly big scams. They say, ‘This is your only access point, and it will get you connected to the right people if you give us X amount of money.’ ”

Such schemes may be on the wane thanks to online outrage and the arrival of several more transparent internet services that appear to be getting good marks.

One is InkTip, a website that allows writers to post their scripts for a modest fee. Another is Black List, founded by Leonard, a former executive with Universal Pictures who made his name circulating an executives’ poll of the best-unproduced screenplays. Since its inception in 2012, the site claims “it has hosted more than 55,000 screenplays and teleplays and provided more than 85,000 script evaluations.”

Unlike so many of the moving parts in this cottage industry, Black List is well regarded within Hollywood. “We aren’t interested in forcing anybody to work with us in an ongoing way,” says Leonard. “This is simply a means for someone to have their work evaluated and lay bare the fruits of that evaluation to members of the industry, through a reliable intermediary — us.”

Audrey Wells passed away last week.  

Professionally, she is a really great writer, a friend of writers, a lover of cinema, and a great filmmaker.  She is what I call the best of the best of the best.   Personally, she is an amazing woman who supports social justice causes for all: from animals to people to the planet.  Socially and ethically, she champions for the oppressed, and helps women and minorities in cinema and in screenwriting.  She has a  husband and daughter.  Her passing leaves an immense void in all those ways.  

Her peers and admirers have made public statements like "she told stories of people whose voices were underrepresented, particularly women, and often developed female characters who were as complex as they were strong."  Nina Jacobson said “She was such an incredible feminist voice — long before it was fashionable. What Audrey’s work was doing was expanding the depth and complexity of the female characters,  and she gave them the opportunity to be as dimensional as white guys get to be all the time.””

Her scripts, some of which she directed, include The Truth About Cats and Dogs; Guinevere; The Kid; Under the Tuscan Sun; Shall We Dance; A Dog's Purpose; and The Hate U Give.    

I saw The Hate U Give a few nights ago.  It is based on a great novel, and here is a quick summary of it:

"Starr Carter is constantly switching between two worlds -- the poor, mostly black neighborhood where she lives and the wealthy, mostly white prep school that she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is soon shattered when she witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend at the hands of a police officer. Facing pressure from all sides of the community, Starr must find her voice and decide to stand up for what's right."

Man...talk about zeitgeist - that topic is one of the most socially relevant issue in America today, and based on that book, Audrey writes a brilliant script that leaves nearly everyone in the theater sad, frustrated, in tears, angry, hopeless...and hopeful.

An additionally sad element to this brilliant film that is going to win many 2018 film awards is this: Audrey passed away the night before the movie premiered.  

So I see this film the other day, and I read about Audrey's passing the next night.  I go for a long walk in the dark, and reflect on what she means to cinema, and the world, and her friends and family.  And I think about my own life too.  And then I go home and think, "man...if I could be...just a fraction of what she is and who she is....and what she leaves us...I will leave this world a better place, too."  And I walk home hopeful, and start working on one of my scripts, and can;t help but think about her every few minutes, and how her stories and scripts and directed films put hundreds of millions of hours of happiness and hope into the lives of us people who are part of this thing known as The Human Condition.  And I think....how lucky we are to be born in a world where we have the opportunity to make a lasting mark...and how we persevere through our struggles....and how we leave physically....and how we have a chance to always be here in spirit, because we made some lasting marks on those around us personally and on those around us outside of our circle....and I think....isn't this as good as it gets? To give this to others that Audrey gives like Audrey gives - isn't this as good as it gets?

I never knew her personally, and never saw her speak, but always feel like, when someone passes who influences/inspires me, and who leaves that kind of mark on the world...like that person never passes... and ultimately leaves a part of themselves in everyone in that sphere of their life and influence.  That's a reason why I write in the present tense about them, like I have here.  This of course doesn't provide any immediate comfort to those who are personally a part of her life,  and who are now in profound shock, and are shattered by this new emptiness in their lives, and who must absorb the anger, the pain, the sadness and the loss for the rest of their lives. But I, this stranger to Audrey and her family and friends, will always remember her works and her profound efforts for others, and will always be grateful for Audrey Wells.  Thank you for being you, Audrey Wells.  People like you make this world a better place.  

If you have any thoughts about her, or any of her works, or her efforts for women in film and screenwriting, or anything else, please share.  This will eventually make its way to her husband and daughter, and I am sure they will appreciate to read how she touched us cinema lovers, writers and other creatives.  RIP, Audrey Wells.   

Are these two the same or is the protagonist’s want more of a symptom of the protagonist’s “Lie”?

Anyone interested in going to a great festival, consider the risk v. reward of entering this one!?

https://sedonafilmfestival.com/screenplay-competition/

It's the kind of festival I'd like to enter... (if I could!)

bob reynolds - writer/director/producer

Is there a benefit to screenwriters attending the American Film Market? It's virtual this year, and much more affordable, but it seems to really be more for people with finished films.

So when is the webcast on the logline contest and how do we access it??? Is the first one this Friday???

Has anyone out there read, John Truby's 'The Anatomy of Story'? And if yes, how did it help you in your screenwriting?

I just wanted to get some insight about this book before buying.

And could anyone can suggest some other books regarding Storytelling Techniques or how to improve them (not specifically screenwriting).? Here, I'm not talking about 'How to Write a Screenplay' or 'How to Sell it' or 'How to Format' it, I'm talking about the Fundamentals of Storytelling and how to improve my storytelling in general.

Thanks :)

I just got done reading American beauty and honestly I'm actually in tears because I feel so bad for Janie and her boyfriend Ricky. It's such a tragic story.  The mother is a heartless monster. I've never read a script that made me cry. Maybe I'm just a big baby or something?

Are these no longer necessary (or fashionable) in a spec script? Technically, they are editing directions.

Hello All,

I am wondering if anyone has any experience with opengatenow.com or a similar organization. They offer script development and media services, i.e. creating a slide/pitch deck, treatment, poster art, etc... They offer a package deal for these services and in the end, they circulate to their network for potential sales. I know this sounds to good to be true. It's not cheap and you pay monthly for the services. They take nothing on the backend as they are not agents, which I see as a negative.

So my question is has anyone worked with them, or can they recommend similar services.  I'm a writer not a marketing media guy and while I probably could do the media stuff, its not my focus. 

Appreciate any feedback or thoughts. 

Thanks,

joe

Can anyone recommend when to begin scouting for literary agents? I've completed one published book, and three screenplays with ratings in the 'consider' and 'recommend' range.