On Writing : Tough rejections from the past by Victor Sunstar

That's from the olden days before email - return your manuscript?

Essanay Film MFG Co. / Essanay Studios, 1333 W. Argyle St., Chicago, ILL (sic.). “S and A” for the company's founders: Spoor & Anderson. Their "mascot" was a stereotypical Indian Chief in war bonnet. Chaplin made 15 films in their Chicago studios before moving to their location in sunny California.

And of course in the Olden Days, a typed ms represented considerable expense & effort; returning it was a courteous and decent thing to do. Studios these days immediately discard any unsolicited ms without comment.

A.S. I found Chaplin's old studio over by the railroad tracks in Burlingame back in about '76. It was quite a find but I was to dumb in those days to recognize it. There was a small room full of tagged & exposed film cans - they all went to the dump because I didn't know any better.

I did something stupid. I gave away a demo 8 track of "The Who" with songs on it I had never heard and were never released.

If the opening scene in "Inglorious Bastards" is seventeen pages long. How many pages are there in the whole script? I am constantly being told not to go over 110 pages.

Tarantino broke the rules on his very first script. But, as this is theatre and not film, not that George Bernard Shaw rejected against the so-called "Well made play" and neither Moliere nor Shakespeare followed the rules of Aristotle too closely. The gurus who love to make up rules should play sudoku, and leave filmmaking and other arts to the big boys.

Ha! As socrates says, libel is the last resort of he who loses an argument.

In the English language, you often use something called metaphors. If you're offended by the term "big boys" then sorry, but you need to grow up.

Some of my favourite writers are tiny old women, but the gurus who make and promote pointless rules tend to be little boys. It's painful reading the part of "Writers Journey" where he tries to show how Pulp Fiction fits the journey.

I’d suggest nearly all ideas have been done before!

Well Chris, I think you're right in using the word "Nearly". I have a script and a book where members of the modern day British Royal Family are involved in robbery and murder. But the script keeps getting the "Pass" when reviewed. Oops, Royals robbing and murdering, silly me, that's how they got there in the first place. You're right Chris it's all been done before.

Crap number 17 will get me everytime.