Archive for Getting started
For once, writing suspicions were not confirmed!
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In his column in the Monclair Patch, Peter Gerstenzang wrote about all the junk mail he’s received lately. He says,
Admittedly, some of these come-ons are tempting. Like the email from a place called “Screenwriting U” which guarantees that, in six online classes, I’ll learn to write a really funny comedy script. Or, barring that, something perfect for Adam Sandler. ‘S.U.’ also claims that “90″ producers will read the finished screenplay I ultimately hand in. In other words, 90 more producers than read “New Year’s Eve” before it got the go-ahead. And yes, it’s making the University of Phoenix’s Degree in Screenwriting look more and more appealing.
Ninety producers. Oh boy, that set the old alarm bells ringing, so I took a little trip over to screenwritingu.com and found the “New 10 Commandments of Writing Screenplays.” Actually, most of them were the old commandments of screenwriting, like “Entertain us…or it’s over!” Also “turn cliches into fresh ideas,” I seem to remember hearing that before. But, to be fair, at least they were all reasonable.
I came prepared to scoff but actually their courses seem pretty good and have had the endorsement of a number of publications. I didn’t spot the 90 producers reference, either, but they’ve probably had that many producers read one script or another, they’re not promising that each script will be read by that number.
There are a lot of scam artists who tell new writers they can get their material read by “important producers.” If you ask them to name a few, they say it’s all confidential. Ask them whether their previous students or clients have had success and they’ll name movies you never heard of–possibly because they don’t exist. Or, in America, they may say “they were produced for the European market,” knowing that few people, if any, will ever check further.
In the case of Screenwriting U, fortunately, suspicions were not confirmed, but in general you do have to be careful. I’ve been a sucker, er, a trusting soul, way too often myself, so this warning comes not from generic cynicism but from painful experience! The bottom line: ask questions, lots of questions. Scamsters don’t like that and all but the very best will give themselves away under persistent questioning.
If you’re not considering this way to get money for your film–you should be!
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I’ve written before about Kickstarter, a site that makes it easy for writers, producers, musicians, designers and others to raise money in advance via crowdfunding. You describe your proposed project on the site and list what you will give people if they send in varying amount of money. If you’re writing a book, for something like $15 you promise to send them the book, for $20 you send them an autographed copy, for $50 you list them in the acknowledgment, for $100 you give them ten copies of the book to distribute to their friends, etc.
You specify the amount you want to raise and the time within which you want to do it (e.g., 60 days). If you don’t reach your amount, the whole thing is cancelled. If you go over the amount, that’s fine. Lots of projects are looking for $500 to $15,000 or so, but there are also some that are much bigger–or become much bigger. Here is what John McDermott wrote about this recently on wire.Inc.com, a service of Inc. magazine:
Game developer Double Fine broke a record for the fund-raising site yesterday, raising $400,000 injust eight hours, reported TechCrunch.
About $300,000 was intended to go to developing the point-and-click adventure game—a genre that most publishers wouldn’t consider producing—while the remaining $100,000 was to fund a documentary about the game’s production, TechCrunch reports. Double Fine had asked for $15 from supporters in return for access to both the game and film.
Then the donations kept rolling in: Double Fine has so far raised more than $1.4 million from almost 39,000 backers.
Separately, Kickstarter keeps expanding its reputation as a reliable funding source for aspiring filmmakers: 17 films at the Sundance Film Festival received money via Kickstarter, the Kickstarter blog reported. Among them was “Indie Game: The Movie”, a documentary about independent video game producers that has been optioned by HBO for television redistribution and walked away with the World Cinema Documentary Editing Award.
If you have a great idea but need funding, consider Kickstarter or other crowdfunding sites (just search for “crowdfunding”), it may be the solution you’re looking for. If you’re a screenwriter and don’t want to direct, find a director whose work you like, and/or a producer, and suggest you work together to raise the money this way.
What’s NOT stopping you from writing your screenplay
Posted by: | CommentsI have a hunch these are NOT what’s stopping you from writing your screenplay:
* You don’t have any ideas
* You don’t understand the basics of screenwriting
* You have a fear of success
I think maybe one or more of these IS what’s stopping you:
* Procrastination
* Too many ideas
* Writing blocks
* Not enough time
* No support from family and friends
If I’m right, the WRITING BREAKTHROUGH STRATEGY program is what you need in order to write the screenplay you know is in you. Here’s a little (one minute) overview of what it gives you. If you want to find out more or sign up, go to: www.WritingBreakthroughStrategy.com. But hurry, because it starts on Monday, January 16!
