Got another job offer today. And here's the funny part - are you ready for this? - just get ready cause it's really funny - it's at the same place I used to work two years ago. HAHAHAHAHA! Isn't that hilarious! Hmmm, you don't seem to be finding this as ironic as I do. Anyway, I should clarify, it's not really the same company. It's the company who bought the building after the company I worked for shut down. Several of my former coworkers are now there, and one of them contacted me about this job. So I'm happy, grateful, looking forward with hope, but also a little jumpy, disturbed, and gun shy. Why? I was treated so horribly by the last employer (see earlier posts) that unfortunately they have now colored my whole career world and it ain't a pretty color. I have been repeatedly assured by friends working at this new place, though, that it's a great place. So I'm feeling better, coming out of the blahs and depressions.
I've been able to get some revision done this week by basically forcing myself to get in there and do it. I've been so down, and I just kept telling myself I had to pull out of it, do something proactive. It's funny how once I actually get myself to stop and write, I fall right out of my world and into theirs.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Coverage
Okay, so you get done with a screenplay, possibly the first you've ever written, and you're dying to know what everybody thinks of it. You want an opinion. You want to hear great things. What do you do?
Option 1 - Let some family and friends read it.
This one is often trotted out there by various websites, books, blogs, magazines, winos, etc. But this one only works to a very limited extent. Do you have any family and friends who are familiar with screenplay structure? Most people don't. Uncle Bob may be a great plumber and a nice guy, but he don't know jack about writing. Another problem, and I ran into this one myself, is finding the right Uncle Bob for the right genre. I handed my first screenplay to my spouse and to a friend and I got basically some mumbling in return. At first I thought it must have really stunk the place up and they didn't want to tell me, but after it did well in a contest against 4000 other entries, I started wondering. It finally hit me that my spouse likes blow-em-up action, and my friend likes mystery. My script was neither of these. About the only possibility in this freebie category is to wrangle a teacher or professor into reading it for you, someone who knows something about writing, like an English or drama sort.
Option 2 - Professional coverage.
There are a million of these, and many people snort at the idea and say things like, "Yeah, they said something nice about your script? Well what did you expect them to say for $100 and the hope of return business. Idiot." I tend to think they can be helpful and are usually pretty honest. Scriptshark for example says that they only give a 'recommend' to about 5%, and this would make sense since those scripts then go to their online marketplace where their contacts expect to find the cream of the crop, not the crap of the crud. I have personally used two, Hollywoodlitsales.com and Keil Troisi at Scriptproof.com. Both of them read the same script. I thought that it was very telling and a testament to their honesty that the one who read the earliest verion, before lots of revision, gave it a harder grade and more tongue-lashing than the one who read it after lots of revision. That one reflected the improvements in a higher score.
This guy was recommended in a forum discussion, http://sixtybucknotes.blogspot.com/, reported to be a former head reader for Miramax. If anybody has tried him, I would be interested in hearing what you thought.
As I've mentioned before, I plan on taunting the Shark as soon as I finish revisions. The cost is kinda steep for a still-unemployed-and-desperately-trying-to-find-a-job-while-waiting-on-unemployment-to-decide-if-I-qualify wretch, but if it can make it to their marketplace, who knows. Do they have coupons?
Option 1 - Let some family and friends read it.
This one is often trotted out there by various websites, books, blogs, magazines, winos, etc. But this one only works to a very limited extent. Do you have any family and friends who are familiar with screenplay structure? Most people don't. Uncle Bob may be a great plumber and a nice guy, but he don't know jack about writing. Another problem, and I ran into this one myself, is finding the right Uncle Bob for the right genre. I handed my first screenplay to my spouse and to a friend and I got basically some mumbling in return. At first I thought it must have really stunk the place up and they didn't want to tell me, but after it did well in a contest against 4000 other entries, I started wondering. It finally hit me that my spouse likes blow-em-up action, and my friend likes mystery. My script was neither of these. About the only possibility in this freebie category is to wrangle a teacher or professor into reading it for you, someone who knows something about writing, like an English or drama sort.
Option 2 - Professional coverage.
There are a million of these, and many people snort at the idea and say things like, "Yeah, they said something nice about your script? Well what did you expect them to say for $100 and the hope of return business. Idiot." I tend to think they can be helpful and are usually pretty honest. Scriptshark for example says that they only give a 'recommend' to about 5%, and this would make sense since those scripts then go to their online marketplace where their contacts expect to find the cream of the crop, not the crap of the crud. I have personally used two, Hollywoodlitsales.com and Keil Troisi at Scriptproof.com. Both of them read the same script. I thought that it was very telling and a testament to their honesty that the one who read the earliest verion, before lots of revision, gave it a harder grade and more tongue-lashing than the one who read it after lots of revision. That one reflected the improvements in a higher score.
This guy was recommended in a forum discussion, http://sixtybucknotes.blogspot.com/, reported to be a former head reader for Miramax. If anybody has tried him, I would be interested in hearing what you thought.
As I've mentioned before, I plan on taunting the Shark as soon as I finish revisions. The cost is kinda steep for a still-unemployed-and-desperately-trying-to-find-a-job-while-waiting-on-unemployment-to-decide-if-I-qualify wretch, but if it can make it to their marketplace, who knows. Do they have coupons?
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