SCREENWRITING
Hear Your Script Before You Hit “SEND”
July 8, 2008
iScript is a service that provides writers with full audio readings of their screenplays by actors for a cool $225. Send your script and payment, get an mp3 in return. Why? Well, if you don’t read aloud to yourself (as you should, shame on you) then this might be the ticket. You may be a director without time to sit through a table reading. Perhaps you want to allow that potential financier to experience the world of your script without all those tedious words. And perhaps, like the jaunty “handsome exec” in the photo, you just have better things to do with your Prada’d eyes on a Tuesday morning.
It’s silly and infuriating and dead-on useful all at once so it’s bound to be an indispensable hit in this town any day now. I’m waiting for The YouTube Players to sell quick turnaround productions using celebrity doubles. And why not?
As John Stewart said, “Hello non-readers!”
iScript.com. Hearing is Believing
NOTE: A *free* option is to attend Peter Coogan’s ALT.SCREENPLAY Thursday nights at Venice’s Beyond Baroque. Peter’s been hosting these sessions where writers and actors collaborate for several years now. While the group loves documentary writers, all screenwriters and genres are welcome. Sessions resume, after a summer break, in September, 2008.
How to Be a Script Reader and Give Great Coverage
May 6, 2008
I received an email today from someone in New York asking how to become as Script Reader and I thought, “If she wants to know, maybe you want to as well. “
Reading services aren’t just for the big studios, there are directors, actors, producers, investors, and book publishers everywhere who need screenplays evaluated–or “covered”.
Here’s what I told her:
- Read a pile o’ scripts. At least five, preferably more…a lot more. Either mix up genres or not but do choose your favorite movies. You can buy published screenplays but there aren’t too many. This site will start you off: http://www.script-o-rama.com
/snazzy/dircut.html Be sure to choose FILM SCRIPTS and not Transcripts. - Get this book and study: Reading for a Living: How to Be a Professional Story Analyst for Film and Television by Terri Katahn.
- Try your hand. Just Google “coverage sample” and copy someone’s format. The industry standard should be represented.
Extra credit if you brush up your story knowledge with any or all of these: The Reading List @ [[ The Story Spot ]]
Giving good coverage not only requires the ability to understand the mechanics of a screenplay but also the ability to assess the viability of the project from the standpoint of the person hiring you to read. That’s another skill entirely but without it, your opinion means diddly.
Those are the basics of starting out in screenplay coverage as I see it.
Check out my story services at storydoc.fatbrain.ca or click the script pile to the right.
Park City ’08!
January 15, 2008
It’s funtime in the snow once again. If you’re new to THE STORY SPOT, be sure to send a quick hello using the form on the right and/or sign up for the not-so-frequent feed. Remember to mention that you found out about us at Sundance! Happy new year, all.
Good reading and writing (and end of striking) in 2008!
Did I Tell You The One About…?
October 23, 2007
Oh boy. If I had a dime… Here’s a recent posting on Craigslist by a person who seems to think that their ideas are worth something. Wait. Not that they aren’t, they’re just not worth cash money, is all. As the old Hollywood saw goes, “Ideas are a easy, execution is hard.” But I’m sure there are just as many green and eager producers whose shoes just slid off the bus who will pony up for this never-been-seen-before brilliance. I’ve posted full links because who am I to stand in the way of another person’s self-inflated, misguided dream?
Remarkable Stories For Sale – Read This Now
Reply to: sale-457980415@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-10-23, 10:49PM PDTI am an unknown writer from Texas that has developed several plots that are very well thought out and planned. One is character driven and offers an experienced person the chance to really build from where I have developed the story. The other is an amazing plot for life in the big city and also how small it can be at the same time. I have three stories developed but I just do not feel prolific enough to get them done right.
So here it goes. I am offering them up for sale. If it is meant for me to become a writer then it will happen with some other story down the road. Two of these stories are adaptable to screen or television for serial story telling.
Yeah, I am green and don’t know the business but I know that if I sign on the dotted line someone is getting some great ideas without my name attached and you get complete ownership and creativity credit…I was never attached to it.
Take a chance…I really have something here.
- Location: Los Angeles
- it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
PostingID: 457980415