Hey Rockstars,
As a writer with 20+ years of experience, I can confidently say that I've stacked enough wins in the industry to be considered objectively successful.
I've been a semifinalist in Nicholl. Made the Blacklist in 2015. Sold a pitch to Shivhnas in 2018, and was paid to write the feature. I've also been repped by WME, UTA, and Kaplan/Perrone.
And yet, I've never had the satisfaction of seeing any of my stories play out on the big screen.
Truth is, as unestablished writers, we're all basically chasing the same thing -- coverage recommends, competition advancement, and representation.
We write and write and write, torturing ourselves even though we know that original spec scripts are extremely hard to sell.
And what happens after the script's window of relevance closes? It disappears forever, collecting dust on our harddrives and dashboards.
Which is why I'm starting a YouTube channel and podcast where I read aloud some of the scripts I've written over the years.
Why let a few anonymous competition readers or industry gatekeepers determine if a story should live or die?
Every story deserves an audience, right?
So, my question for the community is -- would you be interested in listening to someone read a script, or is the format too hard to digest? I mean, would a casual listener be bored by sluglines and straightforward prose?
Or do you think that it is better to adapt a screenplay into episodic narrative fiction?
I've searched around to see if anyone else is doing this type of thing, and I've come up empty.
What are your thoughts?
Matt
Personally, I don't like being read a script. A few years back an online site did a table read of an animated feature of mine. It did nothing to create any buzz (as I recall they had a large following - probably made up of other writers).The energy seems to hit a brick wall when someone reads the action lines and scene headers; but that's just me. I know others love it and I am not saying it's a bad idea you have. When I want to give my scripts a second life I usually do a rewrite and change the title (if its been kicking around a few years). I think a casual listener might be bored after a while with the headers and action lines, but since you are reading your own scripts, I suggest reading them in the tones of the scenes - excited action line reading for action scenes - ominious for the dark scenes - act the whole thing out and keep the listener engaged and keep the pace moving - which, I think is the most important thing.
Certainly, adapt them if the target demographic is people outside of the business.
I agree with the issue of scene heading and character name fatigue.
I used to be an actor and I tried a few different reading styles as a test-- I even bored myself!
I think adapting the scripts may be fun, anyway. I'd get to tell, not show, for a change. And I'd get to punch up some of the older material.
Curious about the copyright side of things, though. I have my scripts WGA registered and copyrighted, but, texhnically, that only protects the draft you got the copyright on.
In the end, your scripts are reg. with WGA and are copyright. If you read the script online and down the road someone is turning it into a movie, the copyright will still protect you. Also, you should put a notice on each podcast that the work being presented is under copyright and appears here for entertainment purposes only.
That's the plan.
i already put the legal disclaimers on my title pages with a watermark on each page.
I do appreciate script revolution putting a legal disclaimer on all material automatically, too.
I gotta say-- coverfly's demise may be the best thing to happen to writers in a long time. It broke the dopamine cycle.