A message from Scripts-and-Coverage.com
Scripts-and-Coverage.com went online about two months ago, but we still have few entries posted
other than my own, even though we've had hundreds of sign-ups and hundreds of visitors each day.
So I thought I'd give a little update here, talk about background and intentions of
Scripts-and-Coverage.com, and encourage other members to post.
An untapped resource of ~250,000 screenplays
Every year, 40,000 scripts are registered with the Screenwriters' Guild. Add scripts registered in previous
years, and the scripts never registered (or only with the U.S. Register of Copyrights),
and you have about a quarter million scripts collecting dust in drawers or still floating around in Hollywood.
(Mostly the former.)
There are hundreds of screenplay consultants and professional script readers
out there, making a living writing
ten-thousands of screenplay evaluations each year.
II think this is an awesome resource, for education and entertainment, even if you disregard the 80% or 90% of scripts that
have little or no merit.
Very few spec scripts by newcomers
are turned into movies each year. Check out scriptsales.com and study the deals made each
week. You'll rarely find more than one or two sales by
first-timers during a whole month. Most screenplay deals are adaptions, work-for-hire, or spec sales by established writers.
There are very few "slots" available for a story to become a major Hollywood movie.
So, what happens to the 99.9% of scripts that never get produced? There have to be many great stories among them,
full of imagination and inspiration. Screenplays that took months to write and were refined over several drafts.
If you write novels, you can at least self-publish them and sell them on Amazon or
give copies to your friends and family. With scripts, it's a bit more difficult. Self-publishing hardcopies of
your script is rarely viable, and who would shell out the money
for a hardcopy, shipping, etc. anyway? Also, the market for screenplays is smaller than for novels. It takes some experience
with screenplay format to read the script and envision the movie.
I conceived Scripts-and-Coverage.com as a virtual library where people could upload and download scripts for a small fee.
Screenplay authors could make a bit of money that way – and script lovers could find fresh new material to read. Adding coverage
(optional) could raise interest even in less-than-perfect works.
Scripts and Coverage
Reading a script is always a learning experience, and adding coverage makes it even more so.
You can learn a lot about the craft of screenwriting by studying the script; imagining how an industry professional
would have judged it; then reading the actual evaluation. This provides a much more hands-on learning experience than
reading about screenwriting theory in
books. (Click on the link
to read more about books on screenwriting).
Screenplay consultants aren't a sure-fire way to create a great script, either.
It's helpful to enlist the help of a professional. Most have better
judgement than your screenwriter friends or your mother. But screenplay consultants
are expensive, and you can save a lot of money by getting informed first. As a member of Scripts-and-Coverage.com, you can
download real-life scripts and their professional evaluations.
Posting your own scripts and coverage
Posting your script on Scripts-and-Coverage.com has a lot of advantages. One of them is that industry professionals are, indeed, looking for new material on the internet.
We've had signups and logged frequent visits from major Hollywood studios, agencies, and other entertainment-related
companies. When you post your script on this site, you can be sure that it will receive more attention than
query letter mailings or posting to a board that already offers thousands of works.
Getting your big break, however, should not be the main reason for posting here. The main reason is – you want
your script to be experienced. You've written an above-average script, and even though it did not lead to a movie deal,
you still think it deserves a better fate than lingering in the drawer. By charging a few dollars per download, you
can rest assured that your script will not be downloaded by just anyone. It will be read by an exclusive audience
who truly want to read it.
Scripts-and-Coverage keeps track for you who downloaded your script. Even though
we don't disclose reader's full names, this discourages "stealing."
Talking about "stealing screenplays"...
We've heard often, "great idea, I'd like to post my script on your site, but I'm afraid someone might steal it!"
Here are our thoughts about this issue...
-
Nobody in their right mind would steal a script, whole or in large parts; not after successful multi-million lawsuits like
that around "Jingle All The Way". Buying a newcomer's script is a drop in the bucket compared to the alternative.
-
Hollywood professionals are in the business of discovering new talent and launching new projects – not creating
content themselves. This can be hard to understand for us writers. Our projects are extremely precious
to us – more than, say, a suitcase full of money. We don't feel comfortable leaving something that valuable out in the open. To us,
it would be like leaving the suitcase full of money on the curb. We know that someone would try to steal our script! We read about high-figure deals every day and
believe that our screenplay is worth
$250K, $500K, or even $1,000K.
-
However, to continue the analogy: it's raining money in Hollywood every day. There are a lot of great ideas and stories
floating around. The suitcase on the curb would not attract much attention in the first place. Your great script,
by itself, is worth nothing. It has to be valuable to someone – a person in Hollywood who loves it enough to get things moving. Could be an agent, producer, assistant, contest reader, or maybe a reader on Scripts-and-Coverage.com.
The best thing to find supporters for your script is to give it as much exposure as possible.
- What about this other kind of stealing – nabbing bits and pieces here and there? Everyone knows that ideas can't be
copyrighted.
Here's the deal: Single ideas or
story bits are seriously de-valued. Your great idea about the president hiding dyslexia? It's been written dozens of times
already. Now, if it's part of a brilliant, well-rounded script... chances are, it does become valuable, to the right person
connecting with your story. But ripping off one single idea would not do anyone any good. It would just add the 30th script
about a dyslexic president to the heap of 250,000 scripts floating around Hollywood.
-
If you post your script on Scripts-and-Coverage.com, and
someone connects with your script, it's a good thing. Chances are, you'll get word of mouth on message boards,
writers' circles, and possibly, Hollywood professionals. Surely you've read one of those scripts, or seen a movie, that you found yourself raving about to friends, family, and complete
strangers? This is the power of great stories. Your story needs advocates to "make it".
- Think about "Finding Forrester." Mike Rich collected hundreds of rejections until his script finally got discovered through
the Nicholl's. Why didn't anyone steal his great idea, about the reclusive author connecting with the young black guy? His
idea that was good enough to attract Sean Connery! Go figure...
-
I've never heard about the newcomer who "made it" by cautiously keeping his script in the drawer until he decided to show it
to a small
group of five or six industry executives. Much more prevalent are stories like that of
"Se7en," which was read by hundreds or thousands of people in Hollywood before finally getting made.
Scripts on Scripts-and-Coverage.com
Big disclaimer: In writing the above, I assumed that your script is not extremely amateurish screenplay or a work-in-progress. Those are a dime a dozen and can be downloaded for
free on multiple sites. Nobody would pay $4 to download such a script.
Make sure you've read a couple screenplay books and managed the basic craft, including proper screenplay format,
before posting anything. Your script doesn't have to be perfect! But if you're in doubt if your script has any entertainment value an its own, please make sure you upload
coverage as well.
The future...
We know that Scripts-and-Coverage.com will eventually catch on, and our database will grow to include hundreds or even thousand of
scripts and script evaluations.
Naturally, it will take some time. Right now, most people arrive at this site searching for
screenplay and coverage information. Most of them are more interested in reading than in posting.
What we need
are screenwriters who already have a few screenplays in the drawer, and would be willing to post some of their older works. If you know some of them, please refer them to our site.
If you don't consider posting right now – keep this site in mind as a future channel to gain exposure for your scripts.
About me
Scripts-and-Coverage.com was created by me – Johanna McKnight. I placed in a few screenwriting competitions a couple years ago, mainly CineStory, Austin (second-rounder, twice), and I was a finalist in screenwriterutopia's competition in 2001.
I live in Florida. Currently, I'm not writing screenplays.
I pursued the screenwriting dream for almost two years, determined to make it!
Seminars, books, conferences, contests... I tried it all.
I felt I had found my calling, writing movies and crafting great stories.
I wrote six screenplays. If you want to know why I'm not writing at the moment,
click here.
I keep screenplay submissions strictly confidential. Please join as a full member before submitting
a script to Scripts-and-Coverage.com. This prevents anonymous submissions and helps pay for bandwidth, storage
space, file conversions (as necessary), website promotion etc.
Any questions? Suggestions on how to improve this site? Please drop me a note. Thank you very much!
|
