Can we just upload a rewritten full length script? What is the point of wasting a writer's time with treatments, character proposals, etc....why not just give us the option of uploading our best effort at a rewrite and let us be done with it?? Who cares about academic analysis, proposals and critiques - we write stories. Narratives are entirely, completely, utterly different from:
"Describe changes you’d make to the characters, including changes to the characters’ arcs, their backstory and their relationship to one another. Make sure to discuss new characters you’d add or existing characters you’d remove."
That's not a script.
Who cares about this silly nonsense?? Let us write. Stories. Dialogue. Not book reports. We're busy.
It's unprofessional to do a rewrite on spec. No serious screenwriter would ever do it (unless they're being exploited by a disreputable producer). Amazon is being decent here and treating screenwriters like professionals. Your great calling card script (you have one, right?) is your resume. That's your proof that you can deliver on great writing, great characters, great dialogue. Your pitch is your job interview. You don't just show up for a job and do it for a couple of months hoping someone will decide to hire you. No one with any degree of respect for their own career would do such a thing.
"a couple of months"?? to REWRITE this script??? It should take a few days. Then we can move on and write our own.
"Your great calling card script (you have one, right?)" No. And if the best Amazon's come up with so far are 12 Princesses and Facebook Dead - no one else here does either.
"It's unprofessional to do a rewrite on spec." What are you talking about? Spending time writing a book report about an as of yet unwritten script so you can hit the upload button - before being paid - is unprofessional. No one is being paid for Writing Proposals.
This process needs to be simple and straightforward. Not jurisprudence. No one logging on here should have to wade through "Assignment Details..."
Amazon is not going to be able to lift dialogue and cool characters out of a genuinely amazing script. Those they have now are complete disasters. They will be out of business if they cannot make this clear and straightforward.
The general idea is: "Our script sucks, rewrite it, there's cash if we decide if what you've done is worth paying you."
"No one with any degree of respect for their own career would do such a thing." Huh?? The Nicholls Fellowship receives tens of THOUSANDS of scripts for which writers PAY ($30) to submit - without "writing proposals," "writing teams," "Assignment Details," or any of the unpaid time consuming forum generating garbage here. The Nicholls only pays 30k
Amazon doesn't need to look for "Professionals" they need to make this very, very clear and simple: rewrite this piece of junk, get paid.
"To be considered, you must submit a Writer’s Proposal detailing how you’d like to approach the rewrite of this script."
100% of what that's asking for is NOT a script. It is not dialogue or story. That is ALL they should be concerned with. What they're asking for now is producers talking to producers. The point is to obtain a script. There ought to be a submit button for "Hey look at this, it's better than what you've got." That's a deal compared to the Nicholls.
Deadline May 15, 30k reward. Send it here.
If you dont want to do the pitching with the procedure they are asking us then just dont do it, they are not forcing you as they also offer you to give them your script and after 45 days they can pay you if they want to keep it, so go ahead and do the other option they are giving us, otherwise stop complaining cause it wont get you anywhere in life if thats all you want to do.
LOL
[the other option isn't a quick rewrite]
Did I say it is a quick rewrite?, no I didnt, you keep saying that you are really busy, well if you are busy that means that you have work and that you are writing scripts, if not then why are you even here? what writers do is to have 2 jobs, 1 of them is writing and the other one a day job cause we are not famous like J. K. Rowling or Joss Whedon, we need to have some income as we keep writing, and the other option is to submit your own script which is kind of the job of any writer, rewrites are extra jobs that help us but not the same thing as submitting your own idea.
If they like most of your proposal, they might give a few notes or suggestions for your rewrite.
Eric, While I get what you're thinking (ie. since to write the proposal you basically have to have you're own version of the script done (at least in your head) [most would probably just have an outline written]).
But the truth is, it's way easier to read 3-5 pages of synopsis to see if the story seems to be interesting/ on track; rather then a 90+ page script. Granted, they may miss some great dialogue that way, but that's just how it goes.
To do a rewrite properly does not take "a couple of days." If you think that, you are not ready for prime time. Doing a rewrite is assumed to be just as much work as doing an original script.
You don't seem to understand how screenwriting works as a career. This is how it's done. When there's an open assignment, multiple screenwriters are invited to PITCH how they would approach a rewrite. What you are amateurishly calling a "book report" is the content of a typical pitch. If you do not understand this procedure, or do not like it, you will never work in Hollywood. Sorry, but that's just the reality of the situation. Hollywood almost never buys original specs. Most of a screenwriting career involves pitching for open assignments. You do not do those rewrites on spec because YOU DON'T OWN THE RIGHTS to those scripts, and thus could never shop around the script you wrote if it didn't sell.
If you want to spend your time writing an entire script on spec, make sure it's your OWN script, based on your own idea. Knock it out of the park, and you've got a calling card script you can shop around and (if you're really lucky) you can sell it, or at least you can use it to get the opportunity to pitch for open assignments. Otherwise, don't do the work if you aren't getting paid to do it. That's what separates the serious writers from the wannabe-hobbyists.
To do a rewrite properly does not take "a couple of days." If you think that, you are not ready for prime time. Doing a rewrite is assumed to be just as much work as doing an original script.
You don't seem to understand how screenwriting works as a career. This is how it's done. When there's an open assignment, multiple screenwriters are invited to PITCH how they would approach a rewrite. What you are amateurishly calling a "book report" is the content of a typical pitch. If you do not understand this procedure, or do not like it, you will never work in Hollywood. Sorry, but that's just the reality of the situation. Hollywood almost never buys original specs. Most of a screenwriting career involves pitching for open assignments. You do not do those rewrites on spec because YOU DON'T OWN THE RIGHTS to those scripts, and thus could never shop around the script you wrote if it didn't sell.
If you want to spend your time writing an entire script on spec, make sure it's your OWN script, based on your own idea. Knock it out of the park, and you've got a calling card script you can shop around and (if you're really lucky) you can sell it, or at least you can use it to get the opportunity to pitch for open assignments. Otherwise, don't do the work if you aren't getting paid to do it. That's what separates the serious writers from the wannabe-hobbyists.
To do a rewrite properly does not take "a couple of days." If you think that, you are not ready for prime time. Doing a rewrite is assumed to be just as much work as doing an original script.
You don't seem to understand how screenwriting works as a career. This is how it's done. When there's an open assignment, multiple screenwriters are invited to PITCH how they would approach a rewrite. What you are amateurishly calling a "book report" is the content of a typical pitch. If you do not understand this procedure, or do not like it, you will never work in Hollywood. Sorry, but that's just the reality of the situation. Hollywood almost never buys original specs. Most of a screenwriting career involves pitching for open assignments. You do not do those rewrites on spec because YOU DON'T OWN THE RIGHTS to those scripts, and thus could never shop around the script you wrote if it didn't sell.
If you want to spend your time writing an entire script on spec, make sure it's your OWN script, based on your own idea. Knock it out of the park, and you've got a calling card script you can shop around and (if you're really lucky) you can sell it, or at least you can use it to get the opportunity to pitch for open assignments. Otherwise, don't do the work if you aren't getting paid to do it. That's what separates the serious writers from the wannabe-hobbyists.
Sorry for the extra posts. Not sure what happened there.
Thank you Kareem, I agree. The ultimate objective is a profitable script. Amazon can make their own decision. If they want to work with writers who can improve their projects, they will offer compensation. Original dialogue and events can be extracted if they do not respond.
Amazon Studios should be uninterested in following the way Hollywood has 'worked' for less than a few of decades, all pre-internet. Currently they are soliciting proposals in an entirely different format from their ultimate objective, then deciding upon a single "writer or writing team" to generate a single script. This could be a disaster. It does not take advantage of the internet. It is in the interest of producers at Amazon to do everything possible to solicit as many different rewritten scripts as possible. Let the lawyers and programmers figure out how: "Deadline May 15, 30k reward. Send it here."
If a person feels more comfortable rewriting a full script - ruthlessly - as quickly as others hammer out multi-page book reports, so be it. I am uninterested in obsessing over a treatment and "creative vision" - for even a few days - when it is just as easy and quick to do the whole script and be clear about it: this is what I can write…no need for Amazon to second guess it, no need for me to be unsure they'll get my "creative vision." ("book report" that's sarcasm, Sam)
Enough of forums. The current script is worthless. It cannot make money. Mine will.
There are no professional writers.
Eric, I think what you somehow fail to grasp is that they are hiring you--you are not hiring them. They have a process (as does any studio) and if you don't feel like following it...you don't have to. But to dictate to them how their process is flawed, probably won't engender a lot of love for you with them...
It's not a diss, but even amazing writers like Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio have to do treatments and beat sheets, etc if the studios ask...they have the money, we have the talent.
Take that for what it's worth man...just my .02.
yes, a mutual relationship, no one is dictating, just suggesting...they can try to hire anyone
(The proven writers you mentioned are selected beforehand specifically by studios and probably paid for submitting treatments...we are not paid to offer treatments....this opportunity is initiated on spec...it is normal an unpaid writer taking time to think through a rewrite on spec would want to demonstrate as thoroughly as possible how much improved their actual script is...especially if they rewrite quickly. It would also seem in the interest of producers to at least skim as many full length actual scripts as possible, rather than also place all their eggs in one basket.)
If you create a treatment for 'I THINK MY FACEBOOK FRIEND IS DEAD' you'll notice that one of the elements of the hero's journey is missing.
Reading the script you'll also notice that pacing drastically slows when encountering two certain characters. The ones that killed the pace got cut!
By writing down the chracters you'll also notice that the last half of the script introduces named characters that don't really have a set-up earlier in the script.
One major action scenes that could make the protagonist a 'physical' hero was not embraced and the writers missed an Oscar moment. They missed a 'level-up' moment that could have propelled the protag from zero to hero. It's in my bag now! :-)
The first page of the Writer's Proposal is where it could live or die... I didn't ice on any thick bull-shit I just succintly 'guilded the Lily'. My scripts a Fabergé egg. The potential is inside.
When writing your proposal, you'll have to develop the screenplay, so whether the proposal was written or not, you'll still have to do the work anyway. So you might as well spend a fraction of the time to develop and write the screenplay and just write the proposal that illustrates the development.
Sam: You are 100% right. Period. It was worth saying three times. Thus the universe stepped in and did it for you. ;)
This is the way the industry works.
And producers would rather work with good writers who are professional team players than with "brilliant" writers who who are d*cks.
Good luck everyone.
[Deleted by Amazon Studios on May 05, 2012 05:47 PM UTC]
"Can we just upload a rewritten full length script? What is the point of wasting a writer's time with treatments, character proposals, etc....why not just give us the option of uploading our best effort at a rewrite and let us be done with it??"
the point of "wasting" your time on a writer's proposal is so they don't have to read an entire awful rewrite by you. they look at the proposal and see if you're worth considering.
they're trying not to waste THEIR time.
[Deleted by Amazon Studios on May 05, 2012 05:48 PM UTC]
LOL
Amazon deleted my post because I spelled out d*cks
now they'll attract good writers
Eric,
The reasons for having interested writers put together a proposal are many fold, but the main reason is to see if the writer(s) can grasp and effectively communicate ideas without wasting words. Isn't that what screenwriting is? A complicated haiku? It's a pretty sure bet that if a writer can't put together a great proposal in a succinct manner, they most likely will be unable to handle a much more complicated dramatic structure. So, as many have suggested about a spec being a great writing sample (and that is a VERY TRUE STATEMENT) which can get you a lot of work, so it is with something like this proposal. It is your calling card for this job.
In the real world, how it works is you might get a script from a producer (after they have read your calling card). They'll ask you to read it. They might have even helped write it and for sure have been involved in its development. But anyway, they'll ask for your thoughts... Your take on it. A lot of times, this conversation is your rewriting calling card. Amazon doesn't have time to talk to all of the people who want to do this... so this is the next best thing.
Hope this helps!
R.
yes, everyone understands what a treatment is, that is not the issue.
writers are asked to submit non-copyrighted ideas on spec, for free, with the risk of not winning
and
Amazon is placing all their bets on one writer's submission in a format different from the final goal, a script
these are separate issues but each involves high risk for both parties, likely lose-lose
As it stands if a writer creates an original romantic comedy road story involving social media which is 100% different from the corny contrived "Zany hostage thriller" of "I Think My Facebook Friend is Dead" that writer has far more incentive to submit their work as an original script rather than share ideas with Amazon in a spec competition for much less reward, if any.
If anyone creates a unique story involving virtual worlds and social media in the context of a road trip, such a writer is better served submitting their own original script to Amazon rather than rewriting this one.
Why risk sharing unique ideas with Amazon on spec instead of copyrighting them in an original full-length script - especially since, if you win, you're going to have to write a full script anyway...?
Because you have a much better shot of seeing this made and getting a writing credit by helping Amazon develop this script, IMO.
We will see what happens.
