Good and Bad; They want to read my script, hopefully I won’t vomit!

Good:
1. Email from very legitimate and known lit management company:

Congrats on placing in the Semi’s of the Nicholl Fellowship! I’ve actually judged plenty of screenplay contest before so just placing in the semis is a wonderful accomplishment, so again, congrats!!!

I’m a literary manager at *** we rep some of the hottest up and coming screenwriters and directors and I’d love to read your screenplay!

If you could email me a PDF, I’d love a chance to read your material!

2. E-mail from Legitimate Production Company

Thank you for submitting your script. We would like to read your screenplay. You can e-mail us a PDF or Final Draft file if you’d like.

My name is ***. I work with Producer *** who has a first-look deal at Warner Bros. And I also co-founded a company called *** Productions. ***’ has done various web-series and commercials. *** recently got private funding to make our first feature film. Thus, we are on the search for an undiscovered script that is affordable and marketable.

We understand the time and hard work that goes into writing a screenplay and only hold the up-most respect for writers. Thank you for being open to share your story with us.

3. Email from production company I’ve actually heard of and didn’t have to google:

Congrats on your success in the Nicholl Fellowship!  I am travelling , but I work at *** Entertainment, a management and production company in Beverly Hills.  I’d love to take a look at your script and will try and respond as quickly as possible .  Please include a logline.

Bad:
1. Nausea. Even though I finished the course of Antibiotics days ago, I’m nauseous all the time. I got caught in Dodgers traffic last night and the stop and go… Yeah, when traffic makes you vomit, you gotta reconsider the wisdom of life in LA.

2.a. The Internet is Filled with Assholes. I am implementing a new policy on my site which is that if you say something off-topic and/or stupidly mean and confrontational, I’m just going to delete the comment. Trolls are mildly entertaining, but not worth the effort. And if you really want to post something I imagine you can make sure it’s within the bounds of civilized discourse. (Exceptions obviously made for things I think are really funny.)  But this means no more people saying that gays are gross and no more people leaving vaguely threatening comments on unrelated posts.

2.b. The Internet is Filled with Assholes. Once my 30 days on this script are up, I don’t know that I’m going to use Zoetrope again. The community has a lot of good things, and I’ve certainly gotten some useful thoughts, but it’s probably best for people who don’t mind others being really confrontational and juvenile. (“You’re really immature, nener nener nener.” “Insert video of a clapping seal.” No really.)  Every thread on their discussion board devolves into name calling and even the private messages involve people being just as hateful as they are helpful.  “Sorry, I read a few pages and I was bored so I stopped.  Good luck.”  Yeah, I’d pretty much rather get advice from people who don’t have the internet to anonymize their asshattery.

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Good and Bad; They want to read my script, hopefully I won’t vomit!
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9 thoughts on “Good and Bad; They want to read my script, hopefully I won’t vomit!

  1. 1

    Good luck with the e-mails. I got 3 also so far, #1 and #3 the same as yours, #2 was different – I didn’t get your #2. I’d love to know who sends out to all the semifinalists and who actually learns something about the scripts and chooses which ones to solicit.

    Good luck again!

    1. 1.1

      The 2nd one was an inquiry I sent out, not directly from the Nicholl list.

      I just got a 4th today: Congrats on your achievement in the Nicholl Fellowship Competition!

      Formerly a producer with *** and lit manager with ***, I now run my own mgmt/prod co. Currently, I have client specs with *** and others attached/packaging them. Representing writers from every top contest, I discovered former Nicholl’s quaterfinalist *** and set his project *** up at ***.

      I would love to learn more about you. Has your material already been exposed to the industry? Please also let me know if your repped or looking? I’d love to hear about your fellowship script…as well as the loglines to any others you have.

  2. 2

    Oh, yeah — the nausea. Have you taken probiotics to replace the bacteria the antibiotics killed? It’s best done just before and during antibiotic therapy but may help now.

    Just a thought.

  3. 3

    Zoetrope can be useful, but you do have to sort through the ninnies, trolls and shitheads to develop a good group for peer review. That said, sometimes all I get from a Zoe review is whether or not the story I had in my head made it onto the paper. Which can be better than nothing, but . . .

    You’re right about the Net. “Anonymous Asshats” cracked me up.

    1. 3.1

      I saw you posted the Finalists over there. Since I haven’t gotten contacted til today, does that mean they didn’t send out the SF list before the Finalist list? Just curious.

      Anonymous Asshats is accurate 😉

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