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.