Getting to the top of the pile...

[The White Album]

Last thing I need is more scripts to read over my vacation break, especially unsolicited material that just randomly comes in the mail. I just got such a script, and I was going to pass it along to my assistant so she can tell the writer we don't accept unsolicited material.

But taped to the cover of the script was a $25 Starbucks gift card and a note saying: "Hope you enjoy the script and Merry Christmas!"

Granted, the generous gift will not change the quality of the script -- but it did change my mind about reading it. You gotta admire the moxie. It's at the top of my pile.

[nic.h]

Funny because this goes against all the rules about submitting - don't try gimmicks, keep it simple and professional, blah, blah, blah... Just goes to show, producers are people too. :D

Oh, and Happy New Year!

[J off course]

You could send the script back with some coffee stains
on the cover and a note to the writer;

"Sorry, it didn't keep me awake". :p

[SBScript]

Last thing I need is more scripts to read over my vacation break, especially unsolicited material that just randomly comes in the mail. I just got such a script, and I was going to pass it along to my assistant so she can tell the writer we don't accept unsolicited material.

But taped to the cover of the script was a $25 Starbucks gift card and a note saying: "Hope you enjoy the script and Merry Christmas!"

Granted, the generous gift will not change the quality of the script -- but it did change my mind about reading it. You gotta admire the moxie. It's at the top of my pile.

And the funny thing is, they probably could have gotten away with ten bucks. It's amazing what a little courtesy or a small gesture will do for you. When I first started working in development, I took a lot of people to lunch--other execs, writers, agents and managers. I always paid. And this was on MY own dime. Second time around, sure, split it, let the other person get it, whatever. But, the first time, it's on me.

[writerman]

...But taped to the cover of the script was a $25 Starbucks gift card and a note saying: "Hope you enjoy the script and Merry Christmas!"

Granted, the generous gift will not change the quality of the script -- but it did change my mind about reading it. You gotta admire the moxie. It's at the top of my pile.


Sending a script over with a couple of hookers and bottle of booze...now that's moxie.

By the way, they should be over around 11pm.

[CutteRug]

Granted, the generous gift will not change the quality of the script -- but it did change my mind about reading it.

Hey White,

Let us know how the script turns out. Now I'm curious - is it possible that a GOOD writer ALSO used a gimmick? :rolleyes:

Looking forward to your review.

Cheers,

Adam

[seh]

I can just see this coming up in the next book for beginning screenwriters :
"Two brads, not three", "Starbucks, not Dunkin Donuts (too East Coast-ish)" ...

[Pull Back Reveal]

Funny because this goes against all the rules about submitting - don't try gimmicks, keep it simple and professional, blah, blah, blah... Just goes to show, producers are people too.

You mean my thriller script in the box with all the ticking alarm clocks set to go off at noon on the day of delivery ... has a chance of making an impression?!

Thanks for the encouragement!

[Charli]

I'd say that writer is the most creative person who's sent you a script.
Let us know if they sank or swam.

[GreatOz]

Where are the people on this board that scream and yell you should never pay anybody anything to get read???

[CutteRug]

Where are the people on this board that scream and yell you should never pay anybody anything to get read???

They're at Starbucks. :D

Cutt-

[The White Album]

So yesterday, I explained all of this to a screenwriter friend of mine, whose script I'm producing -- a comedy set in the world of competitive baton twirling. I'm telling her about the $25 Starbucks giftcard, thinking she'd get a kick out of it. Her immediate response was, "You gotta send the gift card back."
"What do you mean?" I reacted.
"Either read the script or don't read the script," she continued, "But you can't accept the gift card. You're setting a nasty precedent."
"It was a Christmas gift," I defended.
"No, it was a bribe."
"I'm not a politician whose salary is paid by your tax dollars. It's not illegal to bribe me. In fact, I encourage it."
She didn't find my joke very humorous, awkward silence on the phone.
"Okay, okay," I said, "Let's put it this way -- this writer who submitted the script is an outsider looking in, she's not repped, she has no industry contact, and she is sending her material to a company that doesn't accept unsolicited material. She is doing whatever humanly possible to get read -- so she used the holiday occasion to thinly disguise a bribe as a gift to appeal to my sense of materialism. Can't that kind of cleverness from a writer be appreciated?" I wanted to say "rewarded" but decided to step cautiously.
"No," she flated responded. "It's so transparent on her part, and morally reprehensible on yours. She might as well have sent you cash."
"What if she baked me cookies?"
"That's fine."
"But what if baking cookies would have cost her more than $25? It's more convenient to just go to Starbucks and get a giftcard. She probably saved more time doing that, thus allowing her more time to write."
"You're reaching," my friend said. "I know I'm sounding like your moral compass right now, but I feel strongly about this. And I'm shocked someone such as you, who's a writer first, would be so flippant about it."
"Alright fine, let's say I do read the script and give her feedback. That means this writer is only paying $25 for professional coverage. Most pro coverage runs in the hundreds. Isn't that charity on my part?"
"Not at all," she said. "It's more of an insult to you. It's cheap. Your time is worth more than that. Read it because you want to read it, because it's your job and because it's the thing you claim you love doing. Don't read it because someone sold you on a gimmick."
I was silent, contemplating. "You're making me feel guilty," I said.
"That's my job," she responded, "And that's what I love doing."
We hang up. I was going to send the gift card back.

Later that night, I decided to read the script anyways. It was okay, not great. But there was something very interesting about it that made me call my screenwriter friend. "I read the script," I said into the phone.
"How is it?"
"I'm passing."
"You're sending the gift card back, right?"
"Remember when we sent your script to Ben Stiller's company?"
"Yeah, so?"
"And we sent an actual baton with the script? As a gimmick, right? For our project to stand out amongst their stacks of considers?"
"And?"
"So it was okay for Ben Stiller to accept the gift, right?"
"Yeah, because it's a natural extention of the story. What's your point?"
"Well, this script I just read is a musical set in a Starbucks."
Silence on her end.
"I can keep the giftcard, right?"
She grumbled, "Yeah, I guess so."

[Scripted77]

that's pretty good.

plus starbucks just went non-trans-fat, so you can feel even less guilty when you buy those scones.

[writerman]

Note to self:

Don't send hookers unless script is about hookers.

:rolleyes:

[odriftwood]

Great story, White.... thanks for sharing...

[CutteRug]

White - you gotta make a movie out of THAT story.

Writerman - LOL @ the hookers!

Cutt-

[ylekot43]

In one of my scripts, the protag won a ton of money in a lawsuit -- does that mean I would send.....?:)

[GreatOz]

Would someone wake up Broughcut from his New Year's celebration? I need his moral indignation...

Whenever I come out for pitch sessions and Virtualpitchfest (which I've had good success with), I'm raked over the coals for daring to suggest paying a couple bucks to pitch. And now this guy sends $25 and he's hailed a genius...

[writerman]

In one of my scripts, the protag won a ton of money in a lawsuit -- does that mean I would send.....?:)

...legal papers?

[writerman]

Would someone wake up Broughcut from his New Year's celebration? I need his moral indignation...

Whenever I come out for pitch sessions and Virtualpitchfest (which I've had good success with), I'm raked over the coals for daring to suggest paying a couple bucks to pitch. And now this guy sends $25 and he hailed a genius...

I could be wrong, but I think most folks were laughing...not approving.

It's the way that White Album tells a story that's genius. Good stuff.

I still can't get over the fact that someone actually sent Ben Stiller a baton....and it worked!!!

I've been trying to get my script to Ben...I never thought of using a prop. I'll have to try something more original now...like a singing telegram.

;)

[ylekot43]

In one of my scripts, the protag won a ton of money in a lawsuit -- does that mean I would send.....?:)

Lawsuit Papers?



That's right folks --- Just quoted myself.

[GreatOz]

I still can't get over the fact that someone actually sent Ben Stiller a baton....and it worked!!!I was at a live pitchfest once and some gal was pitching her script with action figures...

Didn't work.

Maybe if she's offered to give the guy the action figures...

[writerman]

I was at a live pitchfest once and some gal was pitching her script with action figures...

Didn't work.

Maybe if she's offered to give the guy the action figures...

Was the pitch given thru the action figures...as if they were speaking?

That would have been hilarious to see.

[writer0825]

Great retelling of what happened White!

Musical set in Starbucks, hmmm, I hope it reads better than it sounds.

[GreatOz]

Was the pitch given thru the action figures...as if they were speaking?

That would have been hilarious to see.She carried a box around with her. She'd open it up and take out the action figures one by one -- moving them around with her hands as she told the story. I wish I could have heard the actual pitch -- but I'll never forget the look on the person's face she was talking to -- something like this ---:wideeyed:

[writer0825]

She carried a box around with her. She'd open it up and take out the action figures one by one -- moving them around with her hands as she told the story. I wish I could have heard the actual pitch -- but I'll never forget the look on the person's face she was talking to -- something like this ---:wideeyed:

:rolling: :rolling: :bounce: :bounce:

[Scripted77]

Agreed.

It's been said many times on this site, but the hard part isn't getting read. The hard part is writing a script that's worth reading.

[Ukkonen]

I once sent a box of chocolates with a script that I submitted based on a meeting I had with the producer. It was xmas, which was part of my reasoning I guess as well as the fact that I had a great meeting with her pitching the project and I admired her work as a producer.

Got a response that they loved the chocolates at the office and later the producer sent me the reader's coverage on my script, which I haven't gotten from any other producer since.

I haven't done it since.

[writerman]

She carried a box around with her. She'd open it up and take out the action figures one by one -- moving them around with her hands as she told the story. I wish I could have heard the actual pitch -- but I'll never forget the look on the person's face she was talking to -- something like this ---:wideeyed:

:rolling:
priceless

[BROUGHCUT]

Would someone wake up Broughcut from his New Year's celebration? I need his moral indignation...

Whenever I come out for pitch sessions and Virtualpitchfest (which I've had good success with), I'm raked over the coals for daring to suggest paying a couple bucks to pitch. And now this guy sends $25 and he's hailed a genius...

Yeah, but in the case of Virtualpitchfest, which is run by a script analyst, you would be paying $25 to be read by Mr White's assistant (who would in turn be given a starbucks food stamp for hitting the reply button within 72hrs). See the difference yet?

Virtualpitchfest must love the publicity every time you bring this up! Hey, they seem to have some high-profile additions to their roster of industry pros who have agreed to consider unfiltered queries on an industrial scale so long as they get paid $10!

But who the heck is "Frank Reina" at Paradigm (http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=%2B%22Frank+Reina%22+%2BParadigm&btnG=Search&meta=)? You would assume he was an agent... how long will it be before "Frank Reina" at Paradigm gets the sack for soliciting reading fees on behalf of a major WGA-franchised agency?

Frank Reina: The Ticking Assistant (http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=+%2Bspec+%2B%22the+ticking+man%22+%2Balarm&btnG=Search&meta=).

"Okay" seems pretty high praise for a musical set in starbucks... isn't that kind of difficult to pull off? Did it have songs or was it just the "book"?

Maybe a gift card isn't such a bad idea... Didn't "creative" gimmicks jump the messenger-in-a-shark-suit when CAA sent out the ill-fated Halo?

LOS ANGELES - The bidding for a movie based on “Halo” and “Halo 2,” a science fiction series about a warrior named Master Chief who battles aliens, began Monday when a script commissioned by Microsoft was delivered to Hollywood studios by messengers wearing Master Chief green armor and toting laser guns.

[BROUGHCUT]

But who the heck is "Frank Reina" at Paradigm? http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=28302764 MIAMI VICE -- Best movie of the year barnone 2006. Like them crazy cops, I carry a loaded gun. SEXY BEAST -- for the opening scene alone and of course Ben Kingsley. The greatest/scariest buddy black comedy ever made. KISS KISS BANG BANG -- for the title alone. If you don't think Robert Downey Jr. is the best human drug in this movie, then U my friend don't know what drugz iz. 9 1/2 WEEKS -- It's sexy, steamy, and teaches U a few tricks of the lustful game. Mickey Rourke's the ultimate sadistic player and Kim Basinger has a heart shaped ass... Loaded gun? Either he is being optimistic about his sperm count, or he has serious pull with the Sheriff. I think all the agents at CAA have CCP's, so that's a good start. ...I once had a girlfriend with a heart shaped ass, and believe U me, asses like that don't come cheap. U gotta play cupid and rip your arrow right thru that heart. :rolling: I may not pay Virtualpitch**** to be passed on by him, but I wouldn't discount querying the guy over myspace. I don't myspace but anyone who can type that much into a profile is worth a shot. Plus, I love Sean Penn's hair in Mystic River as well. And Miami Vice was the best movie of 2006. And he's right, Ben Kingsley does have a heart-shaped ass... VirtualPitchFest, are you still 'monitoring' this board? Did you make Frankie aware that charging reading fees is against WGA rules (b/c you were made aware of this fact before you signed him up) and that by putting his name and agency on your site to sell subscriptions you are risking his job? Also, why did the only other WGA sig agency to appear on your site drop out?? So many management firms but no real agencies, why is that?