Gumsandals
03-06-2007, 08:15 AM
In Part I, I posted my experience with a company that Variety said has $10 million in financing but wants me, a struggling, penniless screenwriter to cough up "good faith" money to help them make a pitching trailer based on one of my scripts. I passed on that for a number of reasons. Some of you asked me to name names. I won't because I don't have a paper trail-- the proposal was on the phone. However, I will tell you that one of you guessed the company.
Sunday I answered a Craig's List ad for a producer looking for a screenwriter to write a screenplay based on an outline provided in the ad. Although he was only asking for one or two pages based on any part of the outline to judge my worthiness, I was having a slow day and, liking a challenge-- especially one that doesn't ask me for money up front like so many screenplay contests do-- I whipped out five quick pages and sent them off. A few hours later I got an email back telling me that he liked my sample pages "very much." In fact, he was proposing that I sign a contract that would allow me to finish the screeplay with no money up front. The part I had written wouldn't have to be re-done. Within 10-business days of filming, I would be paid the handsome sum of $500.00 for my screenplay, allowed to come onto the set and get an invitation to the premiere screening.
I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or get angry. Maybe I've been around way too long but I just sighed and replied in a one-sentence response thanking him for the opportunity but telling him I can't work for $500.
I waited to see if he would tell me it was all a big mistake, that I misunderstood him. That email never came.
So, in the interest of all of us trying to catch lightning in a bottle, here's a head's up: The company: Stratosphere Entertainment. The producer: Donald Farmer. He gave me a NetFlix link to his previous releases which can be found at: http://www.netflix.com/RoleDisplay?s=1&personid=20011718
Is there no shame in Hollywood or certain parts of New Jersey?
Sunday I answered a Craig's List ad for a producer looking for a screenwriter to write a screenplay based on an outline provided in the ad. Although he was only asking for one or two pages based on any part of the outline to judge my worthiness, I was having a slow day and, liking a challenge-- especially one that doesn't ask me for money up front like so many screenplay contests do-- I whipped out five quick pages and sent them off. A few hours later I got an email back telling me that he liked my sample pages "very much." In fact, he was proposing that I sign a contract that would allow me to finish the screeplay with no money up front. The part I had written wouldn't have to be re-done. Within 10-business days of filming, I would be paid the handsome sum of $500.00 for my screenplay, allowed to come onto the set and get an invitation to the premiere screening.
I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or get angry. Maybe I've been around way too long but I just sighed and replied in a one-sentence response thanking him for the opportunity but telling him I can't work for $500.
I waited to see if he would tell me it was all a big mistake, that I misunderstood him. That email never came.
So, in the interest of all of us trying to catch lightning in a bottle, here's a head's up: The company: Stratosphere Entertainment. The producer: Donald Farmer. He gave me a NetFlix link to his previous releases which can be found at: http://www.netflix.com/RoleDisplay?s=1&personid=20011718
Is there no shame in Hollywood or certain parts of New Jersey?