Re: A-List Screenwriting Blog
Hey Joe,
Where you going with that post in your hand?
I am in a tricky situation. On these boards, you have had little but latent and blatant venom to spit in my direction, so I sort of feel like I am in a lose-lose situation. Also, you have been a customer at least twice of contests I have run so I am (possibly) legally obligated but definitely inclined by my own standards to not really fight back or get into a nasty exchange with you.
But I will address a few things.
I have one paragraph late in my consulting home page about my personal work. I don't really think that I am implying that I am a famous filmmaker. I later say that that experience helps me as a teacher, which I think is true. The little bit about my filmmaking is to round out my experience. And if you are an indie filmmaker making a low budget film, my experience is actually REALLY relevant, if even for the failures of my films to make a profit.
If you think that the second to last paragraph of my bio page which is the only place I mention March, I think, should be cut I would take that under consideration.
I feel like I have a pretty impeccable record as a teacher and story analyst. I have clients who are some of the biggest names in Hollywood. (I may be inclined to reveal the page count on the NDAs). I have clients who have sold projects to Spielberg, Scorsese and, among others, Roland Emmerich. As part of the original Creative Screenwriting regime, I taught thousands of people at the Expo, directed more than 40 dvds on screenwriting, reported on every spec sale over a several year period and wrote one of the best-selling DVDs (Killer Endings) when it was in that series.
I think there is a cool thread going on about coverage below and it has been pretty civil. And I am excited about that.
If you look at my howtowriteascreenplay.net pages as well as the last four months of my newsletter and the articles at my sites, I easily have a magazine's worth of stuff on the web that is absolutely free. If you want more screenwriting advice my blog is also free.
If writers want to have me read a script and consider it for prizes in the Champion Contest, they can enter for about $50. And then if they advance, I get paid (this year) about $8 per hour to read their (1 of 80) scripts.
Writers can have me teach them via my DVDS for about $12 per hour. I also offered to mail up to 100 copies for free to entrants in the Scriptshadow contest.
edited: If a writer wants a few pages of coverage, there are people on this board who do a great job for under $100. They don't need to hire me.
If writing is a hobby for a writer and it's not taken seriously, then that writer shouldn't hire me for the $70-100 per hour my rate works out to be.
If someone takes their writing seriously and wants to get intense feedback either because they have a legitimate shot at selling a script or they are being paid to write, well, I offer services that are really appropriate to them and have pretty loyal and recurring clientele. Sometimes writers who aren't really that close to selling a script want to use my 20 pages of notes as a learning tool. They are allowed to.
I also have clients who use the services on the boards AND my services simultaneously. I even referred a client to ScriptShadow.
I don't currently do any advertising outside of my newsletter, but maybe I should. I would much rather work only with good and working writers and help them go from good to great. But, alas, I make myself available for anyone to hire me. If that makes me a scam artist in your eyes, well then let's agree to disagree and I won't ever respond to your posts again.
I am also a better teacher than script consultant. The weeklong classes where I get to interact with people is where I have changed people's lives and made them cry tears of joy. Those classes always lose money but I still do them. Now, I am going to start offering them as private classes for the qfs of the contest, so I don't have to really sell any seats to make them viable.
I hope that allows you some insight into my perspective.
Peace,
Jim
Hey Joe,
Where you going with that post in your hand?
I am in a tricky situation. On these boards, you have had little but latent and blatant venom to spit in my direction, so I sort of feel like I am in a lose-lose situation. Also, you have been a customer at least twice of contests I have run so I am (possibly) legally obligated but definitely inclined by my own standards to not really fight back or get into a nasty exchange with you.
But I will address a few things.
I have one paragraph late in my consulting home page about my personal work. I don't really think that I am implying that I am a famous filmmaker. I later say that that experience helps me as a teacher, which I think is true. The little bit about my filmmaking is to round out my experience. And if you are an indie filmmaker making a low budget film, my experience is actually REALLY relevant, if even for the failures of my films to make a profit.
If you think that the second to last paragraph of my bio page which is the only place I mention March, I think, should be cut I would take that under consideration.
I feel like I have a pretty impeccable record as a teacher and story analyst. I have clients who are some of the biggest names in Hollywood. (I may be inclined to reveal the page count on the NDAs). I have clients who have sold projects to Spielberg, Scorsese and, among others, Roland Emmerich. As part of the original Creative Screenwriting regime, I taught thousands of people at the Expo, directed more than 40 dvds on screenwriting, reported on every spec sale over a several year period and wrote one of the best-selling DVDs (Killer Endings) when it was in that series.
I think there is a cool thread going on about coverage below and it has been pretty civil. And I am excited about that.
If you look at my howtowriteascreenplay.net pages as well as the last four months of my newsletter and the articles at my sites, I easily have a magazine's worth of stuff on the web that is absolutely free. If you want more screenwriting advice my blog is also free.
If writers want to have me read a script and consider it for prizes in the Champion Contest, they can enter for about $50. And then if they advance, I get paid (this year) about $8 per hour to read their (1 of 80) scripts.
Writers can have me teach them via my DVDS for about $12 per hour. I also offered to mail up to 100 copies for free to entrants in the Scriptshadow contest.
edited: If a writer wants a few pages of coverage, there are people on this board who do a great job for under $100. They don't need to hire me.
If writing is a hobby for a writer and it's not taken seriously, then that writer shouldn't hire me for the $70-100 per hour my rate works out to be.
If someone takes their writing seriously and wants to get intense feedback either because they have a legitimate shot at selling a script or they are being paid to write, well, I offer services that are really appropriate to them and have pretty loyal and recurring clientele. Sometimes writers who aren't really that close to selling a script want to use my 20 pages of notes as a learning tool. They are allowed to.
I also have clients who use the services on the boards AND my services simultaneously. I even referred a client to ScriptShadow.
I don't currently do any advertising outside of my newsletter, but maybe I should. I would much rather work only with good and working writers and help them go from good to great. But, alas, I make myself available for anyone to hire me. If that makes me a scam artist in your eyes, well then let's agree to disagree and I won't ever respond to your posts again.
I am also a better teacher than script consultant. The weeklong classes where I get to interact with people is where I have changed people's lives and made them cry tears of joy. Those classes always lose money but I still do them. Now, I am going to start offering them as private classes for the qfs of the contest, so I don't have to really sell any seats to make them viable.
I hope that allows you some insight into my perspective.
Peace,
Jim
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