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Comment on Writer Producer Virland S. Harris Dies at 61 by Norma

Norma — Tue, 15 May 2012 22:44:53 +0000

Stan was an awesome human being. We talked about his film making, his family, spirituality and so much more. He spoke with kindness, love and care. I would see him almost every morning walking up the street to his office carrying his morning coffee and always with a smile. His commitment to films for children was unwavering. I will miss him so much. Take you for honoring Stan.

Comment on Zhura.com update by Chip Street

Chip Street — Sat, 12 May 2012 16:34:44 +0000

I acknowledged in my article that Word brings along its own underlying messy code. I’ve been involved in web dev for a decade now. And I know to use a notepad flow. But “average user” is not a developer, and doesn’t know or care to use a notepad flow… and it is very much within the realm of possibility to strip the offending Word code on paste, or disallow the paste. Other apps do it.

But I think you miss my point. It’s not necessarily that the app SHOULD accept a paste from Word — it’s that from a usability standpoint (my job every day is to work with programmers to convince them that average user isn’t going to know their workarounds) the messaging on the site was unclear, counter-intuitive, and frankly inferred the paste was possible. In fact encouraged and allowed the paste. It was as much (if not more) a usability failure as it was a functionality failure.

Comment on Zhura.com update by Fred

Fred — Sat, 12 May 2012 15:32:25 +0000

I am a web programmer and need to tell you that your problem isn’t with a website,your problem is with MS Word. Microsoft has gone way out of their way to make sure things are not easily cut and pasted from their program. It is prioretary software and the (ms) don’t want you using anything else ever. Paste in notepad, then into a web editor. Then it will just ba ASCII. Otherwise you will always have issues and you’ll waste tons of time complaining about it.

Comment on Writer Producer Virland S. Harris Dies at 61 by Martha

Martha — Thu, 10 May 2012 18:19:22 +0000

I loved to hear Stan talk about his movies, the stories of things that happened during the shoot and his fascination of the history of Hollywood. You captured him exactly in your article. Thank you. He participated in so many community organizations and gave of his time and knowledge to each one. Stan impacted so many with his charisma and gentle presence. Such a huge loss to so many of us.

Comment on 10 things to think about when you option your screenplay by Chip Street

Chip Street — Sun, 06 May 2012 03:50:14 +0000

You asked about how many OPTIONED screenplays get produced. The answer is NONE. SOLD screenplays get produced, and there are far far fewer SOLD screenplays than OPTIONED screenplays.

90% of all spec scripts suck.

Very few are good. Few of those option. Very few of those sell. Few sold scripts make it all the way through production and into any kind of distribution.

For a dose of the real numbers READ THIS ARTICLE from my Twitter pal UnknownScreenwriter: The Odds of Selling a Spec Screenplay. Read the whole thing. And the comments.

In short:

There are 250,000 spec screenplays in circulation at any one time. (remember, 90% suck. That’s 25,000 readable scripts in competition)

About 50 (let’s call it 100) spec screenplays sell each year.

100 out of 25,000 screenplays sold.

That’s not 4 percent. It’s .004 percent.

The numbers are flexible and there’s a little math voodoo (read all the comments on that blog to get a better picture) but the numbers are grossly accurate.

Now, out of those 50 (let’s call it 100) sold specs, very few will get all the way through development hell and made.

In the end, I believe the answer to your question is “I wish the number was that high.”

Comment on 10 things to think about when you option your screenplay by Chip Street

Chip Street — Sun, 06 May 2012 03:32:36 +0000

By ‘magazines’ do you mean paying Inktip to have your script appear in their industry mag? I have no experience with that. I don’t know if there is a demonstrated higher rate of requests for writers who pay for that service. But I’m sure you can ask Inktip.

Inktip also offers two newsletters: Paid (Preferred) and Free.

If your script is on Inktip, it’s available to all member producers to find via site search whether or not you’re also paying for the ‘Preferred’ newsletter or magazine listing.

Some producers go beyond the site search and pay Inktip to run ads in the newsletter telling what kind of scripts they want. If you think you have a screenplay that fits what they’re looking for, you can respond through the inktip site, calling that producer’s attention to your screenplay — Whether it’s a screenplay posted on inktip or not.

If you’re paying for the preferred newsletter, you’ll see all the ads and be able to respond to them.

If you’re just getting the free newsletter, you will see all the ads but you can’t respond to all of them… only one or two.

Hope that helps.

Comment on The Hunger Games review: Strong performances win out over shaky camera by brittany

brittany — Sat, 05 May 2012 21:41:32 +0000

The shaking camera was so bad i got so sick I threw up right after the tracker jackets were dropped. yeah unfortunately the camera work was that bad.

Comment on 10 things to think about when you option your screenplay by Rodney Thomas

Rodney Thomas — Sat, 05 May 2012 03:49:15 +0000

I recently read that less than 4% of all screenplays optioned are ever produced. Is this true?

Comment on 10 things to think about when you option your screenplay by edz ent.

edz ent. — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:42:10 +0000

Chip! Thanks fr da help.well it seems uve got loads of experience workin wt inktip.com so ll appreciate if u can help.I intending uploading my script on inktip bt don’t ve enuff money fr d magazines plz tell if it ll b of any use n also if a movie bcms a huge success cnt d writer get additinal pay? Thanks

Comment on 10 things to think about when you option your screenplay by Doni

Doni — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 20:45:34 +0000

Wow! Thanks for the tips man. Now I have a better understanding on the issue. Your answers were what I espected. You were very helpfull. Keep it up man. I promise I will keep in touch. I think I should have a final draft by the end of this year, hopefully. Thanks again .