How And WHY???

[uncle_al]

Sitting on both sides of the fence (and, YES, that is uncomfortable) on this, I can see scripts that seem to be highly inadequate for filming... and as a writer, I can see practices that cause the crap to rise to the top.  Doing both ends yourself can make things a little easier but not as easy as you'd think on you.

It's not for everybody.
But I can't really think of a more ultimately satisfying way to do it.

Al Bouchard

[coffee]

Being on the other side of this fence as a indie director/producer I can say that I often find myself reading a good/great unproduced script and having this "God I hope this writter will take a chance with me" feeling in my stomach. I don't usually have the funds upfront to pay for a script but I know once I have the script in pre then post production that the writter will be very happy that he/she went along with me. So, maybe some writters are waiting for "better offers" to land on their desk before they let the script go which is why a good protion of good scripts never get produced. Maybe I'm way off but I have seen this happen.

[ScriptNurse]

As I've said before ... "good stories are those that get bought." That means there's a buyer with a broken Crap-O-Meter who buys a story because it's cheap, it's a quickie or he's got an investor who likes a certain genre ... who knows? Scripts get bought because the buyer, not the writer, says yes. Often, the original script is good and the producer and his cronies think they can make it better ... and they end up with something they "think" is better, when it's really not worth the paper it's photocopied on.

[Katanasting]

I write reviews for a couple of sources...I write for IMdB.com like most people - just because I love to do it - and I'm also a Staff Writer for KILLERREVIEWS.com. What this means is that I watch a lot of movies, and I mean A LOT. Not as much as in my younger days, maybe (which could sometimes be as many as four a day), but quite a few.

This is a question that has been asked here a gazillion times, I'm sure, but I'm sure it doesn't hurt to ask it again. As a writer working hard, sweating bullets to hone your craft, develop that 'ear' for good dialogue and bringing fully-rounded characters to life on the page, it's frustrating and downright infuriating to see how much CRAP there is out there, that actually makes it from script-to-screen. HOW and WHY are some writers able to get scripts sold that aren't fit for toilet paper, that actually go into production and finally find distribution, when there's probably a billion 'great scripts' out there in the world that will never be discovered? 

Don Normann
Arlington, VA.