I will not read your script!

[Batutta]

Hilarious post from a working screenwriter on why he won't read you f-ing script--

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/09/i_will_not_read.php?page=1/

[MattinSTL]

Bummer... "page not found".

I can probably GUESS the content however... because anytime I have read, or contributed to any scripts... the only thing anybody really wants is 100% approval... then they're worried that you'll "steal their ideas"... and ironically enough... anytime I contribute ideas back... often times they get used and I get no credit or mention of it ever again.

"No no no... you SAID that this guy can give other people time by taking it away from his own 'life-watch'... and then when I wrote the script I said that he gave this terminally ill guy a watch that kept him alive until the watch ran out of time. That was MY idea."

Seriously... and that's not the first time that's happened. Any other time I gave somebody an idea they call it "our idea"... and if it really WAS OUR idea then it turns out it was "THEIR" idea.

:)

Now on the other side of that... when I read a script and thought it needed some improvements... this guy flips out and sends me about 10 emails threatening a lawsuit if I stole his ideas... INCLUDING USING THE NAMES "SAM" AND "SARAH"...

So yeah... I don't want ANY part of reading, or contributing to your script unless A) you are ALREADY a friend... or B) I will get paid for it.

/rant

[Batutta]

Fixed the link--

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/09/i_will_not_read.php?page=1

[MattinSTL]

That was brilliant... and I gotta' pat MYSELF on the back (heh-heh) because even having not been able to read it... and commenting anyway... aside from the ideas thing... I think I nailed it, proving that this same stupid bullsh*t is 100% pervasive throughout the industry, whether it's a local wanna'be... or somebody that moved to LA to chase the dream.

At this point I could take the thread anywhere off-topic... because this attitude isn't limited to writing... it's all throughout filmmaking. This is why I tell everybody "I have no ego"... that's my way of saying I only want to get better... I'll never be satisfied... and I'd WAY rather take an insult and grow, then take a compliment and stay the same.

[Deepfocus88]

Ah yes, the comments. Always more entertaining than the actual article. Thank you, Internet.

I especially like this one:


Kate says: I don't care if you read anybody's script, but for the love of god, get a new photo. You look like a rectum with eyeglasses.
Get over yourself dude, you're no Picasso. You just wrote a screenplay about a guy who got in a fight naked.

[Hawk Teflon]

I understand this guy is great and all (I guess ... I mean he IS a professional), but he's trying too hard to be the anti hero. "I need to be nice to this guy and let him know his script sucked." Why? WHY? Tell him to his freaking face like a man, or don't complain about it. He seems all hard at times, but wants to spare people's feelings. Why? Be honest to their face or quit griping about it.

And no, it's NOT like painting a house. That takes actual labor and materials. Reading takes eyeballs.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Absolutely brilliant and truthful.

[Rick Meyer]

That was a great article. I'm going to borrow that Picasso story. Seriously, this dude put it into a light that never occurred to me. Asking someone who is a professional in their field to just do what they do for ya as a favor is kind of a dick move. Its no win for the guy with all the talent and expertise.

[Batutta]

And no, it's NOT like painting a house. That takes actual labor and materials. Reading takes eyeballs.

Critical reading takes eyeballs, plus time and brainpower. Time and brainpower are the writer's labor and materials. Just because they are free doesn't make them any less valuable.

[Deepfocus88]

Tell him to his freaking face like a man, or don't complain about it.

Well, evidentally, he's got lots of time for complaining:


I did more rewrites on that poo pooing e-mail than I did on my last three studio projects. Not to mention the time it took to write an article about the whole experience.

Don't get me wrong, it's an interesting read, but it seems like it should be an open and shut case: Either you help someone or you don't. Even if it is a dick move to present the script to a pro. No need to make a federal case out of it.

And LOL Hawk, I agree about the house painting reference. It takes forever to tape up the trim and the doors. Then you gotta throw down that plastic on the floor.....

[Mike Harvey]

Could have been a little less "colorful" in the language, but more or less spot on. Reading many of the comments... Olsen may very well be the biggest self-important no talent jerk in the world (I actually liked A History of Violence), but that doesn't make what he wrote any less true, and it applies to a lot of other professionals outside of film making.

I have a friend who recently quit his job as a very good mechanic to go back to school to learn to build prosthetics for amputees and quadriplegics after a good mutual friend got in a car wreck and became a quadriplegic. People he knows still not only ask, but expect him to work on their cars, even if they barely know him. They don't seem to understand he has limited time and tools, and expecting him to perform a costly service (a few have stiffed him for the cost of parts) for free isn't a really a nice thing to do. He finally just decided that, with few exceptions (me fortunately being one of them), he's just telling everyone no. It's no different than what Olsen is doing.

In fact, I'm forwarding my friend this article :)

[Ryan Paige]

The one thing Online Josh fails to mention is that somebody read his script when he was a nobody and helped him out.

Had the people who helped him had his current attitude, we wouldn't be listening to Online Josh's rants.

The guy can write, and as he's constantly reminding everybody, he is a top earner, but his holier-than-thou online persona (I hear he's a lovely guy in real life) is more annoying than insightful, in my opinion.... even if he was right about the Jay Leno thing.

[ChipG]

The one thing Online Josh fails to mention is that somebody read his script when he was a nobody and helped him out.

Had the people who helped him had his current attitude, we wouldn't be listening to Online Josh's rants.

The guy can write, and as he's constantly reminding everybody, he is a top earner, but his holier-than-thou online persona (I hear he's a lovely guy in real life) is more annoying than insightful, in my opinion.... even if he was right about the Jay Leno thing.

He reads others scipts, he does all the time. I think the point had more to do with people asking him to read scripts that are pure crap, people who should NOT be writing. People who think they are good but don't know enough to know it's the biggest piece of sh*t. He'll continue to have "two piles of scripts".

[Luis Caffesse]

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=183093