Reading Other People's Screenplays...

So in the last post I talked about the screenplay social community known as Talentville.com. I've been more active on Talentville this week than I've ever been. This is due mostly to the fact that I now have a little bit better understanding how the community works.

You can become a member of the community in one of 2 ways - either as a Tourist, which is a free membership with limited benefits. Or you can purchase a Citizenship status starting at $39 for a 3 month period. $59 for a 6 month term, or a one year term for $99. I am considering a citizenship status at the 3 month term as a trial. One of the benefits of Talentville citizenship is that you have the freedom to choose the script that you would like to read written by other members in the community and submit a review.

Reviewing scripts and submitting ratings and reviews are an essential means to getting your own script submissions read by community participants.  The goal is the hope of getting enough favorable reviews to boost your ranking to a point where industry professionals, also part of the community, will take notice of your work. Every screenplay that you read and post a review gets you a designated amount of Talentdollars. Talentdollars can then be used to purchase reviews of your screenplay by community participants.

The limitations with having only the free tourist status is that you don't get to choose the scripts to review, but you are assigned them. I have read 4 scripts since last weekend - all of them assigned. There is also a time period given, I believe about 7 days to read and post a review. The first script I read was adapted from a juvenile novel, something in the vein of Rob Reiner's Stand by Me. I did enjoy it and thought the writer did a nice job. That review was easy. The next assignment I received was the second installment of a 60 page episodic series, based on the Trojan wars. This was something akin to Game of Thrones or Spartacus. I found this script quite compelling and very nicely written.

Yesterday I finished a script that was a 98 page disaster. it was said to be a comedy/drama about an all gay soccer team helping their straight coach with a baby that he was trying to gain custody of after the mother abandons both, "presumed" father and baby. This was difficult for me because I wanted to be fair to the writer in giving my honest assessment without deflating him completely. I had to call upon all of my writing skills and sense of diplomacy to provide the most constructive feedback, without bruising the author to badly in the process. I think was successful. Once you submit your review, you are able to then see everybody's reviews on the same work. I must say I felt much better about my post, as some of the others were quite harsh in conveying their opinions of the troubled work.

Now I have accumulated enough Talentdollars to purchase 2 reviews for my own script, Martin Eden. One of the two should be  coming in very soon, as I believe it was assigned last week. I think it is a fine script, but then doesn't everybody think the same of their own work?  Anyway it is fun, but it would be kind of nice to choose a genre and a script that I might be interested in. I'm not much for horror, sci-fi, animation or sitcoms... all in the realm of possible assignments with my current Tourist status.