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Saturday, July 15, 2006

 

Never Tell Me The Odds

When it comes to screenwriting, they say the odds of selling an unsolicited screenplay are astronimical. I've heard 1 in 40,000. I've heard 1 in 200,000. Regardless, it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 in a shitload.

And yet they also say that your best bet is doing whatever it takes to improve your odds. Learn correct screenplay formatting -- double your odds. Learn good marketing techniques -- double your odds. But even if you've "doubled" your odds 10 times over, it still gives you only a 2% chance of ever selling that screenplay. And god knows what chance there is of seeing that movie get made.

But if you make that movie yourself the odds someone will make your movie jump to 1 in 1. 100%.

1 < 40,000 < 200,000 < a shitload. Those odds are pretty good.

Ok, so there are still a few obstacles. Like how to you actually make a movie? And how do you pay for it?

Excellent questions. As we figure it out, we'll blog about it here.


Comments:
When you don't have money you just have to make Mr. Imagination work harder...a lot harder.

By Mr. Imagination I mean figuring out how to make a van blow up for $10 without landing in jail.

Remembering to hit record on the camera helps too. I'm looking at you, Bruce.
 
I was thinking about re-writing the scene to get rid of the exploding van, but your solution will work too.
 
...as long as no one catches fire. It's all fun and games until someone loses their eyebrows.
 
There's always the option of having it explode offscreen, of course. With sound and fury hinted at.

Or, if a character wears glasses, have the model van explosion light up his face omentarily with orange light, with a reflection of the explosion in the glasses. (Or on his eyeballs, if you're feeling Lucasesque).
 
I think we should blow up a real van. In front of Karen & Siva's house. At 3AM.
 
We should blow up a real van at 3am in front of Karen and Siva's house while playing very loud heavy metal for the soundtrack.
 
So I guess there's no point in writing the exploding van out of the script, since everyone's probably just gonna blow one up anyway
 
Feel free to blow up my dead Saturn. (Hey, anyone know how to get rid of a dead car?)
 
Bring it on. With all the noise the contractors are making in our attic... we won't hear it anyway. So there nyah... and play Barry Manilow while you're at it...
(***note: just kidding. please don't bring anything on. if anything, more loud noises will just freak the Cat out more)

Neil, sorry to hear about your dead Saturn. Maybe you could give it the ol' dead goldfish treatment?
 
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