This is a transcript of SYS Podcast Episode 536 – Working With Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx on Collateral (2004) With Chuck Russell.
Welcome to episode 536 of the Selling Your Screenplay podcast. I’m Ashley Scott Meyers, screenwriter and blogger of a selling your screenplay.com. Today I’m interviewing writer-director Chuck Russellwhose credits include Nightmare on Elm Street part three, The Mask Eraser, and most recently Witchboard, which is a horror feature film that he co-wrote and directed. So he’s here today to talk about Witchboard and how he got that film produced. So stay tuned for that interview.
SYS’s Six Figure Screenplay Contest is open for submissions. Just go to www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/contest. This is our final, final, final deadline. We are closing for submissions at the end of August. So if you still have a low budget screenplay that you want to enter, now is definitely the time. It is literally our last deadline, the last day of August. We’re looking for low budget shorts and features. I’m defining low budget as less than six figures. In other words, less than 1 million US dollars. We’ve got lots of industry judges reading scripts in the later rounds. We’re giving away $1,000 in cash to our grand prize winner along with a bunch of other prizes to bring exposure to the top scripts. We have a short film script category 30 pages or less. So if you have a low budget short script by all means submit that as well. If you want to submit or learn more about the contest or check out some of our industry judges, just go to sellingyourscreenplay.com/contest. If you find this episode valuable, please help me out by giving me a review in iTunes or leaving a comment on YouTube or retweeting the podcast on Twitter or liking or sharing it on Facebook. These social media shares really do help spread word about the podcast. So they’re very much appreciated.
Any websites or links that I mentioned in the podcast can be found on my blog in the show notes. I also publish a transcript with every episode in case you’d rather read the show or look at something later on. You can find all the podcast show notes at www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/podcast and then just look for episode 536. If you want my free guide, how to sell a screenplay in five weeks, you can pick that up by going to sellingyourscreenplay.com slash guide is completely free. You just put in your email address and I’ll send you a new lesson once per week for five weeks along with a bunch of bonus lessons. I teach the whole process of how to sell your screenplay in that guide. I’ll teach you how to write a professional logline and query letter and how to find agents, managers and producers who are looking for material. Really is everything you need to know to sell your screenplay. Just go to sellingyourscreenplay.com/guide.
So now a quick few words about what I’ve been working on. I am deep into pre-production on my Rom-com, which I’ve been talking about now probably for over a year at this point here on the podcast. Just to recap, I have my small crew assembled. I’ve just about got all my locations figured out. I’ve got the schedule pretty well figured out and the dates are pretty much locked. We’re shooting from October 27th through November 15th. I’ve got my insurance in place, both workers comp and liability. That’s all paid for. So the next big thing I’m working on is casting. It’s a pretty contained script in terms of the cast that I need. So I only have probably a half dozen real roles in the film, maybe eight, maybe a little more than that, but there’s a number of smaller roles. And I mentioned this last month, but if you have any interest in being an extra, there’s two days we’re gonna need a bunch of extras. Or if you have experience as an actor and want an actual role in the film, just email me. I’m very open to casting ideas at this stage.
Again, we’re shooting in the first half of November that October 27th to November 15th. I have one small role where it’s the moderator of an online test and it’s just one line that the person does. And I’ll just describe the scene a little bit and it’ll make sense why I’m doing this. The title character is taking her LSAT at her home computer in her home office. And on the computer screen, there is a moderator who is watching her and other people take the test and also just keeping an eye on time. So eventually the time clicks down. He’s looking at the camera to make sure people aren’t cheating or whatever. He just glances at the camera a couple of times and then he looks at his phone that is counting down to zero. And then once it hits zero, he goes time. You know, the test is locked. You’ll get results in the mail in a few weeks. And the thing about this, so the way we’re gonna do this is so we just need that little video of somebody looking at the camera and then saying that line. And it can be shy, it can be anybody. I thought it would be a cool thing to give this role to someone who listens to the SYS podcast who does not live in LA because this is something that literally can be done from anywhere in the world. All I need is someone to just film themselves in their home office on a simple camera, just doing what I just described. And then we will take that piece of video and we will put it in the screen. So when there’s gonna be like over the shoulder of her taking the test and on that screen there’s gonna be a counter that we’ll see. And then also there’ll be this little video piece where the moderator is kind of taking it. So again, it’s just, you could shoot it in your home office. It would be easy to do, it’s just one line. And I just think, as I said, it would be a cool cameo for an SYS listener, especially considering it can be done from anywhere in the world. If you’re in LA, there might be another role.
I wanna cast people to have some acting experiences in the roles, obviously, where you’re actually having to act. But extras, we can use anybody. But if you have any acting experience, just send me an email and I’ll link to your IMDB page or your resume, maybe a reel, something like that. And I’ll definitely have a look and we’ll see if I can find a role for you. But for sure, this role really doesn’t take that much acting, as I said. It just be kind of a cool thing to have an SYS listener do this role of moderator. And again, I thought it would be kind of cool to give it to someone that’s not in LA, that can’t come out and actually have a one-liner on set. It’d just be a cool way to kind of incorporate the SYS community. So if any of this resonates with you, drop me an email, info at sellingyourscreenplay.com. Anyways, that’s what I’ve been working on and there’s still lots more work to do. So I will definitely have another update over the next couple of months.
So let’s get into the main segment. Today I am interviewing writer, director Chuck Russellwhose credits include the mask erasure and the film that he’s here to talk about today called Witchboard. Here is the interview. Welcome Chuck to the Selling Your Screenplay podcast. I really appreciate you coming on the show with me today.
Chuck Russell
Hey Ashley, thanks for having me.
Ashely
So to start out, maybe you can tell us a little bit about your background, where’d you grow up and how did you get interested in the entertainment business?
Chuck Russell
I was born on a farm, but I’m from Chicago really originally, and I came out to LA. I went to University of Illinois, but I came out to LA without really a lot of connections. So I did it a little bit the old school way. I got a job sweeping stages, and I was always writing. I was writing one act plays back in Chicago area, and I just worked my way up traditionally in film production, from production assisting to assistant directing, and the whole time I was writing. Finally, I got a co-writing credit for doing a re-write on Dreamscape back in the day with Dennis Quaid, and it was soft to the races. I then got Nightmare on Elm Street 3 as a writer-director, and I brought my partner Frank Darabont in for a re-write of a Wes Craven script. So a very traditional kind of work your way up from the bottom, and it went pretty quickly, and I was having fun. I was 20 years old and loving moving to LA.
Ashely
Yeah. Now, when you moved to L.A., was your intent to be a writer director? Did you just want to be a writer? What was sort of your intent in coming out here?
Chuck Russell
My intent was to be a director, writer, yes. I had been acting and I was in one low budget film back in Chicago, playing a rookie cop, and I was so unhappy. I’d done a lot of acting and I really realized I preferred my experience directing one act plays at that time. And I really came to LA pushing writing and directing, ultimately producing also. So, you know, it was ambitious, but really fun and a great time to be in the film business here in LA.
Ashely
So, um, and it sounds like the entertainment industry may radically change here. I guess it’s already radically changing, but I’m curious, the traditional path of, you know, starting as an assistant, working your way up, maybe you can just speak to that a little bit and give us a couple of tips, someone that has that entry level job, how do you slowly move up the ranks?
How do you know when it’s time to tell your boss, Hey, I’m also a writer, you know, on the weekends, how do you find those awkward moments to start to push yourself up and just maybe just give us some tips? How do you get that, you know, entry level job and work your way up?
Chuck Russell
Look, I’ll give you my opinion, but I will tell you every rule is meant to be broken. There’s always a new dodge getting into this business. I actually came to LA with a book called The Gentle Tambers by Dee Brown. I found the highest value piece of literature I could, which was about women in the West, stories of women in the West, but I was way too early. There wasn’t the openness to feminist stories at that time. I came in with something to sell. The people were talking to me. They knew the author, Dee Brown. So it helps. I’m not mentioning that because it didn’t really work, but it did help as an introduction. And one of the pieces of advice I often give, if you’re packaging yourself to be a director, that’s one track. And on that track, don’t be dissuaded. I got my first directing gig, which was Nightmare on Elm Street 3, because I already had gotten myself the rights to the blob. New Line didn’t want to do my proposed remake of the blob. But since I was presenting myself as a director and spoke well in the meetings and did my own storyboards, et cetera, they said, hey, we need a director for Nightmare on Elm Street 3. Would you pitch us what you would do with that film? So just coming in with a point of view. Nowadays, with your iPhone, there’s no excuse for anybody not to come in with some footage. We did not have it. I mean, I wasn’t a big 16-millimeter or 8-millimeter film guy. I was when I was a kid, but I didn’t have a short film to pitch. So that is one track. But the production track, they don’t go well together. So a piece of advice I just gave this week to a young lady, if you’re going to do film production, don’t come in and say, but I want to direct, because they don’t care and everybody wants to direct. The person who’s hiring you probably wanted to direct. I really don’t know why, because it’s the hardest job. You’re there before everybody and after everybody and you’re planning the next day. But it is the glamour job, apparently. So it doesn’t help to say, I’ll be getting your coffee and running your office. But by the way, I want you to know I’m a scriptwriter and I want to direct. Literally everybody, including the people serving you at restaurants, at least in LA, also have that attention. So announcing it to the universe doesn’t help. My friends in the business were shocked when I got my first directing gig, because they just thought I was a great production guy. I was an assistant director. I mean, I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging, but I worked really hard in the lane they needed me for. I made myself almost irreplaceable, working hard in the jobs most people aren’t looking for in the first place. But you learn film production. I observed other directors directing as a guy getting the coffee, as a second AD and finally as a first AD. You see everyone’s different styles. It really helps. There’s a learning curve. It helps you when you’re finally ready for your first directing. I got a lot of compliments on Nightmare on Elm Street 3, because I knew how to use the camera. I come from theater, so I knew how to work with actors. So I would say, the interesting question is, if you’re starting, do you shout out that you’re directing? Shout out that you’re directing behind a project, whether it’s a short film you want to make and talk to those people who might make a short film with you, or whether it’s a feature and you have a property the way I had with the book I found originally, which didn’t work out, but interesting people were willing to talk to me about it. And then finally the blob, which seemed like an odd idea at the time, but Cronenberg had already done the fly. So I had a precedent for a silly title, 1950s film being a success. I could point to saying, this is my intention.
Ashely
Now, how did you get the rights to the blob? That seemed like it was universal or universal pictures or some big studio did that movie back in the day.
Chuck Russell
Research now you’ve got rock and chat GP. Mm-hmm days. I just found a way to figure out who actually owned the rights the blob was an interesting title because The original is a classic of Steve McQueen’s first leading role and it was a big hit at the time But when you look back at it, even for a film shot in the 1950s It did no offense to the blob, but it didn’t hold up. Well, it’s kind of silly campy in its attempt to do Difficult visual effects, but it still worked So it wasn’t like the studios were fighting to make it through a remake of the original blob So I happened to find out the original producer the rights had reverted back to him.
I was a younger guy I said look I’m gonna get your movie made We’re gonna write a script. It’s gonna be true. I don’t know. I just talked my way into it Nobody else basically the answer is nobody else wanted it So it took a little spark of imagination and the fact that I knew I could point to the fly and I could hype it up But the time we presented it I’ve had a bunch of artwork now But you can use AI to make the best artwork for your pitch. Mm-hmm. So It’s since you guys are writer centric. I will say writing is Such a big deal. It’s it’s been the motor to my career. I might not be thought of as a writer first But to this day, I’m often hired to rewrite to direct That they know I can be a bit of a script script doctor at this point in my career and I have original scripts I like to and I spent years with Frank Darabond as a writing partner, which was wonderful for both of us My point is just What is it about your property if it’s not a book and it’s not a remake? Maybe it’s an original story. Do you know of maybe you can go out and say hey, I got the rights to this original story Here’s the simple document for the person it happened to You actually have to have things like that or you’ll give the other person an idea to do that original story Go out It doesn’t cost a lot of money you find an interesting story and maybe it’s going to be a cultural story or a personal story Or a drama. It doesn’t have to be a horror film, which is what how I started It just finds something you’re passionate about it just it’s just the basic advice for all writing and filmmaking Because it’s gonna end up being a lot harder than you think
Ashely
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Now, interestingly, it doesn’t sound like with the blob and with these female Western stories, it doesn’t sound like you wrote a spec script and went in with that you had the rights to the blob, you had the rights to this book. Is that correct? And if it is correct, why not write a spec and then you’re going in with it.
Chuck Russell
Right. But on Gentle Tamers, the book was kind of a critical success, there were historical stories and there were a number of them. I might have written a spec script at the time, but it was actually a little bit of a tough sell. To my surprise, you know, 10 years later, it wouldn’t have been because it’s very popular to make this kind of story. It still might be a good book to make. But on the blob, I had to get the rights before I wrote a spec script or I’m wasting my time. That’s how I know. Yeah. And I needed to talk to Jack Harris, who’s passed away now, who was the original producer and liked the independent spirit. It turned out Jack Harris was an independent filmmaker himself and admired a young guy with an ambition. And he didn’t have much to lose, nothing was happening with the property at the time. There had been another remake or two, I think Larry Hagman, of all people, shot one. But it didn’t really succeed. And I did have a background already in visual effects from just with something I was always handy with visual effects. And some people, some people knew that. So it helped. But but yeah, I didn’t go to New Line until I had a script on the blob and some artwork.
Ashely
Gotcha. So let’s dig into your latest film, which board which you directed and co-wrote maybe to start out and just give us a quick pitch or logline. What is this project all about?
Chuck Russell
It’s another, look, to me, it’s the third in my little personal trilogy of reinventing horror classics. If you count Elm Street 3, which we had to reinvent that, New Line wanted us to take the whole series back on track because Wes’s was genius. Elm Street 2 wasn’t that big of a success. And they said, what can we do to refresh in this? So Elm Street 3, which was very successful at the time, the blob which we completely reinvented and did some amazing physical effects, which were very difficult at the time. I’m laughing thinking about the days on the set with the full scale blob was not easy. And Witchboard is really everything I wanted to do in horror really one last time. It is a wonderful property. It was a hit in the 80s. It was the original Ouija board movie. And I wanted to make it about pendulum boards because I’ve been fascinated with pendulum boards, predated Ouija boards. Women were getting burned at the stake for having pendulum boards. They were outlawed by the Pope. So they were very, the church was very concerned about them at a certain point. And that is the birth of Ouija boards. They had to get rid of the pendulum in the board and they began to to seek spirits and information through the straight up alphabet with the planchette. So maybe that’s a little technical, but this is what I love the pendulum. It’s very cinematic. I couldn’t believe it hasn’t been in anybody’s movie that I’m aware of ever. And it goes all the way back to ancient Egypt. So it’s a very powerful occult device. It’s used to put curses, blessings, raised spirit, and it even crosses over into divination for water. That was one of the big purposes of the pendulum. So look, taking that story with a group of friends wanting to open a bistro restaurant in New Orleans. I loved that period of time after college and the original movie had a cast of this age. There’s a time right after college where we have our best friends and we’re just starting out in the world. I love that as a palette. And the witch board ends up being a portal to another world, another time. And the fun for me was I got to shoot in Montreal. So we did the witch portion of the story in the 1700s, all in France, which was authentic to the witch trials. So you’ll see Madison Iseman, Jamie Campbell Bauer from Stranger Things, Aaron Dominguez, and a wonderful young cast. And it’s dangerous and fun. And number one, it’s scary as hell.
Ashely
So how did you get involved in this project? Did a producer go get the rights and then bring it to you? They had a script and you did some rewrites. Maybe you can just describe sort of how you got involved and then what you ultimately did with this.
Chuck Russell
Well, people, you know, people come to me for different things because at a certain point in your career, you become an element that helps a film get made, you know, instead of just desperately trying to make your film and happily I’m part of the elements of getting films made. So people bring projects to me. In this case, Greg McKay, who is a friend of mine, said he has the rights to the original Witchboard and why don’t we relaunch that? And it took me maybe six or eight months to really realize that’s a great idea and here’s how I would do it. And I did a big rewrite, Greg wrote an original version from the early film and I brought in the whole pendulum board and a bunch of my ideas and did my draft. And Greg is a producer on the film and that’s one of the things you do. I like keeping original writers close. I think it’s a big mistake. I don’t know if you’re if you’re you’re folks watching are aware of this, but some directors try to get rid of an original writer if they’re going to rewrite. I embrace them. They become part of my team. You know, I’m not at all frightened of collaboration. I want to hear what you know, what do you think? What did you mean? If you don’t, if my draft isn’t your favorite, what is it that’s getting you and you end up I just enjoy the collaborative part of this. So Greg remains a friend and is a co-producer on the show with me and Kate.
Ashely
Now, as since he’s the producer, are there ever those moments he brings the script to you, you have to critique the script, give them criticism and then take it. Is there ever any moments where you guys didn’t necessarily see eye to eye and how do you handle those situations?
Chuck Russell
There’s another, it’s a great question, there’s another art to that. Since Greg is a friend, and since I was kind of the green light element, he was doing what I, all smart producers do, including me when I, when I produce. I still just produce pictures like Collateral that I got Michael Mann to direct, that Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx were in. You know, you, you support the hell out of Michael Mann. I don’t, I don’t go in and, you know, he may ask me my suggestions or whatever, I might give them to him and we had fun, but, but a producer’s job in a lot of ways is to get to that good script you believe in and then just support your director and, and help him, help him stay on track if need be. So in my case, Greg was just supporting me in a wonderful way. You know, he liked my rewrite, he gave me notes on the rewrite I did, and we just went off in a kind of a wild direction from the original.
Ashely
Mm hmm. And maybe you can talk about that. What are some of the challenges of updating something you know, that was written years ago? What kind of changes do you guys have to implement and just a general strategy for something like this?
Chuck Russell
I didn’t, I didn’t touch that property. The films that I’ve remade, there was a reason I had to remake them. There was something important I thought I could bring to it and make it mine and give the audience is something they haven’t seen before. I think it’s really I’ve been offered remakes. The Femme Nikita, there was an American name for it. I was offered that remake and I was like, this was Luc Besson’s best film. Great female lead in an action film. I thought, you know, I actually don’t know what I would bring to that. So it’s a paycheck. I think it’s weird. I mean, I, as a filmmaker, having a great film to remake causes me more stress than remaking the blob or whichboard which are, they’re great properties or a little piece of horror history. So what is it now? How can I, you know, how do I reimagine this? And in both movies, I had a very specific point of view, very specific visuals. I knew the beginning, middle and end before I before I took the project on honestly. So that’s the trick. My other people will disagree with me. And there’s been great remakes of good films. But I’d rather do an original film if we’re going to you know, if we’re going to do that. So in my case, we stand on the shoulders of giants, right? There’s a resonant pop culture. They know the name the blob. The name whichboard is very catchy to me. It sounds like switchboard. It’s like, what’s a whichboard? You know, right? And we, there was no which in the original I said, man, we have to have a which in whichboard. So it’s very occult and witchcraft centric. And all the witchcraft is researched and it all has a resonant truth behind it.
Ashely
Gotcha. So maybe you can just describe your actual process. I’m always curious just to hear how writers work. So you got a draft of this from your friend slash producer. Do you break it down into index cards? Do you have a board? Do you just input into final draft and start making making edits? Maybe you can talk about just sort of that process how you go about making changes.
Chuck Russell
On a polish, and there are technical, contractual definitions of what’s a polish and what’s not, but I think people know what I mean. If it’s not a deep rewrite, yeah, put it in the final draft, but you should know where you’re going. This was, I wonder if I should tell, my technique with Frank Darabont was very interesting, because it was truly rewriting. It was like two guys in the 1920s writing Broadway music together. I mean, we really were in the same, we got a cabin in Big Bear to do the rewrite on Elm Street 3, and literally did it together, and that was all about boarding it, which I personally believe in it. In that case, it was three by five cards, and we do little theater. If you’re working with a partner, you can actually play scenes out a little bit, or if you have actor friends, it’s a lot of fun to try your scenes out and workshop it a little bit in your own safe environment. But I don’t like moving forward until we know where we’re going, and then you break your rules. If your characters start speaking up outside of your structure, that’s great news. It means, you know, we’re going to make an adjustment. It means that the characters are vibrant enough, maybe they’re not going to behave the way you thought in your structural overview, and go with it and see where it takes you. Let them call the cops in a horror film. Don’t make them not call the cops. Don’t have them not walk into the dark basement. What else is going to happen that could be even scarier? So you can break your own. If you know where you’re going, and the same thing’s true of storyboarding scenes for filming. I like to have a plan, and then we’re there to rise above the plan, should it come to us. But I know where we’re taking off and how we’re landing every day I shoot. And when we start a script, I know where we want to go. You may come up with a surprise for the end, because their endings are just given the audience exactly what they want and the way they least expect it. This is my personal rule for endings. It can’t be predictable, but you better add up, you know? Or your ending can be ironic. I mean, that’s true. So yes, I personally believe in boarding. Frank Darabonda wrote Shawshank Redemption less believed in boarding. You know, I don’t know what he did. Maybe he treats each thing individually. But when you work with a partner, for sure, you better board it so you both know where you’re going.
Ashely
Gotcha. And maybe you can just speak to screenplay structure. You’re talking about knowing where you’re going, how into the sort of that paradigm, beginning, middle, and end, you know, midpoint inciting incident, act breaks. How much do you sort of put stock do you put in that?
Chuck Russell
It depends on the project. But I do. In fact, I like writing synopses. A lot of times, I’m asked for synopses after a show and what people call synopses now are usually really short anyway. But I like writing a synopsis, it may seem like busy work to people, but oddly, interesting things come up. So I’ll write a synopsis, it’s not really, it’s certainly no, it’s no more than about 15 pages. But I’ll sketch in the scenes for myself, not not to be presented to others. So it’s a little better than an outline. The reason one of the reasons I do that is I in horror films in particular, and in action films, I’m looking for set pieces, you know, I want to tell a great story. But the set piece you have to have a strong, you have to have a strong Christmas tree, then the set pieces are the decorations, they’re the you know, where you’re putting a bulb, how often are you having a scare, different people have rules to these things. I keep thinking it’s good to break the rules. But but I look for the strongest story characters I love, for whatever reasons, I got to care about them. Then part of the structure is, let me look at let me look at what I’ve structured. And why is this scary? Because if it’s not scary, in a horror genre, I mean, that is, it’s still the number one thing. I could be scary funny. I do sort of action horror. A lot of times, I think the blob was a little bit adventure horror, action horror. But you still need to see where your character scenes and where is your audience getting antsy in this genre, we better keep them entertained.
Ashely
Mm-hmm. So, how can people see Whichboard? Do you know what the release schedule is going to be like and where it will be available?
Chuck Russell
August 15th. August 15 coming up. You have to go release only at first. We’re excited about that. We’re starting some screenings. We’re getting it out there on the I’m learning a lot about the new way of marketing films, leaning heavily towards the internet, which is great fun.
Ashely
And I’d just like to wrap up the interviews by asking the guests, is there anything you’ve seen recently, Netflix, Hulu, HBO, that you can recommend to our mostly screenwriting audience?
Chuck Russell
Oh, Sinners. I was blown away by Sinners. I mean, what’s great about Sinners, the sense of place. For the first hour of the show, you don’t even know you’re necessarily in a horror film. I don’t know if I’ve got the timing exactly right. But incredible performances, great production values. Now it’s a studio big budget prediction project. A lot of times I like referring to independent films where you have to do more with less, you know, you’ve got a big budget then it better be good. But sinners was so good on every end. And I’ve never seen music used in a horror film like that. So I made the mask. That’s my favorite film. And that it’s my most original film. And we used comedy and we even use scares and CGI and dance and music was a little bit of a musical. Sinners is has a similar original feeling to me anyway, because it’s using all that great blues music or the south. And it will always was associated with the devil. It was go down to the crossroads and make a deal with the devil for your soul. And you’ll be a great musician. So they hit on some deep, deep, great cultural material there. And we’re able to incorporate music in a in horror in a way I’ve never seen. So I can’t say enough about that film.
Ashely
Okay. Yeah, that’s a good recommendation. I’ve heard good things about it. I have not checked it out yet. What’s the best way for people to keep up with what you’re doing? Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, anything you’re comfortable sharing, I will round up and put in the show notes.
Chuck Russell
I personally don’t do social media, because I’ll be up all night. It’s a lot easier to go on social media than do the writing. I still have to be quite a disciplined writer. But you can look up Witchboard all you want. It will be on all those platforms.
Ashely
And we’ll link to the.
Chuck Russell
Witchboard movie 2525, I believe it is.
Ashely
Perfect. And we’ll link to it on the I am willing to IMDB page as well.
Chuck, thank you for coming on the show and talking about your film. Good luck with this films and good luck all your future films as well.
Chuck Russell
Writing. you don’t need anybody’s permission. That’s a beautiful thing. Go write
Ashely
Sound advice. Thank you much. We’ll talk to you later. Bye.
A quick plug for the SYS Screenwriting Analysis Service. It’s a really economical way to get a high-quality professional evaluation on your screenplay. When you buy our three-pack, you get evaluations at just $67 per script for feature films and just $55 for teleplays. All the readers have professional experience reading for studios, production companies, contests, and agencies. You can read a short bio on each reader on our website, and you can pick the reader who you think is the best fit for your script. Turnaround time is usually just a few days, but rarely more than a week. The readers will evaluate your script on six key factors, concept, character, structure, marketability, tone, and overall craft, which includes formatting, spelling, and grammar. Every script will get a grade of pass, consider, or recommend, which should help you roughly understand where your script might rank if you were to submit it to a production company or agency.
We can provide an analysis on features or television scripts. We also do proofreading without any analysis. We will also look at a treatment or outline and give you the same analysis on it. So if you’re looking to vet some of your project ideas, this is a great way to do it. We will also write your logline and synopsis for you. You can add this logline and synopsis writing service to an analysis, or you can simply purchase this service as a standalone product. As a bonus, if your screenplay gets a recommend or a consider from one of our readers, you get to list the screenplay in the SYS Select database, which is a database for producers to find screenplays and a big part of our SYS Select program. Producers are in the database searching for material on a daily basis, so it’s another great way to get your material in front of them. As a further bonus, if your script gets a recommend from one of our readers, your screenplay will get included in our monthly best of newsletter. Each month we send out a newsletter that highlights the best screenplays that have come through our script analysis service. This is monthly newsletter that goes out to our list of over 400 producers who are actively looking for material. So again, this is another great way to get your material out there. So if you want a professional evaluation of your screenplay at a very reasonable price, check out www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/consultants. Again, that’s sellingyourscreenplay.com/consultants. So I’ve just gotten so busy, I do not have an interview lined up for next month, so I have no idea who is going to be on the podcast next month. I am working on that, but I’ll definitely have an episode, so keep an eye out for it.
That’s the show. Thank you for listening.