Your marketing starts with E-script

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 458.

Exercise 38. a) Read the information on E-scriptwriting below and find the answers to the following questions.

AND VOCABULARY

READING, LANGUAGE USE

1. What new avenues has Internet opened up for scriptwriters?

2. Who is the target audience for e-scripts?

3. Are screenplays normally thought of as publishable? Why?

4. What is the background of the person who thinks he's solved the problem?

5. What made Ken Miyamoto create eScriptsHub.com?

6. What is unique about screenwriters as compared to people of other film majors?

7. How did new scriptwriting format come to him?

8. How is an eScript different in format from a regular script?

9. Why and when would ordinary people read eScripts?

10. Why would screenwriters like their un-produced scripts to be published as eScripts?

Just as the Internet has opened up new avenues for filmmakers to get their movies distributed and seen online, writers also now have the opportunity to upload their manuscripts and have them beamed directly onto computer hard drives and into mobile devices.Screenwriters can now publish their screenplays for Kindle and Nook e-book readers, as well as for various print-on-demand services. Screenplays aren't normally thought of as publishable, unless they've been written by high-profile writers like William Goldman or the Coen brothers. Still there are examples of filmmakers who built part of their reputation by selling their screenplays in printed form. The most significant example of this is Spike Lee, whose relentless self-promotion early in his career included a published production journal and screenplay for each of his films. Dave Trottier self-published “The Screenwriter's Bible”, which ultimately became a top seller in its market, with total sales of nearly 300,000 copies.

However, nobody seems to have really found the right format, connected movie scripts with a viable market of readers, or provided an easy way for screenwriters to make the transition. Ken Miyamoto, professional screenwriter and producer with many studio meetings under his belt (Sony, Dreamworks, Universal, Disney, Warner Brothers, etc.), thinks he's solved the problem.

You have been a professional screenwriter for many years. What made you create eScriptsHub.com?

Rejection. As screenwriters, we pour our hearts and souls into our stories. We spend anywhere from a few months to a year or more on each script that we write. And what do we want to do the moment we finish that final draft? We want to take it to people that can get it made.

And then what happens? Most of the time … nothing. Even making a sale on a spec script is damn near impossible these days. That's what is unfortunately unique about screenwriters. We only have one platform for our work to be seen. We want people to see it on the screen. If the scripts aren't produced in whatever fashion, nobody sees it.

Then I started to look at my own spec scripts, thinking, “Gosh, I'd like them to have an audience.” Then I started to look at the current craze of e-books. Self-publishing e-books on Amazon let undiscovered writers attract hundreds of thousands of readers.

Thus my idea of e-scripts was born. The thought was to create a hybrid of e-books and movie screenplays. To create a format that popped off of the screen of those Kindles, iPads, and PCs.

eScriptsHub.com itself started as a drop page to my own eScripts. Then I began to think that if I really wanted this new format and platform to grow, we're going to need to drive a universal format to offer readers some consistency. So I created the Hub to be a central gathering point for this format and platform, offering screenwriters everything they need and also offering readers a place to learn more.