IDEA: TheScreenplayExperiment.com
The Pitch
How many times have you walked out of a movie and exclaimed: "I could have written something better than that" ? Finally, a chance to put this common boast to the test. The Screenplay Experiment is a study in both the power of collaborative thinking and the creative ability of the movie-going public. At TheScreenplayExperiment.com budding cinemphiles from around the world can collaborate, using wiki technology, to craft the perfect movie treatment. No more plot holes, boring characters, or weak twists...the optimistic premise of this site is that from the combined power of many movie lovers can emerge a movie concept devoid of the common problems that frustrate us at the theatre time after time. At least, that's the hope. Will it succeed? That's up to you -- and thousands of your movie-loving peers.
If the treatment ends up sucking, then everyone who participated is no longer allowed to complain once the credits roll. If, however, it ends up compelling, then the site owners will sell the rights, for exactly $1, to the production company or studio that seems to be most capable and most committed to actually getting the project onto the big screen.
Continued in the extended entry is a quick discussion of how to make money from the idea and some potential problems...
The Financial Model
Money can be made by ads. Hollywood is obsesed with itself, so, if played right, publicity from the hollywood press should not be hard to gain. From there, other mainstrem outlets might chime in. Especially if the project starts veering towards a success or dismal failure. This type of project would attract the huge aspiring screenwriter crowd . This crowd is very desirable to the huge industry that sell books, and seminars, and script doctoring services to these hopefuls.
Furthermore, following the lead of SaveToby.com, there is money to be made by selling hipster merchandise at the site. That is, merchandise that only people familar with the project would recognize (understated, retro, obscure, and/or campy t-shirts...perhaps containing a quote that was lambasted by the participants with a particular furor, or understated versions of the logo, etc.)
The Problems
There are many. Such as...
How do you get the collaboration to work? I assume a wiki model makes the most sense, but there would have to be some sort of hierachy of rights to prevent idiots from ruining other people's efforts.
What about people stealing the idea? There might not be too much we can do about this. Though, let's be honest, the final treatment will most likely suck, so who cares. Perhaps stringent copyright notices would be enough to scare of most theifs to be. Besides, even if it was stolen, that could cause a ruckus, which would generate more publicity for us.
Could we build a big enough audience to make it interesting? I don't know much about this aspiring screenwriter world, but I think, for the most part, these people are energetic and eager to look for any way they can to distinguish themselves. i.e. to be a site admin for TheScreenplayExperiment.com might inspire many to work feverishly...every bit helps in that industry. One way to drum up initial promotion is to target some screenplay related bloggers and web site owners to offer us their advice on how best to set up the collaboration structure. After doing this, they would most likely post about it, generating a good initial buzz?
Comments
Cal,
I like it a lot.
I think this idea could follow the Gmail model; Invitation only. Then you would charge $5/$10 for every participation, with a limited amount of spots (shares). This would make it rather exclusive. The cap could be like 200,000 participants. Once we hit a specified critical mass... then we'd guarentee production with the money raised. As more people join, the budget for the director grows.
I think it would be good to also get the participation of a young, up-and-coming student Director to run the production. Then... people could submit ideas in private. He would post good suggestions up for vote for the shareholders or the general public.
Posted by: Richard Salem | October 18, 2005 09:41 AM
Very interesting, Cal. In the long-run I can see tie-ins to student-centric sites, such as Facebook and the like, to target film students and other young aspiring filmmakers.
Posted by: Scott Pollack | October 18, 2005 12:40 PM
Hey Cal,
I think the idea could work. The main problem I see for this idea and the other ideas is the marketing of it so that it becomes self-staining with users contributing content. This is especially challenging in the beginning when there is no content and no users.
Posted by: Michael Simmons | October 21, 2005 05:03 AM