The Screenplay Experiment -- critical mass
An important question for any ODI, as mentioned before, is building interest and momentum in the early stages. This would require a publicity push. But this idea, especially with the $1 this-is-not-a-commercial-venture angle, is condusive to such publicity. A sweep of hollywood related bloggers would probably put out the word. We can also get some coverage in screenwriting magazines (which have concentrated circulations, but are pretty low-key and cheaply put together, so persuadable). Perhaps, even, we can make an agreement with such a magazine to have a regular feature about the experiment -- i.e. what's the current state of the screenplay experiment, including an update, and some exceprts. That would really be a best case scenario.
In all these initial pushes, we emphasize the potential to get upgraded to a moderator. That is, push people to get their early because that maximizes their chance of grabbing a bigger role.
Finally, we can anatagonize movie executives; find some way to disparage the experiment in collaboration, and then use this as ammo to bolster the community. Perhaps post the latest quote from someone saying why the idea can't work.
Comments
I agree that a publicity push would be big, especially after some of the scripts reach a rough draft point.
At the same time, I'm still having trouble picturing people getting excited about contributing in return for the coolness of being seen. If I were a contributor, a large fear would be that the screen play would never get finished or go into production. Perhaps this is the sort of idea where it would be great to partner with a film production company so that people know in advance that the film is definitely happening.
Also, I would recommend typing in "collaborative novel" and "collaborative screenplay" in Google to see similar ideas.
Posted by: Michael Simmons | October 24, 2005 12:31 AM