There have been a few rumblings in the blogosphere regarding the wardrobe change for THE SPIRIT. In the original comics he wore a blue suit and hat. In the movie he's wearing black.
Now that I've finished my draft of the Knightmare script and await wonderfully pithy comments from Gregg, ripping my internals out onto the floor, I want to answer an email from Chris who had some beginner questions that beg a mad pulp answer:
I came across your blog when the guidelines for Sci-Fi Channel Movie writing came out. I think I followed a link via Boing Boing. At any rate, I have a tremendous desire to be a working screenwriter but have never been able to figure out a way to actually get material in front of anyone actually involved in the industry.
That's cool that the essential information on what cable channels like Scifi are looking for is getting out there. So many beginners are in the dark about what sort of material networks and producers want, and in what format.
There are several ways to open the Hollywood doors:
1. Contests get scripts read by people in the industry. Enter the biggies like Nicholl, SXSW and elsewhere. Alex Epstein has a FAQ section on his blog where he answers these types of questions. Tell him I sent ya.
2. Produce your work yourself and post it online. Not for the faint of heart or those with no tolerance for pain, but it is a way.
3. I assume (assumptions being what they are) that your material is ripe for the "indie/genre/D2DVD" marketplace. This is the same market that intersects with the comic book market. Why not take your script and create a comic out of it? You always want to show complete work - not just scripts which are essentially works in progress.
4. Write a killer intro letter and email it around to all the production companies, and see what response you get.
5. Go to networking events - Screenwriting Expo, Scriptwriter's Showcase, SXSW, Comic Con, and dozens of film festivals and markets all around the country.
I have read many of the "how to" books, to no avail. Yes, surely that is a great surprise. Everything I come across basically suggests you have to know someone. Well, that's a rather grim situation for one who knows no one in the industry. I'm not asking you to take a look at anything; I'm not as naive as that.
So what you need to do is go out and meet people: Shake hands, talk on Screenwriter forums, go to festivals and make yourself (but especially your work) known.
What I was s hoping is that you might be able to give me some advice.
I'm just looking to get started. I don't have any illusions about writing something and selling it for hundreds of thousands or any such nonsense. I'm not trying to make an artistic statement. I just want to get a start.
ITEM! The illegal scanning and distribution of comics has caused a number of tracking sites to be closed down in the last few months.
Individuals involved are painted as slapdash unthinking miscreants, acting without care, vandals of the comics industry.
Naturally, they don’t feel that way themselves. Indeed, I’ve recently come across the scanning guidelines for leading online comic bootleggers, The Digital Comics Preservation Crew, who upload hundreds of comics to Pirate Bay the week of publication, for hundreds of thousands of people to download.
Their given name says much, they see themselves as evangelical archivists who spend thousands of man hours scanning and Photoshopping comics work, with intricate care and detail, exhibiting a real pride in their work. Much like the live music show bootleggers who would spend days on the perfect edit, so these scourges of the sequential art have created an intricate, extensive and frankly long-winded bible for those individuals keen to join them...
I’ve said it before, we’re in the middle of a comics boom as big as the mid-nineties. It’s just instead of people buying millions of copies and storing them in kevlar bags, they’re being stolen instead. And actually read.
I understand that at both Marvel and DC there were internal suggestions that such people be contacted and brought in house, bringing their existing work and experience and adding it to respective archive and trade paperback sections. In both cases such suggestions were instantly snuffed out.
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The answer to all of this is of course, to shift all comics to the web... and to make them free. Yes, you read that right. Free downloads of comics that have advertising in them (just like they do now). Right now, the comics industry would cut off their left testicle (or other organ - take your pick) to get a regular readership of 100K for their comics. As Rich points out - they have that - they're just not getting paid for it.
By shifting the focus to the web, they maintain their ad income, increase readership and cut costs. They could actually increase their ad income by charging the rate for a 100K audience instead of the typical midlist audience of 20-35K .
Then, they could print 3-in-1 magazines and distribute those larger, yet cheaper magazines to the comic shop market and newsstands. The new, larger audience would then know exactly where they could go to get the print editions driving sales further without alienating the retail sector.
This of course, could be followed by trade collections.
Some company with forward thinking leadership is going to adopt this methodology. They are going to release comics for free on the web, then print editions, then trade collections. They are going to be near profitable from panel one, and...
Comics readers will be better off for it.
You will see my pulpy prose in this:
