Folks,

I am planning an update to the unproduced listings this summer.  One of the biggest complaints is that there is not enough information about budget, location, characters, etc.  I am going to add additional, optional information to the submission form.  I would like thoughts/input.  

Total Characters - numeric
Budget - Low, Medium, High
Number of Locations - numeric

With characters, should I add Male/Female/Other rather than total?
Can I get some help on defining Low, Med, High budget?
Anything else?  

Great idea Don

For budget I'd suggest a lower category of Micro too and for me then the definition could be something like...
Micro - <100k
Low - 100k-1m
Med - 1-10m
High - 10m +

Or something like that maybe.

Is Character volume enough, or would it be better/possible to list main character traits?

Anyway, great idea!

In regard shorts, the budget limits would be different... so perhaps leave it out for those. Also, maybe as writers we're not best placed to define budget. What we may consider medium budget, could be made for a lot, lot cheaper depending on certain circumstances. I suppose if the info is optional there can be no complaints... but I'd be wary of putting off potential producers by mentioning budget. Unless it's obviously high.

I agree that writers don't always know what the budget would be of a script. I have no idea how much something I wrote would cost to produce, I couldn't even make a close guess, and many other writers who are new or newer like me would have no idea as well. Also, the cost can vary drastically depending on what resources the director/producer has available to them.

About the total characters thing, if you do it like where there are spots for total, male, and female that would work the best, I think, because some minor characters don't always have a gender. So, you could have like Total Characters: 9 (Male: 4, Female: 3) for a script where 4 characters are written as male, 3 are written as female, and 2 are written without a gender in mind, because, at least for me, when writing minor/unnamed characters, I often don't have a specific gender in mind or believe it doesn't matter.

Good point re budget, we aren't line producers... but I think estimating within fairly wide margins is doable. Afterall it's not a guarantee to the propspective film maker, it's just an estimate to allow them to filter the results.

To Dustin's point, on Inktip they actually allow you to select multiple budget categories, allowing for some flexibility.

Anthony

The update to the unproduced listings this summer sounds good.

Many have already said what I might have said, so for a change, I don't have a lot to say.

Up work keep good the. Or something like that. Etc.

R

Good point CJ re check boxes... I think Inktip. MovieBytes etc put limits on how many boxes per category you can tick, so two ticks in Genre, no more than three together on the budget list, that sort of thing.

I think the reddit example is useful, though people don't seem to fill it in! But I think that one is very much written from the writers perspective, if the here idea is to make it easier for Prodcers/Directors to search and find scripts based on certain criteria then an initial set of filters is definitely the way to go.

Don - maybe you could put a web survey and ask Producers/Directors to complete it?

How about adding a section where we can pitch our scripts like scriptshadow? We can include like our movie posters we create if we so choose to.



I'm not sure we need budget. Budget is subjective. Once they read it and want to make it, they can determine the cost at that point. We have to at least hook them in to getting it made.

Gabe

I think it's the Producers who'd like some indication of budget, and they don't want to read scripts that they just don't have the resources to make...

So agreed, it's subjective to a degree, but a two character drama, set in one easy to source location is likely V cheap, versus an effects filled SciFi epic with a cast of thousands.

It'd be someghing like Room vs Star Wars...

So something like I suggested or CJ's idea which gives the Producer an idea of the size of the budget, and if they should read the scrpt or not.

For me, and hopefully I understand the request, this is about making it easier for the Producer to find the scripts they are looking for without wading through a bunch of unsuitable ones. If the improvements can help with this then SS could rival Inktip and Blklst as a source of scripts... Not that it doesn't do pretty well already!

I like the idea of a *loose* budget designation, like Anthony and CJ have suggested. I agree with Dustin that it's not really our place to define budget specifically, but certainly some set of options would be extremely helpful to producers and would be preferable to none at all. "High" and "low" are relative terms, but there're definitely some obvious thresholds between, say, sci-fi/fantasy type scripts and household dramas.

I also like the idea of numbering characters and locations, as well as a Male/Female count. Really cut-and-dry specs and, again, helpful. Why not?

Not much else to add, really. Just showing my support.

I think you can do just about every script with high or low budget. It will have an effect on quality (probably) but I don't think it would be a good idea to tell a producer which budget they need. I guess that's rather something they will figure out themselves after reading the script. At least for shorts..

First - generally a good idea. But before you decide on approach and elements, I think you need to determine if the resultant information is going to eventually form a searchable data base of some sort. i.e., will users have the functionality of searching for scripts by genre, budget, length, etc. If so, you might consider a check box approach as it will generally more accurately serve a search function.  

Off topic - and no desire to hijack this thread so nuke this part if you want - but I would like to see something similar from writers when they post their scripts in terms of their review desires. e.g., Just a dialogue box that would be posted when the script is loaded that speaks to their review objectives (e.g., looking for everything, not engaging in reviews or comments - just hosting script, etc). Just a thought.

I think that a good idea would be to put a price on short scripts. Even if we're prepared to give them away for free it should be stipulated. This would also help prevent thefts. The main argument for thieves is that the scripts are in the public domain. Well, the same can be said when we go to a supermarket, all of the items are there for the taking. The only thing stopping us is the knowledge that the items have a price.

It will save a lot of time for the producers too. If they haven't got two pennies to rub together then they can not bother wasting their time reading scripts that do have a price and concentrate on the 'free to good home' ones.

Thank you everyone for the input.  If you think of any other ideas, please let me know.

Don

What is budget based on mostly? Number of Locations? Number of characters? Special effects?

Maybe we should define some categories which significantly influence budget and have them as optional fields instead of forcing writers to write something like 100k-500k there. I also don't think adding a price tag there would be helpful. If someone was interested in my script, I'd like to talk to them in private about the contract details.