You all have a great community going here. I’ve been lurking these forums for a few weeks now and have been busy reading nearly all of the scripts posted in the Short forum all the way back to those posted in 2004. Before I e-mail some of you, I felt like I should take the time to properly introduce myself first. From what I’ve read it seems there are some shady people making a lot of false promises and I don’t want to appear to be one of them. :p

I’m a 28-year-old Dutch student majoring (BA) Media & Entertainment and chose this study solely because of the film minors. Although I do have some experience in other fields (directing, camera and editing), my main preference leans towards the producer’s side of the process.  

I’m part of a group of 6 enthusiastic students who have been working together for a while now. Last year we were lucky enough to be able to participate with Rutger Hauer’s Filmfactory masterclass which came down to shooting a film in a day. We were handed a script (or poem), two actors, some equipment, a tiny budget and had only 3 days for the pre-production, production and post-production. We’re partly responsible for Song of Childhood (a poem to movie concept), the winning student film which gained some recognition on the Netherlands Film Festival website, the Rotterdam Media Fund website and it was featured on the I’VE SEEN FILMS film festival in Milano, Italy.

It was a great experience but we’re even more thrilled now to have our own assignment which doesn’t have any restrictions like the ones we had then. We’re going to produce a short film, or, if we consider it to be feasible, we may even make two films. No budget, unless we get in touch with the right people and somehow make one. The post-production deadline is set for June 2010. There is video and audio equipment available but no help when it comes to the creative side of making films.

I’ve seen some excellent work posted here and since none of us consider ourselves to be good screenwriters, I hope that some of you will consider letting us produce your script. :)

Welcome to SS.

I'm sure if you ask the writers of the scripts you are interested in then most of them will likely allow you to produce their scripts.  

Thank you, mcornetto.

Something I've been curious about is how do people feel about the same script getting produced twice? I've made a list of my favorite scripts, all coming from the Short forum here. I'd prefer our team picked something unproduced but among the team's favorites there are some which have already been produced. I assume it depends what was agreed upon when it was first produced, but if it's not done I'd like to know that before I would get in touch with the author. ;)

Quoted from wouterd Thank you, mcornetto. Something I've been curious about is how do people feel about the same script getting produced twice? I've made a list of my favorite scripts, all coming from the Short forum here. I'd prefer our team picked something unproduced but among the team's favorites there are some which have already been produced. I assume it depends what was agreed upon when it was first produced, but if it's not done I'd like to know that before I would get in touch with the author. ;)

That will vary from author to author.  Some will grant exclusive rights to works, while others will just allow it to be used for a class project or whatever while retaining full rights.

I fall into the latter category myself, but have had some scripts produced that I've essentially pulled off the market because the production value was very high.

Hey wouterd, what's your first name?

Welcome to the site, and I hope you find what you're looking for, and the films work out well :)

I don't think you'll find anyone who will sign away their scripts without some sort of payment. OTOH, getting permission to use a script is generally easy to do.

I have a couple of shorts that can be done on a shoe-string budget. PM me if you're interested.


Phil

Tommyp, it's Wouter. I forgot to mention that in the post, sorry about that.

Phil, thank you. I'll send you a PM.

Well, what can I say, my friend? Maybe you go on my pearls and see for yourself.

Good luck!

Thanks Helio. Since I've read nearly all of the scripts in the Short forum before posting here, I may have read all of yours. You're quite famous here for your bizarre twists. It's up to our team to decide which scripts we're going to turn into a short film, but I'll definitely keep an eye out for any of your new work. :)

Quoted from Grandma Bear I have had scripts produced more than once. It turned into a bit of a mess. I wouldn't really recommend it.

I'm sorry to hear that. Being in the same shoes I can completely understand that a producer, who put his heart and soul into getting the script turned into a film (those 4 minutes of film can take a lot of time and money to make), could be quite displeased with having the same script filmed again, even though he doesn't have the exclusive rights. And I don't mean to offend anyone so I'm hoping that the producer of the first film would give an OK before we would pick it up. There are many ways to make a film different than the first version and, if the author agrees on this, we could even make it a Dutch spoken version and subtitle it. Just one of the many options, since it can only be done with some of the stories.

Quoted from Grandma Bear You could also ask people here if they could write something for you. That way you can specify genre and theme. Many people here can write good 5 page scripts in just a day.  :)

I do not have one certain genre or theme that I like, nor does there seem to be a certain preference among the other team members. Besides, we really can't be that specific since it's difficult as is to write something that can be done with little to no budget. Drama and dark comedy seem to be popular among the scripts that we have among our favorites but that's so broad that it covers about 50% of what's posted in Shorts? Horror and thrillers are usually quite difficult to produce and usually for that reason less popular.

Wouter,

First, welcome to the board!

I think the reason writers post their shorts here is that they're hoping they get produced, for the IMDB credit.

For me, the shorts were more of an exercise in stretching me as a writer, as well as functioning as an advertisement for my feature.

Any chance you've started PMing the authors? Or maybe you'd like to post the titles wide here?

In any event, I'm sure some of us have work that we have in various stages of completion but that's not up on SS yet. I have a short that should post within a week to 10 days that I think is a cinch to film.

AJR

Thanks AJR. Next week our shotlist needs to be ready as we'll be sitting around the table with a storyboard artist by then, if everything goes as planned (which it usually doesn't). I have only e-mailed one person thus far. I think it's best if I do not disclose the name of the script or person unless the author wants it out in the open. But this will certainly not be the last time that I will be looking for screenplays. I'll keep checking the Short forum regularly for future productions.