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I hope the things settle down and everyone tries to get along and stick to the rules, if they come to fruit.
I think we should always think, would I say this to the authors face or am I just hiding behind my computer? I can speak from personal experience and say that having your script bashed is quite hurtful. we all want feedback or we wouldn't post but there's ways to say things and 'this is terrible' and 'you need schooling' isn't the way to do it in my opinion. Sometimes I think people can't get past format and grammar to see the story that the author might have put a lot of thought into.
By the way, I'm not aiming this at anyone as I always sit on the fence and try not to take sides lol. Life's too short to bitch people over the internet.
Check out my scripts...if you want to, no pressure.
I think there is a very fine line between criticism and insulting someone's work. It's why you should always choose your words carefully when reviewing something that someone has put effort and thought into. Instead of simply saying "This is trash", saying "This needs work", and stating some reasons why, makes a huge difference. I think you should always try to encourage those who give it there all, even if you detest their work. After all, everybody's gotta start somewhere.
There's no difference between trashing a script and trashing an author.
You don't do EITHER! Nothing deserves to be trashed based simply on your own opinion. You offer constructive criticism.
As someone stated above, if a script is obviously too bad for words, you refrain from making comment unless you are willing to help the author. If the script is openly offensive, racist, sexist, gross and the obvious work of a childish writer, then have enough sense to keep your distance from that person and not stir the pot. This person will obviously not care to hear your thoughts.
And...
If a script is a piece of sh*t, it doesn't deserve to be called a piece of sh*t to the author's face. It deserves thought out suggestions for a serious overhaul and rewrite. It's all in the approach.
As much as I hate Michael Bay, I wouldn't walk up to him and say "I hated Transformers 4. It was a real piece of sh*t. I really really hated it. Just my two cents. Food for thought. Take my suggestions with the grain of salt and good luck with your next movie."
Bay would tell you to go screw. Then you would walk off and tell your friends what a rude and unreasonable jerk he was, go to Imdb and spend the rest of the night trashing him with other site members.
Jack, I want disagree on one thing, and this is just from my personal perspective. When someone stops reading my script, and they tell me what page they stopped, this is about the MOST useful feedback there is. Even if they say absolutely nothing else. In fact, I recently sent out a script to some people privately for a read. And my only request was that they tell me the points where the wanted to stop reading.
Let's say someone stops at page 2, as you mentioned. That suggests the problem is writing or format skill. If the writing is pretty good, even if the story has not grabbed the reader by page 2, he'll usually give you the benefit of the doubt for a while and keep reading. So if he stopped on 2, that tells you where you are and what you may need to learn to get past that.
There just isn't enough time to read every script, especially people you don't know, who don't participate here. Sometimes I've read the first 10 pages, given the writer some useful feedback, and stopped just because I didn't have time to read a feature. But I hoped that I gave him something useful for the what I did read.
Nearly everyone is guilty of this at one time or another, and we are making an attempt to change it.
Given enough time on the boards, everyone will slam someone's script. In Jeff's case, however, he seems to do it the majority of the time. Whether it's his dog rolling in diahrea comment or his I stopped reading after half a page comment, these aren't at all constructive. Balt wasn't this vindictive in his reviews.
I remember Jeff once pm'ing me, asking why I never finished reading any of his features (I probably stopped after fifteen or twenty pages). He acted like I did something wrong... and now he's stopping after half a page?
And bitching about it?
Seriously?
The One Missing Finger was a badly written script. I'm going to guess that it was Kamil's first script. And while there were problems with it, there was a decent story in it. Unfortunately, some people didn't see that.
Maybe they chose not to see it.
The only reason why I even saw Jeff's comments was because of a recent FB conversation that started with "Jeff is at it again." That made me remove the killfile I place on him. I've since put it back up as he has nothing I feel is worth reading.
That's very mature of you Cornhole...not cool at all.
Right back at ya!
Well Jeff I'm sick and tired of hearing you whine about how you should be allowed to put other people down on the board. What a fucking perverted way of dealing with the world.
Phil, I remember alot of PM's from you and as I mentioned the other night, I don't think you'd want those made public, would you?
To call the majority of my feedback useless or thrashing is ludicrous, simply put.
You want to keep pointing the finger and acting so innocent, you go ahead if it makes you feel better, but rest assured I'll continue to reply and if you do want to make some things we both know to be true, public, I'm all for it, Phil. You just say the word...
Phil, I remember alot of PM's from you and as I mentioned the other night, I don't think you'd want those made public, would you?
To call the majority of my feedback useless or thrashing is ludicrous, simply put.
You want to keep pointing the finger and acting so innocent, you go ahead if it makes you feel better, but rest assured I'll continue to reply and if you do want to make some things we both know to be true, public, I'm all for it, Phil. You just say the word...
We know other people do this Jeff. However, they aren't the ones saying they should be able to do it. And they aren't saying they should be able to do it because other people do it either. What a lame argument.
Well Jeff I'm sick and tired of hearing you whine about how you should be allowed to put other people down on the board. What a fucking perverted way of dealing with the world.
Well, Michael, there you go again...singling me out and putting words in my mouth and now even telling me my feelings? Really?
I'm refering to Mr. Innocent Phil bringing up shit about me, when he knows damn well he's probably the worst offender in SS's history. nd I'm talking about trashing scripts, trashing writers, and purposely trying to start fights and get people kicked off SS.
So many small, narrow minds here. Sad...really sad.
Do we tolerate the outright trashing of scripts?
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Totally Trashing Scripts
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