Sham's Red Light was one of five scripts selected for Amateur Offerings Weekend.

Check it out!

http://scriptshadow.net/showdown-saturday-2/

...and as someone who's read it - I HIGHLY recommend that everyone run over to Scriptshadow and give it a vote.  It's damned solid horror.  (And that's coming from someone who is pretty jaded with the slasher genre.)  )

--Janet (W)

AF sucks on a regular basis.  Sometimes there are great ideas that are terribly executed.

Red Light is definitely the number #1 pick though.

Congrats on getting selected! Hope the exposure leads to big things.

Well done Sham, one of my favourite writers around here with a few of my top rated shorts scripts - always weird shit going on with this fella.

Best of luck

Wow, I had no idea this was a topic here. Thanks everyone!

And for those who are easily discouraged by rejection, let me be the first to tell you this script did NOT advance to the quarter-finals at PAGE this year. Then, twelve hours later, Carson announced it was one of his picks for AOW at Scriptshadow. So don't take every no as a loss and keep showing up!

Congrats, Chris. Hope the review is stellar, and/or gets you some great leads.

Thanks, LC. I'm prepared for the worst but hoping for the best.

Looking forward to your review.
Should be up by 2pm PST at absolute latest.
Usually by noon. Good luck!

EDreamer

Congrats and good luck. Hopefully someone will see it who can take it to the next level.

Quoted from Electric Dreamer Looking forward to your review. Should be up by 2pm PST at absolute latest. Usually by noon. Good luck! EDreamer

Knowing my luck, it'll be delayed a week and then end up being a "what the hell did I just read?" LOL

Thank you for the support guys!

So...is there no AOW review this week? I was hoping it would be yours. Didn't vote, because I didn't have time to read any of the offerings, but I'll always cheer for SS members.


Btw, since Scriptshadow people refer to that place as SS as well, I call them SS2.  

Hey guys, the review is up if you want to see me get roasted. LOL

In all honesty, I think Carson made a lot of good points that will help in future revisions. But it's pretty clear he wasn't on board with the concept from the beginning and didn't plan on changing his mind about it.

I'm still happy it happened.

Not bad really, considering how Carson can be.

Nice little however/disclaimer in the final para below.

Sorry Italics not working on my tab at the moment.:

......

On the plus side, the premise began to win me over as the script went on. I thought it was clever to make the ghost woman an investigator who was in the middle of trying to find a missing child. It brought another level of mystery to the teenagers’ investigation. I mean who knows. I could see this being a direct-to-digital horror title. Why not? It has a great title. It’s an easy-to-understand concept.
........

That's a well done in my book, Chris.
Let us know how you get on.

Quoted from Sham In all honesty, I think Carson made a lot of good points that will help in future revisions.

What does he know about writing a great script? What successes has he had aside from gaining a load of arse kissing fans that hang on his every word in the hope that he one day recognises one of their scripts?

I don't get it.

I avoid all of this bullshit now as I have far more success doing it on my own. No money-sucking comps and no bullshit gurus like Carson. They're all full of shit and wouldn't know a great script if it literally bit them on their collective fat arse.

Not the biggest fan of Carson, but I'm curious: have any of the Amateur Offerings that he's praised gone on to anything?

Not sure but I like reading Carson's reviews. He isn't "format-obsessed", to quote Bert from earlier. lol

I cant navigate there for some reason. So was it chosen or it needs more votes? If it needs votes then please help me to understand how to vote there as O read it and liked it a lot

Dressel, Breanne's Warning Shot went on to be produced with, David Spade, Bruce Dern and James Earl Jones.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5113250/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_2

Khamanna, it was selected and reviewed.

I hate the forum there and seem unable to follow the discussions there. Who wants to scroll through 500 comments? I only read his articles and even then, only if the subject interests me.

Ok thanks, I'll check out the score. I mean I'll try too - I'm not used to that website at all.

Also, Shawn Davis' feature was picked up by Carson and got noticed and produced shortly after that.

Quoted from khamanna Also, Shawn Davis' feature was picked up by Carson and got noticed and produced shortly after that.

I think that project fell through. However, Carson did help getting it into some really big hands, and I believe an A-list actor (can't mention him by name) read the script even. So, even if nothing came of it, it opened doors for Shawn and Carson definitely did help with that.

Oh, I didn't know that fell through. But I did see that Shawn was given a feature project shortly after that, and that was indeed the success he had with this one. Carson liked it I remember.

Could someone direct me to Carson's review please. I can't find it, no matter how well I look really. Would be interesting to see it as I read the Red Light.

http://scriptshadow.net

Just scroll down until you get to the Red Light review.  

I'm gonna head over there right now and check it out.  Hey, no matter what, congrats.  

I hope it leads to big things for you!!

Dan

Link to Sham's review: http://scriptshadow.net/amateur-friday-red-light/

- Don

I read Carson's review, and although I am not a fan of his, if what he's saying is correct, I have to agree with him.  Many times, as I often say, it's the little things right up front that doom a script in terms of character's actions, and even character descriptions being too cutesy or the like.

I have not read this script, however - is it available somewhere here?

I have read and participated on the site because it meets my number one criteria - it's free. I see things that I agree with and things that I don't both from Carson and other posters - but have I learned things and been exposed to different perspectives on writing.

Unlike this site, the posts are haphazard and can be all over the map. You'll start something that focuses on the review of a particular script and will all of a sudden be looking at on a dozen posts on "did you like the new Star Trek?".

I have sent scripts there for review with no luck. I do believe that a positive review could bring some favorable exposure. Conversely, a negative review could do just the opposite so one is taking their chances.

Quoted from eldave1 I do believe that a positive review could bring some favorable exposure. Conversely, a negative review could do just the opposite so one is taking their chances.

This x1000.

After my win was largely ignored and the review was posted with a negative reaction, I've never felt so out of my league in my entire life. I feel like I'm literally picking apart the (mostly negative) comments that actually pertain to my script just find something positive and keep my head above water. Because, let's face it, when you're already down and the hits keep on coming, you can't help but feel bad. Oh well, it's definitely giving me thicker skin, so I can at least be grateful for that.

I haven't been in the firing line like you, Chris, but I will say I know from experience any negative critism often trumps the positive and it's hard to see the wood from the trees.

So I'll post this summing up of Carson's review again in case it got lost in amongst the other stuff:

...the premise began to win me over as the script went on. I thought it was clever to make the ghost woman an investigator who was in the middle of trying to find a missing child. It brought another level of mystery to the teenagers’ investigation. ... I could see this being a direct-to-digital horror title. Why not? It has a great title. It’s an easy-to-understand concept.

You had a premise that was interesting enough to garner the read - that is a huge hurdle to overcome and you take confidence from that. Take the comments you agreed with and adapt and ignore the ones that you don't.

Quoted from eldave1 You had a premise that was interesting enough to garner the read - that is a huge hurdle to overcome and you take confidence from that. Take the comments you agreed with and adapt and ignore the ones that you don't.

Thanks. This is what I'm trying to do.

The hardest part has been answering to readers who are hyper-critical of the script only to admit they're not a fan of slasher movies. It's like, "You came to a football field hoping to see a baseball game? Do you know where you're at?"

I'll keep absorbing the feedback I receive for RED LIGHT, but in the meantime, I'm trying to put all of my energy into my sophomore feature, which I think will appeal to a broader audience. Hopefully it will also showcase my writing abilities a little more than a tongue-in-cheek slasher movie can.

The thing about negative feedback, for me at least, is that you just have to train yourself to find what is useful negative feedback and what's just plain negative. When I get lukewarm feedback, or negative feedback, I usually lose the desire to even consider a rewrite. That's the bad part IMO, because most scripts can be vastly improved by rewrites. But, if the excitement to do so is gone, it's pretty hard. If not even impossible to want to get back to the script.

As far as Scriptshadow goes, I believe Carson can help writers, but I probably wouldn't submit a script there myself. I've seen him trash some scripts that I personally thought were pretty good and it's sometimes very obvious he just skimmed through.

I agree with Pia.  You have to look at what works for you.  I read your story and gave you a deep review.  I hope you will read it and think about it.

I've seen a lot of slashers.  My fav of all time is April Fools Day.  Very clever story.

But, only you know your characters and only you can make that determination as to what changes you should and can do.

Dan

Quoted from Sham This x1000. After my win was largely ignored and the review was posted with a negative reaction, I've never felt so out of my league in my entire life. I feel like I'm literally picking apart the (mostly negative) comments that actually pertain to my script just find something positive and keep my head above water. Because, let's face it, when you're already down and the hits keep on coming, you can't help but feel bad. Oh well, it's definitely giving me thicker skin, so I can at least be grateful for that.

This!

Scriptshadow is a brutal environment that has thickened my skin.
Three Wasn't For Me's will do that to you.
Yup. There's a lot of dreck and even some haterz, but I've made great friends too.
The reader pals I've connected with over there are invaluable.
A couple of them are even pro readers that work for small prodcos.

I hope you reached out to some new folks over there, Chris.

EDreamer

Quoted from DanC I agree with Pia.  You have to look at what works for you.  I read your story and gave you a deep review.  I hope you will read it and think about it. I've seen a lot of slashers.  My fav of all time is April Fools Day.  Very clever story. But, only you know your characters and only you can make that determination as to what changes you should and can do. Dan

Hey Dan,

I did receive your review and will reply soon. Sorry it's taking a while -- I've got a lot of responding to catch up on since Scriptshadow posted the screenplay. You gotta understand, prior to this, I could count on one hand how many people read my script, and now I can't keep count at all. So all of this has been a little overwhelming. Just taking it one review at a time.

Quoted from Sham Hey Dan, I did receive your review and will reply soon. Sorry it's taking a while -- I've got a lot of responding to catch up on since Scriptshadow posted the screenplay. You gotta understand, prior to this, I could count on one hand how many people read my script, and now I can't keep count at all. So all of this has been a little overwhelming. Just taking it one review at a time.

Oh, no problem.  I've never written such a long response and had to send it over 2 messages.  Take your time.  I had a hell of a time sending it.  I had to cut out a huge chunk (of stuff that I chose from your script) just to make it fit in 2.  

I loved slashers back in the day.   My fav was April Fools Day b/c it was so smart and kept you on the edge of your seat.

I'd say the biggest difference back then was that you could have a horror/slasher exist merely because you wanted it to, now, thanks to Scream, you have to have a reason, then a "double take" and be smart about it.  

Thanks Scream.

In a way, I am thankful for Scream b/c they were getting pretty awful, then torture porn showed up and that was exciting... er disturbing.  Yeah, disturbing is what I meant to say, really

(those who know me on this site will chuckle)

Dan