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Curiously, this very same PhilGary blogger was pimping his blog in the Scriptshadow blog just a few weeks ago, posting links to his blog. Even funnier, he had begun doing reviews of loglines submitted for amateur Friday until someone complained. So he was using Carson's blog to build his own. Talk about irony.
There are legit criticisms of Carson's blog. But there are also a lot of bitter and jealous people, and that generally comes through loud and clear with the people who attack the blog. This is especially so when you hear them complain that Carson has "placed himself on a pedestal as the definitive authority on screenwriting".
I don't think Carson has done that at all. He's one guy giving his opinion. I agree with his opinion sometimes, sometimes I don't.
As far as studios and writers being upset about scripts being reviewed before the project is done, I can understand that. But we have no control over any of that. Our visiting the blog will not affect those issues one way or another.
Curiously, this very same PhilGary blogger was pimping his blog in the Scriptshadow blog just a few weeks ago, posting links to his blog. Even funnier, he had begun doing reviews of loglines submitted for amateur Friday until someone complained. So he was using Carson's blog to build his own. Talk about irony.
There are legit criticisms of Carson's blog. But there are also a lot of bitter and jealous people, and that generally comes through loud and clear with the people who attack the blog. This is especially so when you hear them complain that Carson has "placed himself on a pedestal as the definitive authority on screenwriting".
I don't think Carson has done that at all. He's one guy giving his opinion. I agree with his opinion sometimes, sometimes I don't.
As far as studios and writers being upset about scripts being reviewed before the project is done, I can understand that. But we have no control over any of that. Our visiting the blog will not affect those issues one way or another.
Exactly! What a great point. And, so what if we pirate movies right? I mean we have no control over the rest of the people doing it or those who are pirating, so downloading ourselves won't affect those issues one way or another.
And so what if, just by seeding the torrent of the movie we help others to download it. Still, it's out of our control. So why not take advantage of it.
So what if Carson potentially damages careers and so what if this article in the link backs up everything I was saying about him. It's out of our control.
What's that? Leaked details from a review from Carson on a script about to go into pre-production made the prodco jittery and they shut the project down thus meaning that the excited green screenwriter only had his $1000 dollar option price to provide for his family and missed out on the five figure production payment outlined in the contract?
So what! I need to read about more of Carson's views on screenwriting. I don't know this hypothetical working screenwriter of whom you speak. I don't know his family.
The important thing here is we get to advance ourselves, right? Screw the working pros who are part of an industry you yourselves want to be part of. Screw the fact Carson is damaging the very lifeblood of something you want to be someday.
The overriding thing here is we can't control what happens and we think so little of our fellow struggling screenwriters who already get a tough enough deal in HW that why not screw them over by signing up to Scriptshadow and condoning his actions.
As long as we get to see our name up on the screen someday, right!?
DeepCover, whoever he is, is a very emotional guy.
Clicking on a blog is hardly comparable to pirating videos. Give me a break.
And if a project was derailed just because of a blog review, I'm VERY skeptical as to how promising that project's chances of success were to begin with. If you want to offer specific evidence that Carson's blog derailed scripts...scripts that would not otherwise have come off the tracks on their own...I'm all ears. Be specific.
It's more likely to me that the blog will help put writers to work by bringing work to positive light.
The Disciple Project won a prominent writing contest, and sat around for a while, if I remember, I think maybe a year(not sure). Then Carson reviewed it and it got optioned. That's how I recall it, and that's how the New York Times reported it.
And kind of hard to have it both ways. On the one hand, you say the blog has the power to kill studio projects...and on the other that it has no impact on getting a script exposure.
So spare us the exaggerated pleas about starving masses of "working" writers whose livelihoods were ruined by a blog. That kind of drama belongs in scripts.
Rather than waste my breath trying to defend Carson or indeed Scriptshadow, I thought I'd take a closer look at Phil Gary Arts.
Here's a few snippets from his site:
"ABOUT PHIL GARY: SENIOR CONSULTANT, PUBLISHED WRITER, ATTORNEY
Endowed with strong creative and commercial instincts, coupled with a fanatical commitment to mastering his various crafts, Phil Gary has been reviewing creative material in a professional capacity for no less than a decade.
He is widely recognized as an incisive script & production consultant, renowned for his exhaustive screenwriting knowledge, and unerring ability to identify often-undetected instances of plot illogic.
His most recent film script -- a thriller -- won first place in a script search conducted by a Los Angeles based production company, who offered to purchase the story. The script also received offers from a production company in Georgia, and another in Canada."
Firstly, if Senior Consultant, Mr Gary is indeed "endowed with strong creative and commercial instincts" why does he not appear to have a single screenwriting credit to his name? As regards his supposed "fanatical commitment to mastering his various crafts" obviously he seems to be a little less fanatical when it comes to mastering screenwriting as evidenced by his own lack of screenwriting credits!
Here's another little snippet taken from his website:
"His most recent film script -- a thriller -- won first place in a script search conducted by a Los Angeles based production company, who offered to purchase the story. The script also received offers from a production company in Georgia, and another in Canada."
What script search? Which Los Angeles based production company? Regardless of any "offers" the script is apparently unsold?!
As far as I can tell, Phil Gary is an unsold and unproduced screenwriter?
Yet, he takes folks hard earned cash to help them do something, he appears unable to do himself. Namely, sell a script and have it produced!
Finally, folks may want to google and/or IMDB the names behind the numerous testimonials Phil Gary has received "reviewing creative material in a professional capacity for no less than a decade." To see just how "widely recognized as an incisive script & production consultant," he really is!
DeepCover, whoever he is, is a very emotional guy.
Clicking on a blog is hardly comparable to pirating videos. Give me a break.
And if a project was derailed just because of a blog review, I'm VERY skeptical as to how promising that project's chances of success were to begin with. If you want to offer specific evidence that Carson's blog derailed scripts...scripts that would not otherwise have come off the tracks on their own...I'm all ears. Be specific.
It's more likely to me that the blog will help put writers to work by bringing work to positive light.
The Disciple Project won a prominent writing contest, and sat around for a while, if I remember, I think maybe a year(not sure). Then Carson reviewed it and it got optioned. That's how I recall it, and that's how the New York Times reported it.
And kind of hard to have it both ways. On the one hand, you say the blog has the power to kill studio projects...and on the other that it has no impact on getting a script exposure.
So spare us the exaggerated pleas about starving masses of "working" writers whose livelihoods were ruined by a blog. That kind of drama belongs in scripts.
Emotional when I watch Philadelphia? Yes. Otherwise, I'm actually one of the more passive, non-aggressive person you'll ever meet.
My post came entirely from calm state of reason.
And I'm not sure I exactly said Piracy was comparable to what Carson does. It was an analogy. I'm not sure why people continuously mix up analogy with comparison.
Your skepticism makes me wonder just how much you know about HW. EVERY project is a grain of rice away from tipping the scales. You're skeptical of how info leaked on the internet can scupper a project? How the tiniest details can make even the biggest studios jittery? There are just too many examples to mention.
But outside of Carson, lets go with Marvel's DEADPOOL project. NOTHING has more of a chance of production than Marvel stuff right now. And yet the whole project looked in danger...why? Because a grandmother leaked the script on her mediafire archive. Fox hit her with a multiple Million dollar lawsuit.
She doesn't have a blog. She doesn't have the reputation, followers or infamy that Carson and his Blog has. So Grandmother shares private collection of scripts on forum and gets hit with lawsuit. But no-one can ever be affected by Carson, his ego and his constant pimping?
As to your other comment, yes. it can go both ways. As with most of your argument though, you suggest it can't to justify your viewpoint. Carson can do no more for a writer than a good script placing in a reputable contest will do. And since you bring one of them up, let's go for Trackingb. Where every year almost every one of the top ten scripts find representation with big players. So the same year Carson made sure to publicize his huge involvement in Tyler's success, the Insider and Trackingb quietly sent out scripts and found representation for almost all their finalists.
So, no Carson can't do much more for you than the quality of the script would do anyway with high placing in a big contest. But Carson can still negatively affect projects in pre-production. And since you're a fan of comparisons, you'd realize that the two aren't mutually exclusive. Someone can have very little clout to get something into production, but still enough to have productions shut down.
In much the same way that Godzilla has little idea of town planning, but can destroy a whole city.....
From what I've seen, there are those here who, by virtue of their hysterical hijinks and vivid vituperation, appear to aver that script sabotage is, indeed, merely a part of the process. In my view, such behavior is born out of an intense dissatisfaction that is profoundly embedded within the perpetrator's autochthonous code. More, the standard purveyor previously pointed out is, normatively, at the height of magnanimity, an abysmally poor writer. And, on occasion, one or two will materialize from the shroud of fog blanketing the field wielding pitchforks and bearing tridents set unswervingly on a sycophantically quixotic mission to jab and parry in a protracted challenge of nefarious and abstruse provenance.
You're in the wrong industry. Text books are thatta way!
Rather than waste my breath trying to defend Carson or indeed Scriptshadow, I thought I'd take a closer look at Phil Gary Arts.
Here's a few snippets from his site:
"ABOUT PHIL GARY: SENIOR CONSULTANT, PUBLISHED WRITER, ATTORNEY
Endowed with strong creative and commercial instincts, coupled with a fanatical commitment to mastering his various crafts, Phil Gary has been reviewing creative material in a professional capacity for no less than a decade.
He is widely recognized as an incisive script & production consultant, renowned for his exhaustive screenwriting knowledge, and unerring ability to identify often-undetected instances of plot illogic.
His most recent film script -- a thriller -- won first place in a script search conducted by a Los Angeles based production company, who offered to purchase the story. The script also received offers from a production company in Georgia, and another in Canada."
Firstly, if Senior Consultant, Mr Gary is indeed "endowed with strong creative and commercial instincts" why does he not appear to have a single screenwriting credit to his name? As regards his supposed "fanatical commitment to mastering his various crafts" obviously he seems to be a little less fanatical when it comes to mastering screenwriting as evidenced by his own lack of screenwriting credits!
Here's another little snippet taken from his website:
"His most recent film script -- a thriller -- won first place in a script search conducted by a Los Angeles based production company, who offered to purchase the story. The script also received offers from a production company in Georgia, and another in Canada."
What script search? Which Los Angeles based production company? Regardless of any "offers" the script is apparently unsold?!
As far as I can tell, Phil Gary is an unsold and unproduced screenwriter?
Yet, he takes folks hard earned cash to help them do something, he appears unable to do himself. Namely, sell a script and have it produced!
Finally, folks may want to google and/or IMDB the names behind the numerous testimonials Phil Gary has received "reviewing creative material in a professional capacity for no less than a decade." To see just how "widely recognized as an incisive script & production consultant," he really is!
Enough said.
Which of course automatically makes everything he said.... wrong?
Got a NEWSFLASH for you. Everything he said is accurate and can be backed up by accounts of Carson's actions (who, by the way, also has no real credits and one failed screenwriting attempt to his name since you bring it up).
Frankly you paint yourself a little like DRINKER #2 of the kool aid when you attempt to discredit a viewpoint based on the reputation of the view giver.
Hell, what difference does it make if a MI5 spy drowns puppies, if the accurate military intel he has prevents a war?
Meaning, what difference does it make who he is if everything he says is fact?
Feels like those instances in history where someone is discredited from speaking out against something on the basis of a smear campaign they can do on his past.
Very unsavory. And does nothing to assuage the cult feeling that comes from Scriptshadow. Very........ strange.
deep, i was actually going to bat for you. i guess you're a bit too tempestuous to comprehend right now. it's okay, deep, writing's not for the faint of heart.
There's a smile next to my previous reply to you, Courhaw
You mentioned "so what" 5 times in your post, the last time in caps. Yeah, it was emotional.
And now you're adding arrogance to emotion in your discussion of comparison vs analogy. "Comparing" was a more effective verb than "analogizing".
a·nal·o·gy [uh-nal-uh-jee] 1. a similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be based: the analogy between the heart and a pump.
You compared one's visiting a blog to someone who shares pirated videos.
Tracking B is a contest, I'm not sure how relevant the comparison is. To win a contest, you first have to get through rounds of people that read piles of scripts for minimum wage. I'm not knocking trackingB, that's a great contest. But the economics of contests means you rely on low paid readers going through a pile as quick as they can.
As far as Carson, the issues should be treated separately: his reviewing submitted amateur scripts and his reviewing leaked scripts. In regards to the former, the evidence is strong that the blog does have the ability to create positive exposure for a script. You might be jealous of that fact, and I am sure you are, but it is what it is. There is also some risk that comes with a bad review, but writers have to decide on the risks they want to take.
As far as reviewing leaked scripts, obviously that's a problem. I don't think it does the harm you suggest, but Carson should take caution. Maybe he should not review scripts unless they are far enough into the production process that no harm can be done.
But yes, I'm not going to worry about it. Not because I want to take food off the table of working writers...but because nothing I say or do will have one bit of impact on that. I'm just visiting a blog once in a while, let's not make it more than it is.
You mentioned "so what" 5 times in your post, the last time in caps. Yeah, it was emotional.
And now you're adding arrogance to emotion in your discussion of comparison vs analogy. "Comparing" was a more effective verb than "analogizing".
a�nal�o�gy [uh-nal-uh-jee] 1. a similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be based: the analogy between the heart and a pump.
You compared one's visiting a blog to someone who shares pirated videos.
Tracking B is a contest, I'm not sure how relevant the comparison is. To win a contest, you first have to get through rounds of people that read piles of scripts for minimum wage. I'm not knocking trackingB, that's a great contest. But the economics of contests means you rely on low paid readers going through a pile as quick as they can.
As far as Carson, the issues should be treated separately: his reviewing submitted amateur scripts and his reviewing leaked scripts. In regards to the former, the evidence is strong that the blog does have the ability to create positive exposure for a script. You might be jealous of that fact, and I am sure you are, but it is what it is. There is also some risk that comes with a bad review, but writers have to decide on the risks they want to take.
As far as reviewing leaked scripts, obviously that's a problem. I don't think it does the harm you suggest, but Carson should take caution. Maybe he should not review scripts unless they are far enough into the production process that no harm can be done.
But yes, I'm not going to worry about it. Not because I want to take food off the table of working writers...but because nothing I say or do will have one bit of impact on that. I'm just visiting a blog once in a while, let's not make it more than it is.
Interesting selective BOLD emphasis. Let me try that-
a�nal�o�gy [uh-nal-uh-jee] 1. a similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be based: the analogy between the heart and a pump.
Catch my drift?
As to "So what?", it was used continuously on purpose. Surely you got that? It was a thematic throughline. Much like you see in articles, essays or poetry. Thought I'd made that pretty obvious. Maybe six times will do the trick.
And the old "Jealously" card comes out again. Let's just say, I'd much rather be where I am than where Carson is. I don't teach. I do.
But it brought a smile to my face.
As to everything else, I made my views felt. No, you're not taking food off of writers' tables, but by visiting or contributing on the website, you are semi-condoning the fact that Carson can and has. Some people I'm sure can live with that.
Then there are others who would rather not engage in anything connected adversely to the lifeblood of the very profession they want to be part of.
I know which of the two I'm rooting for to succeed.
(That doesn't include anyone who contributed to Scritpshadow without knowing all this, but if you continue to do so knowingly, frankly I can't wish you any success)
(And, once again, if any of this isn't getting through- JOHN AUGUST shares the same views on Carson. That's probably one of the most switched on pro-writers out there. So just why would someone like that perpetuate Phil Gary's lies.....what a mystery)
Ok, you're right. Your rant was not emotional. You've displayed no signs of arrogance or obsessiveness. The fact that your notifications are set to inform you of any post in this particular thread is mere coincidence. You're obviously here just to support other writers. There must be evidence of that all over the forum. Shame on me for not finding it. My bad.
And sorry to have confused you with my bold highlighting. I wanted you to understand that 'comparison' is part of the very definition of analogy. You did not seem to understand this before, but no doubt your morning coffee had not kicked in. It happens. Normally you would have refuted my point with a, you know, argument, but being tired you resorted to circular semantics. But carry on. You're a righteous fellow. On behalf of us sinners, thanks for the moment of grace you shared with us.
Ok, you're right. Your rant was not emotional. You've displayed no signs of arrogance or obsessiveness. The fact that your notifications are set to inform you of any post in this particular thread is mere coincidence. You're obviously here just to support other writers. There must be evidence of that all over the forum. Shame on me for not finding it. My bad.
And sorry to have confused you with my bold highlighting. I wanted you to understand that 'comparison' is part of the very definition of analogy. You did not seem to understand this before, but no doubt your morning coffee had not kicked in. It happens. Normally you would have refuted my point with a, you know, argument, but being tired you resorted to circular semantics. But carry on. You're a righteous fellow. On behalf of us sinners, thanks for the moment of grace you shared with us.
No problem. Glad we got that sorted and didn't have to resort to passive-aggressive tactics.
Peace be with you.
PS. I'm a Brit. We were way past morning coffee and in fully-awake, logically reasoned mode.
PPS. Circular semantics? The very definition clearly states MAY as in not definitely. Hence why there is a difference between Analogy and Comparison.
I'm not going to get into any internet argument. I will just state my view on the Script Shadow situation as succinctly as possible and leave it at that.
I refused to support Carson when he was reviewing in-development scripts. When he stopped, I eased up on him. I'm not the type to hold a grudge. People change and I believe in letting them.
While I've never been a supporter of making in-development scripts available to the general public, nothing changes the fact that these scripts can only come from people inside the industry. And I know for a fact there are people in Hollywood who pay attention to the Script Shadow blog.
It's terribly presumptuous for anyone to assume I have unrealistic expectations. I'm a three time Nicholl quarterfinalist. I've received an honorable mention at Trackingb. I've had a script optioned in Hollywood. I've written on assignment. I've queried. I've had my scripts requested by many of the management and production companies that are available to unknown writers. I've also worked my ass off to try and produce my own films. I've done my due diligence.
I don't have blind faith in Carson's opinion or anyone else's. I'm just a humble writer trying to do everything I can to get a project off the ground. Being selected for an Amateur Friday review at Script Shadow is a little publicity for one of my scripts. Maybe it will lead to something. Maybe it won't. It's just another avenue. It costs me nothing and it may get some people interested in my script who didn't even know about it before.
Warning Shot was already being considered by a production company before I ever submitted it to Script Shadow. But I've been doing this long enough to know that you don't just wait around to see what happens. I'm going to do everything I can to promote myself as a writer. You don't stand out by being exactly like everyone else.
There is one other consideration — and that's the question of talent. Maybe I don't have any. Maybe I'm mediocre at best. Maybe conventional doors aren't open to me. Most of the criticism of submitting to Script Shadow is built around the supposition that the writer would succeed regardless. But that's not guaranteed. There are those who say things like, "Great scripts get you in." Maybe they're completely full of shit. Maybe you can be a great writer and still fail to get noticed. When you look at the math, you'll see that's possible. But for anyone who insists great writers are guaranteed success, what about the possibility that I suck as a writer? This is what I want to do and I'm going to do it no matter what anyone thinks about my talent.
This is pretty much all I have to say on the matter. I could go on about the agony of being so close and watching a project fizzle, but I'll simply say that I don't think I'm quite as ignorant or delusional as Script Shadow detractors might think I am. I'm not the sort to get into prolonged debates with people on the internet, so I'm going to leave the matter here. Anyone who thinks less of me because I submitted a script at Script Shadow will just have to go on thinking poorly of me. I can't please everyone and I'm not going to try to.
Hope this puts the issue to rest, at least as far as I'm concerned. Best of luck to all involved.
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