Eddie actually tried contacting me this morning, asking for the logline I supposedly promised him.  I wrote him a polite thanks-but-no-thanks e-mail.  Hopefully, this will be enough.


Phil

Quoted from khamanna I was contacted by Pierre Chambers two days ago

I had some correspondence with this man recently. He eventually sent me a contract of the sort that no writer should ever sign -- it gave his company several rights and protections regarding the script without outlining any of their obligations.

I got the sense that he was more naive than anything else, but I may have misread the situation. In any case, just a reminder to always run things by a lawyer if you're unsure, I guess.

Thanks, Heretic.

I emailed him back and yeah... he wants money upfront for pitches. I'm not as nice as dogglebe so won't answer that one. He says I can submit "any project I want to get in front of a studio" - that alone is pretty crazy. Before he asked a specific script which gave him some credibility in my eyes.

Anyway, if I want to pay for pitching I'd do my own pitches and attend a pitch conference.

Eddie Kritzer is a fraud... though I've never dealt w/ him personally, I've seen his name hundreds of times over the past 5 years or so on Writer Beware and other sites and discussion boards, including Craigslist... all from writers warning other writers to STAY AWAY.

Another name I've been hearing a lot is Frankie Hopkins, some hack "film director" who has been re-creating other short films that have already been produced and posted on-line, and then passing them off as his own. He's even gone as far as just flat out stealing the short film completely and re-doing the graphics to make it look like he directed it.

http://www.reddit.com/r/filmmakers/comments/2d7y57/filmmakerdp_frankie_hopkins_is_a_fraud/

On his website, I watched one of his shorts called "First Date" and it was literally a complete remake of a Funny or Die sketch I saw a week before... and the quality of his "remakes" are horrible, terrible acting, horribly shot, etc. And he falsely claims these films as award winners or finalists... one he has as top 25 at Tribeca (clearly false) and he most recently claimed one of his shorts made the Austin Film Festival... Austin Film Festival's twitter account immediately debunked his claims.

As for Eddie Kritzer, I'd say stay far away...
http://freethoughtblogs.com/as.....m-that-will-not-die/

And there's tons more online about both these scam artists...

-- Michael

Is it weird that I always feel insulted that my stuff isn't even good enough to steal or scam?

You're right Kham...why the hell would someone pay this nobody to pitch for them when you can do it yourself at a pitchfest? I don't feel too bad for people who fall for his scam though, when all they have to do is Google his name.

After I spoke with Eddie on Thursday night, I researched him and learned of his reputation.  On Friday morning, he left me a voice mail, wondering where my loglines were.  I e-mailed him, saying that I didn't want to work with him due to his reputation.

He has, since then, e-mailed me twice, telling me of all the things he's done.  He went assofar as to say I wasn't sending him one sentence pitches because I didn't know how to write them.

Funny man.


Phil

You're too nice Phil. I'd be screwing with him big time, sending him some off the wall loglines and just messing with his head.

Quoted from mmmarnie You're too nice Phil. I'd be screwing with him big time, sending him some off the wall loglines and just messing with his head.

It isn't worth looking for it... but if it lands in your lap it's worth having a little fun with it. I do that with anyone that annoys me, like sales people on the phone or the front door, other drivers, people huffing in the queue behind me while I take my time considering my order. It's weird, because it actually makes me less annoyed knowing that I'm annoying them. It's degrees of annoying, you just have to notch it up the more they do. If it ends in a fight... so be it. Although I have to be careful these days... last time that happened I got 6 months.

If he thinks the screenplay is good enough to sell then tell him to sell it and you'll give him 10% of the sale price.

See how fast he will decline your offer.

The problem, these people won't simply leave you alone.  In the past, writers have filed lawsuits regarding how these scam artists harass them.


Phil