All screenplays on the simplyscripts.com and simplyscripts.net domain are copyrighted to their respective authors. All rights reserved. This screenplaymay not be used or reproduced for any purpose including educational purposes without the expressed written permission of the author.
Bounty (TV Pilot) -- Top 1% of discoverable screenplays on Coverfly I'll Be Seeing You (short) - OWC winner The Gambler (short) - OWC winner Skip (short) - filmed Country Road 12 (short) - filmed The Family Man (short) - filmed The Journeyers (feature) - optioned
The discussions have never been very lively, sans the same old formating disputes, but the number of scripts posted used to be so much higher just a few years ago. The views too. You can't even compare the numbers from 5-6 years ago.
I would suggest a complete site redesign and everyone to pitch their ideas on how to get this place to be more active.
I think script reviews on the main page, plus some sort of articles, featured success stories of writers from SS that have made it, exclusive intereviews and so on. I know the site has some of these things already, but in the current design, they don't pop and are kinda lost. It needs recognizable voices with hot-takes that shake things up.
These challenges appeal to the already small and active community. They rarely bring new people in. At least that's my perception of things. I want this place to grow, but it seems to slowly be fading away. Which is a shame. However this just could be a general trend when it comes to screenwriting websites, as I think youtube has taken a chunk of this audience. Instead of people coming here to learn, they watch youtube videos and go to sites like no film school. Visual content trumps text nowadays.
It’s several factors. Summer time. Life outside of writing. You’re dreams of getting your work filmed dying a slow agonizing death. Lol. Writers not able to take a critique. So much but, this site keeps chugging along defining all odds. It’s got a couple more years in it.
Gabe
Just Murdered by Sean Elwood (Zombie Sean) and Gabriel Moronta (Mr. Ripley) - (Dark Comedy, Horror) All is fair in love and war. A hopeless romantic gay man resorts to bloodshed to win the coveted position of Bridesmaid. 99 pages. https://www.simplyscripts.net/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b-comedy/m-1624410571/
Demento, I think you are right, but I wish it wasn´t so. Other forums are slowing down too and some even quitting all together. When I first joined, this was a hopping forum even if the number of members were much fewer. I don´t know how to change that. I wish I could. There are so many things out there that are screaming for attention everything is sort of becoming diluted.
On the short term, I´m all for a quickie or a longer more involved thing. I think there will be a regular October OWC, so whatever you guys want to do before that, just chime in with ideas.
I think there are more people on this site than you think, a lot of them being producers looking for inexpensive scripts to film. You look at the number of clicks to this site on the home page (down at the bottom) and it shows over 11,000 clicks. Most of those obviously are not participating in the forums, they're just browsing.
I think in this new age of technology, people are always moving around, looking for the next thing that will provide them with some short-term gratification. Staying power is rare, without commitment from the community to build it. Don does an unbelievable job in keeping this site running but part of the responsibility lies on us to make this a welcoming community, not only in how we interact with others, but how we treat and mentor new writers. It also involves recruiting new blood to the site. I introduced Paul (PKCardinal) to the site and I know you all have been welcoming to him and impressed by his writing skills. If we could all could just recruit an active member to the site each year, over time it will grow exponentially (and tax Don's band server!).
Maybe site design might help, I don't know. I think content is, and has always been, king. You look at a site like the Drudge Report and it gets a billion hits a month and it's the most bland looking site on the internet. It's all about what's on the site that's bringing the eyeballs and the interaction.
Gary
Some of my scripts:
Bounty (TV Pilot) -- Top 1% of discoverable screenplays on Coverfly I'll Be Seeing You (short) - OWC winner The Gambler (short) - OWC winner Skip (short) - filmed Country Road 12 (short) - filmed The Family Man (short) - filmed The Journeyers (feature) - optioned
I think there are more people on this site than you think, a lot of them being producers looking for inexpensive scripts to film. You look at the number of clicks to this site on the home page (down at the bottom) and it shows over 11,000 clicks. Most of those obviously are not participating in the forums, they're just browsing.
I think in this new age of technology, people are always moving around, looking for the next thing that will provide them with some short-term gratification. Staying power is rare, without commitment from the community to build it. Don does an unbelievable job in keeping this site running but part of the responsibility lies on us to make this a welcoming community, not only in how we interact with others, but how we treat and mentor new writers. It also involves recruiting new blood to the site. I introduced Paul (PKCardinal) to the site and I know you all have been welcoming to him and impressed by his writing skills. If we could all could just recruit an active member to the site each year, over time it will grow exponentially (and tax Don's band server!).
Maybe site design might help, I don't know. I think content is, and has always been, king. You look at a site like the Drudge Report and it gets a billion hits a month and it's the most bland looking site on the internet. It's all about what's on the site that's bringing the eyeballs and the interaction.
Gary
Though I think recruiting would be a great boon, I'd temper expectations a bit about those clicks per day... I'm sure a lot of them are from bots and scrapers.
The software running this site is no longer maintained by the developer, so any serious upgrade would entail Don migrating the site data to some new platform. That's a nontrivial effort.
Who's the culprit then who foisted Frank and Matt upon us? I kid.
I think the site is active when regulars are posting Shorts (and Features) and obviously that ebbs and flows depending on our individual productivity and the time of the year.
And of course SS is periodically revitalised when challenges are on. We need more of those imho. Feature challenges are great but they attract less numbers so I think a mix of both is ideal.
There's bound to be lull periods - I've noticed it's typically in the Northern Summer when a lot of you guys are on vacation or at the beach, more outdoorsy activities happening etc. We in the south are usually hibernating and shivering, although today in Oz it's a lovely 25° - Spring, here we come!
You look at the number of clicks to this site on the home page (down at the bottom) and it shows over 11,000 clicks. Most of those obviously are not participating in the forums, they're just browsing.
But I think that number used to be so much higher. I remember, maybe 2 years ago I was looking into the numbers and I think (not sure) I saw a number of 36.000. And this forum was already way, way less active than what it was in 2013-14.
These types of conversations have moved on to comments sections on websites, twitter, fb groups, youtube and so on. Forums are slowly fading away. Although, IMO, they are a supperior medium for this kind of thing. This is just the reality of things. Things change.
If people want an in-between OWC, I'd be happy to run one. It's actually very easy to do. Don does all the real work, then I get to take the credit. Unless Pia's original post was an offer to run one herself, in which case carry on.
As for doing a feature challenge at some point, I'd definitely partake if the parameters were optional. I realize that goes against the whole idea of a challenge... but a feature is such a big undertaking I don't want to commit to an idea I don't believe in 100%.
In regards to the inexorable death of Simply Scripts... I'm still holding on to the belief that social media is a fad and one day people will stop turning real life into the most terrifying sci-fi/horror/satire ever written.
Just Murdered by Sean Elwood (Zombie Sean) and Gabriel Moronta (Mr. Ripley) - (Dark Comedy, Horror) All is fair in love and war. A hopeless romantic gay man resorts to bloodshed to win the coveted position of Bridesmaid. 99 pages. https://www.simplyscripts.net/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b-comedy/m-1624410571/
The two types of threads that generated the most activity (outside the OWC) are the technical issues (love or hate asides, etc.) and nature of reviews (be kind, be cruel, etc.). Those have lost their steam as they have been beat to death.
I have stop commenting on new scripts as much as I used to because:
- a lot of the time the writer never weighs in anyway so why should I give a shit if they don't. I'll wait to really get involved when it's from a peep that's genuinely engaged in the site.
- The writing is so bad - it's hard to figure out where to start. There seems to be more of these lately - e.g., where it's obvious that the writer has never even read a script or googled a thing about format. I don't know why. but some reason that pisses me off a bit. Like - really - how hard is it to Google how to right a scene heading. Anyway - again - that's just me and I got my own set of baggage.
I do think a thread entitled ONE PAGE OF YOUR SCRIPT - my spur some activity. Under the there is an admonition against posting scripts that aren't at least halfway done. I think a spot where a writer could post one page - and get feedback on whether they are headed in the right direction would generate interest - especially for writers just starting out -
I also have an OWC format idea percolating in my head - will share for feedback later.