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SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board  /  Action/Adventure Scripts  /  Westviking
Posted by: Don, September 13th, 2013, 4:29pm
Westviking by Kerry Korberg (kjk11) - Action, Adventure - Driven to sea by a father with a murderous past, a Viking prince is pursued by the gods and a dark temptress in his quest for redemption. 111 pages - pdf, format 8)
Posted by: Lon, September 14th, 2013, 3:42pm; Reply: 1
Okay, so, I just saw the title page and first page so far and already you've committed a tremendous error.  You've got to lose the "and featuring the music of Led Zeppelin" on the title page and every song cue you include throughout the script.  The very first thing a producer/studio exec is going to do is see that and then contact you to make sure you have the rights to use their music.  And when you tell them that you don't, they'll chuck your script aside and move on to the next one.  You're shooting yourself in the foot with the title page, before a single word of the script can even be read.  And even if you were to remove that from the title page, they'd also see the song cues in the script itself.  You've got to lose every last one of them.

Including such a glaringly bad mistake right up front also naturally makes the reader assume that if you don't even know not to do that, then who's to say the rest of the script isn't full of such no-nos, as well?

By the way, I skimmed through and there are also other problems, here.  Action/narratives up to seven lines long (shouldn't be more than four lines long), CAPPING every character's appearance (you only need to cap their FIRST appearance), having the title atop every page (and what's with the <> and colored text?).  And why are you signaling when credits begin or end?

You've heard the stories about studio readers who pick up a script and the first thing they do is flip through it to the end?  When they do that, they're looking for any glaring mistakes that would make it unnecessary for them to have to sit down and actually read it (their plates are already full enough as it is, one less script for them to have read is a blessing) and you're giving them more reasons than they need.  

A spec script is meant to show your storytelling ability and that you understand format.  What songs you'd put on the soundtrack, how you'd block a scene, what angle you'd shoot from -- these things only get in the way and distract from your actual story.  Getting your foot in the door as a screenwriter is tough enough as it is; don't shoot that foot before you've even had your chance.  My advice: go back over the script, lose the note on the title page, lose all the song cues, get rid of the title on every page (and lose the colored text -- black only, courier or courier new 12-point font), capping every character's appearance, etc then re-submit.

Best of luck.  Keep writing.

- Lon
Posted by: kjk11 (Guest), September 22nd, 2013, 2:05pm; Reply: 2
Thanks for your kind advice
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