Question:
a small circle of trusted Executive Professional Resume Writer friends ?
I've had a producer's wife, and at least one executive
of a fairly large movie prodco read one of my scripts (which, believe
it or not, are all formatted exactly the same way), and neither of
them said so much as "boo" to the format. As a matter of fact, the
producer's wife COMMENTED on how "impeccable" my formatting was.
Yet, every screenwriter I show my work to (admittedly few, I happen to
believe that getting other writers to critique your work is little
better than self-flagellation) is constantly picking at my formatting!
Argh. But yet, this producer's wife tells me it's impeccable. (And the
executive passed on it for other reasons, namely because it was the
wrong genre, not because my title page didn't conform.)
Answer:
-1) If you are encountering screenwriters who are focusing on formatting and
being picky about it ... then you are unfortunately talking with the wrong
screenwriters. Professional screenwriters tend to have put aside the format
issue very early on in their careers.
2) I would agree that writers who nit-pick about formatting are the WRONG
writers to ask for critiques. However, getting criticism from well-read,
professional writers is probably one of the best ways to get better. I have
a small circle of trusted professional writer friends and we exchange scripts
often to get each others' thoughts on our material.
-. It was only an experiment, anyway....I dislike
showing my stuff to people who aren't going to be able to do anything
with it other then vent their own insecurities about writing onto it.
I tried once (based on being constantly urged here) to show my work
around to friends and family and screenwriters I knew, and in both
cases, neither group was helpful in any way
