Screenwriting : What are the common scams facing screenwriters? by Craig D Griffiths

I fell for that last one but only because I was introduced to him through a "celebrity" that I knew. Paid the guy a few hundred to setup a meeting for one of my screenplays that had won a contest. But after a "one-time" payment to set everything in motion, he kept asking for more money. I told him to kick rocks.

A couple of weeks later he tried to pretend he was a producer looking to buy. I told him to send the paperwork to my lawyer and we'll go from there. He tried to avoid sending me or my representative anything in writing. He let slip who he really was and again, I told him to kick rocks.

"Fool me once...". I understand that no one works for free but I ain't a total fool either.

And I also deleted all contact information for the "celebrity" that introduced us., because "birds of a feather".

A "producer" contacted me via private message on Stage 32 a month or so ago, saying he was interested in producing one of my scripts. I checked out his IMDB page and he had some decent credits, so I responded and asked him what he had in mind. This was his response:

"You must have checked my IMDb profile and saw that I have produced a lot of projects; many are features and shorts. I am eager to get more project produced.

Here is how I work:

Kindly submit your script materials to my email XXXXXX for review and evaluation. I will decide which project is best to take into production. But kindly note that my services comes with a collaboration fee of $2,000. A one time payment which gives you a Writer's & Producer's & Executive Producer's Credit.

I look forward to your next email."

My next email told him how I worked -- that I don't PAY to have my scripts produced, and rather that he pays ME. This was a total scam, and he has since deleted his account (or Stage 32 deleted his account.) Personally, I think someone hijacked this guys IMDB page and "posed" as him. Can't prove it - just a hunch.

Thanks. This video is going up in the first week of August. I am getting ahead as my wife’s birthday coming up.

Thanks a lot in advance Craig! This is so valuable to all of us, especially newcomers like me. Thanks!

Thanks Craig. I am very interested in this! A while ago I had a call with a "producer". She recorded the call because her memory wasn't so good. In the end she told me to send her an email with the points we had discussed and she would give me contacts of people who might help we with my script. She never answered back. I still don't understand what her game was.

Sometimes it is very difficult to know if you are being scammed. Some of you might recall an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm - where a lawyer asks to read Larry's screenplay - he sends it to her and is then horrified to get a bill for $500. A similar thing happened to me on Stage32: I paid for a written pitch - and got the feedback that the Exec wanted to read the screenplay but wanted a chat first. In our call she explained that I would be charged at a rate of $500 / hour for her to read it - the exec is legit, and her law firm is legit...

Yep, Simon, I think I had the same experience, probably with the same exec.

All I can think to say is that P.T. Barnum was right - an youse guys fall for it!

Thanks all. The greater community (not us) have made some fertile ground for scammers. There is a myth that Hollywood is a mysterious place with special business practices.

Making it sound mysterious and magical produces grey areas that scammers can use to fill with what sounds like fact. They then use the facts they have installed as a way of getting paid.

A film is a project. If you know project management in the corporate world you have a project owner and a project sponsor. The owner is the decision maker for day to day things. The sponsor is a senior in the company that champions the project, they protect it. You have a project manager that gets the work done.

In film, that looks like this.

Project Owner - Producer

Project Sponsor - studio executive that green lit the project

Project Manager - director.

If we remove the concept that it is all mystical. We reduce the opportunity for scams. We will never remove them. But we reduce the opportunities. Business can be confusing. But it is ultimately understandable.

Thanks again for all this input. I appreciate this community and its people.

Just keep in mind that nothing and no one in Hahawood is real.

Personally, I believe the current "business" model of Hollywood is a scam. It has nothing to do with business, and everything to do with Tinsel Town wanting to push their own narrative, and rejecting anything that doesn't conform to it. This is why Hollywood is dying, of course, but they still stubbornly refuse to green-light anything that, no matter how entertaining or appealing to audiences, doesn't fall in line with their image. Thank goodness that advances in technology have undermined the monopolies big movie studios once had on the film industry, otherwise there'd be no combatting this single-minded ambition that permeates Big Hollywood.

Doug, as always has beaten me to it.The common scams?! What do you want to hear? In general, without being my pessimistic self, ALL. Some are just cloaked. Ain't it Marvel(ous)! But if you stop trying, you stop living.

A couple times, we ran up against the scam(s) of: You pay (a lot of money) for access to "stars" (in each case, it was a certain 'star'). One was the father of a well known "star" (who has since passed away). I chalk it up to part of the 'dues-paying process,' but at the time it was pretty upsetting. I don't mean to make light of the wrong these people are doing. It's wrong on so many levels. {It'll all just become part of my book that I'll eventually write. Just kidding - lol (maybe)...}

No Dan, it's not. But the methods used are certainly dubious.

lol cheikh hamdane is back under another name today

Movie Logline: When a cowardly scam artist under the false name "Sheikh Hamdane" tries the scam a group of fed up Stage 32 screenwrirers into doing business with him, they contact the real Sheikh -- who sends his sincere greatings. -- "The False Sheikh"

A bit long but effective.I need a producer!!!

+Dan Guardino. Hey, Dan! I heartily wish that Hollywood only made movies they think will make the most money. That was my point. They don't. They make woke, politically-charged garbage that rarely sees a profit. Look at all the "progressive" films put out that win Oscars, but no one likes or cares about them. Mainstream audiences (both sides of the aisle) aren't buying the message Hollywood is preaching, but the preaching continues.

As proof of this, look at Spider-man: No Way Home. A massive hit, and there was 0% political messaging in it. Just a well-written, funny, and solid movie that entertained the masses. It was in theaters WAY longer than other films. Then, there's Lightyear. A mega bomb because of one woke scene.

If Hollywood was only about making money, they would avoid political messaging like the PLAGUE, since movies laced with progressive Socialism do not make money. And yet, they continue to churn out these movies despite box office failure after failure. It's good business to avoid politics most of the time, but Hollywood is not a business. It's a narrative-pusher. A woke propaganda machine funded by rich elites determined to paint a false picture.

That's why I tell people I'm a parallel economy screenwriter. It's time for Hollywood to end! They've been pushing their false politics, funding immoral organizations, and engaging in the most perverse sexual practices in human history, to say nothing of treating women and minorities like refuse, for far too long! This monster needs to end, and giving it serious competition is the best way to do it!

Audiences eat up films that don't conform to Tinsel Town's trash. There's an untapped market here. All we screenwriters and other movie-makers have to do is make good, wholesome, moral stories that please the masses and don't preach at the masses, and we can build a whole new movie industry without needing to bow to the whims and wishes of big execs and self-righteous actors who have no clue about what it takes to make a good story.

+Dan Guardino. That's a fair point.

Thank you everyone. Just letting you know that the episode is up. Your contributions helped me. So thank you all again.

Pay versus getting paid on anything be it service or contest...in Europe mentors working with you (some of them A class players, btw) are all covered by the organization of the event...no one goes to you for a "pocket fee"...they're legit, mind their business and don't repeat themselves...

...and don't get me "gotta make a living somehow" bs...that's why dayjobs are for...

Marty, that is a completely free site. If you choose to donate so the site can survive. You get a playful title of “rockstar”. There are also a lot of benefits, like discounts from other supporters. But you don’t like the word “rockstar” think of it as supporter, sponsor or patron.

There is nothing promised for that donation. As it is a purely voluntary donation.

I forgot to attach the link that was inspired by this thread.

https://youtu.be/EY1gu8IBwKc