Getting shafted?

Why would you want to sue them? What makes you think you're getting shafted?

Call them again once another month has gone by. At some point, give up and realize it's a pass.

In the meantime, query other prodcos, write more screenplays, and polish the ones you've already written.

-Derek

What dp said.

Also, check out [names deleted at webmaster's request -- JDM] column, "Never Wait", on link removed via request from other site's Webmaster..

Continue to check up on the prodco in question, but don't waste time or energy worrying about it. Move on to new avenues. Execute the next step in your long term plan.

This may involve working on your next spec, finding new places to pitch your current spec, joining a networking group, taking a class, making a short film, making a feature.

I feel your pain, I really do, but like others have said, you can't let these things occupy you. Move on, keep working and, when you least expect it, the guy will probably get back to you.

I had a phone call from William Morris six months after sending them a query, asking me to send in the script I'd told them about. By then the script was in a drawer and I'd found representation elsewhere but it just goes to show, you can't predict or standardise anything in the industry.

"Write! Write! Write!" -the mind of a writer

Hobbledehoy said:

Alright. So I sent my screenplay into this production/management company about two months ago now. I was told by users of this board to follow up in one months time. So I did. I call up and get the principals assistant. The guy tells me that they'll call me back when they get time. So I call again a month later, and the assistant takes my phone number and says that the principal will call me back as soon as he can. NO CALL. So now I'm upset. I signed a freakin' submission form saying that I can't sue for any reason regarding this script! Am I getting shafted? Does the WGA strike have anything to do with this? Does Hilary Clinton? Please tell me my choices of action.

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Look -- if they were really interested in this script, I'm prepared to bet that they'd be able to get it from you for -- pardon me for saying this -- essentially nothing.

So if what you're worried about is that they have, in some diabolical manner, "run off" with your screenplay and busily doing something sinister with it -- Rewriting it? Selling it under some false name? Producing it without telling you?

These things are not happening. There is no reason for them to do any of these things. If they wanted to do any of these things, they could do them by simply getting you to give them a free eighteen month option with a free eighteen month extension -- which, I strongly suspect you'd give them, just because you would be so unbelievably flattered that anyone would want to have anything to do with your script.

What has happened is that your script is probably sitting in a stack with countless other scripts, where it will most likely continue to sit for who knows how long until someone gets around to looking at it, which may be sometime this year, if your lucky -- or maybe not.

I appreciate that your script is of overwhelming importance to you.

For people in the business a script -- pretty much any script, but certainly a spec script from an unsold writer is just another flick of chaff and is accorded about as much respect.

I know people around here have said that you should never accept a silent pass -- so if it's of overwhelming importance to you to turn this into a non-silent pass, keep calling once a month and chances are, eventually, you'll get a non-silent pass.

But don't expect that anything sinister is going on.

NMS

The strike, even if they aren't signatories, could also be delaying the proccess.

Getting an answer is usually a mixed blessing, because it's almost always "Thanks but. . ." Focus on submitting (to non-WGA struck companies only until the strike is over) and don't call them, they'll call you. If you must follow up every 4-6 weeks (I recommend longer intervals -- like 6 weeks after they receive the script by mail or e-mail, then 3 months, then maybe once more at 6 months, and if you get no response let go), follow up by the same means you submitted -- e-mail or mail. I suspect getting calls from unknown writers about "Where's my script now? How about now?" would be considered a nuisance and a good reason to send a vocal pass whether the script's been read or not. . .

Hobbledehoy said:

... I'm trying to be happy about placing as a semi finalist in a contest with two of my scripts, but the devil on my shoulder is saying "They're were only four hundred entries!" ...

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What about going for semi finalist and up in a contest with more than 400 entries? 1000, 2000, 5000?