For those of us on MySpace, it’s a terrific example of how social networks are influencing the way multimedia is consumed. Why leave the computer to watch the Simpsons? Well, that’s old news, actually. Better yet, why close your MySpace page to watch that episode when you can get it on the same screen? And through viral effects, your friends will quickly see what you like to watch.

Want to see what we watch? The Scripped MySpace page is at http://www.myspace.com/scripped. Come on, be our friend. Can you think of any cool applications for screenplays on Scripped?

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Of course we can’t compete with the installed software on every feature. It’s not our intent and we don’t want to have to charge you guys for writing services. In fact, we want to give writers every reason to come on board and join the Scripped crew. The fact that Google gets over 4 million people a month to write online means there is hope for a many 10s of thousands of people to write screenplays on Scripped.

But the other point of this article is that the old installed guys will innovate, and that’s why we were happy to announce a partnership with the other big software product in the biz, Movie Magic Screenwriter. It’s a match made in Hollywood, and one that I wouldn’t expect from Google and Microsoft any time soon.

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So what does this mean? We’ve been harping on this internally for some time now. When YouTube makes money, it’s just the first step in a series of events that ultimately helps the screenwriter. The story goes something like this.

YouTube sells ads for chess sets next to your video about chess-playing aliens. Let’s say YouTube makes $40/year on all clicking going on around the clip you uploaded. You get a (optimistically) 50% cut of that and think, wow, for an annuity of $20, I just have to put up a catchy video? Awesome! Net present value of an annuity at a 6% discount rate is a cool $333.

So how do you beat the odds that your video is well-watched? You make sure it’s scripted, of course! YouTube is flooded with ad hoc improv. Scripted videos will rule the day. And where do you get that script? At Scripped.com, obviously, and you pay some fraction of your NPV for it. That’s how YouTube making money puts money in writers’ pockets.

Oh, and with companies like Auditude making headlines by associating you as the owner, no matter where the video is streamed, that $333 is just the baseline. It’s all up from here.

Ryan

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Ryan

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In the early mornings in the Harvard Kennedy School forum the tables are filled with mid-career students. They study Dutch labor markets, development in Niger, and leadership failures. They come from around the world: one mid-career I met recently holds office in Nairobi, another is a woman from Pakistan had a staff of 1,400 when her office suffered a suicide bombing.

Before I enrolled here I knew that people like this existed. I knew somewhere in the world there were those who risked their lives to eliminate corruption and have to convince their employees to come back to work after a 17-year-old boy detonated himself in the lobby. It’s the stuff of movies, but it’s also real life.

My favorite mid-career student is someone I sat behind on a small bus on a field trip to West Point. She is a photographer named Laura Rauch and her work is beautiful. Each picture she showed told a story. She knew the subjects and gave the context that led her to that particular village or hospital. She was embedded with troops in Iraq and followed Hillary Clinton and John Kerry around during the election. She also took some great pictures of Las Vegas. I’d guess she’s in her 40s. A real-life steely action hero journalist. Again, the stuff of movies. So maybe there’s a tie-in after all.

I was on the phone yesterday with Steve Schwartz of Chockstone Pictures. He searches for stories that have real meaning, perhaps the kind of film that would fly under the coverage radar. Participant Media, the company that brought us Syriana, Thank You For Smoking, and Good Night and Good Luck might be the closest big firm to Steve’s vision.

In seeking his projects, Steve looks for scripts that are unique and based off of real experiences by real people. I can’t help but think he should survey my older classmates. Or better yet, I’ll get them to write their stories on Scripped and tell him to search for loglines (when we get that function up… soon!)

It’s what we’re here for, after all.

Ryan

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http://www.cinematical.com/2008/10/28/details-magazine-wants-your-movie-pitches/

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Many of you don’t know that Scripped came into being two years ago, in the fall of 2006. I remember sitting at the big Au Bon Pain cafe in Harvard Square, my shoulder holding the phone to my ear so I could hear Sunil and Zak’s chirpy voices as I typed away at the first outline of what we soon called Scripped. Two falls later, look how far we’ve come. We have a simple but effective website, over 10,000 happy users, and a number of high-profile advisers.

Where’s all this going, you might ask? What will become of this place when the leaves turn color in 2010? Well, for one thing, we’ll have a new governor in California. For another, we’re pushing to have 100,000 writers and 250,000 scripts. Sounds like a lot? Not really.

Since launching last winter, we’ve added 10,000 users with hardly a marketing budget. We did it by making some friends with bloggers and partnering up with a few great organizations, especially Script Frenzy. And with some super cool search engine optimization wizardry, we’re now #2 or #3 when you search for free screenwriting software. And the world of writers out there we have yet to reach.

When the wind blows around Cambridge, MA, a shower of leaves follows. I’ll miss this place if I graduate and move back to California. We Californians don’t really get what seasons really are. I’m glad to have spent this time out of my element, and it reminds me how big and beautiful this great country really is.

Thanks for your continued support, everyone!

Ryan

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I write my first correspondence from our Cambridge office about EmTech, the emerging technologies conference at MIT.

Click here and scroll to the bottom. Yes, there we are, your favorite screenplay software startup, playing with the big boys. I met some great people and learned about some fun companies. My favorite is EvenHere, a really innovative web video product placement company.

Ever wanted to buy that Burberry sweater worn by your favorite sitcom star? Now with the advent of flash overlays and contextual video ads, you can click and buy as soon as that character walks in the room.

Pretty cool, and it’s good news for Scripped.

Why? Because as soon as people figure out how to make money from online video, there will be a gold rush for good content. And where will they look for this content? They’ll come here, and they’ll pay you for your script.

The answer to this monetization riddle hinges largely on the work now being done by companies like EvenHere. They’re not the only ones. YouTube itself is another, with their yet-unmonetized billion video streams a day. I’m just saying that as soon as online retail shops start to see dimes and dollars rolling in from video ads and overlays, the game is going to change. Ad rates will go up, online producers will make money, and you, the writers, will hold the keys to the castle.

Until then, it’s a waiting game. At least it’s fun to keep writing in the meantime.

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Sorry for being out. If you follow the blog regularly, you got a full dose of Sunil and newsletter archives. Charming as they both are, I thought I’d add my own splash of prose now that the fog has rolled in.

Ghiradelli chocolate, clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl, triangles in the skyline, mist in the August air, and fog horns in the distance. It must be summer in San Francisco. And while San Francisco offers some of the finest in views and ethnic eats, it is also a hotbed for entrepreneurship. It made sense for one of the Scripped Guys to plant here for the summer.

Summer has gone by quickly. The days and weeks spent in this little breakfast nook with my computer, sipping on coffee bought at the marina mart down the street, working out the finer details of our scrappy screenwriting startup, have been lovely. I guess that’s why I wasn’t posting; it’s as though I didn’t even notice the time going by. It actually wasn’t until this morning when my very pretty roommate, the one who took me in for the summer, reminded me I haven’t posted in a month. Crazy, I thought. A month.

But that’s what happens between phone calls and drafts of PowerPoint presentations. Even companies promoting art need a business plan and investors. Nothing is cheap about starting a company, and when your founders are recent grad students under the age of 30, and not some 40 year old millionaires (like a few other startups we know), it’s tough. You sometimes get anxious. You sweat. And then you remember why you did it. It’s fun. You love your partners. The chase is a thrill. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll start to get paid.

But right now it’s not about the money. Not here with my coffee, looking out onto Scott and Chestnut. Not later today with my uncle and cousin on our way up to the family cabin. I am a firm believer that hard work and passion eventually pay themselves off. And Scripped has its share of millionaire friends, chipping in as needed.

So follow your heart and follow your art. The rest will take care of itself.

Cheers,

Ryan

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August 5, 2008

IN THIS ISSUE:

Partnership with the Write Brothers

A Little Help from the UCLA Film School

Submit Your Material with WordHustler

Blog Questions - Ask Eddie and Aaron and Creative Screenwritng Magazine!

Scripped on Facebook

Contact us any time at: contact@scripped.com

Dear Writers:

Well, we promised you some big announcements, and here they are.

- Scripped has partnered with the makers of Movie Magic Screenwriter, an Academy Award-winning professional product that is the official software ofthe WGA-East. Get your coupon below!

- Two top professors from the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television have offered to read scripts from the Scripped community. Details below!

- Scripped is also working with WordHustler, a fantastic new service that gives you FREE access to over 3,000 markets for your material.

- Eddie Burns wants your questions! Creative Screenwriting Magazine wants some too. Send your queries directly to Sunil, our humble CEO, at sunil@scripped.com.

- Want to know more about us? Join us on Facebook. And become a friend of Sunil.

Read on to get the skinny on these exciting developments.

Movie Magic - A Match Made in Hollywood

What if you could write online AND offline? What if it was easy to transfer your material between Scripped and professional packaged software?

We thought this would benefit writers tremendously, and so did the Write Brothers, makers of Movie Magic Screenwriter.

To get started, they created a coupon just for Scripped users. Click here and then click “Add to Cart.” Enter SCRIPPED01 in the Coupon or Gift Card field and receive an immediate discount on Movie Magic Screenwriter. If you’re a student or educator, call 1-800-84-STORY for academic rates and mention the coupon code.

We’re now working out how to forge ahead together, and the possibilities are very exciting. The [http://www.scripped.com/submission] Horror Collection we hosted last month was just one example of how our submission platform could be useful to movie studios.

This is an exciting moment for the screenwriting industry. We are proud to be leading the way!

UCLA Professors will Read Your Script

Richard Walter, the head of the UCLA screenwriting program, and another top professor agreed for a limited time to read your scripts and give detailed notes or in-person coaching!

Despite our haggling, they won’t work for free, but they are anxious to see what you’re made of. If you’re ready to be read by the best eyes in the biz, send an email to Sunil at sunil@scripped.com. Put “Richard Walter” or “Script Coach” in the subject.

The UCLA faculty will soon participate in other ways as well. We want to provide you with the means to succeed, and they can help you make it in Hollywood.

WordHustler - A New Button on My Scripts.

You may have noticed a new little W on your My Scripts page. The more adventurous of you may have even clicked on it. Here’s the scoop:

Scripped and WordHustler teamed up to allow seamless transfer between your account on Scripped and your portfolio on WordHustler. When you click on “Submit to WordHustler” for the first time you’ll be prompted to confirm your request to link accounts. If you don’t yet have a WordHustler account, you will be asked to create one.

From that point on, you can easily move PDFs between Scripped and WordHustler with just the click of a button. Once you’re in WordHustler, you have access to thousands of opportunities to submit your work!

And as always, for additional security, don’t forget to Vault it before you submit.

Questions? - Our Bloggers Want You.

We have new posts up at Eddie and Aaron’s blog and the Creative Screenwriting Magazine blog. For their next posts, both want to answer questions from you, the writers on Scripped.com. Send your questions to Sunil at sunil@scripped.com today!

Finally, Facebook.

Yes, we too have a Facebook page, and we’d like to add to the 100 “fans” who already joined us. If you have a Facebook account, please click here and then click “Become a Fan.”

To be Sunil’s friend on Facebook, you can click here and then click “Add as Friend” but make sure you mention Scripped. You’ll then join the throngs of other business school and college and various other friends. You can also peruse the pictures of Sunil with famous people at weddings.

Sorry this was a long one, but we have a lot going on. We hope you’re enjoying this ride as much as we are!

Cheers,

Zak, Sunil, and Ryan
The Scripped Guys

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