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$\"Gravatar\"$ I did the exact same thing with the Lottery: took all the numbers multiplied by all kinds of things and...am still waiting to win. I'm writing exactly the oposite to what the learned prof says I should be writing- no wonder I'm getting nowhere. There's no secret formula other than a great script and, I believe, a little bit of luck. All this report tells me is what KIND of movie MIGHT make it. The rest is still up to me. What I've done with a number of filmed scripts is to open 'em in Final Draft, pull 'em right and run them through the script statistics program. What I discovered opened my eyes. That info really changed my way of writing from \"radio\" to something that they at least have to look at. Just once... Regards Terrence
terrence | 08.22.07 - 2:03 am | #

$\"Gravatar\"$ Excellent thinking. Keep in mind the crucial difference between cause-and-effect and correlation. Just because these are the kinds of movies that have made it big doesn't mean that's why they made it big. Unfortunately there's a lie nestled in this logic. Show business executives are only human, or possibly less than, and desperately grasp at any quantifiable element that might lead to a reliable reproduction of financial success. In simpler terms, they make movies and TV shows but they wish they were canning soup. So while \"based on a true story\" might not actually make for a better film, it doesn't matter -- if they believe it will, the film will more likely get made.
Roger Schulman | 08.22.07 - 1:29 pm | #

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