This is a guest post from Richard Dane Scott. Richard recently wrote a piece for the AFF blog titled AFF IS MY BFF. It’s a good piece. You should read it. What stood out to me was Richard’s blatant honesty about his early days being THAT Guy:
“When Austin Film Festival celebrates its 20th anniversary, I will be celebrating my tenth consecutive year of attending. When I look back at my first couple of years, I’m ashamed to admit that I was THAT guy. You know THAT guy. The guy who thinks he’s written the greatest screenplay ever on his FIRST and ONLY try. The guy who pitches to anyone who will listen, even if it’s standing at the glistening rock laden urinal of the Driskill. (Those ARE pretty rocks.) The guy who raises his hand at every panel to pitch his project by masking it with an undecipherable question. See? You know that guy.”
I immediately emailed Richard and said, That’s one of the coolest and most important things I’ve seen, “that” guy seriously needs to know he is “that” guy, will you write a guest post for AFW about being THAT Guy? And Richard did. Because Richard is just that cool.
15 WARNING SIGNS YOU MIGHT BE “THAT” GUY
~ by Richard Dane Scott1: You think you’ve written the greatest screenplay ever on you FIRST and ONLY try.
2: You pitch to anyone who will listen (or can’t escape) even if it’s standing at the glistening rock laden urinal of the Driskill.
3: You raise your hand at every panel to pitch your project by masking it with an undecipherable question.
4: You integrate your own soundtrack into your screenplay, including that one song that must be the ONLY song in that karaoke scene you wrote.
5: You give your casting choices in the screenplay. And Anne Hathaway is one of them.
6: You italicize all your narratives. [And don't know what "narrative" means.]
7: Your script contains one conversation that lasts over three pages with NO narratives in between. [And you still don't know what "narrative" means.]
8: All your main characters’ names start with the same letter. Probably “M.”
9: You query prodcos and actor’s agents through a Google search of email addresses, not even considering trying to get representation FIRST.
10: You have paid multiple times for script coverage on ONE screenplay, but haven’t done ONE rewrite.
11: Your screenplay is full of camera directions because you secretly hope the prodco will ask you to direct.
12: Your first act ends on page 47, but that’s okay, the script is 187 pages long.
13: The only people you’ve shown your script to are your parents and significant other — and they are not Coppolas.
14: You have NEVER read another screenplay.
15: When you attend a panel, you are so busy planning a podium stampede to pitch your script post panel, you don’t hear the actual panel taking place.
Richard Dane Scott is a writer and producer. Richard was a 2010 AFF screenplay competition finalist with his drama Knocked Silly, now in development. In 2012, he was hired to pen four features — one of which is in pre-production titled Soul Girl. Richard’s feature Champion starring Lance Henriksen is due out this Spring.