Silver Screenwriting

Back in the day, I was a production company reader. I drove through LA traffic in the heat and in the rain, scampering back and forth, going up and down elevators to pick up scripts from companies in Century City, Santa Monica and West LA. I had to keep within a radius of where I lived, you see.

When an email went out, I was available to read. I carried home heavy boxes of scripts. I read three scripts a day, five days a week. When I was sick, I read. When another reader was sick, I read. I read the last minute scripts, the overnights and the special favors. The best part was that I honestly really enjoyed that period of my life because I enjoyed the executives and assistants I worked with and because I got to work at home and I learned SO much about screenwriting and the marketplace at the same time.

There was another upside that I didn’t even plan on though. And that is the relationships I built during that time. Day in and day out, you get to know people. So when I tracked down some of the people I used to work for and asked if they’d be willing to look at the top three scripts from The Silver Screenwriting Competition, I was greeted with a pleasant and hearty YES, every time.

So it came to be that Bedrock Studios (headed up by Carey Granat, formerly of Walden Media), Back Lot Pictures (Eternal Sunshine, Sunshine Cleaning) and Bedford Falls (The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond) have all agreed to read the top three scripts in this year’s competition. Imagine how thrilled I was!

Now THAT’S paying it forward. Old school.

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