"...the Screenplay Morgue"
Screenwriter Mike Snyder posted this on the
Internet's Screenwriters Listserv. Welcome
to what might be called Reality 101.
"I had a long -- lo-o-o-ong -- (like, 10 1/2 hours long!) story meeting
yesterday, and during a break was wandering around the courtyard of the
prodco's bungalows at Warners and stumbled across their 'morgue.' The room
was probably 10X12, with wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling shelves...all
packed with scripts. My guess is fifty scripts per shelf, eight shelves per
unit, four units on two walls and five on the other two: 7200 scripts! All
had obviously been read, probably covered by some poor schmuck...and passed
on (the prodco has only done 3-4 pictures since its inception two years
ago). And these scripts were undoubtedly just the submissions through
agents.
"I stood there a long time, blinking, then went back to my meeting -- happy
to have my script in an office with real people instead of gathering dust
in that morgue."
[BACK TO TEXT]
MODULE 2:
SCREENWRIGHT: the craft of screenwriting
8/97