About a month ago, I got an email telling me that the company known as Script Quack was following me on Twitter.  They do script analysis.  So no big deal.

A week after that, they posted a general tweet saying the price for the basic analysis package was reduced from $75 to $50.  Interesting.  Maybe this would benefit DREAMSHIP.  But there’s that cost thing.

Would it really be worth the money?  I’ve never had this done before, but I really like the script and want to know how to make it better.

I decided to bite the bullet and do it.  Hope the $50 is worth it.

The days go by.  I hear nothing back after a few days.

More days pass.  It’s approaching the one week mark.  I start to fear I have been taken by a con artist.  I even dream the end product came in the mail and was sitting on the dining room table (which it wasn’t).

Saturday comes and goes.  Still nothing.  I’m not feeling very positive about this.  I decide to wait until Wednesday to drop them a line.

Just to verify their legitimacy, I go to their website.  There on the homepage is the disclaimer “Get your notes back in under a week or they’re free!’

That’s interesting.

Sunday.  We’re getting ready to go to the airport to pick up K.

My phone DINGS!  New email.

And there are the notes.  Legitimacy verified.  I skim the opening.  They seem very enthusiastic about the script, which is nice.  I stop there, since we have to leave in a few minutes, and write back to them saying I haven’t looked at the notes yet, but gently bring up their disclaimer.  I run a worst-cast scenario where they try to weasel out of the deal.

A few hours later, I get an email saying I am right, that it took 8 days, I’m entitled to my refund, and I get to keep the notes.

And it ended up being free!

Even better, this is the start of a blueprint for a new draft of DREAMSHIP that, if done properly, could be sent back to the Nicholl next year.

Cool.

Epilogue:  I look at the notes.  Very detailed and helpful, even though they got the villain’s name wrong.  I printed them out for further study.

What’s really cool is that I can work on this and keep going on developing LUCY.  I may even be able to take lessons learned on the former and apply them to the latter.

Really cool indeed.

Movie of the Moment:  Not necessarily right now, but I watched IKIRU and FORT APACHE over the weekend.

IKIRU started out slow, but got very interesting as it moved along.  I was very surprised at some of the subject matter being discussed, especially for when it was set.  You’d never hear the word ‘diarrhea’ in an American film from the 50’s!

FORT APACHE was a typical John Ford western.  Henry Fonda did a good job, though.  John Wayne still had the swagger, albeit turned down.  But once you see a modern-era western (OPEN RANGE, DEADWOOD, etc), it’s hard to look at these and not think ‘why is everything so clean?’ and ‘why isn’t anybody swearing up a storm?’  A bit predictable, but still fun.