screenwriting

The countdown continues!

Maximum Z comedy, community, crowdfunding, jokes, post-production, screenplay, screenwriting, script, short films, spec, television, thriller , , , , , , , , , , ,

**Disclaimer – this post is for the most part promoting stuff I’m doing, especially the second one, so it won’t be shared to some of the usual social media platforms because they frown on that sort of thing and I do my best to not be a rabble-rouser**

And with that out of the way…

Here’s a pair of brief but very, very important announcements:

-One week from today is the great unveiling of The Maximum Z 2025 Script Showcase! A thrilling assortment of screenplays, TV scripts and short scripts* from an exceptionally diverse cadre of skilled and savvy writers.

If you’re among those who has NOT sent in the info for your script, you have until Thursday 18 December to do so. All the details can be found here. Please make sure to read them carefully and be diligent about following the instructions.

*no webseries submissions as of yet, but it could still happen

-The crowdfunding campaign to raise post-production costs for my thrill-omedy short film SHECKY is up and running. The editing and sound departments are working their magic, and the latest cut is looking mighty good.

There are tier rewards, including invaluable feedback on scripts, directors reels, and acting reels. Great stuff all around.

If you’re a fan of indie filmmaking, terrible jokes, and supporting the screenwriting community, then I sincerely hope you can help out by chipping in a couple of bucks.

Thanks.

Even with help, it’s all on me

Maximum Z 30 Rock, career, determination, manager, perseverance, persistence, pitching, rewriting, screenplay, screenwriting, script, westerns, writing , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Another busy week here at Maximum Z HQ!

-Submissions continue to come in for the 2025 Script Showcase (which posts in exactly two weeks from today, so don’t keep putting off sending in!)

-Got some excellent notes back on both of the scripts that will be overhauled next year

-A few more scenes added to the new spec outline. Still hoping to have that completed by 31 December, but we’ll see

But what may be the biggest development is that I made some minor changes to the pitch deck I’d put together last year for my western, and then sent it to my manager to get his two cents.

He liked it – didn’t love it – and had some recommendations to make it much more effective for both appealing to producers and as a marketing tool.

My initial thought was “That seems like a lot that will also take away from my writing time.” But if this is how to move things forward, then so be it. I can split up how much time gets spent on each and still get results.

And most importantly, it’s not like there’s anybody else who’s going to do it. My script, my effort.

Yes, I know there are people I could hire to do it, but that’s not something I can do at the moment, and it would probably be a good thing to teach myself how to make these kinds of changes.

I was never one of those “I got repped, so now all I have to do is write and they can do all the heavy lifting” types.

My manager’s a busy guy. He’s got other clients. He still works in production. He’s got a family. If anything, I want to make it easier for him to be able to help me. In this case, that’s fine-tuning the pitch deck so he can take it out to potentially interested parties with confidence.

There’s no doubt he’ll have comments about the next version of the pitch deck, and there’ll probably be a lot of back and forth until it’s a solid piece of material. And that’ll be because of the work I put into it.

My career is making some slow and steady progress, and I’ve no intention of easing up on the throttle. I have always and will continue to do what I need to to make things happen. Fortunately, I have a little more help now, but for the most part it all still falls on my shoulders.

A burden I heartily embrace.

Austin: A follow-up

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A few weeks ago I received my notes from the Austin Film Festival, and they were… suspect.

Some further analysis led me to the conclusion that they’d been written by AI. I wrote to the festival to express my concerns, along with my disappointment that this had happened.

In all honesty, I didn’t expect to get a response. I figured they’d just ignore it or possibly something along the lines of “So what? You’re just one writer.”

But lo and behold, this email showed up earlier this week:

“Thank you for sharing your concerns and for your patience as we investigated this. We have reviewed your comments and script and determined that the first set of reader comments does not adhere to our standards. All scripts are read at least twice, and we have pulled another reader’s comments. We are reviewing each complaint on a case-by-case basis and removing readers who we have identified as not meeting our competition standards.”

This was followed by some notes that were definitely written by a human being. Case in point – AI wouldn’t reference a scene out of Despicable Me.

(Which also makes me wonder why they didn’t send the second set of notes in the first place. I imagine they can only send one set. Perhaps there’s no determining factor? They just pick one and send it.)

My takeaway was that yes, the one reader apparently did use AI for their notes.

I get it. Austin gets a ton of scripts sent in and they need readers. Lots of readers. And as far as I know, this is an unpaid gig where you must deal with an inordinately large workload.

But these readers also need to at least have a basic grasp of the fundamentals of screenwriting. From what I’ve heard, that’s not always the case. (e.g. “I liked the story. The characters are interesting.”) Hence the use of AI to generate notes, which doesn’t do anybody any good.

My plan for 2026 is all about revising and polishing this script and one other, plus completing an entirely new one. Despite this experience, I still like the idea of entering scripts into Austin, and may do that for 2027.

But it’ll also be interesting to see if there are more reports from both this year and next year of experiences similar to what I just went through, which could change my decision to “Think I’ll hold off”.

—

A friendly reminder that the window to send in the details about your script for The Maximum Z 2025 Script Showcase is open now until Thursday Dec 18, with the Showcase posting on Friday Dec 19.

All the details can be found here. Please read them carefully and make sure all your info is correct.

Is it that time already?? (Yes. Yes, it is.)

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When I read a compelling logline or hear a “It’s THIS + THAT” that piques my interest, I will not hesitate to contact the writer and ask if the script is available to read.

But where could I, or any other writer, get information like this without having to scroll through endless pages of social media?

Wouldn’t it be awesome to have a vast assortment of scripts available in one convenient list that doesn’t cost you a single cent (RIP – the penny) AND has the email for every single writer?

Behold The Maximum Z 2025 Script Showcase!

This is your chance to put the basic info about your script on full display for the rest of the screenwriting community to peruse and have somebody go “Hey, I’d like to read that.”

Here’s how it works:

The Showcase will post here on Friday, December 19th. It will be a collection of screenplays and TV scripts, plus the added categories of scripts for short films and webseries. A link to the Showcase will be posted on various social media platforms.

If your script is included and you want your connections to know about it, it is highly recommended to copy-and-paste the link and post it on your platforms, inviting everybody to take a look.

To have your script included, send the following information here with the subject line “Maximum Z 2025 Script Showcase”:

Format (Film, TV, short, webseries)

Title

Writer

Genre(s)

Logline

Comps

Awards (if any, limit of 5) Please list how you placed, category (if applicable), the year, and the name of the competition – e.g. “Second Rounder – 2025 Austin Film Festival” or “Finalist – Horror, 2024 StoryPros International”

Your email

Feel free to check out the 2024 edition to get an idea of what it’ll look like.

Two conditions:

ONLY ONE SCRIPT PER PERSON

and

DO NOT SEND THE SCRIPT!!

Previously-listed scripts are okay, but new scripts are highly encouraged.

And can’t stress this one enough – PROOFREAD ALL OF YOUR INFORMATION BEFORE SENDING!! How it’s written in the email is how it’ll be listed in the post. This blog is not responsible for any wrong details, misspellings, or shitty punctuation.

The window to send in is between now and Thursday, December 18. Any submissions after that will not be accepted. Reminders will be posted weekly during that time, so don’t delay and send it straightaway.

Here’s the email again, and the subject line is “Maximum Z 2025 Script Showcase”.

Looking forward to seeing what you’ve got.

Planning ahead

Maximum Z action, Austin Film Festival, comedy, contests, determination, feedback, notes, perseverance, persistence, rewrite, screenplay, screenwriting, script, spec, strategy , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The aftermath of last week’s post about my more-than-questionable notes from Austin, along with a few sets of quality notes from actual humans, AKA trusted colleagues, on that script and another one, has made me realize that both scripts are pretty good, but have a lot of potential to be much, much better.

A lot of my focus these days is regarding the new action-comedy spec (which has seen some good progress over this past week), but after much consideration, I’ve concluded that it would be in my best interest in 2026 to not only get that one into fighting shape, but to also do some major work on the other two.

These rewrites will be especially challenging because this is when “kill your darlings” and “embrace the change” will be at the forefront of this strategy. I’m going to get in the mindset of being totally willing to make whatever changes are needed – but nothing too drastic. I don’t want to lose what was appealing about them in the first place.

There are still some notes to come in, but come January 1st, each day will see some kind of work on one of those scripts. Until then, it’s all about the new spec with the hope that I have a semi-decent outline by the end of this year.

Another aspect of this undertaking is totally skipping contests. I’d already drastically cut back, so this isn’t too much of a change. Better to have some really solid scripts ready for the following year, or at least as better samples for my manager to put out there.

I was initially hesitant to give this a try, but a very talented writer I know gave this a try and had some pretty amazing results. Not that I expect the same, but there’s no reason this will not only help my scripts improve, but also my overall writing skills. And it’s significantly better than not doing anything.

Fingers, as always, will be firmly crossed.