This is a transcript of SYS 508 – City Of Angels Women’s Film Fest With Lisa K. Crosato .
Welcome to Episode 508 of the Selling Your Screenplay Podcast. I’m Ashley Scott Meyers, screenwriter and blogger with www.sellingyourscreenplay.com. Today I’m interviewing Filmmaker and Film Festival director at Lisa Crosato, her festival City of Angels women’s Film Festival is coming up. It’s November 9th through November 12th. And their awards gala is that Sunday, November 12th, which I will be attending. SYS is going to offer some of our screenwriting services to their screenplay winner, and today she’s on to talk about her festival and her career as a writer, producer and actress. Like a lot of people in the business she started producing really to get good projects off the ground for herself as an actress. This is a similar path I’ve taken for my own producing, basically producing material in an effort to get more stuff produced and definitely attract that I do recommend to other writers. It’s another inspiring story. And she’s got years of experience in the business. So, she has lots of very practical tips as well. Her website is www.CityofAngelswomensfilmfest.com. I will link to that in the show notes as well so you can just click over to it. But if you want to check that out, that’s the URL. So, stay tuned for that interview. If you find this episode valuable, please help me out by giving me a review in iTunes or leave me a comment on YouTube or retweeting the podcast on Twitter, or liking or sharing it on Facebook. These social media shares really do help spread word about the podcast, so they’re very much appreciated. Any websites or links that I mentioned in the podcast can be found on my blog in the show notes. I also publish a transcript with every episode in case you’d rather read the show or look at something later on. You can find all the podcast show notes at www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/podcast and then just look for this episode, which is number 508. If you want my free guide How to Sell a Screenplay in Five Weeks, you can pick that up by going to www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/guide. It’s completely free, just put in your email address and I’ll send you a new lesson once per week for five weeks along with a bunch of bonus lessons. I’ll teach the whole process of how to sell your screenplay in that guide. I’ll teach you how to write a professional logline and query letter and how to find agents, managers and producers who are looking for material. Really is everything you need to know to sell your screenplay, just go to www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/guide. So now let’s get into the main segment. Today I am interviewing filmmaker Lisa Crosado. Here is the interview.
Ashley
Welcome, Lisa to the Selling Your Screenplay Podcast. Really appreciate you coming on the show with me today.
Lisa K Crosato
Hey, Ashley, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.
Ashley
So, to start out, maybe you can tell us a little bit about your background. Where did you grow up? And how did you get interested in the entertainment business?
Lisa K Crosato
Sure. Well, I’m originally from Vancouver, Canada, and I was an actress in Canada, did a lot of stage, I did some television, I ended up getting an American manager who found me there. And she encouraged me to move to LA. She kept saying you have to get into the you know, the mainstream, even though Vancouver over the years has had a lot of filming. You know, we know it all originates in Hollywood. So, she encouraged me to do that. And then I also met one of the first directors I ever worked with in Vancouver, and he wanted me to audition for a movie, he was doing an action film. That was Robert Hyatt, who he actually was a little boy and Miracle on 34th Street. He was a child actor, and then he became a director. So, he ended up casting me and a feature that we did together.
Ashley
Okay, let’s talk about that move from Canada to LA, I get a lot of emails from screenwriters that are looking to make a similar move. It’s obviously a lot easier if you’re in the United States, you just throw everything in a car, you drive to LA but maybe you can talk through that move from Canada just logistically speaking, what do you have to do in terms of a green card or a visa, and that sort of stuff?
Lisa K Crosato
Well, I actually ended up working with a very good attorney and you need a good attorney if you’re going to move from another country. And one of the things I mean not to do a deep dive into immigration, but you do need to be educated because you know, they do look at people who have degrees, as professionals and they take that as higher ranking and you do get some priority status. You know, I was on an O-visa, which is outstanding ability. So, you need a certain amount of articles written about you basically saying that your work is excellent. You know, you would want to anyone writing I would say you would need something where your material has been talked about maybe you had to hit play, you know, wherever it is you’re coming from and you have press. Press is a really big and important part of getting visas so you know, otherwise you know, I guess you just marry an American.
Ashley
So, I think that actually is a good little bit of piece of advice. Obviously, people need to do a deep dive on that wherever they’re coming from. But just talk about some of the actual transitions. Did you have friends in LA? Had you been to LA? You knew the different areas, like just in terms of just landing here, what were those first steps like?
Lisa K Crosato
Well, ironically, I knew a few people. My girlfriend worked for William Morris Endeavor. And well actually, no, let me back that up. She became my girlfriend, a very good friend, but I was I used to hang out with a very well-known Canadian photographer named Raphael Mizuko, who actually does all the big, beautiful covers for Sports Illustrated, and Guess and he’s very well known. But when I told him, I wanted to move to LA, he’s like… Well, you need to meet my friend Kathleen. And she works for William Morris Endeavor. But we hit it off, I did, like kind of like a preliminary trip to LA and I met up with her and she became my buddy. And then she helped me find an apartment and all of that. So, I didn’t have a lot of friends. But I just zeroed in on the friends I did have because you got to walk before you can run. But they were, you know, I’m very grateful to my friends in my life, because all of us collectively need each other. And I think that sometimes we lose sight of how important relationships are, not just to success and career, but to our everyday happiness, and that’s important.
Ashley
Yeah, I here, here to that. So, where do you recommend if someone’s just going to bounce into LA now that you’ve been here a while, where do you recommend that they land? You know, they’re fresh out of college, maybe they don’t have a ton of money? What is sort of a good location would you recommend?
Lisa K Crosato
I got to tell you, I love these questions. I mean, because it’s making me think back to my journey. And I would say, you know, and that was something that I went through is where am I going to live? And where would I have access to the city and getting to auditions and meetings and all of that. And so, I chose Studio City, the valley and I live in Sherman Oaks now, but I’ve lived in…
Ashley
And that’s interesting, because when I came in 94, that’s where I ended up in North Hollywood, right across the line there on Riverside Drive right on Laurel Canyon. Yeah. So, that was the recommendation.
Lisa K Crosato
It was a good place. And as a woman, I think, you want to be where you’re safe. And you’re not like in gritty Hollywood. I don’t know, I shouldn’t generalize too much. But I think that you want to live somewhere where it’s easy to get around, and that’s what was worked for me personally. But there’s so many great places to live. But at that time, and I came out in the 90s as well, like, late 90s. You know, it was hard to get an apartment. You couldn’t really, I think now it’s easier to find a place.
Ashley
Okay, so once you land you got set up, it sounds like you had one or two friends. What were some of the steps you took to actually getting some of these first acting gigs? Were there some networking events that you did? Did you go out to coffee shops and just start mingling. I mean, what was your sort of angle to start to build a network of people and get some acting gigs?
Lisa K Crosato
Well, what was interesting was the director I mentioned that I had met in Vancouver early on in my career hired me and booked me for a lead in a film. So, I became a SAG member within probably 10 months of living in LA. And then I got an agent right away. And, you know, I got a lot of meetings, I was also good friends with Alan Thicke, who has passed, but very well-known Canadian, Americans star who helped me and got me interviews, but I had to earn all of my parts in the sense of, you know, you just go in and audition and hope for the best. But I did get representation right away, which was nice. But it’s not easy to get great representation. I’ll say that, you know, I mean, we all want to be with ICM, and William Morris, and all of those big companies. But that’s not so easy.
Ashley
Yeah. So, let’s talk about your first short film that you wrote and produced. Maybe you can just talk a little bit about your motivation for this. And then ultimately, how you’re able to just put this short film together as an actor with not a lot of production and writing experience.
Lisa K Crosato
You know, that film came about because it was based on an incident that had happened to me where a friend of mine called me kind of in the middle of the night and he was freaking out and needed help. And I went to help him and it kind of went on into this adventure. And I was telling a friend of mine about it. He said… This is a great short film, because you have to write this. So, that’s what I did. I put the whole evening which was really dramatic and almost like if I retell the story people would say that couldn’t have happened. Was he on drugs? Yeah, probably but doesn’t make it any less cinematic when you write about it. So, yeah, I wrote all about that. And then what happened was, I sent it to Cannes. And it didn’t go into the official selection, but it went into the short film corner. But what happened with that particular film, and the reason it kind of was great for me was that the organizers of Cannes took notice. And they loved it so much that they played my trailer in rotation with all of the big films over the red carpet. I had so much publicity from that was incredible. They just really were impressed. And I wrote it, I produced it, I was the main actress in it. And from that I had, like, Sky Italia was interviewing me, you know, the Italians. I had a lot of interviews, I had a lot of attention from that short, but I continued to act and write and I did a lot skits and things like that.
Ashley
Was there anything special that you did with that submission to Cannes? Did you know somebody like you someone that worked there, tips, it was just a cold submission, they just liked it, and things. And I just always asked that to just kind of get a scope of that. And we’re going to get into film festivals. And that’s going to be maybe part of the angle that we take on that. So okay, but back to Kenmore Avenue real quick, how did you just have the competence? As you know, I get a lot of writers coming and they said … Well, I don’t want to produce, I don’t know how to produce, I don’t have experience producing. You were an actor, how do you just have the competencies you say, I’m going to get this project done even a small short film? Just where does that come from? And what can you say to sort of inspire people that have a script, but aren’t getting traction and want to go produce it?
Lisa K Crosato
You know, not everybody is meant to do everything. And we all have our strengths, we all have things that we’re more you know, just things that come easier to us. But with that being said, I think that we need to push ourselves artistically in areas that were not comfortable. Because that’s really where the growth is. And it actually makes you a better filmmaker, it makes you a better writer. I mean, if you’re a writer, take an acting class, learn dialogue. I think the reason why actors make good writers is because we do read so many scripts, hopefully we’re reading a lot of scripts, whether we get the part or we don’t, we’re reading scripts, we’re familiar with dialogue. Dialogue is so critical. And you know, so that’s an advantage right there. But I think just go forward to the best of your ability hire people you or bring in, or recruit people that you really feel are better at a certain thing than you are, and do it you know, it’s not easy. There’s no easy way but have to work.
Ashley
Yeah, yeah. So, let’s dig into a feature film you’re working on, A Day in the Valley. Maybe you can talk about that a little bit. What is this screenplay all about, sort of the basic story.
Lisa K Crosato
Actually, A Day in the Valley is a short that I just won, best comedy. I have won a couple of awards for that. I sent it off to Sally Kirkland. I spoke with Sally. She wants to do it. My friend Maggie Wagner is going to be in that. Maggie has been in Sundance, she works a lot. I mean, I actually wrote that with her in mind. I think sometimes it’s good to write with people in mind. I know some people just write a character. And they’re like, who is that person afterwards. But I like to write sometimes with someone in mind. And I kind of thought of Sally in that. So, I haven’t made that one yet. But I have won some awards for that. And then I’m writing another one right now.
Ashley
Let’s talk about that, you mentioned a feature film. And let’s dig into that a little bit. You’ve mentioned one, you got some life rights. I think that will be interesting to screenwriters. So, what is this one called? And what is this one all about?
Lisa K Crosato
Okay, so, by the way, I just want to mention someone that helped me a lot as a writer was Mark Martin, and he wrote Raging Bull and Mean Streets. And so, there was a screenplay, I wrote a comedy that’s been optioned called XXL, and it’s really about women’s body issues and transformation, and that type of subject, but Marik was really good at getting me to understand that writing a script is not writing a play. It’s not writing a book. It’s not writing a short story. You’re writing and moving images. And I think that that’s a language like any other language that you need to learn and programs like Final Draft, they can all help but anyway, you don’t want to digress too much because … but the script that I’m really working on now that is kind of moving quickly forward is called Devoured. And Devoured is about a female serial killer. It’s based on the Sheila Labar murders. Sheila is presently serving back-to-back life sentences for killing her two boyfriends. They believe she’s killed other men. She was the ultimate Black Widow. I mean, she seduced these guys, brought them to her farm in Epping, New Hampshire and basically wore them down with poison, and then ultimately killed them. But I have the life rights to the story, but the story from her sister’s point of view, so there’s two sisters, Lynn Mnuchin, Sheila Lebar’s sister, and the two of them grew up with a very abusive father and brothers and came from a terrible dysfunctional abusive, past, but one sister Lynn, who I have the life rights to her story. She went on to get married, pay taxes, have a normal life, contribute to society, and she’s a lovely lady. And her sister, as we know, because people are familiar with Sheila Lebar story went on to kill people. But I’m telling you the story about the two sisters because Sheila Labar murderers have no life rights. But I wasn’t prepared to write the script unless I had the life rights to Lynn story. Because you never want as a writer to have people after the fact say, wait a minute, who gave you permission to write about our family? Do you know what I mean? So that was my concern.
Ashley
Yeah. No, I think that was real smart enough. Say that again. I’ve never heard that murderers have no life rights, like whatever you can interview them. And if they give you information, you can use it without….
Lisa K Crosato
You could write about… Sorry to interrupt, but you can write about any person you want. But you wouldn’t… I mean, holding life rights to someone story is definitely more powerful. Like, okay, look, the movie, Judy, that Renee Zellweger did. The Judy Garland story. I was watching that. And I was wondering Why was there so little about Liza Minnelli in that, and I think, you know, because Liza is alive. I think that there is a problem when you’re portraying people that are alive. When you’re a writer, you have to be careful how you portray them because you never want to be sued. Do you know what I’m saying? So perhaps they didn’t have I don’t know, maybe speaking about something I shouldn’t delve into too much because I don’t know.
Ashley
I do, I preface all of the way. Neither one of us are lawyers, this is not legal advice. With any sort of legal things, always…
Lisa K Crosato
I’m just my sharing my thoughts and feelings because this is, you know, an interview. But I think the point is that when you’re telling a story about real people, and you’re coming out to talk about them in a real way, you really should have, if you can endeavor to get it, try to get a document that you hold the rights to tell the story.
Ashley
Gotcha. So, talk about that a little bit. How did you get this document signed by the sister? Did you know her just coincidentally, did you reach out to her?
Lisa K Crosato
Okay, sorry. Well, I didn’t know her as a friend. I knew her through one of the producers, Joe Spanos, who’s spearheaded this project. He is on the East Coast, and he actually was the first person I spoke to about it. And then he told me about Lynn, I said; well, I want to talk to Lynn. And I want to have a meeting with you guys because obviously, I’m going to need to talk to Lynn a lot. Because I spent hours and hours talking to Lynn about growing up with Sheila and the story that I have is unlike anybody else’s story or projects that have touched on Sheila because I think there’s a documentary out there about her, but Lynn has shared with me never before heard stories about her sister. And I just told Lynn, I need you to sign the document that my lawyer has. So anyway, that was done and I felt confident writing the story. But it’s interesting to me because I think that this is a subject that we, in the light of Dahmer, and all of these very high profile male serial killers, it’s quite unusual that a woman because we never imagined that women are capable of that kind of atrocity.
Ashley
So, what’s your plan to get this produced? Are you just the writer and an actor and you have this other producing partner on this?
Lisa K Crosato
Now, I’m always a producer. I think it’s really important for writers and for anybody doing a project, if they’re involved in the project, stay involved in a project. You know, a young writer asked me the other day she said… Oh, I’m working with this company and they mentioned a producing credit and I don’t really care about, I said, whenever anybody asks or offers you a producing credit, take it. I think that people don’t realize that some of the smartest actors and biggest actors, Bradley Cooper, Brad Pitt, they’re producers. I mean, Bradley Cooper produces more than he acts. And people don’t know it because they know him as an actor, but he’s producing a lot and it to me, it just gives you more options with your career. And I would say so, yes, to answer your question, I am a producer on it. I’ve written the script. And I am going to be playing Lynn, who is really I’ve worked into the script as through mostly through voiceover, but she is in various scenes throughout the movie. And we actually have an A-list director, who’s looking at it right now. And so, you know, it’s good. Things are moving forward with it. But again, with respect to the strike, we’re not going to do anything that we shouldn’t doing in short-term.
Ashley
Gotcha. So, let’s do let’s talk about your film festival, City of Angels women’s Film Festival. What does this festival all about?
Lisa K Crosato
City of Angels women’s Film Festival is a festival that promotes women, obviously, that are female filmmakers, we promote gender equality, we promote diversity inclusion. We’re really here to celebrate diverse women stories from all over the world. We have I mean, last year, we had so many women come from all over the world, Australia, Iceland, Europe, the UK, it’s really exciting because it’s really developing and one of my producers, Paul DuBois, who is actually a childhood friend of mine. He’s based in London, and he brings in we have a virtual component to the festival, even though we’re a live event, and it’s November 9th through the 12th, by the way, you’re going to be there because you’re one of our wonderful sponsors. Yeah, we’ll talk about that. But yes, so what’s exciting is that, for example, Paul, with his background as a producer, and he’s also an actor, he brings in exclusive panelists and BAFTA award winning women and filmmakers into the festival virtually. So, like last year, he brought into Dee Wallace, which we all know is an American actress. I said, how are you in London, bringing in an American actress? He goes, it’s just what I do…it’s so funny, and he’s just so wonderful. You can find that video online if you want to watch that, it kind of shows you what we do virtually before the festival starts before the live aspect of the festival starts. But Paul, like the year before, had Lisa-Marie Russo who’s the head of the British Doc Society and she was one of the exclusive Panelists we had, Rosa Bosch who’s one of Spain’s biggest producers. In fact, Rosa was at Cannes, she is held and very well regarded she should be because she’s a powerhouse of a woman. And we just networked. And my thought about it in my goal is that I think that LA based women or American women, filmmakers should really be connecting with the bricks because it’s not that we don’t love the French and the Italians and the Germans and all the other parts of Europe and parts of the world it’s that we speak the same language. So, the Brits just do such extraordinary work. I mean, I just have such a high regard, I hold them in such high regard with the work they do acting the writing, but you know, yeah, having said that. Kathy Tyson is coming out to the festival. Kathy Tyson, you probably know, she has been nominated for Golden Globes. I think she has won a BAFTA. Yes, she is a BAFTA Award winner. And also, she did a film way back in the day that I remember as a kid, I watched it. We loved it. It was Mona Lisa. You know?
Ashley
Yeah. So well, that’s great. So, let’s talk about your festival little bit. You have a screenplay contest as well. So maybe you can offer a couple of tips for screenwriters. What sort of scripts are you guys looking for? And I’d be curious to get your thoughts obviously as a festival director but you know as a producer and as an actor as well, but just let’s start with the festival. What are you guys looking for as a film festival?
Lisa K Crosato
Okay, well, I mean, look, we are open to anything and everything in script format. And I mean that we’re not honing in on any one specific type of script. I mean, I’m open, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s done well, and we’re our whole team is open, we look for innovative writing. I mean, it doesn’t have to be just women subjects. The only thing I would say is that, the festival does look at scripts that are, you know, if they’re written by men, they need to feature women somehow, either the female protagonist, or the cast should be driven by women. But other than that, it can be any genre, any genre, any length. We even have a synopsis competition, so a two-page synopsis.
Ashley
Gotcha, gotcha. And again, just as an actor, as a producer, as a film director, are there some things that you see in screenplays that you want to tell writers; do more of this, or I really appreciate when a writer does that? And then I’m going to ask you the reverse question. Are there some things you see that you don’t like? But let’s start with what you like. Are there some things that you just notice, as an actor, as a producer, that as you’re reading scripts, just things that you could tip writers off to say, yeah, do more of this, or this is a good idea?
Lisa K Crosato
I think that scripts need to be compelling from the beginning. And I think sometimes writers put in their best work for the first 10 pages, and then they drop it, like, not everybody does this, but there is a tendency that I see where writers, you can tell they put the work in, you know, in the early part of the script, and then somehow it drops, the energy drops off, and you can’t ever drop off, it always needs to be strong. I mean, you know, and, and it needs to grab you and I’m just not a fan of… nobody wants to be bored. I mean, that’s why we call it entertainment. And so, dialogue has to be good structure. Structured needs to be good. I think with final draft and the writing programs that are available, there’s really no excuse if you’re messing that up. But, you know, I think that you need to tell a bit, you have that big theme. That big theme is important. Sometimes people hone in on things that are a little bit small and not universal enough. And I think that big stories matter. The extraordinary is really what we want to celebrate in life, even if it’s through ordinary experiences, find the extraordinary even in the ordinary. Do you know what I mean?
Ashley
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So, let’s talk a little bit about your sponsors. SYS is going to give away a nice package to one of your lucky winners. But maybe you can talk about that, who is the sponsors for your festival and contest.
Lisa K Crosato
Okay, so the sponsors this year are really exciting sponsors we have, first of all, my UK, sponsor is Apropos, Apropos productions and we have Shout Studios who many people know of, they’re incredible and they’ve been with us really from the beginning. And the winning writer meets with Shout Studios, so their access. So really what the opportunity is with Shout is that you could get a development deal for your project. And that’s exciting. And I know that the people personally who met with Shout Studios said they went above and beyond with them, so they’re great. More sponsors, Adobe. We have Adobe this year. We have a new company called Herflix, and that’s a streaming platform. And so, they’re onboard.
Ashley
Specifically for female oriented content?
Lisa K Crosato
Yes, yes. But again, with the caveat of, of course, we can have a project. By the way, let me just add this. This is like a little funny thing I don’t know if there’s… a couple years ago, the best film that one was happened to be a male director. So just for the record, if something is great, and it’s it deserves to win, it deserves to win. You know, it’s not about a political agenda. It’s about the best work. So even though we’re highlighting women, it’s really that year, that was the best movie, so… But getting back to the sponsors, so we also have Deadline. So, yeah, Deadline Hollywood just partnered with us. And you’ll be hearing more about that, and Final Draft. We have Final Draft. And then we have your wonderful company.
Ashley
Perfect. Yeah. So maybe you can tell us what are the dates that your festival is going to take place?
Lisa K Crosato
Oh, yes. I think I mentioned that at the top. But it’s November 9th through 12th, with a virtual day on the 8th. So, we kind of do the soft opening where we do virtual the first day.
Ashley
Yeah, that’s actually about a month after our festival. So, when that timing will be perfect. How can people learn more about it? What’s your website? And I’ll put this in the show notes as well.
Lisa K Crosato
Yeah, so the website is www.CityofAngelswomensfilmfest.com. Or you could do CityofAngelswomensfilmfestival.com, it’ll still take you there. Also, you can find us on FilmFreeWay which is, CoAWFF, I believe.
Ashley
Yeah. Gotcha, gotcha. I’ll round up those links.
Lisa K Crosato
I’ll give you that, and then we have a nice… people follow us on Instagram. If you don’t mind. I’ll give that to you later.
Ashley
Yeah, we’ll wrap all that stuff up. So, I just like to end the interviews by asking the guests. Is there anything you’ve seen recently, HBO, Netflix, Hulu, that you could recommend to our mostly screenwriting audience, anything you’ve been watching that you think is interesting and worth sharing?
Lisa K Crosato
Well, only because we’re on strike. I don’t want to recommend any.
Ashley
Oh, okay. That’s probably a good call. Yeah, no one’s actually…
Lisa K Crosato
I’m still Screen Actress, number one. I’m not in the WGA yet, but I am in Sag. So, I certainly don’t want to recommend anything. This moment, but as far as films, oh, my gosh, I’m trying to think what’s … I like to watch a lot of older, like, I like to watch films that just grabbed me out of the blue. Like, you know, I want to go watch a Scorsese film. I’ll watch casino, I want to watch something that just grabs me that I’ve seen over and over again. But I find that if you watch films multiple times you learn more and more and more.
Ashley
Yeah, for sure. For sure. So yeah, let’s just get all your social media links. What’s the best way for people to keep up with what you’re doing? And again, I’ll round all these up for the show notes. But Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, your website, anything you’re comfortable sharing, we’ll put in the show notes.
Lisa K Crosato
My Instagram is @CityofAngelswomensFilmFest. And then you could also follow me, because I do bring information to my personal page at Lisa K Crosato. Facebook, we’re COAWFF on Facebook. Twitter, we are COAWFF on Twitter. LinkedIn is actually under my name Lisa K. Cosato. But I would think… was it am I forgetting anything?
Ashley
We’ll get it. Yeah. We’ll round up those and put them in the show notes, you don’t have to remember, just find this page on Selling your Screenplay, and then you can click over to these. So, Lisa, I really appreciate you coming on talking with me. I will see you at your festival. I’m looking forward to seeing you again.
Lisa K Crosato
I’m thrilled that you’re part of our event. And thank you so much to all of your listeners and we really appreciate the support. Thank you so much. I really do appreciate it.
A quick plug for the SYS screenwriting analysis service, it’s a really economical way to get a high-quality professional evaluation on your screenplay. When you buy our three pack, you get evaluations at just $67 per script for feature films, and just $55 for teleplays. All the readers have professional experience reading for studios, production companies, contests and agencies. You can read a short bio on each reader on our website, and you can pick the reader who you think is the best fit for your script. Turnaround time is usually just a few days, but rarely more than a week. The readers will evaluate your script on six key factors Concept, Character, Structure, Marketability, Tone, and Overall Craft which includes Formatting, Spelling and Grammar. Every script will get a grade, a pass, consider or recommend, which should help you roughly understand where your script might rank if you were to submit it to a production company or agency. We can provide an analysis on features or television scripts. We also do proofreading without any analysis. We will also look at a treatment or outline and give you the same analysis on it. So, if you’re looking to vet some of your project ideas, this is a great way to do it. We will also write your logline and synopsis for you. You can add this logline and synopsis writing service to an analysis or you can simply purchase this service as a standalone product. As a bonus, if your screenplay gets a recommend or a consider from one of our readers, you get to list the screenplay in the SYS select database, which is a database for producers to find screenplays and a big part of our SYS select program. Producers are in the database searching for material on a daily basis, so it’s another great way to get your material in front of them. As a further bonus if your script gets a recommend from one of our readers, your screenplay will get included in our monthly best of newsletter. Each month we send out a newsletter that highlights the best screenplays that have come through ours script analysis service. This is monthly newsletter that goes out to our list of over 400 producers who are actively looking for material. So again, this is another great way to get your material out there.
So, if you want a professional evaluation of your screenplay at a very reasonable price, check out www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/consultants. Again, that’s sellingyourscreenplay.com/consultants.
On the next episode of the podcast, I’m going to be interviewing Grant Rosenberg. He’s got a fascinating story. He began his career as a page over at NBC and literally worked his way up into story development, and eventually started writing for television. Ended up working in the television industry for years both as a writer and a showrunner. And now he’s writing novels. So, it’s a great story. He’s a great communicator, so he really gives us some great detail into how his writing career came together for him. So, keep an eye out for that episode next week. That’s the show. Thank you for listening.