scr(i)pt: Inside the Sausage Factory

This morning we're producing a full-tuxedoed Hollywood-style premiere extravaganza, searchlights and all, for scr(i)pt magazine, the newest title in the MagSampler.com newsstand. Subtitled "Where Film Begins," scr(i)pt is about the craft and business of writing scripts for movies and television. The magazine is full of stories about how scripts come to be written, the travails in getting them made into films, and, of course, tips on writing, completing and selling your own screenplay. Not to digress, but I remember reading some years ago of a successful, aging screenwriter counseling young writers at a cocktail party. "The secret to a good script," he whispered, "is to get a guy up a tree, throw rocks at him for an hour or two, then get him down at the end." I have the current issue of scr(i)pt in my hands, and one of the several interesting articles is about basic plot types: the "Fish Out of Water," where a character is taken out of his normal environment and placed somewhere else (e.g., Crocodile Dundee, or the ultimate, Splash); "Information No One Else Knows," like the existence of a special airline just for federal prisoners (Con Air); "Going to Extreme Measures," such as Dustin Hoffman's efforts to land a soap opera job in Tootsie; and "Fatal Character Flaws," for instance making a lawyer―of all people―into someone who cannot tell a lie (Liar, Liar). This issue has stories about the creation of scripts for movies such as Breaking Away, the new King Kong and Good Night, and Good Luck. They say that visiting a sausage factory tends to kill one's appetite for sausage, but reading scr(i)pt is likely to increase your appetite for and appreciation of good films. If you have aspirations to write great film scripts, it will probably bring those millions of dollars in a little faster. And in what other magazine can you find an ad for an honest-to-goodness movie chalk clap board? scr(i)pt is published in an unlikely location, Baldwin, MD, but its writers are firmly based in Hollywood. An annual subscription (six issues) is $29.95 from the publisher; you can get a sample copy from us for $2.59.