WHERE'S THE DRAMA?

EASTER SPECIAL -

INFORMAL ONE-ON-ONES

Sometimes, in the course of writing a screenplay,  all you really want is someone you can talk to about all your evolving script.

You don't want an assessment; you don't want a script editor, or someone who's going to tell you it's great simply because they're your partner or because they like you. What you want is an honest-to-god discussion with someone who understands the journey and the terror of writing a dramatic screenplay, someone with whom you can air your anxieties and ideas concerning what you are doing.

For a limited time only, Billy Marshall Stoneking invites writers and writer/directors, producers, and others with a project at any stage of development, to come and have a talk about it.  

You set the agenda.  Phone sessions available.

For appointments, contact Stoneking on 0437 864 487 or write to stonekingseminars@hotmail.com

Special rate: only $50 per hour

As experienced filmmakers with extensive production credits in both fictional and factional film and television projects, they are keenly aware of the creative and dramatic problems and opportunities confronting screenwriters, writer/directors and producers, struggling to find the characters and the actions by which a compelling and memorable story might be told. Their radical method, which employs the "grammar of drama" in the service of CHARACTER-BASED, MEDIUMISTIC storytelling, has contributed to the success of films like Chopper, Ali & the Ball, and the AFI award-winning ABC-TV drama series, Stringer.

Long- and short-form dramas that have received the Stoneking/Conrad treatment have gone on to win major awards at the AFI, BAFTA and Slamdance, and have garnered two, Academy-Award nominations.

Grounded in a profound understanding and appreciation of DRAMA and COLLABORATION, and developed over years of working with writers, writer/directors, producers and film practioners, the MEDIUMISTIC method as employed by Stoneking and Conrad proves that script editing works best when it works to ILLUMINATE  the characters and their story, thus enabling the storyteller to free the characters and confront the dramatic possibilities that are buried in the script.  

Above: Screenwriters' group in Anaheim, California, expressing their prejudices. Courtesy of Woody. 

You've spent weeks, maybe months or even years, working with your characters and your story and you're no longer sure if it's as good as you "think" it is... why not go the extra distance and be absolutely certain its as good as it can possibly be before you enter it  into the next screenplay competition or offer it up to a film school selection panel, or an agent or a production company.

Stoneking Seminars' coverage gives you an opprtunity to test your screenplay on an astute and objective "audience", and receive the kind of constructive feedback that will illuminate your scripts strengths and weaknesses.    

As part of our Film and TV script coverage services, you'll receive notes covering story, premise, plot, character development, dialogue, structure, format, and production value.

Address initial enquires to Script Development, Stoneking Seminars

If you are a producer with a script that needs a polish, contact us! If you are a writer who has written yourself into a hole, contact us!  So long as "we" share your belief in the "greatness" of your idea, Stoneking Script Services will work with you in the capacity of a paid, ghostwriter or co-writer to put your great idea INTO ACTION.

You will work with either Billy Marshall Stoneking or Christina Conrad, who will plan an individual writing programme that best suits your needs and resources (NOTE: current WGA Scale is $19,186.00 for this service).

Using your latest draft as a treatment, then rebuilding the script from scratch, we will show you where the drama is, and give your characters and their story the potency that sells screenplays.

Initial enquiries about this special service, should be made by quoting SCRIPT DOCTOR SERVICES writing to Script Development Unit (see email link above)

with Billy Marshall Stoneking

Features (90-110 pages) - Basic reading fee:  $300.

Face-to-face consults (Features) :
$150 per hour (ADG, AWG, SPAA discount)
$200 per hour FULL PRICE

Written assessments also available (by application)

LEVEL ONE ASSESSMENT  (Written)
3-5 pages : $750 (Discount) $950 (full)

LEVEL TWO ASSESSMENT
6-9 pages : $950 (Discount) $1,100 (full)

Example package:
for 105-page feature script (AWG Discount)

Reading fee $300
Level Two assessment $950
Face-to-face (Q & A) x 2 hrs $300

TOTAL COST $1,550
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with Christina Conrad

Short Form Drama (5-30 pages) - Flat reading fee: $40

Face-to-face consults (Short form drama)

$80 per hour

$60 per hour (ADG, AWG, SPAA discount)

Features (90-110 pages)  - Basic reading fee $200.

Face-to-face consults (Features) :
$50 per hour (ADG, AWG, SPAA discount)
$80 per hour FULL PRICE

NOTE: Written assessments not available.

Example package:
for 105-page feature script (AWG Discount)

Reading fee $200
Face-to-face consultation x 6 hrs $300

TOTAL COST $500 (AWG discount)

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Minimum fee for feature
reading fee + 1 hour consult = $400 (Discount)

MORE ABOUT CONRAD at

http://christinaconrad.webs.com/
http://screen.nsw.gov.au/index.php?page_id=24&fund_id=11&page=people&round=20&people_id=51

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For more details or to arrange for a consultation, write to Stoneking Seminars

1. What can I expect from SCRIPT SERVICES that will benefit my screenplay?

In a word: honesty. There are so many people out there telling writers what they think they want to hear. WTD? SCRIPT SERVICES will give you an honest and illuminating response to your work, couched in constructive language that will turn you on to your script’s as-yet-unrealised possibilities. We work with what you have written in order to help you uncover what remains hidden. SCRIPT SERVICES will NOT co-write your screenplay or suggest changes to your work that are not inherently implied by what you have already written. Our job is to conduct you to vantage points from which you can see and better understand what you are writing and why.  

2. How do I know you won't steal my idea or sell it to someone else?

Ideas are a dime a dozen UNTIL they’re written down. Our job is to work with you so that YOUR idea is fully realised, which means assisting you to make it entirely your own.  

3. Your fees seem very high. I mean $100. per hour for a face-to-face consultation – that 's rather dear, isn't it?!

Not as expensive as paying a “hack” $4,000 for a first draft, only to discover (too late) that the script is just as undramatic but in an entirely different way. Our fees reflect the highest standard of script consultancy in Australia – and very cheap considering. We know you can get a simple analysis for much less, and maybe a;; you want is someone else’s opinion. What SCRIPT SERVICES offers is a new window through which you can view what you are doing. We work you’re your opinions (and fears, and assumptions, and prejudices, etc), helping you to transform them so that you can begin to see what you need to do in order to breakthrough the barriers that stand between you and the story that wants to get itself told. 

4. Why don't you have a web-based system where I just send you my screenplay, pay up front and wait?

Because if you’re like me, you hate waiting.  Email us first, so we can tell you  how busy we are. Unless we can give you a turnaround in approximately a fortnight, we won’t keep you hanging, wondering when we’ll get back to you..

5. What file format do you want?

Word.doc please! Or RTF.

6. Can you help me find a producer?

No. We look at screenplays from the dramatic and structural viewpoint, and not necessarily as a producer might – although we must add, if you are able to produce a thoroughly compelling screenplay, with fresh and dynamic characters, caught up in a situation that we can identify with, you’ll be a lot closer to getting the production support you need than if your screenplay lacks those elements. Having said this, if I come across a script I really love – and it has happened recently - I'll probably produce it myself (with your consent of course!) 

7. Can I email you and just ask questions first?

Of course. We welcome your questions.

8. What about a telephone consult?

No problems. We work with writers all over the world and telephone is no impediment. But NO SKYPE!