WHERE'S THE DRAMA?
The stuff of which dreams are made
2 EXT SCRIPT SERVICES DAY
Script Editing & Consultancy Services Available Billy Marshall Stoneking and Christina Conrad have joined forces to provide a revolutionary and illuminating script consultancy service for Australian and overseas filmmakers. 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. Some Definitions: A DRAMATIC story presents an identifiable character (or characters) whose active pursuit of a goal in the face of seemingly insurmountable opposition and obstacles leads to a satisfying cessation of the action, but only after producing ever-increasing problems with ever-greater risks for the characters while heightening the audience’s emotional involvement. Collaboration is a mutually respectful and creative interaction between skilled individuals working towards a common goal based on a shared understanding concerning the nature of the work they are engaged in.
Script Consultation Fees
with Billy Marshall Stoneking 
Short-form drama (5-30 pages) – Flat reading fee : $60
Face-to-face consults (Short-form drama)
$100 per hour
$80 per hour (AWG, ADG, SPAA discount)
Short features (30-70 pages) - Basic reading fee $200.
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
LET'S DO LUNCH Consults (Short film scripts and features)
$50 an hour flat-rate (BMS only) - Face to face consultations - No reading fee payabale because the script will not be read. Writers will pitch their story to Billy. For more info, see below
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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
SCRIPT EDITING
GIVE YOUR SCREENPLAYS THE EDGE THEY DESERVE BOOK YOUR CONSULTATION TODAY
STONEKING and CONRAD encourage writers to tell stories that MEAN something to them – that is, stories in which the storyteller has an emotional investment, stories that the storyteller feels passionately connected to and needs to tell.
The role of the script editor is to ILLUMINATE, to assist and guide the cinematic storyteller in uncovering and fully exploring the emotional meanings that lie buried in their characters' actions, and to ensure that that these actions clearly dramatise the storyteller’s understanding of the story world that inhabits him/her.
It is a truism, but probably worth repeating: the journey of the storyteller is a journey of self-discovery. It starts from the known and moves towards the unknown. It isn’t simply a case of the writer writing a story; the story also writes the writer!
Stoneking and Conrad have consulted on numerous award-winning and commerically successful short and feature films, documentaries and television series, including WHAT GROWN-UPS KNOW (Jonathan Wald); CHOPPER (Andrew Dominick), THE MAGICIAN (SBS-TV sereis by Scott Ryan), RICHARD (Maya Newell), THE SAVIOUR (Academy-award nominated short by Peter Templeman), BONFIRE (Melissa Anastasi) and MEIWHA and BIRTHDAY BOY (3D feature animation and Academy-Award nominated short by Sejong Park), OUT ON THE TILES and ALI AND THE BALL (Dendy and St Kilda Festival award-winning films by Alex Holmes), among many many others. 
Above: Screenwriters' group in Anaheim, California, use a local billboard to promote the ideas of their adopted mentor, Billy Marshall Stoneking. This one quotes a line from one of Billy's poems from Singing the Snake. Courtesy of Woody.
LET'S DO LUNCH
Informal script consults
with Billy Marshall Stoneking
In the course of writing your next film, there will be times when all you really want is someone you can sit down and talk to about the story, the characters and the process. You don't want a script editor or an exhaustive assessment; you don't want 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 conversation with someone that understands drama and the journey and terror of writing a dramatic screenplay, someone with whom you can air your anxieties concerning what you're doing, and who will assist you in uncovering some of the as-yet-undiscovered possibilities concerning the story that is trying to get itself told. If you're feeling lost in the project or doubting its worth, or suddenly lacking in the confidence you need to finish the next draft, book yourself in for a conversation and a coffee.
The popularity and success of this informal and inspiring approach to script development has already been phenomenal. Satisfaction guaranteed or you pay NOTHING. So, let's do lunch, eh? and talk about it.
Writers and writer/directors, producers, and others with a project at any stage of development are invited to book a consult now.
VENUE: Fundamental Food Co., Glebe Point Road, Glebe (across from Cornstalk Books)
Mondays - Fridays (by appt only)
Phone sessions also available.
For bookings, contact Stoneking on 0437 864 487 or
write to stonekingseminars@hotmail.com
Special rate: Only $50 per hour
Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back
SCREENPLAY COVERAGE
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.
For a new screenwriter, breaking into the motion picture industry is never an easy task. Some enter screenplay competitions in the hope they'll gain much needed exposure. Others query and submit their original screenplays directly to agents and producers. Whether you choose the screenplay competitions/movie contests or festivals route, or submit your script to agents and producers directly, you only get ONE chance, so make it count!
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
SCRIPT DOCTORING
SCRIPT DOCTOR (skript dok-ter): A skilled screenwriter called in to assist a film project by rewriting parts of the screenplay to improve dialogue, pacing and other elements.
You have at least a 90-page draft of a script that everybody keeps telling you is a GREAT IDEA, but your script sucks.
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)
FAQs
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!
