Feel stuck/lack of progress? Unrealistic expectations?

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A common mistake that companies make when they have surveys is to fail to ask about how much the survey takers would pay for a feature or what other features they would be willing to give up in order to have one. Even if it is a legitimate review that is based on the merits and positive, that doesn't necessarily mean that the reviewer would pay any money for it. They may well just think they'd like to watch it if it were on, but wouldn't really go out of their way to get it, and certainly wouldn't pay for it.

You seem to be a bit disingenuous in the way you argue.

You keep whining about other people needing ambition, and implying that they're jealous of yours, but when those same other people tell you what they already do and have done, you ignore the accomplishment and try to turn things into an insult by implying that they just got defensive.

Now you're back to telling people they should be more ambitious (like you of course), but if we list off more things we've done, will that make us sound ambitious, or will you just treat it like defensiveness again?

Even if it was defensive, it's still also quite ambitions - and d'ya suppose maybe people got "defensive" cos you claimed they lacked motivation, couldn't understand success, and had insecurities related to a lack of influence in life? Were you expecting to be able to just accuse people of such things, and they would just go "oh my, you're right, I'd better go re-evaluate my life"...? Or were you just not expecting that the people you were speaking to already have a number of ambitious accomplishments.

You keep bringing up how people are salty cos they can't influence things. Is that another confession? Despite all your talk of being able to shape your world as you want, you haven't really been able to, have you? If I recall correctly, your script isn't the only thing not going how you want, is it? And you haven't been able to influence us, either. And it really seems to bother you.

As for your insinuation that I might feel one way or another about a supposed "lack of influence" in my life, I'm afraid I can't agree with that either - much like your comment about ambition and supposed lack there of, it's quite mistaken - I do in fact possess / carry a satisfying amount of influence in my life, and do not feel lacking in that regard any more so than I do regarding ambition or accomplishing dreams.

You are half correct about my inability to influence the sale of your script. Nothing I do could possibly make it sell. I don't have to do anything to prevent it from selling, it's already not-selling without any intervention from me. Neither of these facts bother me. It's not my script, I have no horse in the race.

Let's be blunt - in the last 12 years, your script has earned you zero money, and cost you, according to you, thousands of dollars from having people edit it. In the last month I've made about a thousand dollars just doing side gigs here and there, related to my passions and dreams - specifically, modified cars and high-end computers.

Oh but wait, that's right, you "know" you're gonna make a big fat stack off of your script. Some day. Sure.



Show me the money instead of just talk, and then hit me up about self-reflection. In the meantime, I'll gladly stack my "have done" and "am doing" against your "gonna do, someday, maybe, definitely".

Oh, and do tell us how your law firm meeting goes. I'd still like to know what you expect them to do for you. Yes yes, I know what services they OFFER, I want to know specifically which service you plan to retain from them. I have no way of knowing which service you plan to use, from the many they tend to offer.

I’m aware of how it works. I don’t think that even your idea is strong enough. It seems rather clichéd as do the characters and dialogue. Due to these and other issues, I’m not invested enough to care about what happens next. Especially when you’re starting from scratch, it needs to be very strong and not comparable to something they likely receive on a daily basis from other people wanting to “make it big.”

I’m not trying to discourage you when I say that. I just think that you need to keep on working on your goals so you can accomplish some of them.

It was reasonable for us to conclude that honest opinions were welcome here given that “unrealistic expectations?” is in the title and comments like the following were made:Then when that didn’t go your way, you chose to say that only opinions from folks who are “qualified” matter:After it was established that I have a BA in English, you decided to go with: being in the film industry is a necessary requirement to have a valid opinion here. It seems like you are grasping at straws to dismiss opinions you don’t like. If I had said that the script was perfect and that it was sure to bring you fortune and fame, I don’t think you would’ve brought up the issue of qualifications or made insinuations about me and another member. With that being said, it’s okay not to want critical feedback, but you might want to make that clear next time rather than claim to be open to “any thoughts” one may have on your work when you obviously aren’t.

You take yourself waaay too seriously. Nothing you say has effected me one way or another.
Whatever happens between me and the firm - if they do offer me their services (I have to find that out first, they said they'd let me know today) I'll decide whether I want to share that.

Your tone seems to be really argumentative. It's a message board. Why do you keep returning to this thread when it doesn't concern you? Most people - if they have an opinion on a matter - they list the opinion and leave it at that. Yet you continue to return to the thread again and again. That does tell me that I have affected you. If my project isn't important, just leave it be. You've indicated that much, but your actions speak otherwise.

Also, when I said I've invested 1000's editing the script, it's more like 100's. It's only 1000 in my estimation if I add up all of the contests and script listing fees I've paid over the years. That's pretty normal for any screenwriter.

As for the influence I have in my life - well, I think I'm doing well. I have good health. That's a blessing.
I'm not doing poorly in music by any stretch. I can explore music whenever I want if I choose.
I have a good product in my script. I haven't capitalized on it, but that doesn't mean I'm not seeing progress.

I have the power to do whatever I want. I'm a bit disappointed that my investment is down, but it can recover.

Last edited by 123autism on 09 Jan 2025, 12:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

It's perfectly reasonable to take opinions more seriously from those who have worked in film vs. someone like yourself who has not. The fact this seems to bother you says more about yourself than myself.

If you were hiring for home renovations, you take the opinion of someone who works in this field over someone who took a few trades courses but never was paid for their work.

^ Demonstrating the manipulative behavior you engaged in in this thread doesn’t mean that it bothers me in the slightest. People in film do care about their audiences, so opinions here do mean something.

It’s likely due to your behavior here - the insinuations, accusations, and general dismissiveness of opinions you don’t like. People would’ve likely stopped responding if you engaged with the criticism in a different manner.

Last edited by TwilightPrincess on 09 Jan 2025, 12:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

You can say whatever you want but I don't see what you're accomplishing.
Facts:

I have a tv script. It's pretty good IMO.

You don't agree.

Ok, big deal.

What's the fuss? Get over it. Don't take yourself too seriously.

Once again, if you want a career in the film industry, you need to work on how you handle criticism. People aren’t going to want to work with you if you insult critics, audiences, or whoever else.

If you want to work in the film industry, you need a product to begin with. Give advice when you have at least made an effort to begin with. In that regard I'm well ahead of you.

Also, it's quite foolish to think someone who has
invested a lot of time and effort into polishing their script as I have
is adverse to criticism. It would be hard for some in this thread to admit that, but it's true.

What this thread seems to be (and it's funny) is one or two posters saying

'Hey! Listen to me! Listen to my criticism! Even though I haven't a clue of the patience and openness to change you've had over many years, my opinion of you in this moment is very important! Even though I haven't worked in tv/film, listen to me!'

That's funny.

There you go shifting the focus again to avoid addressing honest criticism. Maybe you should consider posting about your project on forums for filmmakers if no one here is informed enough to provide useful feedback, that is, unless it happens to agree with you.

It seems as though we are on the same footing since neither of us has published anything although my goals are significantly different from yours.

Last edited by TwilightPrincess on 09 Jan 2025, 1:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

It was obvious that you were adverse to criticism in this thread because you pretty quickly went into suggesting that folks were jealous, threatened, lacked ambition or the ability to influence, etc. Your continued attempt to shift the focus was noted as well. Instead of arguing with criticism, it’s best to say something like: “Thank you for your input,” “I’ll think about that,” or not respond at all rather than make insinuations, accusations, and the like, especially when the input seemed to be asked for.

Last edited by TwilightPrincess on 09 Jan 2025, 1:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I personally got printed once in the school newspaper. It wasn't one of those prestigious ones, and the writing I submitted was necessarily that good. But, it always has to be the right work to the right person when they have the money to buy it. And, that is very tough. (EDIT: In this case the money was more space than cash, I didn't get paid for it, but I didn't want to be either)

Had I had my heart set on having it published in a more respected paper, I think it's pretty clear that it wouldn't have been good enough for that, at least not without cutting it down a lot and more editing, but I got to check that off the list of things that people do during their lives.

If it's been as long as the OP has been going at it, it's probably already been seen by as many people as it can be seen by without having an established reputation for making money. Barring a world events shifting in such a way that the subject matter is suddenly in short demand, I wouldn't expect any change. In my case, I submitted a bit about substance abuse around the time of St. Patrick's day, which probably boosted the odds a bit. Although, it might have been accepted at other points in the year as well as the quality of writing in that paper wasn't necessarily the best.

^ It’s cool that you got something published in the school newspaper. I won some awards for writing in college, one of them came with a nice check and a monstrosity that’s allegedly a sculpture. It’s currently in a box in my basement. It would make a nice doorstop now that I think about it.

My one professor was going to help me publish a critical piece that I wrote for one of her classes, but then she started going through a divorce and my life went haywire. A fun time was had by both of us./s I don’t really regret not publishing it although the experience would’ve certainly been useful if I had ended up pursuing a doctorate.

The project I want to work on now has been percolating, but I need to be emotionally ready for it. It’s not something that will have wide appeal. It’s more for myself and a very niche audience.

Thanks, my main point was that sometimes, it's a matter of being in the right place at the right time. The only reason it happened was because I was 1 credit shy of graduating and opted to take a community journalism class just for the hell of it. And, I only submitted it because it was the strongest work I had written and we were all required to submit something we'd written to some paper or magazine. It just happened to get into the hands of an editor that liked it and was willing to give me more space than what a submission would normally get in that paper. I still have a few copies sitting around just because I like to think about it from time to time when I'm feeling a bit low in the self-concept department.

I do genuinely want the OP to have the success of having the project sold, I just have very little confidence that it will happen if it hasn't already happened without at least temporarily starting work on something else.