The Scoggins Report is a compilation of sales and trends in the industry. The Report is reprinted at ScriptMag.com by permission of the authors. The Scoggins Report by Jason Scoggins & Cindy Kaplan May 14, 201 May 2012 Pitch Sales Scorecard This week’s edition of the Scoggins Report was a blast to pull together, thanks [...]

I’ve mentioned the power of paying it forward before, but I’d like to discuss what makes someone want to help a person. What do they get out of it? How do they decide who to help and who to walk away from? In this cutthroat industry, it’s imperative to learn how to attract those who [...]

Kickstarter: A site dedicated to crowdfunding artistic projects, including independent films. I’m sure by now you’ve all had at least one friend send you their link, asking for support. Try being “The Twitter Pimp Angel.” I get dozens of links tweeted to me every day. How do I decide which ones to back and which [...]

Every once in a while I get an opportunity to help a fellow writer or colleague. Whenever my schedule permits, and even when it doesn’t, I do my best to say, “yes.” Why would I offer up my time, even when I’m busy? To learn. I don’t care how many scripts you’ve written or how [...]

This week’s Balls of Steel is coming at you early simply because its time-sensitive contents include an opportunity I truly believe you should take advantage of. Many of my network have asked me how to find a mentor after reading last week’s Balls of Steel: How Far Will You Go? I found my mentors by [...]

Success. We dream about it. We lust for it. We wake in the wee hours before our day jobs, as well as burn the midnight oil, to find time to write. Some days, the amount of hours we clock seem endless, but we keep putting ink on paper, believing in our destiny to be writers. [...]

My Balls of Steel column is just over a year old. I’ve taken you on my bumpy ride from pursuing an adaption of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Slavery by Another Name (SBAN), all the way to Sundance. While SBAN is still going strong, I now have a different, more immediate quest – to write and [...]

You have great script idea mulling inside your head. Maybe it’s been haunting you for years, and you keep saying, “I’ll get to it… after this rewrite… after the school year… after my ingrown toenail heals… after…” Shut the barn door and write that sucker. What are you waiting for?! April is Script Frenzy month [...]

In an interview I recently did for the acclaimed UCLA screenwriting professor Richard Walter, he posed the question, “How do you define success as a screenwriter today?” My response was immediate. “For me, success is simply waking up every single day and making the decision not to quit but to sit down and write instead. [...]