Leaping Into ScriptHop ; How the “Packet” Might Just Change Everything
If you’ve added a script listing to Script Revolution in the past few months, you’ll have likely noticed that you have the option to add a link to what’s called a ScriptHop Packet and you may have noticed my listing for Blueberry Special includes one. So what’s the deal? Why have I been so quick to implement this relatively unknown platform?— CJ
Something happened in October of 2020 which I personally feel is momentous. Like a ship launching silently in the night, the ScriptHop platform slipped into the waters of the internet to very little ceremony other than a few casual glances over the shoulder from most screenwriters yet what it displaces is potentially massive. A few did get excited but it was for all the wrong reasons. They mistook ScriptHop’s USP as a script discovery platform, a new market database, a free opportunity to break into the industry, and their energy quickly fizzled out when they found out it was something less promotional and more logistical. They missed the point.
The easiest way I can get you to pay attention to ScriptHop is to tell you one thing — Shane Black is on their board of advisors. If that doesn’t get you to take what they’re doing seriously, I don’t know what will. The bigger question is, do you understand what they are doing, why, and how it may impact us all in the long term?
But first, the problem…
Hollywood and the greater industry has been facing a significant problem for some time. Email changed everything or, more specifically, the widespread access to email and cheap computing technology changed everything. Until email became available to everyone, the barrier to entry for anyone wanting to send a script to an industry member was the physical act of mailing it. Now we can send a script to thousands of people with the click of a button from anywhere in the world providing we know (or can guess) their email address. That’s good for us but terrible for those on the receiving end who now have to deal with a tsunami of email submissions from first time writers to WGA accredited agents.
I know a producer who recently shared one of this email addresses online and broadcast that people can send him submissions. He now has a person dedicated to managing…