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% of WGA registrations that are shorts?

Anybody have any idea what percent of wga registrations are shorts compared to features? I would think shorts exceed features. I ask because I saw a figure from googling that 40,000 scripts are registered with wga each year, meaning there is a glutton of registered scripts. And thus a bit demoralizing to wannabe feature screenplay writers (like me and others).

But I have to think that many to most of those registrations are shorts, and some must be reregistrations (wga registration expires after 5 years and requires renewal). Perhaps somewhat comforting is a figure I have heard from Michael Hauge (screenwriting consultant/guru) that 95% of submitted scripts do not follow proper story structure and formatting.

So I suppose if I were to guess at some voodoo, and this is total voodoo with no credibility in the number crunching whatsover...that 40,000 might be 35,000 new registrations. If maybe 20,000 of those are feature screenplays and only 5% follow proper story structure and format, we have 1000 formula screenplays being registered each year. Still a lot, but easier to consider than 40,000. Of course this leaves of Lib of Congress Copyright Office registrants.
 
I saw a figure from googling that 40,000 scripts are registered with wga each year, meaning there is a glutton of registered scripts. And thus a bit demoralizing to wannabe feature screenplay writers (like me and others).

I don't know about you, but I think that's more inspiring than demoralizing. It means that your script only has to be worse than 40,000 other scripts.

If I were to guess, I'd say there were about 1 million screenwriters in the world alive that could be capable of writing scripts on a regular basis of professional quality. Half of those will never finish those screenplays because they're lazy or too busy with their real job, and a quarter of those may finish it but will most likely not become working screenwriters.
That leaves about 250,000 estimated screenwriters worldwide capable of competing with your own kick-ass screenplay.
Assume half of those are in Bollywood or some other crazy country like England or Sweeden (or Canada), and you're left with 125,000 screenwriters vying for the 40,000 spots. So really, you just have to write a better screenplay than 85,000 other people.
But even then, they did say 40,000 a YEAR... assuming the 125,000 screenwriters take on average 2-3 years to complete (divide by 2.5) their masterpieces, that means that each year, there are 50,000 screenplays competing for 40,000 spots.

That means you only have to write a screenplay that's better than 10,000 people. Which is not a lot, considering that like, 72% of screenplays produced by Hollywood are garbage anyway, so the 10,000 professional screenplays that get dumped must be frigging TERRIBLE!

I made up all those numbers and percentages, but only to prove a point... numbers and numbers... like any crooked accountant will tell you- the books can be cooked, numbers don't lie- but they sure are "shifty". Budgets, percentages and industry numbers are all carefully crafted lies. Don't trust them.

But one percentage I know- 100%- is that if you write a good script and get it into the right hands, it's better than writing a bad script, printing it out and peeing on it before throwing it in the garbage. Because that would be really stupid. I lost my point. :weird:
 
I probably should have taken my first feature length script, peed on it, and tossed it the trash. I think the story would've been better served. :lol:

But in reality, it was a great learning experience and I even took it with me to an Austin screenwriter's workgroup where we took turns with each other's scripts, assigning roles and reading them out loud. I was surprised how many working writers actually liked it and I got some excellent feedback. I guess the script did have its moments. It's still a fun read despite the cliche' story elements.

I registered one of my shorts last year with the WGAW, so now you're down to 39,999. God willing, I'll register at least one more short and another feature by the end of the year.

A question to working writers, do the readers still toss a script that isn't properly spec formatted? That would cut the odds way down of getting your script read.
 
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Well I don't know about that. Anybody can register a script on wga. But then I wonder how many of those 40,000 are partial drafts, treatments, ideas, and of course just bad scripts, and also shorts.

I don't know about you, but I think that's more inspiring than demoralizing. It means that your script only has to be worse than 40,000 other scripts.
...


And therein is the beauty of screenplays-- completely under the control of the writer regarding quality. Unlike a lottery ticket, the writer has control over the odds to a great degree. And of course one can circumnavigate the odds by also producing one's own script as an indie if one truly believes in it.

But one percentage I know- 100%- is that if you write a good script and get it into the right hands, it's better than writing a bad script, printing it out and peeing on it before throwing it in the garbage. Because that would be really stupid. I lost my point. :weird:
 
Well I don't know about that. Anybody can register a script on wga. But then I wonder how many of those 40,000 are partial drafts, treatments, ideas, and of course just bad scripts, and also shorts.

I know, I'm just saying that numbers are numbers. I'm not saying that 2+2 doesn't equal 4... just that whether or not 2+2=4 is a good or bad thing depends on who's calculating. There's a lot of factors and variables involved, so my suggestion is to ignore the numbers and put effort into the writing instead!
 
Yeah, formatting is actually the thing that keeps me from registering them.

The way I have my scripts written now is that they're kind of like stage plays.

There's just certain things about formatting film scripts that I seem to have a hard time with.

As absolutely pathetic as that probably sounds to some of you.

Heh.
 
There's just certain things about formatting film scripts that I seem to have a hard time with.

As absolutely pathetic as that probably sounds to some of you.

Have you tried using Final Draft or Celtix to streamline it? I've never sold a script, but I even write my own shorts in proper format for practice, because I understand it's pretty important.

Wouldn't hurt to format at least your final drafts.... not pathetic though- I used to write scripts in centered two-colomn word documents. The script for Macbeth 3000: This time it's personal was only 36 pages... in two colomns, font size 10... proper formatting is pretty good for a blue-print checklist, but if you can do your own thing without it, I wouldn't say it's NECESSARY, but once you get into a groove with it, it works...
 
Actually, I wouldn't worry too much about the 400,000 figure.

Based on the experiences of some Hollywood script readers and my own experiences of reading scripts in Europe, the truth is 98% of the screenplays submitted to be read are UNREADABLE... they are so very, very, very bad that readers rarely get beyond the first ten pages.

So, that means there are only about 8000 scripts a year that pass the baseline for competence... of those 8000 roughly 75% will be competent but derivative... so, if you're both competent and original you're only competing with about 2000 scripts in any given year.... which probably gives you a one in ten chance of getting a sale... if you can get your concept in front of the right producer.

Formatting is massively important... simply because readers are looking for scripts that look professional, it helps them relax into the story if the script reads the way they expect a script to be written.

If you format your script in a non-industry fashion reader get hung up on why you, for instance, put so much stuff in parenthesis... anything that distracts from the read is a bad thing.

What readers are looking for is a fast read... that is a script they are half way through, before they realise they are halfway through.
 
Have you tried using Final Draft or Celtix to streamline it? I've never sold a script, but I even write my own shorts in proper format for practice, because I understand it's pretty important.

Wouldn't hurt to format at least your final drafts.... not pathetic though- I used to write scripts in centered two-colomn word documents. The script for Macbeth 3000: This time it's personal was only 36 pages... in two colomns, font size 10... proper formatting is pretty good for a blue-print checklist, but if you can do your own thing without it, I wouldn't say it's NECESSARY, but once you get into a groove with it, it works...

Yeah, I've been thinking I need to get a good program of some kind.

I had one trial thing I was going to download, from a thread I read here, but my computer decided to have a nervous breakdown, so I never really got a chance to check it out.

I should probably just go ahead and buy some good software though.
 
You don't really need specialized software, but it does make writing much smoother not having to worry about it. You can use pretty much any word processor and create macros for the tab settings, margins and spacing. I used Wordperfect 5.1 with macros long before I had Final Draft 2.0 (now I'm on 7.1).
 
http://www.sophocles.net/beta/
Fully functional, the beta is free but worth $xxx, I have been using for some time, most excellent software.

Yeah, I've been thinking I need to get a good program of some kind.
I had one trial thing I was going to download, from a thread I read here, but my computer decided to have a nervous breakdown, so I never really got a chance to check it out.
I should probably just go ahead and buy some good software though.
 
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