NBC opposing LA bike-path to prevent script-lobbing?
Dwiff sez, "Universal Studio blocks proposed bike path for fear that aspiring screenwriters will use it to throw their scripts onto the lot. No, seriously."
As Los Angeles struggles to restore its namesake river, a considerable obstacle has arisen -- NBC Universal, which is trying to block a public bike path from traversing its property along the waterway...Link (Thanks, Dwiff!)One bike advocate said Universal executives told him they feared that people would use the path to lob unsolicited screenplays onto the studio's nearby production lot -- something that apparently happens at other spots when a Universal film scores big at the box office.
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Git off my lawn!
Wow, they must really have a problem. I cannot imagine how hard it is to pick up one or two scripts going from your car to the recycle bin in the lobby, which I assume exists since they are so green and all.
HIGH FENCES!!!!
I've never quite understood why entertainment companies are so afraid of these lawsuits about "stolen ideas." I mean, you're *allowed* to steal other people's ideas.
ride-by scripting?
ride-by-pitching really
so funnysad. Why not show mercy? Have an eternal bonfire going and assure all would-bes that the production gods receive the spirits of the sacrificed scripts and that one day,they will be rewarded.
Foolishness. They must have some other reason they're opposed to it.
Those writers, I tell ya... Nothin' but a bunch of bike-riding villains.
Also, in a fun bit of trivia, the original name of LA was "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula."
So while the river may be the city's "namesake" now, it was originally the other way around. Kind of...
I think that they're afraid of getting thousands. Tales abound of writers sliding scripts under bathroom stalls, slipping them into shopping carts, tossing them into car windows at red lights. LA is pretty weird.
You don't need a high fence. Just put up a sign saying:
NO SCRIPTS LEFT HERE WILL EVER BE CONSIDERED FOR PRODUCTION BY THIS STUDIO. AS A MATTER OF POLICY, THEY WILL BE THROWN AWAY UNREAD.
well, the real reason is that if anyone can claim/prove ever giving them a story, they can never use that story without accusation of theft. Even unsolicited stories.
anyways, its important to keep the peasant-scum (writers) firmly in their place by reminding them of how many wannabes are right behind them,salivating to get in.
Just put up a sign
Desperation is a demanding mistress. Plus LA and reality based thinking rarely show up in the same sentence. They'll just climb the fence, cut holes in the fence, attach the script to a kite and fly it over the fence. It's Klendathu.
Takuan: I can't imagine that's anything but an urban legend. Throwing a bound copy of a script over a fence is not a submission. The studio is not the recipient of a submission.
Besides, if there's a firm policy of gathering them up and throwing them away unread, the most anyone would be able to prove is that they threw a manuscript over a fence. They couldn't establish that anyone even looked at it, much less read it, remembered it, and transmitted either the script or its ideas to people engaged in some similar studio project.
Furthermore, an idea isn't a script, and a script isn't a project.
You know how trolls feel about their magic opinions? Naive writers feel that way about their ideas.
potato-cannon script launcher!
Maybe the studio should put a slot in the fence labeled UNSOLICITED SCRIPT DEPOSIT.
The slot would very obviously feed into a heavy-duty paper shredder.
The shredded paper would then be laid out on the bottom of a large cage, labeled UNSOLICITED SCRIPT EXAMINATION DEPARTMENT, which is full of piglets.
I'm sure I 've heard of studios being in litigation over stealing scripts. Those cases were all previous submittals (supposedly), but knowing what the law trade workers can do, I'd be paranoid as a studio too.
How about giant projectors, shining the pages on studio office building exterior walls "Hah, say you didn't see it now!!"
I like the piglets idea
A great big barrel with a perpetual fire going and a sign that says: "Unsolicited scripts here." BTW I copyrighted that idea and will vigorously defend it.
You know how trolls feel about their magic opinions? Naive writers feel that way about their ideas.
You know, for a nanosecond there I almost felt a twinge of pity for the studios Teresa, but then it passed.
Another angle to see this from: This objection could be taken as an assertion that there is no other public place from which a script could be lobbed onto their lot. Anyone have the number for Mythbusters?
I'll show you the life of the mind!
classic!!!
There's no roadmap for that territory.
If ever I've heard of a legit reason to use that overly-friendly eminent domain law passed by the Supremes recently, this is it.
Just TAKE IT, L.A.!
Gee, thanks for the idea Universal.
I've worked on that lot in a bungalow a stone's throw (doubt if a script could have made it) from the river and remember wishing that the bike path, which runs along the river three blocks from my house, ran all the way to the lot. What's crazy is that there is an access road that runs the length of the lot along the river, so any script that actually made it over a fence would be shredded under the cars running along that road.
So what is the real reason? Some studio exec hates bicycles?