Comments on: A Cautionary Tale: Screenwriting and Craigslist

By: Merrel Davis

Merrel Davis — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:16:08 +0000

Chris — if you would, send me an email. I’d be interested in seeing the emails possibly doing another follow-up post on these people.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:32:43 +0000

Hi back in April I answered an ad on Craigslist for Screenplay writer gig to write movie.This was a Nigerian 419 advance fee scheme.Through a phishing website to get CC info.Had to watch indie movie about college campus cult like the movie very related to movie that was talked about on this page.If anybody wants copy of emails from the scammer email me at my address.Thanks!

By: Uncompleted Works › Screenwriting and Craigslist Part 2: “Cautionary Harder”

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:39:23 +0000

[...] month I posted about some unsavory job listings for screenwriters on Craigslist. The article was picked up by a couple of blogs. So it comes as a disappointment, though not a [...]

By: Merrel Davis

Merrel Davis — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:15:28 +0000

@Troy Hell, A baked potato would have sealed the deal…

By: Troy

Troy — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:45:51 +0000

Wow. The awful part is, someone’s probably taking that gig right now. Why not just offer a baked potato and a handshake as compensation?

By: Merrel Davis

Merrel Davis — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:15:08 +0000

@Karel When I first read the follow-up email, I laughed out loud. Part of me wished this was some sort of brilliant satire. Alas, I doubt that is the case.

In NYC there is “Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts” that screenwriters and artists can use for legal help. http://www.vlany.org/

By: Karel

Karel — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 05:36:07 +0000

“Lower Manhattan” and “$100/wk” seem to be somewhat incompatible in the first place…

That said, I haven’t seen “Dark Comic Thriller” and “Big Success” go together often either.

I guess this is one of the more obvious examples of attempted copyright theft. Unfortunately there are so many more in the grey area where you need legal advice.

For any job that’s going to take you a significant amount of time, it’s probably worth having the contract checked by a legal professional or someone with expertise in the area.

Brilliant post. Thank you Merrel.

Karel

By: Merrel Davis

Merrel Davis — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:40:06 +0000

@Daveed Hah, I could have done that. I wonder if I would have gotten more blog hits

@FilmGirl Glad to be of help!

By: filmgurl

filmgurl — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:15:36 +0000

Wow. Thanks for sharing your experience, informative post!

By: daveed

daveed — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:35:57 +0000

You should have just emailed them back:

“I will not write your f@#$ing script!”

By: Merrel Davis

Merrel Davis — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:34:48 +0000

Thanks! I’m no Chris Hansen, I hoped this was more of a cautionary tale, then an outing. However, if I see these guys again my follow-up post could be very interesting.

FYI the post is still live on the NYC CL.

By: NSR

NSR — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:25:07 +0000

Nice piece. You should have totally outed them and published the email addy.

It’s like the Nigerian money scammers only for screenplay writing.

**BTW, I claim 100% Copyright on my comments.** LOL

By: Tweets that mention Uncompleted Works › A Cautionary Tale: Screenwriting and Craigslist -- Topsy.com

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:20:21 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Merrel Davis. Merrel Davis said: NEW BLOG "A Cautionary Tale: Screenwriting and Craiglist" Your work is a commodity that needs to be paid for http://bit.ly/2hvu1F [...]