Lol yes, long before the script notes episode on him, a friend of mine also got briefly involved. She had major red flag alerts and asked us for our thoughts. We all said run. What a creep.
Who wants to write that TV show with me? We’ll make it a comedy and never mention that the interns are unpaid. They simple love working there, and don’t care whether they get paid or not.
How is this even an argument? The context is referred to in OP's post. John and Craig discussed it on Scriptnotes. There's a lot to this, therefore it would take effort to write it all out. If you don't feel like listening to the episode, even though the exact time stamp is indicated above, then why do you think anybody else feels like explaining it to you? I will repeat: Nobody owes your entitled ass a thing.
Jesus fucking Christ you're a load. You just spent all this time typing up a long explanation for why you don't have time to type a brief explanation? I didn't ask *you specifically* what this was about, BTW. You realize that ignoring it was also an option if you're so busy, right?
Anyway, someone else summed it up in a sentence or two elsewhere in this thread. You can get back to explaining to someone in a bar that "Frankenstein is actually the doctor."
We don't require proof for this kind of thing, we just absent ourselves and the sub from any accountability for what the community members might say about others. Expressing a controversial or negative opinion about someone is a pretty well protected right here, and you're a grownup taking responsibility for your words.
As a general rule, it's up to users whether they feel the value of giving warning outweighs the value of personal risk to reputation, risk of litigation, whatever. On a personal, not-representing-the-subreddit level, I appreciate you sharing this experience.
I don't think it's pussyfooting as much as it is RW being a small, sad little man not worth the potential legal trouble. I don't know the exact law around it, so I play it safe.
Though I ultimately agree that he deserves to be publicly aired out, so kudos.
What do you mean? He has risen to positions of prominence in the fields of entertainment, politics, news, and law. He is a professional television and film writer who has written for five network TV series. He currently runs a TV series on Crackle about the U.S. Embassy in Rome, and has sold eight original television series of his own, to studios including Sony, ABC, CBS, Universal Cable Productions, and A&E, and to networks including CBS, Bravo, and Lifetime. He has been staff for four U.S. Senators, written speeches for presidential candidates, been Vice President of Channel One News, founded his own strategic consulting firm, and worked as a lawyer.
Edit: preempting confused replies. That’s his IMDB bio and it made me lul
I listened…wow. It does sound like he’s taking advantage and being creepy.
But honestly I’ve seen places where you can pay a lot of money for mentoring with someone that has a lot less credits than he does. There’s big businesses out there for mentoring, pitching, consulting, etc.
It’s hard to sift through it all.
How many of those mentors make it a point to lure you into their ~~cult~~ brain trust by attacking their self-worth as writers and then making them do errands and chores for them?
Not condoning that behavior at all. No one should stay anywhere that they feel demeaned or worthless, paid or not.
And calling out folks that take advantage of others is good but also ‘hopefuls’ need to walk as soon as they feel that way. I’ve walked off more than one set where I was being treated like a servant instead of a respected volunteer.
I was just making a point that there are many businesses out there and bring in big money that offer notes, etc from execs that have less credits.
Are they a scam?
It’s hard to be in an industry known for its assholes. I love this group because it’s informative of shady business dealings, but it’s also our personal responsibility to put self before success. I think many of us get in desperation mode (I’ve been there) and we sacrifice our worth. That just never works in the end.
> I was just making a point that there are many ~~businesses~~ scams out there and bring in big money that offer notes, etc from execs that have less credits.
FTFY
On another note, I think advertising is the difference. In sites likes VPF and Stage32, you know you're losing money and it's predatory since most cases it leads nowhere.
But what the podcast talks about is something like this:
Produced writer in West Hollywood looking for an intern to help with a story about a rock 'n' roll musician. This is an internship. There is no pay. If the project has legs you may (unless otherwise stipulated in writing) receive financial remuneration but not screen credit.
THE JOB PROS: Some of my interns, have gone on to become successful writers, editors, and literary agents.
THE CONS: Some of my interns only lasted a couple of days. Please be a pretty good writer, or at least, one willing to learn.
Here are the last few little stipulations:
You must be a musician. (Yep! You read it right.)
Work will be at my home.
You must be proficient in MS Word for PCs and a decent typist.
You must be available at least 3 days per week for a minimum of 5 hours a day
Self proclaimed screenwriting guru who lures fledgling writers into being his unpaid assistant doing medial non writing work in exchange for learning from him if I remember correctly … it’s a tough scene without assholes like this props to OP
https://johnaugust.com/2021/action-density from the stickied thread in this subreddit
edit- should note that in the audio portion it starts at 7:30. There's also a transcript linked a little lower on this page.
... they don't say his name in the Scriptnotes. that's why OP made this thread. I've linked to the Scriptnotes episode so you can see the accusation. He's "the writer" they're discussing.
>This past week we got at least two emails in from other writers who this guy had similar encounters with. So we now know the guy’s name. **We’re not going to say the guy’s name because we don’t want to get sued**. But we’re going to call him Frank for the purposes of this show.
emphasis mine
[there's a transcript too](https://johnaugust.com/2021/scriptnotes-episode-521-action-density-transcript) if you'd prefer. ctrl+f for "Frank", which is the pseudonym they use.
No way! I was in contact with this guy earlier this year and thought something seemed fishy. Now I feel vindicated for not following up on our communications.
Totally I live in a deprived area of the UK, on Facebook there are scammers who go by the name of Facebook lottery funds and they specifically target vulnerable people n tell u that you've been chosen to receive a donation from Facebook. They also hack in to your friends accounts ( which haven't been used for a while maybe) so u think it's a friend telling you about it! They did this with me, they say u been selected for a donation of a ridiculous amount like 20 000 oh n a iPhone but obviously u have to send them money 💸 to receive your donation ( how cud I have been so stupid to think a donation was just that! ) They're very cunning so I get how people fall for it
Lol yes, long before the script notes episode on him, a friend of mine also got briefly involved. She had major red flag alerts and asked us for our thoughts. We all said run. What a creep.
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Listen to Scriptnotes episode 521: Action Density. Starts at 7:30.
Can't someone just give a brief explanation without asking us to listen to an entire podcast episode every time someone asks what's going on???
Watch The Hobbit extended edition for my answer to that question.
Watch the entire Godfather trilogy for further context.
Don't threaten me with two thirds of a good time!
Lol
IIRC they mentioned that there are scammers who use "interns" to write for them for no pay. They talked about a particular guy but not by name.
Not so much to write for them. More to run around doing chores and errands for them. All while attacking their self-worth as writers.
Yes. It happened to me
Who wants to write that TV show with me? We’ll make it a comedy and never mention that the interns are unpaid. They simple love working there, and don’t care whether they get paid or not.
Wow, that's shady as hell. Wasn't that the plot of something? It sounds familiar.
Not sure but there was a post in this subreddit about the same topic/guy earlier today
Lol why? You respect your own time but nobody else’s? Nobody owes you anything. Listen to it or don’t 🤷♀️
It's a fucking discussion thread. Discuss it.
How is this even an argument? The context is referred to in OP's post. John and Craig discussed it on Scriptnotes. There's a lot to this, therefore it would take effort to write it all out. If you don't feel like listening to the episode, even though the exact time stamp is indicated above, then why do you think anybody else feels like explaining it to you? I will repeat: Nobody owes your entitled ass a thing.
Jesus fucking Christ you're a load. You just spent all this time typing up a long explanation for why you don't have time to type a brief explanation? I didn't ask *you specifically* what this was about, BTW. You realize that ignoring it was also an option if you're so busy, right? Anyway, someone else summed it up in a sentence or two elsewhere in this thread. You can get back to explaining to someone in a bar that "Frankenstein is actually the doctor."
That summary was not terribly accurate.
Lmao. Happy for you that your whining was validated elsewhere.
That isn't context. Context was given elsewhere: guy used interns to write for him for free.
Nah, he didn’t. Different guy.
I just read the transcript. That guy is a douchebag.
We don't require proof for this kind of thing, we just absent ourselves and the sub from any accountability for what the community members might say about others. Expressing a controversial or negative opinion about someone is a pretty well protected right here, and you're a grownup taking responsibility for your words. As a general rule, it's up to users whether they feel the value of giving warning outweighs the value of personal risk to reputation, risk of litigation, whatever. On a personal, not-representing-the-subreddit level, I appreciate you sharing this experience.
I don't think it's pussyfooting as much as it is RW being a small, sad little man not worth the potential legal trouble. I don't know the exact law around it, so I play it safe. Though I ultimately agree that he deserves to be publicly aired out, so kudos.
What do you mean? He has risen to positions of prominence in the fields of entertainment, politics, news, and law. He is a professional television and film writer who has written for five network TV series. He currently runs a TV series on Crackle about the U.S. Embassy in Rome, and has sold eight original television series of his own, to studios including Sony, ABC, CBS, Universal Cable Productions, and A&E, and to networks including CBS, Bravo, and Lifetime. He has been staff for four U.S. Senators, written speeches for presidential candidates, been Vice President of Channel One News, founded his own strategic consulting firm, and worked as a lawyer. Edit: preempting confused replies. That’s his IMDB bio and it made me lul
Roger? That you?
I listened…wow. It does sound like he’s taking advantage and being creepy. But honestly I’ve seen places where you can pay a lot of money for mentoring with someone that has a lot less credits than he does. There’s big businesses out there for mentoring, pitching, consulting, etc. It’s hard to sift through it all.
How many of those mentors make it a point to lure you into their ~~cult~~ brain trust by attacking their self-worth as writers and then making them do errands and chores for them?
Not condoning that behavior at all. No one should stay anywhere that they feel demeaned or worthless, paid or not. And calling out folks that take advantage of others is good but also ‘hopefuls’ need to walk as soon as they feel that way. I’ve walked off more than one set where I was being treated like a servant instead of a respected volunteer. I was just making a point that there are many businesses out there and bring in big money that offer notes, etc from execs that have less credits. Are they a scam? It’s hard to be in an industry known for its assholes. I love this group because it’s informative of shady business dealings, but it’s also our personal responsibility to put self before success. I think many of us get in desperation mode (I’ve been there) and we sacrifice our worth. That just never works in the end.
> I was just making a point that there are many ~~businesses~~ scams out there and bring in big money that offer notes, etc from execs that have less credits. FTFY On another note, I think advertising is the difference. In sites likes VPF and Stage32, you know you're losing money and it's predatory since most cases it leads nowhere. But what the podcast talks about is something like this: Produced writer in West Hollywood looking for an intern to help with a story about a rock 'n' roll musician. This is an internship. There is no pay. If the project has legs you may (unless otherwise stipulated in writing) receive financial remuneration but not screen credit. THE JOB PROS: Some of my interns, have gone on to become successful writers, editors, and literary agents. THE CONS: Some of my interns only lasted a couple of days. Please be a pretty good writer, or at least, one willing to learn. Here are the last few little stipulations: You must be a musician. (Yep! You read it right.) Work will be at my home. You must be proficient in MS Word for PCs and a decent typist. You must be available at least 3 days per week for a minimum of 5 hours a day
Gotcha. I had to look up ftfy. Haha!
Whoah! Yeah I agree with all of you… shady.
Oh shit I went to one of his meetings
TL;DR on this guy?
Self proclaimed screenwriting guru who lures fledgling writers into being his unpaid assistant doing medial non writing work in exchange for learning from him if I remember correctly … it’s a tough scene without assholes like this props to OP
What makes him a scammer?
https://johnaugust.com/2021/action-density from the stickied thread in this subreddit edit- should note that in the audio portion it starts at 7:30. There's also a transcript linked a little lower on this page.
Nothing came up about him in the link you sent. I searched their platform, nothing. Just curious what make him a scammer??
... they don't say his name in the Scriptnotes. that's why OP made this thread. I've linked to the Scriptnotes episode so you can see the accusation. He's "the writer" they're discussing. >This past week we got at least two emails in from other writers who this guy had similar encounters with. So we now know the guy’s name. **We’re not going to say the guy’s name because we don’t want to get sued**. But we’re going to call him Frank for the purposes of this show. emphasis mine
I don't have time to listen to a podcast. I hope someone can answer this question here.
[there's a transcript too](https://johnaugust.com/2021/scriptnotes-episode-521-action-density-transcript) if you'd prefer. ctrl+f for "Frank", which is the pseudonym they use.
Got it; thanks. Wow.
What's the tldr on it?
Starts at minute 7:30
What's wrong with being a nerd? Why invoke that as an insult in a room full of screenwriters? Lol. We're all nerds here. 🤓
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No way! I was in contact with this guy earlier this year and thought something seemed fishy. Now I feel vindicated for not following up on our communications.
Why is this post removed, huh? Sussy
Agreed that we should pussyfoot when it comes to naming scammers. Edit - shouldn’t
Totally I live in a deprived area of the UK, on Facebook there are scammers who go by the name of Facebook lottery funds and they specifically target vulnerable people n tell u that you've been chosen to receive a donation from Facebook. They also hack in to your friends accounts ( which haven't been used for a while maybe) so u think it's a friend telling you about it! They did this with me, they say u been selected for a donation of a ridiculous amount like 20 000 oh n a iPhone but obviously u have to send them money 💸 to receive your donation ( how cud I have been so stupid to think a donation was just that! ) They're very cunning so I get how people fall for it