26 Screenplays

We are proud to announce our sponsorship of the Filmspotting podcast for a few shows. If you don’t listen to Filmspotting, it is the best film review podcast available.

We are proud to announce that, once a month, we will be donating a copy of the book for educational purposes. If you are instructing a class and would like a sample book, simply visit the Educational Donation page of the web site, and complete the form. You will be submitted in our monthly drawing for a free book. All you have to do is complete the application form once, and you will be entry will carry over to the next drawing if you do not win.

The form asks your position, how many students you plan on having in your class, and how you plan on using the book in a classroom setting.

‘26 Short Screenplays for Independent Filmmakers‘ is an ideal workbook for a film or drama class. If you are an instructor who wants to incorporate the book into your classroom, please apply for a donation. We will even feature the resulting films on the 26 Screenplays when your class concludes.

Feel free to participate with other members of the 26 Screenplays project, by joining our Facebook group here.

Sometimes there is a lull in the blog. This is because I was elected again to the board of the Dallas Screenwriter’s Association and am involved in their many film-related activities.

If you are in the North Texas area and are interested in screenwriting and film production, feel free to attend a monthly meeting and/or a monthly scene reading workshop where actors read pages of script. Many of the scripts in the book 26 Short Screenplays for Independent Filmmakers went through the DSA’s scene reading process.

There is also a Dallas Screenwriters Association Facebook group that I manage, so you can join and say hi.

Don’t forget that there is also a 26 Screenplays Facebook group as well. If for whatever reason the blog is not active, these other areas probably are. Thanks!

We here at 26 Screenplays are huge fans of the Creative Commons initiative. The screenplays in the book are released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license and exist to have derivative works created from them.

Creative Commons offers a Catalyst grant, and we have applied for it. To see our application page, go here. You will see what 26 Screenplays has planned for the upcoming year as well as how this project aligns with the larger goal of Creative Commons.

If you believe in the Creative Commons initiative and would like to contribute towards future grants, I strongly encourage you to make a donation. The easiest way to donate is to go here and contribute until your heart is content.

We will certainly keep everyone posted, and if we get the grant, you will see a lot more activity here and on the website.

Apparently, Amazon.com allows authors to write reviews of their own books. So I wrote one, giving myself a much-deserved five-star rating. Actually, I did this so I could publish the Table of Contents. Amazon gives reviewers more space than they do people writing the book descriptions.

Read the review here, or just scroll down.

Completely unbiased 5-star review from the author.

Many authors review their own books, but they do it in a sneaky way so you can’t really tell the author is writing the review. Not in this case. I am openly acknowledging that I wrote this book and that this book merits five starts because, to put it bluntly, this book changed my life. It could potentially change yours as well.
This book contains 26 short film project scripts released under the Creative Commons Attribution license. All you have to do is put the appropriate credits on your film, and your obligation to the copyright holders is complete. If you make money off your film, you pay no licensing fee. If you expand one of these scripts into a feature film, more power to you. If somehow you are able to take one of these script ideas and manage to turn it into a reality television show, then, by golly, you deserve everything you get.
The 26 short film project scripts are classified as follows:
-Monologue 1
-Monologue 2
-Dialogue 1
-Dialogue 2
-The Public Service Announcement (PSA)
-Pseudo-Documentary Style 1
-Pseudo-Documentary Style 2
-Showcasing Two Actors
-The Meet Cute Scene
-The Silent Film
-The Dining Scene
-The Car Chase
-The Bank Robbery
-The Montage
-The Party Scene
-The Long Single Take
-The Meta Film
-Showcase an Actor
-Showcase an Actress
-Science Fiction Short
-Animated Short
-The Dramatic Short
-The Therapy Short
-The Horror Short
-The Satirical Short
-The High-Concept Short
Each of these projects have cast lists and setting lists. They also have ideas for customizing the script or tweaking it to match your resources. Some scripts even have storyboards to help you visualize the movie.
This is a great book for someone who wants to try experimenting with film making or for a professional who wants to expand his or her portfolio. It is well worth it.

I fully recognize that purchasing a book sight unseen is a little daunting. While I don’t feel comfortable posting the entire book for free on the internet, I do feel comfortable posting portions of the book for free on the internet.

With that in mind, you can now download the table of contents and the introductory material here.

If you have been downloading the fake trailer scripts (here and here) you will notice that some of the material looks familiar. That is the point, to get yourself familiar with the book and its contents. Hope you enjoy the free downloads.

There is now an electronic version of 26 Short Screenplays for Independent Filmmakers on the Lulu website. It costs $9.99, instead of the $26.00 price for the physical book.

You can use this file on your Kindle, Nook, iPad, or any device that reads .pdf files. There are currently no plans to release versions of the book specifically for each eReading platform. There are technical issues with screenplay formatting in the various eReader formats (see an example here), and until Final Draft adds an export to .epub feature, .pdf is the simplest way to go.

If you want the physical copy of the book (which is a large format designed for you to photocopy pages for cast and crew), Lulu is offering a $3.99 shipping credit through May 1st. Just use the coupon code FREEMAIL305 at checkout. Or you can order the book from Amazon here.

After much paperwork and emailing, the book, 26 Short Screenplays for Independent Filmmakers, is available on Amazon.com.

This should make for much easier for ordering.

Here is the link.

The purchasing links on the website will be updated with the Amazon listing shortly.

Thanks for your support!

In an effort to market the book, I have this reluctance to post chapter samples or other pieces of content for free on the website. Because the book is centered around a generous Creative Commons license, the contents are very close to public domain. Because of this, I live in the fear that making electronic versions available for free will cut into some of the book revenue.

However, the concepts behind the book, the idea and the structure of it are adaptable to a variety of scripts. With that in mind, I plan to spend 2010 writing and publishing (for free) 26 Fake Trailer screenplays on the website. These scripts use the format of the book and give people an idea of what to expect for their $26.00.

I am posting these on the 26 Screenplays message board in the Fake Trailer section. The first one – The Exploitation Film Trailer – is up now and can be downloaded here.

When all 26 of these are completed, they will be collected into a free eBook available on the site. This eBook should give people an idea of what they’re getting into when they buy the book.