Starry Nights

This youtube video about creating a world in Second Life is beautiful.

Eric Brighteyes

by H. Rider Haggard

A 19th century action-adventure novel about vikings in 10th century Iceland. I've not fallen in love with a story this hard for many years. It's a saga, a tragedy, a bleak comedy about fate, and a kick-arse action fantasy.

All the while I was reading it, I couldn't help feeling that it'd make an excellent series bible for an HBO show (ala Deadwood).

The Limit - email titles

How to entitle script inquiry e-mails is something I haven't seen written about in any scriptwriting book or blog. So, naturally, after working on a submission letter for the last week this has had me puzzling for about the last hour.

The challenge is to get a person you don't know to open an e-mail about something they've never heard about before.

After thinking it through, here are some of the qualities that were important to me:

- Short (seven words or less - so they can read the entire title before opening the email)
- Not a question the producer can say ‘No’ to at the just-reading-the-subject-line stage (for instance, "Can I submit a feature film script to you?")
- If it's a choice between mentioning genre or the title, I'll go with the genre
- I prefer a functional subject line over a humourous one

I came up with about 15 options, and after running them through The Prioritizer (which gave me a few more ideas), this is what I had (in order from favourite to least):

• Script inquiry about a vigilante thriller (the winning title)
• Script submission inquiry
• Inquiry about feature film submission
• Script submission inquiry for a vigilante thriller
• Thriller script seeks producer
• Thriller script, seeking producer
• Finished script seeks producer
• I'd like to submit a feature film script to you
• Can I submit a feature film script to you
• Are you accepting script submissions?
• Have script, need producer
• I have a script I'd like you to read
• The Limit - a completed script for your perusal
• Would you like to read a script?

Other, unranked ideas:

• Submission inquiry for a vigilante thriller
• Inquiry about submitting scripts
• Submitting a feature script to you
• Inquiry about your script policy
• Gauging interest in a feature film
• I’d like to submit a script to you