A new Web site has been launched to allow budding South African screenwriters to expose their work to film producers and directors.
The site, SPEC, is the brainchild of Durban-based Sean Inggs.
"I saw that SA didn't have a platform for screenwriters to list their material and promote it to producers and directors, although overseas there are lots of services like this," he says.
The idea is for screenwriters to submit a synopsis of their screenplays, which will be published in the site for film professionals to peruse.
"The producer then contacts SPEC, which contacts the writer and then the two communicate with each other," Inngs says. "We will then monitor the whole deal so we can make sure the guy is not a 'one-night stand' who runs away with the thing."
At present the service is provided without charge, although Inggs says he will determine later, depending on the project's success, whether a finder's fee should be levied.
The common practice overseas is to charge a fee of 8% of a deal's value.
In the interim, he is hoping, once a database is established, to generate revenue in the form of sponsorships.
Inggs, himself an aspiring screenwriter, says although he thought initially that the local film industry might be too small, his research shows that there is a "reasonable base of people".
"I'm hoping to generate some interest and excitement," he says. "A lot of the film industry here is 'arty-farty'. Hopefully we can get some different ideas going."
For now, SPEC will focus on marketing screenplays from local writers, although Inggs says if the concept takes off, he would like to accept screenplays from overseas in future.
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