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NewswireToday - /newswire/ -
Jacksonville Beach, FL, United States, 02/09/2006 - Fla. ex-teacher and award-winning writer writes first screenplay (based on his teaching experiences), posts the script's rights for sale on eBay®, and post the entire script on-line to read..
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Ex-Teacher’s Comedy Screenplay Puts ‘Testing’ In a Different Light
In the past two years, several would-be screenwriters have posted the sales rights for their scripts on eBay to draw more attention to their work. However, only one writer has now gone so far as to post his entire script on-line to read at no charge, to demonstrate the script’s high quality to potential buyers.
Steven Bailey has been the movie reviewer and entertainment writer for Jacksonville Beach’s The Beaches Leader newspaper for the past nine years. In 2003 and 2004, Bailey received first-place recognition for his written criticism in the Florida Press Association’s annual “Better Newspaper Contest.” Also, in the summer of 2005, Bailey wrote and directed a one-act comedy-parody of the infamous 1959 cult sci-fi film “Plan Nine from Outer Space.” Titled "Plan Nine from Outer Space: The Rip-Off," it played to brisk business for two weeks in downtown Jacksonville.
Now that Bailey has ten years of established writing credentials at hand, he is attempting to get notice for his first, as-yet-unproduced movie screenplay. Titled “Testing,” the script is a comedy based on Bailey’s ten years of public-school teaching experience.
The story for “Testing” concerns Steve Baldwin, a burned-out teacher who is fired for his defiant behavior towards a student during a teacher-parent conference in the school principal’s office. Unable to obtain a decent job elsewhere, Baldwin takes employment at a company that scores statewide standardized school tests. Baldwin initially believes that his past teaching experience will be a boon to his new job, only to find that he is just as frustrated at the scoring company as he was with teaching, due to the illogical process with which the company scores its tests.
Bailey says, “I’ve given it some thought, and I think there are at least four potential ‘audiences’ for this script:
* many of the thousands of public school teachers who deal with standardized testing every year;
* teachers who have left the system due to being ‘burned out’ or worn down by negative teaching experiences;
* members of the general public who are cynical or pessimistic about the current state of American public schools;
* the same audience demographic that has taken anonymous-job comedies such as ‘Office Space’ and ‘Clerks’ to heart.”
In an attempt to both offer evidence of the script’s quality and “think outside the box,” Bailey has taken the unusual steps of offering (a) his script in its entirety on-line, to be read at no cost, and (b) the script’s rights for sale at the on-line auction website eBay. Other erstwhile screenwriters have offered the sale of their scripts’ rights on eBay over the past couple of years. However, Bailey is the first writer to actually post his script on-line for free reading.
Bailey says, “I ask any- and everyone – from teachers to movie comedy fans to filmmakers interested in a non-formulaic comedy – to read my script on-line at no charge to anyone. The script’s quality speaks for itself.”
The script will remain indefinitely on-line – where, as of this writing, it has already generated over 900 “hits” (website viewings) after being posted less than one month ago. The eBay auction will remain on-line through Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2006. The script can be found on-line at testingthescript.com ; the script's eBay auction is listed in eBay's "Everything Else" section.
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steve.bailey[.]mindless.com 
