"Julie Gray is hardworking, smart, kind, energetic, and generous, and I love everything she and her co-sponsors at The Script Department are doing to empower writers! Bravo Julie!"
Blake Snyder, author of Save the Cat!
"I can't recommend a more professional passionate script coverage service. They love what they do and they're great at it. Serious writers use The Script Department."
Steve Faber, WEDDING CRASHERS
"Julie, these notes are extraordinary! The best I've received, in their potential to help me both elevate the material and grow as a storyteller. Thank you! Please let Maegan and Tony know how truly/madly/deeply I appreciate their commitment to engage the script and contribute superb insights. They've gone the extra mile by sharing solid ideas and inspired, specific suggestions that serve the story and the characters. That they both did this in LESS than 5 business days... cupcakes all around, say I!"
John Arends, Chicago
"It is difficult to give your work to strangers to critique, yet after almost a year of reading The Rouge Wave, my instincts told me that The Script Department was the way to go and I was right. Thank you."
Judith Duncan
"Thank you! I really, really appreciate PJ's notes (and, of course, her sense of humor and validating style!) and her going above and beyond in terms of the amount of notes. I think she pretty much nailed it (and my weaknesses!) and raised some very interesting possibilities for making the story really pop. I am very grateful for the feedback and look forward to getting the rewrite in for PJ to take another look at. Please thank her again and know that you have a customer for life!"
Richard Sheehy
"Dear Julie, had it not been for your generous help and expert analysis I KNOW my script would not have made it this far in the competition. You really forced me (in a good way) to see my story from a new perspective, along with helping me understand how much of an overhaul it needed. I think you wrote a blog post about it on the Rouge Wave and also told me specifically to quit tweaking, too! I can't thank you enough."
Patricia Sorge, semifinalist, 2008 Austin Film Festival Screenwriting Competition
"There's nobody like Julie Gray. She's got it all. She's got allure, she's got brains, she's got enormous passion for what she does, she's got The Script Department, and she cares about and nutures writers like nobody I've ever seen. She's a force of nature, and I for one am fortunate to have been able to work with her."
Christopher Keane writer of studio pictures, TV series and movies and of fourteen books, including Romancing the A-List: How to Write The Script the Big Stars Want to Make and How to Write A Selling Screenplay.
"I wouldn't dream of letting a script leave my hands without checking it out through Julie and The Script Department. Her invaluable insights into what an executive will say about a script are
remarkably accurate. Julie's blog, The Rouge Wave, is hilarious, inspiring, and full of so much good information that she really ought to charge admission. Julie has a quick mind and is terrific at
brainstorming ideas - clearly, the kid loves a good story, well told. I can't think of a more delightful, cheerful, and brilliant person to help any writer achieve their writing goals."
Theresa Cullen - screenwriter, animated musical feature: Cats Don't Dance and the animated television Christmas special: Shrek the Halls.
"Being congenitally impatient (if I have one person in front of me in a line I start hyperventilating) I used the Script Department overnight service, and was very pleased that the fast turnaround meant no compromise on quality, as Julie had obviously read with care, combining overall notes that hit the nail on the head with specific constructive and creative suggestions as to fixes and alternatives. Thanks so much."
Paul Smith, writer, London ('SMITH & JONES', 'BOOTLEG', 'MURDER MOST HORRID', 'GRANGE HILL', BBC1 Afternoon Play)
"They say it only takes one person in this town to believe in you for other doors to open. You have been that person. You raised the level of my game."
Paul Vincent Fusco, author of SOLDIERS OF THE DEAD
"Julie is talented, compassionate, and professional. She has an experienced and thoughtful perspective which is much needed in this business."
Stephanie Palmer, Good in a Room (www.goodinaroom.com)
"I've had the pleasure of learning from Julie's wisdom and good judgment. She's brilliant at finding the weaknesses of your script as well as in pointing out its strengths, so that you walk away fully empowered to write an exceptional next draft. I can think of no better (or more tactful) person if you're looking for an honest assessment of your work."
J.P. Smith, screenwriter and author of The Discovery of Light and Breathless.
"Julie is smart, articulate, and has a good feel for the industry; what succeeds or fails, what producers are looking for."
Cathy Rubey, Producer
"I sent my script to two well-known managers. The first one to respond read the version I did without Julie's help. He passed. The second manager read the version that incorporated Julie's notes. He called me up and took me on. Yes, the first person to read the script I rewrote with Julie's notes signed me."
Scott Hawthorne, screenwriter ROAD RAGE
"Julie has a wonderfully incisive mind, and she's particularly skilled in the digging out the necessary questions, issues, and possible solutions involved in a given project. She can take apart and put back together a script with uncanny awareness, and kick any story up to another level.
Billy Mernit: Writing the Romantic Comedy
"Working with Julie was an amazing experience: Her invaluable notes and suggestions have improved my script immensely, and more importantly - made me a better screenwriter. I had never used a consultant before I turned to her. Nonetheless, it seems to me that the special thing about her as a consultant is the personal aspect: She not only improved the script, she improved and empowered me as writer.
Tal Gantz, screenwriter (script optioned after placing as a Quarterfinalist in the 2005 Expo Screenwriting competition)
"Every time Julie returns a manuscript to me with her comments, I am inspired to sit down immediately and start reworking the material. Her suggestions feel like an infusion of creativity!"
Christine Schoefer, Ph.D. and writer (The Nation, Salon, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, SF Chronicle, Pacific News Service, NPR)
"To call Julie Gray my mentor wouldn't even begin to describe what she has meant to my growth as a screenwriter. Guiding light is much more apt. She was first to recognize my script's potential, and in doing so saved me from one of those dark, head-in-the-oven despairs that can waylay any artist. More important, she showed me how to make my screenplay award-winning. Any success that I've enjoyed so far is all because of Julie, and I'll continue to look to her to show me the way."
David Gillis, writer of THE GRAY GHOST, which won the Genre Prize: Fantasy in the 2007 Screenwriting Expo Screenplay Competition, and was 1st place finalist, Family, in the 12th Annual Fade In Awards.
"Julie Gray is an amazing mentor who knows what it takes to turn a story into a highly sought-after, 'A-list' script. For a writer to consider going it alone and without the supportive services of The Script Department is utter madness. Every writer out there, no matter what level of skill or experience, needs professional, unbiased feedback. Julie does that with enormous skill, finesse, and humor."
Anne Jordan
"Andrew, thank you again for your help on my film BACHELORS. Your expertise will certainly come in handy when I submit to festivals and distributors. I can't say enough about your knowledge of the industry and of the art of screenwriting."
Scott Simpson
"...My script won the Dylan Thomas Screenwriting Award at Swansea Life Film Festival in Wales, England. But more important than any contest results, I've just been hired by Second Wind Films to write a period action/drama. This proves Julie's maxim that you should write what you're passionate about, in my case period dramas, and eventually that passion will show through on the page."
Steve Zawacki
"Thank you for your honesty regarding my script. It's because of your honesty that I keep coming back with my script(s) - to keep learning - and to keep developing."
Vicky Kjaer Jensen
"Thank you for an AMAZING, inspiring consult today. Thank you for guiding me naturally in a different direction and encouraging me to take steps that keep this project relevant and challenging for me! It was perfect. It really IS a process!"
Jana Wernor
