One Sunday a month, a few dozen creatives gather at Wisconsin Production Collective to read and workshop a local screenwriter’s film or TV show manuscript, all for free. It’s part of a new series blooming in the Milwaukee film scene: Voices Off Paper.
“We’ve got all people in the room, and the feedback is live,” says Voices Off Paper founder Adam Smith, talking about why it’s an important piece of the filmmaking puzzle for local screenwriters. “If you do this in any other major city, it’s going to cost you well over $1,000 to cast all these actors, especially if it’s not in production.”
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With Wisconsin’s new film incentives, Smith hopes this will encourage more local writers and filmmakers, to create and produce in the state.
“A lot of us are excited for that opportunity, I want people to come to our state and if they look for stories or screenwriters, I can say ‘Hey we’ve got five that we read this year alone,” he said.
One of the unique things about Voices Off Paper is that it brings together writers, actors, directors, and producers, which often exist in vacuums in the Milwaukee scene until a film is going to production.
“As an actor, the best reason to show up is to collaborate with other actors. You can also practice cold reading, which is something that’s very hard to come by as an actor — you can cold read at home, but it’s not the same thing as cold reading with 10 to 20 other actors in the same room,” explained Smith.
It’s also an opportunity for local actors to cold read in front of directors and producers, and for directors and producers to see local talent first hand. Voices Off Paper is even planning to host a few upcoming reads in local theaters to bridge the gap between the Milwaukee theater and film acting scenes.
“We are very happy if you show up and scout actors,” said Smith. “If that’s your main reason for coming, we do want that and we know actors want that publicity, too.”
A screenwriter himself, Smith has found the opportunity to workshop other writers’ work very inspiring for his own.
“I find the most use in these spaces because it motivates me to write,” he said. “When I hear really good feedback and edits from other people in the room, I can go home and take those same notes and put them towards my own screenplays.”
And having 40+ new people in the industry to network with once a month is a great perk, too, he says. There’s certainly no shortage of people looking to be a part of it – from the very first reading in March the table has been packed and the cast lists full.
“What I’m trying to prove is that we have writers, we have actors, we have producers, we have directors and this room proves that.”
