Fivesprockets.com: Website Review

What exactly is fivesprockets.com? Five Sprockets is a fairly new website that advertises itself as, "your virtual production studio" and also states via its home page that it offers, "free online screenwriting and media-production software and resources." During the few weeks that I've spent exploring and writing on the site, it lives up to all its promises. It lists these benefits, also on its homepage. "Free and online: access from anywhere. Collaborate, write, and produce with others. Writing accelerators with script formatting. Promote yourself and your projects. Find gigs with our Job Board."

Some of the formats that the site can help you create for are comic books, screenplays, TV dramas, sitcoms, novels, stage plays, and even audio plays. How does it help you? Well, after you join, you can choose what type of project you want to work on and the website will help you to format your ideas correctly. This is the perfect resource for anybody who has ever had an idea to create something like a TV show, but who has no idea where to begin.

It also has all the benefits of a social networking site. You can meet lots of other people, but because of the focus of the site, you can know that you'll be meeting your creative peers. You have the opportunity to network with others who are already working in the industry that you're interested in or who are aspiring to do so. Also, unlike Craigslist, you can have the chance to view a portfolio of those people including their experiences and even some of their work.

Still confused? Just head to the home page and take a look at some of the featured items. There are featured jobs, featured projects, a blog, and even featured people. There is also currently a section at the bottom of the page featuring, "How to video". Navigating some of these can help acquaint you with the site and what it's all about.

So what exactly are the five sprockets of fivesprockets.com? Well, if you click on the "learn more" section of the site, you'll get some in depth explanations and visual examples of what the site intends to help you do. But it will also fill you in on the fact that those five are story development, pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution.

What's so great about this website? Well, it really demystifies the creative process and pulls back the curtain on how things are done in "showbiz". This gives people with good ideas but no practical working knowledge of how to produce their ideas a new way to get things done and a chance to link up with other people with similar goals. It's a great teaching tool, and in the testimonial section of the site, you can see what others have thought.

Fivesprockets.com takes the mystery out of the creative process and allows aspiring writers, directors, producers, and more to actually start making their dreams happen. It's well worth a look, at least, and because it's free to join, it's incredibly low risk. I haven't received any spam or unwanted email since I joined, so I can tell you personally that it hasn't caused me any problems. Quite the contrary, since I've joined I've been considering just which of my impossible projects to tackle first, my comic book ideas or my novel. What could you start at fivesprockets.com?