Screenwriters

[rachelbean]

I am one. I haven't finished a screenplay in several years, but for many years it took up all of my free time. I sent one or two of my screenplays off to studios and I actually got a couple calls back, which was amazing. The call I can remember with a producer was him telling me that my dialogue was fantastic but I was horrible with plot advancement. He was 100% correct and it's not something I've figured out since. It's something I plan to pick back up soon so I thought I'd reach out to see if any of the other members have experience and/or interest in it

[SteveB]

Was your script ever made into...what they called nowadays...a moving picture?

[rachelbean]

Was your script ever made into...what they called nowadays...a moving picture?

Nope, never sold a script, let alone seen it greenlit.

[SteveB]

What was it aboot? What genre? Who do you see playing the roles?

And what's your new one going to be aboot?

[Audley Strange]

Dialogue should be the last thing you add to a screenplay. In fact you should be able to understand the story without any at all simply from the descriptions. The medium is sight based and lots of excess verbage, especially exposition makes a script feel clunky and unreal. Still that can sell. One only has to look at the appalling Mulder Monologues in The X-Files to see it. If you're going "people wouldn't say that!" then you have a problem with visual cues progressing your story. Remember the medium.

Apparently a page should be roughly about a minute of screen-time, establishing scene, actors, description and dialogue, so if you find that your on page dialogue has characters going on a bit, time the words. Unless it is a specific rant, edit. Edit EDIT!!!

Oh and another bit of advice. Whatever you write it is an idea to finish it, no matter how great you think it is or excited about it you are, throw it in a drawer and forget about it for about a month. Then read what you've written and see just how awful it is and edit.

[Jason]

Audley: Are we talking about good art or appeal to the masses?

Incidentally, (way back when I was.. intelligent a student) my Englsh prof told me I should make lit my major and my Math prof told me I should major in Math. What's a boy to do?

The answer: I dunno, but don't be a bum.

[Audley Strange]

Audley: Are we talking about good art or appeal to the masses?

Incidentally, (way back when I was.. intelligent a student) my Englsh prof told me I should make lit my major and my Math prof told me I should major in Math. What's a boy to do?

The answer: I dunno, but don't be a bum.

Screenwriting sadly is not an art. It is a technique that you use to turn a story into a set of directions for other people to follow. It's an instruction manual. It doesn't matter whether it is Citizen Kane or Transformers 3. Still at the same time you have to "hook" your audience with it being compelling.

Let me try to show you with an example.

(A) Scene. EXT. Lighthouse.
The light from the lighthouse scours the dark sky like a baleful searchlight. GEORGE sighs and lights a cigarette, he looks at Sarah with tears in his eyes. There is an unearthly roar in the distance.

GEORGE. "Can you hear it?

(B) Scene EXT Lighthouse.

The camera pans across a dismal cloudy night sky and the light swings across the screen like signifying the location.

Cut to/

We pan in tight on George, his face is illuminated by the cigarette he is lighting and revealing the the watery glint of tears. He takes a drag and blows the smoke out.

Pan back/

The camera pulls back, revealing both the door to the Lighthouse and Sarah. Both she and George react to an unearthly roar in the distance.

Cut to/

Close up of GEORGE looking terrified.

GEORGE "Can you hear it?"

(c)

Scene. Ext. Lighthouse.

A tracking shot across a night sky, a beam of light reveals the lighthouse from Scene 18.

cut to/

Close up. George (Lighting a cigarette) he has tears in his eyes.

Pan back./

Reveals Sarah.

GEORGE: "Can you hear it?"

A has no direction and C is all direction. B might look like the happy medium but what you really need to do is write your story. Then turn that into (A) Then write is again as (C) then finalise with something like (B). At least three drafts. It's actually quite hard work to get that right as a full story. A lot of people have story ideas. But turning that into a novel is hard enough, turning it into a screenplay is a different technique, turning it into a good screenplay relies on many things.

Also. Write a synopsis. This may seem obvious, but it pays off. Sometimes when I write I get into it and find myself going off point. However being that story is all in your head, you can often miss things that you know what they mean or suggest, but the reader viewer has no clue to because they don't have access to your story. A synopsis is good for the writer and the reader of screenplays.

Oh and primary advice. Don't write a screenplay unless you have to. Send in the synopsis and if anyone bites then get to work, hardly anyone has the time or patience to read them unless they have promise and you might find that they have people to turn your story into a screenplay for you. Also why waste your own time writing 90 or 120 pages on spec? That's 60 ideas you could be hitting them with. The more shit you throw the more will stick. (Not that I'm saying bombard them with 60 ideas, but if you get in the door it's always good to have more than one plate spinning.

If it's artistic integrity you're looking for screenwriting is NOT a good idea. Unless you make a ton of money first, then you can be all the auteur you want. It's the bottom of the heap. It's annoying and frankly difficult and time consuming and the chances of it getting anywhere are slim.

Frankly if it's cash you're after from writing and making a movie. Write something everyone had read a million times but for a specific target market then wait for someone to buy the rights.

[Jason]

I rather like A.. but then I'm of the 'Hemingway minimalist' school I suppose.

The light from the lighthouse scours the dark sky like a baleful searchlight; an unearthly roar sounds in the distance.

George looks at Sarah, sighs and lights a cigarette. "Can you hear it?" he asks.

[Scene EXT Lighthouse.]

That's actually very interesting. How else does a screenplay differ from a novel? Do you have to provide camera cues constantly? It sounds as if you have to 'pre-imagine' the film in your mind and provide instructions for the director.

[Audley Strange]

Yeah, it's almost like HTML in so far as there are things like EXT and INT for scene directions and various types of camera instuctions like smash cuts, tracking shots and the like. It differs in the same sense a play does, but more so since plays were essentially designed to be directed on a stage, but similar rules apply.

There are courses you can go on for screenwriting and they are utterly different from creative writing. One tells you how to be a mechanic, the other tells you how to drive.

[orpheus]

William Goldman's "Adventures in the Screen Trade" is a lot of fun, and full of very useful advice for all kinds of writers, especially screenwriters.

[Audley Strange]

Excellent book. Yes.

[hadespussercats]

All I know is, I've always been excited and intimidated by the possibility of storyboarding a screenplay.

I've never done it. Just sketch breakdowns of plays I was designing, back in the day.

Just putting that out there.

Anyway. Rachel, good luck with your writing! Don't tell us anything specific until you are beyond ready.

[Audley Strange]

All I know is, I've always been excited and intimidated by the possibility of storyboarding a screenplay.

I've never done it. Just sketch breakdowns of plays I was designing, back in the day.

Just putting that out there.

Anyway. Rachel, good luck with your writing! Don't tell us anything specific until you are beyond ready.

Yeah I know stage directors and set designers and storyboarders. It's work, hard work and it all works best when the influence is invisible but essential. I'd generally recommend to people that they don't undertake it unless they are really really certain it's something they love doing. There are much easier and quicker ways to fame and fortune.

As for storyboarding. Well I've not done that myself but I have done about 600 pages of a comic (so far) for my own entertainment as a hobby. It's really hard work and when you're demotivated you just can't work.

There is a lot to be said for just sticking to the rat-race.

[hadespussercats]

All I know is, I've always been excited and intimidated by the possibility of storyboarding a screenplay.

I've never done it. Just sketch breakdowns of plays I was designing, back in the day.

Just putting that out there.

Anyway. Rachel, good luck with your writing! Don't tell us anything specific until you are beyond ready.

Yeah I know stage directors and set designers and storyboarders. It's work, hard work and it all works best when the influence is invisible but essential. I'd generally recommend to people that they don't undertake it unless they are really really certain it's something they love doing. There are much easier and quicker ways to fame and fortune.

As for storyboarding. Well I've not done that myself but I have done about 600 pages of a comic (so far) for my own entertainment as a hobby. It's really hard work and when you're demotivated you just can't work.

There is a lot to be said for just sticking to the rat-race.

I'm not in the rat race. I'm a designer and a craftsperson, with a fancy degree and close to twenty years working in theatre. I paint, and I'm watching my kid.

I was just saying that if anyone were working on something and wanted to collaborate informally sometime for fun and maybe someday future profit, I could be into that.

[Audley Strange]

All I know is, I've always been excited and intimidated by the possibility of storyboarding a screenplay.

I've never done it. Just sketch breakdowns of plays I was designing, back in the day.

Just putting that out there.

Anyway. Rachel, good luck with your writing! Don't tell us anything specific until you are beyond ready.

Yeah I know stage directors and set designers and storyboarders. It's work, hard work and it all works best when the influence is invisible but essential. I'd generally recommend to people that they don't undertake it unless they are really really certain it's something they love doing. There are much easier and quicker ways to fame and fortune.

As for storyboarding. Well I've not done that myself but I have done about 600 pages of a comic (so far) for my own entertainment as a hobby. It's really hard work and when you're demotivated you just can't work.

There is a lot to be said for just sticking to the rat-race.

I'm not in the rat race. I'm a designer and a craftsperson, with a fancy degree and close to twenty years working in theatre. I paint, and I'm watching my kid.

I was just saying that if anyone were working on something and wanted to collaborate informally sometime for fun and maybe someday future profit, I could be into that.

Forgive me I wasn't saying you were. I knew you weren't. I was saying that the arts is a fickle business and though moderate success can be great, in a cost benefit analysis, it can be less effort and more money working in say a call centre rather than spending 18 months working on something speculatively.