When their addict father resurfaces still spouting conspiracies of being followed, a family must grapple with what to do, but they soon find there might be some truth to his fears.
>Reminds me of an 80s neo-noir crime thriller like Year of the Dragon
are you serious? You don't feel the humour in this? It's basically a pasta with a joke in every line.
I'm writing a parody of Huis Clos. It's about three people trapped in a strange white room. A voice comes in over a loudspeaker and tells them they're in Hell. It's a character-driven film, with each one of the victims being forced to dig deep and confess their deepest sins. It's all darkly comedic and it's got a nice little twist ending, too.
Thoughts?
My work has been incredibly draining as of late - it's been hard to find time to write seriously when I'm pulling 60-80 weeks for months now. I'm trying to outline something in the meantime that is more of a personal project - it's going to be unmarketably expensive to produce and maybe not even that appealing, but it's an idea I've been kicking around for ages and ages and so it's helping to keep some of the passion alive.
I admittedly haven't wrangled the idea into a concise, catchy logline. If I had to try, it'd be something like: "When a superpowered celebrity soldier suffers an apparent mental breakdown, her devoted partner must put a stop to her rampage before a radical terrorist cell can use her as a weapon."
A lot of the appeal is in the setting for me - basically a broken down, devastated world where the presence of mutants and "superheroes" disrupted technological progress - and the twist this is actually an isekai - just from the perspective of the natives who hear the hero rambling about a fantastical world where scientists can split atoms and think she's out of her fricking mind.
I hope it actually turns into something good, even if it's not marketable as a screenplay, but there's something freeing about finally putting an idea to paper, like exercising a demon.
Sent it to my literary agent a few days ago just to get his thoughts. I know he doesn’t usually handle screenplays, but I wanted to get his thoughts at least since I’m going to build it into a novel. He might just be busy, but still the fact that he hasn’t responded yet is starting to annoy me. If he doesn’t have my back on this project I think I’m going to drop his ass.
Frick man it's so tough. I get an idea I think might work and then the more I think about it the more I realise there's no fricking way I can write 120 pages on it and I get all depressed.
HOW THE FRICK CAN ALL THESE HACKS DO IT BUT I CAN'T?
>it doesn't need to be 120 pages >start slow and do it modularly
Outline your story - the characters and what they generally do
Put in the specific scenes that you definitely want in there
Put in important dialogue
Take that and then just expand by writing it up properly. If it's a story that deserves being feature-length, that should be at least 30-40 pages.
Then figure out what it's missing. You probably haven't given proper characterisation to certain people or explained events. Do that until your happy that the it reflects what you want the story to be.
Haven't tried since the pandemic started and don't think I will anytime soon, the closest I got was writing a "treatment" and thought it was better and more fun than writing a screenplay, so maybe I should try writing short stories or a novel
Working hard. This one is all about balancing tone. The story is pretty straight forward, but I want the character interplay to feel genuine, heartfelt and earned. Things are going great, but right now I have to introduce perhaps the most important character in the script and it's going to be a juggling act getting this one right.
I actually plan on giving this to a friend of a friend of mine who works at WB soon so I can't share any original ideas. Imagine if someone checked the archives and saw the writer for the next big budget show or film was on Cinemaphile. Might get fired on the job lol. But I can share some of the DC comic adaptations since they're really just comic book films based on the source. >Green lantern 1 (either a season or a film) based on the story of Training Day
Have it be Hal Jordan starting out as a cop who wants to do more, he's looking for responsibility and he thinks he'll get the best training by being under the wing of Sinestro. Sinestro is praised as THE most respected Green Lantern and his students have become extremely respected and successful Green Lanterns themselves, being able to cut crime in all their respective sectors. He is granted permission by the Guardians to be trained by Sinestro who takes him around his home world of Korugar which appears to be crime free. Everyone upon seeing Sinestro bows and Hal realises some of them genuinely fear Sinestro. Sinestro plays it off as respect. Sinestro stages situations with some local enforcers to manipulate Hal Jordan into seeing the necessity of fear as a means of not only aiding the investigation of crimes but also preventing future crimes since it works as an effective deterrence. Sinestro claimed to have purged his home world of crime and claims the force used was not only justified but necessary. Throughout the film Hal slowly realises the earlier situations were staged. Sinestro attempts to pressure him into seeing the world his way but eventually Hal chooses to make the right choice and take Sinestro in. Its hinted somewhere in the story that Hal is not the first student so there's many students of Sinestro who agree with his worldview and will defect to the Yellow lantern corps in a future film or season.
If it is a series and not a film then it's possible to tell the comic accurate full story including the role Katma Tui played in leading a rebellion against Sinestro. It was the actions of Katma Tui which prevented Hal Jordan from being manipulated by Sinestro as he was able to do with everyone else. Possibly members of the rebellion attacking one of Sinestro's local enforcers which exposed the hoax situations that were created to manipulate Hal.
Maybe even imply there was some sexual tension between the two, you could possibly even give her a shining moment or two, but this is a Hal Jordan story. It has to be Hal Jordan who makes the big decisions and he chooses to investigate further, to do good police work, to not break his code and to realise that totalitarian rule, although it might reduce crime to a standstill, destroys the soul of the city and necessarily requires criminal acts by the Green Lantern and his local enforcers. Its unjust and despite it being effective, this type of rule is unjust. Hal chooses to stand up to Sinestro and uses his smarts to trick Sinestro into admitting what he's doing to a broadcasted audience of other Green Lanterns and the guardian. >slight facial reactions from Sinestro's students that hint their contempt for Hal but it's so slight that you don't realise until you look back at it
Everyone congratulates Hal and Hal thanks Katma Tui who is promoted to being the Green Lantern for sector 1417. In later seasons we see Korugar as a much more prosperous city.
It's very easy for this story to end up a bait and switch for Katma Tui to be the main character. She's not a Green Lantern yet but if she's extremely popular we could give her a TV series which shows her struggle ruling Korugar and how she's seen as a traitor by her people for joining the Green Lanterns.
Out of boredom during my commutes on the train for work I've begun writing pitches for films or groups of films, even TV shows, for different franchises. It's honestly a lot of fun and it makes the time flyby so fast.
I finished writing a spec script I'd like to develop into a miniseries. It's about a sjw in finishing his masters degree in the middle east. He meets Basher al Assad & slowly realizes he's not the villain western media makes him out to be.
>want to write a screenplay >realize that it's almost impossible that it will ever be bought >even if it's bought, it won't necessarily be used >even if they used it, the odds are that the director won't see it the way it's supposed to be and frick it up >or the actors will be stock actors that can't bring a character to life properly >or even if the director and actors are fine, the studio will demand it be fricked up in some way
Story by Robert McKee is kind of a meme, but it's unironically an excellent starting place when it comes to the artform. Syd Field's "Screenplay" and Lajos Egri's "The Art of Dramatic Writing" are also foundational texts that are worth reading.
As for formatting, there's plenty of resources online. This video is a basic enough intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CjlKQclsWo
No problem. As for ideas, that's going to vary from person to person, but it definitely helps to engage with the world (seeing new places, trying new experiences, studying real subjects and world/historical events) and to engage with other art (watching movies, reading novels, seeing an opera or listening to a symphony, going to the museum and admiring the paintings/statues, etc.). The more sources of inspiration you open yourself up to, the more opportunities you have to be inspired. It's also helpful to consider what kind of stories you like and want to tell - what are your values, what do you want the viewer to walk away with, etc. - as that'll guide the themes and characters you're drawn to most.
You should also try reading screenplays - start with screenplays for your favorite movies, for famous flicks, oscar nominated screenplays, etc. - to get a sense of how the pros write. They might break some rules on formatting and style (you generally shouldn't write like Shane Black or Quentin Tarantino unless you're at that level of success and power), but it'll help you familiarize yourself with the medium.
I'd say Rober McKee's book is the most definitive and "all-inclusive" package to spend time with.
Lajos's book helpt me to develop more of the core of the story and Syd Field feels more like "cliff notes" of the writing.
>want to write a screenplay >realize that it's almost impossible that it will ever be bought >even if it's bought, it won't necessarily be used >even if they used it, the odds are that the director won't see it the way it's supposed to be and frick it up >or the actors will be stock actors that can't bring a character to life properly >or even if the director and actors are fine, the studio will demand it be fricked up in some way
Anyone have success stories?
I wrote stuff I just thought was fun for me, got shit on for years by "film-school students". Last year I was hired to write my first film.
watch a movie you like and write it down. Write what happens on the screen, beat by beat, and how much it takes. You will see the structure much more clearly then. Do that exercise with a bunch of movies and THEN read screenwriting books. Blake Snyder, Syd Field and so on. Then start writing.
>And how do you lads find ideas?
watch Vast of Night. We have a thread here
[...]
about it. This movie does storytelling in the most clean and classic way. It starts with a guy who wants to get out of a small town because his ambitions are bigger. Then you put that into test through what happens to the character. Do that. Find a character and give him or her that central need or a flaw or a void and once you do that million ideas will come into your head, believe me.
Damn did you write a whole script for it? I'm planning on trying to squeeze myself in once I have a script for one relatively low budget DC show ready. I've got a rough few notes of the general direction of a DC universe and some story summaries but I've never written a script before.
Can you elaborate what your film or show is about? I wasn't really much of a flash fan so I'm not familiar with the story arcs revolving around Gorilla Grodd.
You either need to tighten up your action lines or wait until you're actually established before you take them on. You're not going to be able to sell massive, 3 hour long movies until you can get your foot in the door with shorter ones.
Be less descriptive for set pieces and costumes unless it's vital to the story. Chop up your sentences too. Instead of saying "the city was filled to the brim with impoverished souls trapped under the weight of it's concrete confines", you would say "The city... Sprawling, disheveled, suffocating" or something like that.
I hate that shit. For instance, I've written a funny shower scene where the main character clumsily drops the soap. It implies he's homosexual, which the audience knows isn't true. He's just nerdy, like you and me. So when he picks up the soap he starts to talk with it in a stupid childish voice >oh, my slippery friend, lucky we're at home and not the other place...
What I dislike is that when the soap bounces on the shower floor I want the camera to catch a glimpse of a used condom lying there near the drain so those in the audience that notices the condom begin to think "wtf, why is there a used condom there? what does it imply?" even though it has almost nothing to do with the rest of the story in any way, it just paints an interesting picture of the character.
I know this is a stupid detail, but I think the details matter.
I should have clarified being vital to the character and story. If you explain your character is wearing a black band t-shirt, blue jeans, grey socks and a blue baseball cap and he walks into a moldy bathroom with an upright shower, two sinks with a grey bathmat and a dirty toilet, 90% of that is unnecessary. You could just say he walks into the bathroom and gets in the shower. Remember, it's only partially about what you hate/like about your screenplay, if you want it read and produced you need to expect that the person reading it reads a hundred scripts a day and is looking for a reason to throw yours in the garbage. Don't give them a reason to get frustrated and feel like it's a slog.
2 years ago
Anonymous
>90% of that is unnecessary
wrong
didn’t read the rest of your gay ass shit btw
2 years ago
Anonymous
Okay, good luck with your "my straight character is in a situation where he's made to look le gay" ""comedy""
2 years ago
Anonymous
Seethe about it until the day you die (which will also be the day you stop dilating, grim)
I've gotten 3 done this year. One of them needs a complete rewrite, I was going to do it but I had another idea that was do clear I put that one on the shelf and finished the new one in 3 weeks and it's actually my best one, hardly needed any rewrites. Planning for 2 more to be done by the end of the year and then I'll revisit everything I've done up until that point with the skills I've acquired through writing the new ones and hopefully I'll be ready to shop them around by this time next year
Would any real agent read my script if I was willing to pay 5-10k for them to read it as well as being able to present a rough financial film budget for it along with an estimated revenue based upon the amount of potential viewers?
They would make a movie and if it makes any money you hire a lawyer and sue for copyright infringement. If your lawyer is good the studio will pay you off to settle the case.
There was a post on plebbit where a guy says that his friend wrote and made Reminiscence back in 2012, under the name Memory Lane (or something similar). He says that basically his friend tried suing but since Reminiscence was a flop, there was nothing to sue for.
r/antiwork/comments/sszat8/build_traps_for_employers/hx12q96/
you should not be paying agents - they make their money by selling you to producers, studios, etc. - and any agent who would take that money is robbing you blind.
>estimated revenue based upon the amount of potential viewers
I've read that only liars can promise their films can make money so be careful about that.
it's delivered by a hot woman dressed in sexy and revealing clothes who presents images on a screen that corresponds with the tune and meaning of the speech
Working title: The Nameless
Logline: A squad of G.I.s finds a map that takes them to the uncharted territory during Vietnam War.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11pwX9WL1wf8ALwPZeqlh6qA2wPpvmIaZ/view?usp=sharing
Tell me what you think, it's the opening and first draft.
it's very readable, dialogue sounds great and thanks to all the vietnam movies you can easily visualize what is happening. But you lack a hero. The most basic rule of the story is that what happens to the guy is related to who he is. I don't see that guy in there. If what happens in that uncharted territory can just happen to anyone and it doesn't change shit then it's not even a story, you know what i mean?
I guess just adding a line to the opening defining more of his looks would do the trick, and not hammer him in the same ball as everyone else exits the copter.
2 years ago
Anonymous
seethe + cope + dilate + ratio
L
2 years ago
Anonymous
we should know more about him on the 20th page too. But like i said, it's readable with good dialogue. You're going into right direction.
>I think its quite clear Abel is the protagonist
that's the problem. It's not clear. You should have some bits of description that would establish his POV in a transparent manner and also give us more info about him.
Having difficulty narrowing down the dramatic throughline with this one. Seems like a lot of character-building without enough focus on what they're doing and why they're there. The result feels like a lot of noise about nothing in particular.
You could also do some work cleaning up your prose.
I've got scripts. I've got several features and I plan on writing more.
How do I make the shift into the professional world and start selling these things?
>Write screenplay >Change your last name to something like Katz, Goldstein or Silverberg >Move to LA, wear yarmulke and start attending synagogue as physically close to Hollywood as possible >Ask around afterward and mingle with others about how you have a screenplay you're trying to get turned into a feature film
mfw i remember writing a cringe script about sportsbetting in film script class and we all got into groups of 4 and read each others script and commented on them holy cringe
I'll share one of my babies.
I wrote this a few years ago. It's about a boy who meets a Rusalka (a Slavic mythological creature, basically a mermaid with normal legs). The two go on an adventure together hiding from secret agents and trying to get her home.
These are the scenes where they meet for the first time.
https://docdro.id/r7KiBZV
I really love the setting. It takes place in the fictional countries of Republica and Newlynd. I did quite a bit of worldbuilding. I'm thinking of sending it into screenwriting competitions but It's something I want to direct, not something I want to sell, so that might not be worth it. Maybe one day I'll get to make this film.
that one doesnt look too good mate, sounds moronic
Quite well actually. I'm on page 54, shooting for 100 pages.
Pretty sure that's a stock photo.
have a nice day troony
sorry there’s no interracial love scene
just kidding i’m not
have a nice day troony
/thread
I must be loyle to my capo.
Who's gonna be brave and post some of their work?
Not me.
Frick it, need coverage anyway.
When their addict father resurfaces still spouting conspiracies of being followed, a family must grapple with what to do, but they soon find there might be some truth to his fears.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qAwzjkSAy5LYgNw7QHu5AWABcvtIVRgx/view?usp=sharing
meds
i am a fan of this but dont understand what fish stick pinching is
chopsticks my guy
>I now you've had a lot of doubts
>I now
This is painful
Rate my Batman script please
No, have a nice day capeshitter.
and the disbelievers lost.
the end.
bump
This is pretty good actually. Reminds me of an 80s neo-noir crime thriller like Year of the Dragon. Keep up the good work
>Reminds me of an 80s neo-noir crime thriller like Year of the Dragon
are you serious? You don't feel the humour in this? It's basically a pasta with a joke in every line.
>Chin Bong
Kek
Kek
always cracks me up. Pure comedy gold. I could read 500 pages of that.
this is amazing
moses ingram as Chin Bong
>he ain't got time for that
>I ain't got time for that
kek
Fund it
>The office is nice and Asian
Please post more anon, I would watch this movie in theaters and bring my friends if it was ever made.
I didn't make that, It's an old /swg/ meme. I'm pretty sure there are more but that's the only one I have.
>Save it, Chin Bong.
Absolute kino.
I'm writing a parody of Huis Clos. It's about three people trapped in a strange white room. A voice comes in over a loudspeaker and tells them they're in Hell. It's a character-driven film, with each one of the victims being forced to dig deep and confess their deepest sins. It's all darkly comedic and it's got a nice little twist ending, too.
Thoughts?
Doesn't sound like much of a parody, sounds good though.
I read Lew Hunter's Screenwriting 434 about a decade ago. That is all.
My work has been incredibly draining as of late - it's been hard to find time to write seriously when I'm pulling 60-80 weeks for months now. I'm trying to outline something in the meantime that is more of a personal project - it's going to be unmarketably expensive to produce and maybe not even that appealing, but it's an idea I've been kicking around for ages and ages and so it's helping to keep some of the passion alive.
Log Line?
I admittedly haven't wrangled the idea into a concise, catchy logline. If I had to try, it'd be something like: "When a superpowered celebrity soldier suffers an apparent mental breakdown, her devoted partner must put a stop to her rampage before a radical terrorist cell can use her as a weapon."
A lot of the appeal is in the setting for me - basically a broken down, devastated world where the presence of mutants and "superheroes" disrupted technological progress - and the twist this is actually an isekai - just from the perspective of the natives who hear the hero rambling about a fantastical world where scientists can split atoms and think she's out of her fricking mind.
I hope it actually turns into something good, even if it's not marketable as a screenplay, but there's something freeing about finally putting an idea to paper, like exercising a demon.
>and the twist this is actually an Isekai
Sent it to my literary agent a few days ago just to get his thoughts. I know he doesn’t usually handle screenplays, but I wanted to get his thoughts at least since I’m going to build it into a novel. He might just be busy, but still the fact that he hasn’t responded yet is starting to annoy me. If he doesn’t have my back on this project I think I’m going to drop his ass.
How did you get a literary agent? Querying got me nowhere...
I’ve published short stories
I’ve never paid him a dime
Lmao a fool and his money, holy frick dude get a grip.
>fellas
shut the frick up homosexual
Frick man it's so tough. I get an idea I think might work and then the more I think about it the more I realise there's no fricking way I can write 120 pages on it and I get all depressed.
HOW THE FRICK CAN ALL THESE HACKS DO IT BUT I CAN'T?
read save the cat and break it into chunkable pieces.
>it doesn't need to be 120 pages
>start slow and do it modularly
Outline your story - the characters and what they generally do
Put in the specific scenes that you definitely want in there
Put in important dialogue
Take that and then just expand by writing it up properly. If it's a story that deserves being feature-length, that should be at least 30-40 pages.
Then figure out what it's missing. You probably haven't given proper characterisation to certain people or explained events. Do that until your happy that the it reflects what you want the story to be.
Haven't tried since the pandemic started and don't think I will anytime soon, the closest I got was writing a "treatment" and thought it was better and more fun than writing a screenplay, so maybe I should try writing short stories or a novel
written two feature length scripts but realized that none of them will ever get made so i started writing short stories instead tbh
Working hard. This one is all about balancing tone. The story is pretty straight forward, but I want the character interplay to feel genuine, heartfelt and earned. Things are going great, but right now I have to introduce perhaps the most important character in the script and it's going to be a juggling act getting this one right.
>being that homosexual with a screenplay tgat always brings it up for no reason
any good free screenwriting softwares?
writerduet
thanks
share some
I actually plan on giving this to a friend of a friend of mine who works at WB soon so I can't share any original ideas. Imagine if someone checked the archives and saw the writer for the next big budget show or film was on Cinemaphile. Might get fired on the job lol. But I can share some of the DC comic adaptations since they're really just comic book films based on the source.
>Green lantern 1 (either a season or a film) based on the story of Training Day
Have it be Hal Jordan starting out as a cop who wants to do more, he's looking for responsibility and he thinks he'll get the best training by being under the wing of Sinestro. Sinestro is praised as THE most respected Green Lantern and his students have become extremely respected and successful Green Lanterns themselves, being able to cut crime in all their respective sectors. He is granted permission by the Guardians to be trained by Sinestro who takes him around his home world of Korugar which appears to be crime free. Everyone upon seeing Sinestro bows and Hal realises some of them genuinely fear Sinestro. Sinestro plays it off as respect. Sinestro stages situations with some local enforcers to manipulate Hal Jordan into seeing the necessity of fear as a means of not only aiding the investigation of crimes but also preventing future crimes since it works as an effective deterrence. Sinestro claimed to have purged his home world of crime and claims the force used was not only justified but necessary. Throughout the film Hal slowly realises the earlier situations were staged. Sinestro attempts to pressure him into seeing the world his way but eventually Hal chooses to make the right choice and take Sinestro in. Its hinted somewhere in the story that Hal is not the first student so there's many students of Sinestro who agree with his worldview and will defect to the Yellow lantern corps in a future film or season.
Part 2.
If it is a series and not a film then it's possible to tell the comic accurate full story including the role Katma Tui played in leading a rebellion against Sinestro. It was the actions of Katma Tui which prevented Hal Jordan from being manipulated by Sinestro as he was able to do with everyone else. Possibly members of the rebellion attacking one of Sinestro's local enforcers which exposed the hoax situations that were created to manipulate Hal.
Maybe even imply there was some sexual tension between the two, you could possibly even give her a shining moment or two, but this is a Hal Jordan story. It has to be Hal Jordan who makes the big decisions and he chooses to investigate further, to do good police work, to not break his code and to realise that totalitarian rule, although it might reduce crime to a standstill, destroys the soul of the city and necessarily requires criminal acts by the Green Lantern and his local enforcers. Its unjust and despite it being effective, this type of rule is unjust. Hal chooses to stand up to Sinestro and uses his smarts to trick Sinestro into admitting what he's doing to a broadcasted audience of other Green Lanterns and the guardian.
>slight facial reactions from Sinestro's students that hint their contempt for Hal but it's so slight that you don't realise until you look back at it
Everyone congratulates Hal and Hal thanks Katma Tui who is promoted to being the Green Lantern for sector 1417. In later seasons we see Korugar as a much more prosperous city.
It's very easy for this story to end up a bait and switch for Katma Tui to be the main character. She's not a Green Lantern yet but if she's extremely popular we could give her a TV series which shows her struggle ruling Korugar and how she's seen as a traitor by her people for joining the Green Lanterns.
studiobinder’s site has a webpage based one that works really well for free, just save pdfs often to have offline backups
kitscenarist
Out of boredom during my commutes on the train for work I've begun writing pitches for films or groups of films, even TV shows, for different franchises. It's honestly a lot of fun and it makes the time flyby so fast.
Finished and put it away this Crime Thriller/Road Movie and started the next one
Considering a proof of concept shoot and options to fund/drum up interest via festivals and the like
>we pan
>we see
>POV
don't write camera directions
I’m the director bud :^)
link some films you've done 🙂
As opposed to most screenplays out there...
most screenplays don't, you should read some
This right here is proof you don't know what you're talking about. Here's a free (you)
aight bud keep writing those camera directions im sure your little stories will get noticed by the big boys any day now
>we see
is not a camera direction
It seems horribly derivative.
People don't talk like that. Or act like that.
sweet, tender dennis
Why does no one on this site have any passion anymore?
I have passion. I've created stuff. I've posted them here. But the return you get isn't encouraging.
Just draw a comic from your screenplays. israelites of hollywood just throw their newly bought screenplay into that pile.
I finished writing a spec script I'd like to develop into a miniseries. It's about a sjw in finishing his masters degree in the middle east. He meets Basher al Assad & slowly realizes he's not the villain western media makes him out to be.
It's like Girls meets Lawrence of Arabia
i'm sure it was funny in your head
oh you didn't find my logline funny? god I'm devastated.
Wasted
Is everyone here 12? this is a serious question
and you're also seething lol
go bac
>get worried my Chan peers might out do me
>the plots are either outlandish drivel or derivative drivel
Do better guys
Most people don't have the talent to write good screenplays, it's all about connections and your name
i must be loyle to my capo
You ever feel like nothing good was every gonna happen to you?
>want to write a screenplay
>realize that it's almost impossible that it will ever be bought
>even if it's bought, it won't necessarily be used
>even if they used it, the odds are that the director won't see it the way it's supposed to be and frick it up
>or the actors will be stock actors that can't bring a character to life properly
>or even if the director and actors are fine, the studio will demand it be fricked up in some way
Anyone have success stories?
All your entertainment has always been gay, Cinemaphile.
Not well, I'll never be the next Max Landis...
Writing kino for a low budget and few locations is the real challenge
I've accidentely written a 140 page CIA script
what should the next step of my master plan be?
If you wanted to learn to write a screenplay, where would you start? And how do you lads find ideas?
Story by Robert McKee is kind of a meme, but it's unironically an excellent starting place when it comes to the artform. Syd Field's "Screenplay" and Lajos Egri's "The Art of Dramatic Writing" are also foundational texts that are worth reading.
As for formatting, there's plenty of resources online. This video is a basic enough intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CjlKQclsWo
Appreciate it.
No problem. As for ideas, that's going to vary from person to person, but it definitely helps to engage with the world (seeing new places, trying new experiences, studying real subjects and world/historical events) and to engage with other art (watching movies, reading novels, seeing an opera or listening to a symphony, going to the museum and admiring the paintings/statues, etc.). The more sources of inspiration you open yourself up to, the more opportunities you have to be inspired. It's also helpful to consider what kind of stories you like and want to tell - what are your values, what do you want the viewer to walk away with, etc. - as that'll guide the themes and characters you're drawn to most.
You should also try reading screenplays - start with screenplays for your favorite movies, for famous flicks, oscar nominated screenplays, etc. - to get a sense of how the pros write. They might break some rules on formatting and style (you generally shouldn't write like Shane Black or Quentin Tarantino unless you're at that level of success and power), but it'll help you familiarize yourself with the medium.
I'd say Rober McKee's book is the most definitive and "all-inclusive" package to spend time with.
Lajos's book helpt me to develop more of the core of the story and Syd Field feels more like "cliff notes" of the writing.
I wrote stuff I just thought was fun for me, got shit on for years by "film-school students". Last year I was hired to write my first film.
how is production on Rimjob Beach Twunks 29 coming by the way?
watch a movie you like and write it down. Write what happens on the screen, beat by beat, and how much it takes. You will see the structure much more clearly then. Do that exercise with a bunch of movies and THEN read screenwriting books. Blake Snyder, Syd Field and so on. Then start writing.
>And how do you lads find ideas?
watch Vast of Night. We have a thread here
about it. This movie does storytelling in the most clean and classic way. It starts with a guy who wants to get out of a small town because his ambitions are bigger. Then you put that into test through what happens to the character. Do that. Find a character and give him or her that central need or a flaw or a void and once you do that million ideas will come into your head, believe me.
My flash /gorilla Grodd script is kino
Too bad WB refuses to take my calls
Damn did you write a whole script for it? I'm planning on trying to squeeze myself in once I have a script for one relatively low budget DC show ready. I've got a rough few notes of the general direction of a DC universe and some story summaries but I've never written a script before.
Can you elaborate what your film or show is about? I wasn't really much of a flash fan so I'm not familiar with the story arcs revolving around Gorilla Grodd.
I've got all big ideas for superb long films, but how do I minimize em into screenplays for short flicks?
You either need to tighten up your action lines or wait until you're actually established before you take them on. You're not going to be able to sell massive, 3 hour long movies until you can get your foot in the door with shorter ones.
>tighten up your action lines
thanks, but can you explain exactly what this means?
Be less descriptive for set pieces and costumes unless it's vital to the story. Chop up your sentences too. Instead of saying "the city was filled to the brim with impoverished souls trapped under the weight of it's concrete confines", you would say "The city... Sprawling, disheveled, suffocating" or something like that.
I hate that shit. For instance, I've written a funny shower scene where the main character clumsily drops the soap. It implies he's homosexual, which the audience knows isn't true. He's just nerdy, like you and me. So when he picks up the soap he starts to talk with it in a stupid childish voice
>oh, my slippery friend, lucky we're at home and not the other place...
What I dislike is that when the soap bounces on the shower floor I want the camera to catch a glimpse of a used condom lying there near the drain so those in the audience that notices the condom begin to think "wtf, why is there a used condom there? what does it imply?" even though it has almost nothing to do with the rest of the story in any way, it just paints an interesting picture of the character.
I know this is a stupid detail, but I think the details matter.
I should have clarified being vital to the character and story. If you explain your character is wearing a black band t-shirt, blue jeans, grey socks and a blue baseball cap and he walks into a moldy bathroom with an upright shower, two sinks with a grey bathmat and a dirty toilet, 90% of that is unnecessary. You could just say he walks into the bathroom and gets in the shower. Remember, it's only partially about what you hate/like about your screenplay, if you want it read and produced you need to expect that the person reading it reads a hundred scripts a day and is looking for a reason to throw yours in the garbage. Don't give them a reason to get frustrated and feel like it's a slog.
>90% of that is unnecessary
wrong
didn’t read the rest of your gay ass shit btw
Okay, good luck with your "my straight character is in a situation where he's made to look le gay" ""comedy""
Seethe about it until the day you die (which will also be the day you stop dilating, grim)
I've gotten 3 done this year. One of them needs a complete rewrite, I was going to do it but I had another idea that was do clear I put that one on the shelf and finished the new one in 3 weeks and it's actually my best one, hardly needed any rewrites. Planning for 2 more to be done by the end of the year and then I'll revisit everything I've done up until that point with the skills I've acquired through writing the new ones and hopefully I'll be ready to shop them around by this time next year
Would any real agent read my script if I was willing to pay 5-10k for them to read it as well as being able to present a rough financial film budget for it along with an estimated revenue based upon the amount of potential viewers?
Every real agent would, then they'd take your money, wait a week, and call back telling you it's trash.
Then if it was any good they'd pass the idea onto a producer they know and get a kickback for it.
and then what?
They would make a movie and if it makes any money you hire a lawyer and sue for copyright infringement. If your lawyer is good the studio will pay you off to settle the case.
There was a post on plebbit where a guy says that his friend wrote and made Reminiscence back in 2012, under the name Memory Lane (or something similar). He says that basically his friend tried suing but since Reminiscence was a flop, there was nothing to sue for.
r/antiwork/comments/sszat8/build_traps_for_employers/hx12q96/
you should not be paying agents - they make their money by selling you to producers, studios, etc. - and any agent who would take that money is robbing you blind.
>paying someone 5-10k to read your script
lolwut.
it's a twisted script from a perverted mind, it could be a dangerous read
>estimated revenue based upon the amount of potential viewers
I've read that only liars can promise their films can make money so be careful about that.
I decided to become a twitch streamer instead of a videogame developer or scriptwriter. It's not goin' well.
is it ok for a screenplay to have 5-8 minute speech in the mid of an action movie?
I mean, Chaplin made it with his dicktator-movie, and so did Paddy Chayefsky in Network, and also Stone with the greedtalk in Wall street?
5-8 minutes seems excessive especially for an action movie, but I'd really have to see the speech in context to be sure of that.
it's delivered by a hot woman dressed in sexy and revealing clothes who presents images on a screen that corresponds with the tune and meaning of the speech
So it's more of a montage than a monologue. I can see that working.
Working title: The Nameless
Logline: A squad of G.I.s finds a map that takes them to the uncharted territory during Vietnam War.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11pwX9WL1wf8ALwPZeqlh6qA2wPpvmIaZ/view?usp=sharing
Tell me what you think, it's the opening and first draft.
it's very readable, dialogue sounds great and thanks to all the vietnam movies you can easily visualize what is happening. But you lack a hero. The most basic rule of the story is that what happens to the guy is related to who he is. I don't see that guy in there. If what happens in that uncharted territory can just happen to anyone and it doesn't change shit then it's not even a story, you know what i mean?
I think its quite clear Abel is the protagonist, everything happens TO him and he's even the opening 'shot'.
Because what they're doing doesnt matter, they're G.I.s and the inciting incident pulls them to the story.
If what they're doing doesn't matter, why make a movie about it?
I think you have reading problems.
Wrong. have a nice day. Your posts are all gay as frick and so are you. Ratio
Never mind I was wrong, you sound like you have mental problems. Seek help.
I guess just adding a line to the opening defining more of his looks would do the trick, and not hammer him in the same ball as everyone else exits the copter.
seethe + cope + dilate + ratio
L
we should know more about him on the 20th page too. But like i said, it's readable with good dialogue. You're going into right direction.
Thank you fren, and thanks for reading.
>I think its quite clear Abel is the protagonist
that's the problem. It's not clear. You should have some bits of description that would establish his POV in a transparent manner and also give us more info about him.
Having difficulty narrowing down the dramatic throughline with this one. Seems like a lot of character-building without enough focus on what they're doing and why they're there. The result feels like a lot of noise about nothing in particular.
You could also do some work cleaning up your prose.
I've got scripts. I've got several features and I plan on writing more.
How do I make the shift into the professional world and start selling these things?
I'm still trying to figure that part out - let me know if you find the answer.
No screenplay, but I am apporximately 25% of the way into writing a book.
>Write screenplay
>Change your last name to something like Katz, Goldstein or Silverberg
>Move to LA, wear yarmulke and start attending synagogue as physically close to Hollywood as possible
>Ask around afterward and mingle with others about how you have a screenplay you're trying to get turned into a feature film
Would it work?
no, ~~*they*~~ can smell the goyim from a mile away.
What fricking screenplay? Im making a video game
mfw i remember writing a cringe script about sportsbetting in film script class and we all got into groups of 4 and read each others script and commented on them holy cringe
Just write a book. None of you have any Hollywood connections to actually get your screenplay made.
This board has still never topped the goat
I'll share one of my babies.
I wrote this a few years ago. It's about a boy who meets a Rusalka (a Slavic mythological creature, basically a mermaid with normal legs). The two go on an adventure together hiding from secret agents and trying to get her home.
These are the scenes where they meet for the first time.
https://docdro.id/r7KiBZV
I really love the setting. It takes place in the fictional countries of Republica and Newlynd. I did quite a bit of worldbuilding. I'm thinking of sending it into screenwriting competitions but It's something I want to direct, not something I want to sell, so that might not be worth it. Maybe one day I'll get to make this film.
meds. now
my fricking sides
bump