Any of you guys a screenwriter? I have written, does that make me screenwriter?
Max Landis, are you here?
>>63196106
You don't have to be an author to be a screenrocker
>>63196106
i would say yes
>>63197788
Max?
>>63196106
You haven't put your name under Screenplay so you can't be a screenwriter.
>being an aspiring writer
Oh god what is wrong with you OP
What is wrong with me
i think that the most hard job is be a screenwriter this is too shitty.
>>63198431
You get better.
Unfortunately, it doesn't get better.
Post screenplays. Here to give advice.
>>63196106
I'm writing a short, but unsure if the locals could actually act what I've written.
>>63196106
>Guys
>>63196106
Got some inspiration from the last thread I was in, trying to finish this script now
First time I've actually felt like I was putting a little bit of my own struggles with depression into the characters. Now, writing this about a school shooter that might not be the best thing, but I actually feel like I'm working on something real.
I'm always afraid my dialogue's gonna be shit. Might be an issue since half the script seems to be mainly dialogue.
I'll post when I'm done, and not a second before.
I'm not the only one into musicals, am I?
>>63199770
Fade In:
A movie begins.
Fade Out
The End.
Whaddya think?
>>63201130
Never tried to write one, but I enjoy musicals, yeah.
>>63201130
No, some of us are also gay.
>>63201153
Formatting's pretty shit, m8.
>>63201190
It's about the story anon, once it's sold a new writer cleans up the formatting.
In total I've written more than half a million words
At what point do the other writers start giving up and I start winning?
Cause living like a NEET is getting old and generic Adderall + hentai is a poor substitute for the cocaine and hookers Hollywood promised me
>>63201295
It usually takes like writing 10 screenplays before you sell something.
What drug is good to write?
>>63196106
we're not telling you our ideas
>>63201418
I take it you haven't seen Where the Dead go to Die
>>63201418
to write with? Nicotine. Smoking really helps give you focus when writing.
Why do you think so many writers are smokers?
>tfw I have two great ideas haven't even started writing yet
How important is having a great idea vs. writing a great screenplay?
>>63201545
Planning your writing is more important than just hammering away at the keyboard. Structure is very important.
>>63201545
Gonna second >>63201585 here, plan your shit out.
>>63201585
Eh. There's something to be said for nutting up and doing it. I believe that almost everyone has a pretty good -idea- for a story. Execution is the actual nitty gritty of it
>used to write all day, every day
>got praised on all sites i'd post on
>stopped writing because it was a dead end
>now can't even write a page without losing momentum
JUST
>>63201739
Just try to find your flow again, read your old scripts and see what made them work.
>>63201418
coffee
adderall
ritalin
>>63201153
>not 'The End?'
You fucking hack.
>>63201075
It's always shit the first time, you just need to rewrite a few times.
I hope all of you are at least trying to produce what you write and not just writing in a vain attempt to "make it" in hollywood
>>63201739
>got praised on all sites i'd post on
How could you give all that up?!
>>63201545
Read this:
>>63201585
I'm so sick of two of my friends who just start writing something and then hope that it's good.
They just are so convinced that what they are writing is interesting, that they get pissed when I think it's bad or not interesting.
I told them what most writers/creatives would say is essential:
Get a noteboock/sketchbook and write down anything that you can think of it, no matter if it's bad or good. Write it down physically, so you are forced to hold a thought longer, enabling your brain to to make new connections.
But no, all I ever hear is: "DUDE I STARTED WRITING THIS SCRIPT! IT'S GOOD, LEMME SHOW IT TO YOU! LMAO"
I have a lot of ideas, but I don't know how to start writing.
Should I just write the story and then work on a script?
>>63202807
This is it. It's 10x harder to write a good script when you haven't experienced actually putting the words to visuals.
>>63202807
Started university six months ago. I'm still not allowed to get most of the equipment, but I am getting there.
I've got the advantage that I am interested in visuals and sci-fi/horror/supernatural stuff and that I can build my own elaborate sets and costumes (and the workshops of this university are open to everyone and really good) which is something that makes it easier to grab attention on the internet.
>>63202836
Temporary health problems that lasted for months. Better now, but writing seems to be shit now.
>>63201153
Nah...
FADE IN
EXT. THE WORLD - DAY
Things happen, people live and die, conflicts burst out, love is found.
FADE OUT
END.
>>63202904
Look up screenplay structure then write a story outline based on that. Then write the script. Or just write the script first and learn from that. Whatever works for you.
>>63202904
There are many steps you could go start developing a story.
1) Logline: Describe your story in just one compelling sentence
2) Exposé: Write somewhat of an essay about what your story will be like.
3) Outline: Outline your story in sinple cards.
4) Write your frist draft: It's shit, I'm sorry to tell you.
5) Rewrite until the [n]th draft: Great, you got a screenplay.
How do I write a fight scene into a script without giving either too much or too little detail?
I recently got a sparring sword as a gift, and I wanted to use it as a prop.
>>63202875
Planning is good but there's an element of steering the boat with writing. What seems like a good scene in concept may end up bad in context.
In my opinion second, third, fourth, and fifth drafts solve everything.
Writing the script the first time - that's your "planning" phase.
>>63203078
>Writing the script the first time - that's your "planning" phase.
Maybe this works for your, but for most people it definitly doesn't, they just go nowhere.
>>63203064
Well what the fuck are you trying to do buster brown? Sometimes more detail is appropriate given what you're trying to accomplish with the scene
If you're trying to write a gritty fight scene then you can write
CHUCKLEFUCK PICKS UP SWORD, AND STARTS WAILING ON DIPSHIT
But if you're going for bushido bullshit you may have to be more specific
>>63203156
Thanks, that helps a bit.
>>63203121
If they can finish a first draft, then they can write a second draft which is a better version of the first draft.
>>63203192Almost none of the people I met ever really finished a solid first draft that was worth shit and when they did "rewriting" they just worked on details in scenes.
>>63203229
Nigger you need to find a more competitive peer group, second drafts should lean closer to "complete rewrite" than anything.
>>63203192
If you do it this way, you could ramble on for pages without any clear goal or destination.
What you are saying is using drafts as a way to find the story structure, rather than working out the structure then writing the draft. It arse backwards.
I've written many pages of screenplay and they were shit. I have ideas for scenes but not how to make them make sense.
>>63203510
It's not ass backwards. Remember, it's a first draft. You're allowed to ramble.
You see this issue come up in writing novels. See, most publishers won't look at any manuscripts longer than 120k words, so a ton of writers do all they can to make their first serious novel less than 120k.
But what you actually GET from this, STORY and CHARACTER wise, is a jumbled rushed mess.
It's true, exceeding 120k will yield in a bloated story, but I say better to make a bloated first draft and trim the fat with a rewrite than to make an undernourished script.
Working on a script that's gone through different iterations, it's called Almost Blue or Kyoko After Dark.
It's about a hafu(white/japanese) girl who visits Los Angeles to live with her brother, only to find him missing,
helped by another hafu(same) vagrant, she navigates through the city to try and find her brother.
I've written this about 5 times and every time the script comes up to about 60 pages, i'm angry at myself constantly and I'm never
satisfied with how the story is going.
The protagonist is Lillian Kyoko Marvin, she's a woman in her mid-thirties who's always running away from things, especially when they get bad. Abandoned by their mother at an earlier age, the two of them struggled to mold an identity for themselves. Kyoko, hoping to make a fresh start comes to Los Angeles and room with her brother while she makes plans for herself.
I guess what I want to tell is a story about a woman, and her struggles in life, but I don't want the mystery to be the central point of the story. I'd like this to follow her more, the story I have in mind is kind of like a David Foster Wallace/Dostoyevsky/Gogol/Max Ophüls/Kenji Mizoguchi/Krzysztof Kieślowski/Edward Yang/Kubrick film
I don't want it to be an atypical noir with all it's cliches.
>>63203824
Hmm well that does make sense. Read enough scripts to see many a scene omitted.
>>63202783
I'd imagine so.
Something I'm noticing as I research these guys, these school shooters, is that each and every one of them is just...they're edgy as all fuck. Not a single one of them feels regret for what they've either done or are about to do.
It's giving me ideas for this character, the shooter: What if he failed completely, his rampage ended before it began, and he has to deal with the regret of knowing that his "final mark on the world" left him crippled and bedridden, and having to talk with the guy who did that to you? What kind of toll would that take on a person, especially a kid?
>>63203973
Now keep in mind I'm just defending my philosophy about it. There's tons of people who go full excel spreadsheet and do a fantastic job at being efficient.
>>63203922
Sounds high brow and challenging. You may want to write more simple stories first.
>>63204160
No, I understand. I'd rather have a lot of different points of views and ways of doing things, than nothing at all.
>>63204160
Why?
would you guys watch a movie that is 120 minutes of a man trying to sum up the courage to tell his mother that he no longer wants to be a fashion designer and that he instead wants to work in the coal mine?
>>63204478
Because you're too caught up on the story being "cliche."
The most important thing for you to do is finish a script in a semi-coherent manner. It will help you grow as a writer and it will help you realize what your story is.
If you can't get past 60 pages even after multiple iterations, then it's time to go for something new. Something more workable.
FWIW, the shit that I've written without outlining has always garnered more positive feedback than the stuff I've planned out extensively. Diving right in definitely does work better for some people IMO.
>>63204589
If it's written well I'll watch damn near anything.
>>63204621
Some write on the edge of their seats, some plan it out.
The most important thing is to DO IT
>>63204589
sound like a french movie
Wrote a screenplay about a black boxer facing racial tension in Baltimore in the 1980's about 2 years ago. References to Rocky and Raging Bull were made, but I was mostly inspired by Native Son to be honest. Kind of surreal at times, like parts where characters get knocked out and hallucinate explosions of fireworks.
Yeah I was kinda pissed when Creed came out.
>>63204799
There's always a market for boxing, Creed ain't shit. Course, that means there's probably millions of other boxing screenplays out there.
>>63204594
I mean it ends at 60 pages, the end of the story.
>>63204799
>writing a script about aliens in the wild west
>cowboys and aliens comes out
fuck you assholes
I've written a screenplay that should be close to an hour and a half long and about 50% of the scenes is separated by a week (sometimes two) and the whole thing taking place over a span of two months or so. My biggest problem is that almost each scene ends in a dissolve or fade out and it just feels like far too much.
What would you guys to convey a sense of passing time like that without using so much dissolve or fading out? Do you think it's even necessary?
>>63204872
Oh, ok. You wrote "I'm never satisfied with how the story is going", so I presumed you weren't finished.
60 pages is awfully short for a screenplay, though. A 100 minute film will typically run about 90-110 pages.
>>63204799
That sounds cool as shit tbqh
>>63203922
Could you put more writers and directors that you are trying to emulate in your post please, asshole? I don't quite understand what it is you're going for.
>>63204980
I used to be able to write a full length screenplay, but I'm having trouble now a days.
I outline and it still doesn't help.
I try to go the Coen brothers way.
>>63205253
Well shit homie. I'm a real Meat and Potato kind of guy. I follow convention, I don't go too long and I don't go too short. If you're doing some alternative kind of screenwriting then you might need alternative kind of advice.
All I can say is that the concept you have, for better or for worse, is not one that will be undone by cliche.
>>63205451
Can you explain that last sentence to me? I'm trying to figure out if you mean I need cliche or cliche won't help.
>>63205628
I'm saying that your idea isn't going to live or die on cliche.
It's about a Hafu and there's a mystery plot, but there's slice of life elements, great. A sense of exploring the world and one's self, identity, fine.
That's what people will come into the work expecting. You can subvert those expectations, or you can deliver on them, it doesn't matter.
What does matter is that the route you choose ends up being effective.
>>63203156
For the sake of argument, let's say bushido bullshit.
>>63206273
Then yes, you're going to have to use more detail.
But to be very blunt, at that point a director/fight choreographer is going to determine the scene's effectiveness, not you. The most you can do is just define the direction and emotional beats of the scene, even when the fight is intended to be technically complex.
For example
SOLOMON SCREAMS AS HE RUSHES KENPACHI RAMA SAMA, THRUSTING HIS KATANA AT HIM WITH WILD ABANDON
KENPACHI-RAMA COUNTERS SOLOMON'S PANICKED STRIKES WITH PRECISE PARRIES, SLOWLY BUT SURELY GAINING THE ADVANTAGE
>>63205842
You're right on that.
I guess at the heart of it, I want the character trying to break the cycle of abuse that plagues her family.
She's the granddaughter of Lee Marvin.
>>63203556
Reread everything. Look at what works, what doesn't work, and what you're trying to say/do.
Take notes. I'm serious, take notes. What do you like about this scene/idea? What don't you like about this scene/idea? Does this dialogue seem fitting for the character? Yadda yadda yadda. It's all gonna be useful for the rewrite.
Now do the fucking rewrite. Now that you're done, take a couple days/weeks/months/decades off to distance yourself from the script. When you get back to it, reread, take notes and rewrite. Repeat the process until you either hate yourself or you feel comfortable showing it to others.
The first draft is shit, it's going to be shit. That's a guarantee, which is why you rewrite. The second draft will be better, if only marginally. The third draft can get really improved, and I'm sure that those who haven't stopped rewriting by the 2nd draft will have done so by the third draft. Continuing after this is optional, but I'd recommend getting other people's feedback on the third draft if you're planning on making a 4+ one.
