/swg/ - Screenwriting General
How's your screenplay coming along, /tv/? Any ideas you'd like to share? Limited-time offer: post any interesting historical facts, plots, titles, phrases, or other ideas and I will offer free critique.
I fucked up and waited last minute to do a video project for my course and have NOTHING to show for it, and I'm trying to come up with an idea I can execute within the week (or today) as a one man/cast crew. Did something like this once with a bunch of stuffed animals, but I'm at a loss for a new idea as I wanted it to only have to rely on myself but still be at least somewhat enjoyable/entertaining. Willing to help you guys with your screenplays and share/critique any work previously finished. I PROMISE to help anyone who posts a screenplay or idea.
>Tell people I'm a writer
>Don't actually write anything
>Just think about the stories I want to write
Who else do this?
>>68649789
What kind of story ideas do you think about? Please be specific
I did a little writing tonight (on page 74) but I'm going to bed right now.
>>68649853
>What kind of story ideas do you think about? Please be specific
Too many to list and I don't think in specific genres. I have honestly outlined stories so extensively that I could probably finish the script in a fucking weekend if I actually sat down and started writing them. I honestly can't explain why I don't? What the fuck is wrong with me?
>>68649789
I was one of the finalists in a national writing contest, i placed in the top 6 ahead of some pretty famous writers in my country. It was my debut work.
I used to be like you, i thought about a lot of crazy plots, nice twists, planned everything in my mind and in the end got bored of those before putting anything on paper.
Instead of planning ahead and thinking, try just sitting in front of your computer and start writing a scene, a description of a place you didn't even think about beforehand, something like
The glacial winds froze everything in the hall. A couple of kids were lying dead under the sheet of ice, still holding each other close like they could share their body heat even after death.
Just doing that i find myself compelled to keep writing to justify why there's ice, what the fuck happened? I should describe the damn hall, where is this place? and everything gets way more exciting and it's easier writing stuff down without getting bored beforehand.
Also, that example probably sounds awful but English is not my first language.
>>68649941
Post the outlines, let's have a motivational critique session. This night could change someone's fortunes, anon.
>>68650194
>Post the outlines, let's have a motivational critique session. This night could change someone's fortunes, anon.
Nope.
They're complete stories with decent plots and relatively strong characters and ideas. As I said a motivated writer could complete the script in a weekend based on what I have.
>>68650159
Naturalistic plot-themer detected. Hope you can spin good prose because that's all you have. You'll never be Victor Hugo.
I'm in the process of editing a couple shorts, got one I'm planning on shooting over the summer (pic related) but something that's caught my attention was an idea I had about lucid dreams.
Now, from what little research I have on them I'm aware that they can be used to sort out problems in a person's life, so I want to sort of build off that and have a dude being guided through his problems by a mysterious stranger type, sort of revisiting his failures and learning how to get past them. I feel like I could have a lot of fun using trippy imagery in this case, like the opening scene is a bench in the desert with a guy in a suit sitting on it and a near-dead man in rags dragging himself along the sand. Try and have the scenery be representative of his issues.
>>68649607
That's a really interesting and fucked up image OP, thanks for sharing that. Although I suppose that sort of thinking led writers to be a lot smarter and more subtle about sneaking the good shit in.
I've just begun work on outlining and idea for a kaiju film. It follows 2 protagonists, a human and a monster. The human is one of many born into the military and trained to pilot mechs against giant monsters on Earth. There's essentially a monster apocalypse and only certain cities remain (Tokyo, for instance, is an abandoned wasteland of skyscrapers hiding hordes of giant monsters inside it).
Our human hero is the son of a military higher up and is an exceptional pilot. However, he starts to realize that people only like him because of his piloting skills, because he has always done what others wanted. No one knows who he actually is. He doesn't even know who he is, if he has a personality other than being a pilot. He starts to wonder about whether or not anyone is actually a real person with a real personality, or if we are all simply defined by what we do and how we fit in with others.
The monster is essentially a King Ghidorah type. A massive alien invasion occurs and they employ him as their ultimate weapon. They wipe out most of Earth's defenses including nearly all the mechs using their own army and the monster. It's revealed in flashbacks that the monster was genetically engineered along with a brother or something like that. They started using mind control therapy type shit on him early on and when he got old enough forced him to kill his own brother or w/e. He, like the human protag, has always done what he's told. He's a giant scary monster, but he's also just a simple minion, a pawn. He's never had free will.
Eventually the monster is taken down temporarily and the humans use this as a last ditch effort to defeat the aliens. In the final battle, all the mechs except the human protag are destroyed but they manage to defeat the invaders. (1/2)
>>68651953
The human protagonist, though, sick of only following orders and no one actually wanting to get to know him, swears off piloting and quits the military. He leaves the city, walking out into the wasteland like a hobo. At the same time, the monster regains consciousness and for the first time in his life doesn't feel the presence of the forceful alien mind control. He has free will and sentience of his own for the first time. He looks over the city (after like falling out of the exploding mothership I guess, need to think about that) and feels as if he has his whole life ahead of him. Then he notices the human military massing. They are terrified of him. They hate him. To them, he is pure evil. He might as well be the alien leader. They open fire on him and he tries to avoid it. But there's nothing he can do. They are everywhere. They can't hurt him, but they can destroy any sense of hope or individuality he has. So he succumbs. He decides that the aliens didn't do a good enough job making him into a weapon. He decides that if the humans want a monster, he will give them a monster. He unleashes apocalyptic hell on the last bastion of human civilization and there is nothing anyone can do.
Somewhere, out in the wasteland, with the city being destroyed in the background, the human protagonist walks on, not caring what happens to humanity or himself.
Now obviously the monster won't talk or narrate or anything, so I'm having some trouble figuring out how to show what he's feeling nonverbally. It's going to be a real challenge to write. Also unless I somehow actually get approached by Toho to do a Ghidorah movie with this script I plan on going for hard R rating with disgusting monster battles and tons of gore.
Thoughts/feedback appreciated
>>68650240
I really doubt you have to worry about something like that here, anon. Anyway, I am often in a similar position, tons of notes and stuff but no will to write. I'm more of a playwright than a screenwriter but it makes me feel like shit that I have essentially a complete play in my head and on paper but haven't actually assembled it yet.
>tfw the spec market is just fucking dead
it's dead. it's absolutely dead. the only option we have is making our own shit and i don't even drive so i'm fucked.
>>68652199
>tfw going to LA for 2 days in about a month and my travelling companion's cousin is a costumer there
You guys think I have any chance of getting her to show my shit to someone?
Anons how do I learn the ins and out of storytelling
>>68652253
watch more movies, figure out what story you want to tell, and use your knowledge to determine the best way to tell it
>>68652265
thx but i was more asking for like textbook stuff
the basic necessities of a story and its structure.
also
>watch more movies
do you think this has an effect on one's originality/creativity?
>>68652334
watching lots of movies has helped me become much better at analyzing them thematically and from a plot standpoint.
anyway i took a theatre class on script analysis which talked about all sorts of shit like the 6 elements of drama, the intro->complications->climax->resolution type shit, and beat breakdowns which show how tactics and meaning changes in just a few lines.
i guess it's useful but i already kind of intuitively knew all this stuff. i feel like it's ingrained in a human to know how to tell a story, at least on some basic level.
i have never read a book on screenwriting, i am not a fan of the dumb formula type things they often discuss
>>68652400
That's actually really comforting, thanks anon.
>>68651953
>He starts to wonder about whether or not anyone is actually a real person with a real personality, or if we are all simply defined by what we do and how we fit in with others
Wait what
>>68653047
Like, if you were told to do something, and people only ever wanted to talk to you about the thing you do because you were told to do it, would you feel good about being praised for being good at it? Or would you feel like you were forced into something and no one gives a shit about "you?" That if you didn't do that thing you are told to do, none of your friends would be there. So what if literally everyone is like that. What if there is no "you" but only the "you" other people create for themselves. No one knows who you are, they only know the "you" they create in their own mind
idk anon I'm drunk
b-bump
What is the recommended amount of speaking roles for a sellable/pitchable action/comedy script?
How much does it affect the budget??
I'm around halfway through the script but I've been having doubts about the amount of different characters (and also the many sets/sceneries) I have in it.
Based on the first 60 pages, the final draft will have:
1 main charcter (300-400 lines)
2 main supporters (100-170 lines)
5-6 supporting roles (40-80 lines)
10 semisupporters (5-25 lines)
6-12 oneliners
That is to say close to forty speaking roles.
For the sets/sceneries:
1 million dollar set (estimated)
~4-5 bigger sets
7-8 really different locations (nature, cities, desert, water, etc)
Is this something that scares producers?
Should I propose budget changes?
>>68653121
Cogito ergo sum
>>68653784
yeah yeah yeah but what do you think about? only about other people and outside influences. you are nothing without other people and other things. at least for me. if i lived in a black bubble in space and never knew anything of the world i couldn't think. and therefore i wouldn't be. see what i'm saying? what's to think about, other than things and people?
but that's not really what my script is going to be about. it's about 2 characters forced into roles they didn't ask for. one of them abandons this role, damning his world. the other accepts and even takes his role too far, becoming essentially a god of death. idk. i'm writing it cause i hate life
>>68653883
Just saying, Descartes's ultimate aphorism obsoleted this line of speculation in mainstream philosophy. It's still fun to play with, sure, if you don't care that you're wading in the kiddie pool.
Your MC should be a god of death who is also a vegan, and the death he deals is to plants.
