"The Rooster" - by J. Van Auken

[Hans Moleman]

Well, rough draft's done. I've started working out a little ritual I use to iron things out, and I think it works pretty well.

[Hans Moleman]

I made some pretty big leaps today as far as crew. Let me just say right now that Craigslist is effing fantastic.

[DJ Lewis]

Glad to hear things are moving along. Care to share your trick for beating your script into submission?

[Hans Moleman]

Alrighty, consider this a mini lesson:

My building has a white, sterile, boring as hell laundry room.

Being a guy, I haven't done laundry this year yet, so I brought my jeans and whites down. That's a 25 minute cycle each, then 45 a piece to dry.

I sit there with a dramatic problem worksheet I put to everything I write, my script, and a pencil. I'll also have a diet coke and m&m's if I have the cash.

Since it's 3 am, there are zero distractions.

I go through the worksheet step by step, which gives me a 'technically correct' script, at least in terms of basic western narrative.

Then, I go through, line by line, and mark things that I catch on. Words that I don't like, etc. Make sure everything makes sense.

This time, I had to be very character intensive, so I made sure I avoided conversation by making sure each character has a goal, and a method of achieving said goal.

I also included voice over, and the rule (apparently) with voice over is that the script should be able to make sense without it, or at least not seem comically random. So, that was ironed out a little bit.

In the end, my nebulous concept based off a song written by a guy who did a LOT of heroine turned into a screenplay that a friend of mine called "very moving." So that's good.

[DJ Lewis]

diet coke, m&m's dramatic problem worksheet, heroin. Got it.

Wait.. plain or peanut?

[Tom Marshall]

Cool poster you've got there and it's good to see that you've got a rough draft done. Best of luck!

[Hans Moleman]

Plain. I'm trying to watch my figure.

Anyway, made some calls today, and it looks like we might be able to reserve a soundstage to shoot on, which means we'll have to construct the interiors, but it'd be pretty spec-freaking-tacular to be in a studio for once.

[sfoster]

I'm curious about the worksheet. Care to post??? Or is it your secret to awesome scripts that will give you the power to conquer the world. . . or save it. It all depends on you!!! Whoa, now I'm ready for the next herofest!

[Hans Moleman]

might as well. 30k a year on filmschool might be worth something to someone.

[Hans Moleman]

Here you go. For absolutely freaking free, I'm posting the standard screenwriting worksheet given to me by screenwriter Richard (Hank) Boland. I got this in my screenwriting class, which is 3 credits hours at columbia, which comes in around 3 grand. I really believe that if there is a section on this sheet you can't answer, you don't have a script.

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