Writer's Strike - Affects People Outside WGA?

Originally Posted by DeSica
So was the point of the film that the guy had been shot, passed out, and dreamed everything until he awoke to find himself back in the present, only to be finished off by the shooter?
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Blaine said:
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I, too, found this ending odd and confusing. It tended to negate everything other than the first shot of the shooting leading up to it.
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Plus didn't we already see that "surprise ending" in "Incident At Owl Creek Bridge"? LOL
 
Hahahah someone caught on! lol Yes, I adapted the Incident at Owl Creek Bridge in my film, along with several other ideas meshed into one lol
 
"Freddy's Nightmares" ran an episode about a fast-food clerk who weirdly and fragmentarily keeps reliving the night of his own murder by a rampaging shooter. Reminds me of that, too.

I think it's Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Bierce, right?
 
In my vast worldly experience with screenwriting, here's how things break down: You write and write and write. You write as much as you can. You submit the hell out of your scripts, querying to each and every agency you want to. You do this day and night. You wait by the phone, expecting a phone call. You watch the mail box, expecting a letter.

Breaking in takes time. It's not writing a good script that'll get you in, it's writing a GREAT script.

In September, I began working on a new script of mine. After lazily working on it, I finally finished it in December after cracking down on it. I met up with a independent production company, luckily who would accept unsolicited scripts, and spoke to the president of the company about my script. Really nice guy. Unfortunately, he told me they were currently busy at the moment with scripts and production and wouldn't be able to accept the script. I said that's fine. I plan on giving it some time, then trying again with them. Just because it was a "no," doesn't mean it stopped me. It shouldn't stop anybody.

We may all believe our first scripts are utter crap (some people don't agree; I, for one, thought the first draft was bad, but I still love the story and work with it to this day). It's just getting it out there that's a pain in the ass.

Q, I'd advise you not to disrespect or speak unkindly of the fellow members on this board -- I know, I've only been on here for a month -- but these guys know what they're talking about. Put together, they outshine you in all ways possible. They have more experience put together than you could possibly muster. You need to take their advice. You need to listen to it. And you need to work with it.

I still think you should submit the living daylights out of your scripts. You may want to submit to big agencies everywhere, but here's a little piece of advice from me: query to a smaller agency. Someone not too large, and someone not too small. Look for an agency around where you live. Use what they've got. Maybe if you've got a short film you want to work with, they could set things up for you. Let's say you do get an agent from a small agency, take the next step: work up the ladder. Start submitting your other scripts to bigger agencies now that you're represented.

I hope this helps.
 
Sad Max said:
"Freddy's Nightmares" ran an episode about a fast-food clerk who weirdly and fragmentarily keeps reliving the night of his own murder by a rampaging shooter. Reminds me of that, too.

I think it's Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Bierce, right?
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IMDB lists both "Occurence" and "Incident"
 
Turnpike said:
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I still think you should submit the living daylights out of your scripts. You may want to submit to big agencies everywhere, but here's a little piece of advice from me: query to a smaller agency. Someone not too large, and someone not too small. Look for an agency around where you live. Use what they've got. Maybe if you've got a short film you want to work with, they could set things up for you. Let's say you do get an agent from a small agency, take the next step: work up the ladder. Start submitting your other scripts to bigger agencies now that you're represented.

I hope this helps.
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Robert Heinlein wrote that the secret to being a successful writer was to submit your work and keep submitting it until it sold. He suggested one should make a list of all possible potential buyers and group them into A, B, C, and D lists. Submit your piece with your real name on it as author to the first name on the "A" list and if rejected, submit to the next and so forth until the group was exhausted. Then change to a secondary "nom de plume" and repeat the process with the "B" list. If still unsold, another name change and take it down the "C" list. Repeat until you get a cheque in the mail instead of a rejection letter. If I remember his essay correctly, he said he used about a dozen different pen names depending on the market he was submitting to.
 
No Golden Globes this year, cause of the strike. I guess the Oscars will go on delay too.

Someone told me that the Directors' are preparing a strike to start right after this one ends.

Anyone heard of this? Or it's just rumors?
 
The Golden Globes are a pain in the ass to most everyone who has to be involved with them. Advertisers are pissed, and the studios are unhappy because they have to pay on all the stuff they had reserved for the show and ancillary events, but I doubt you'll find any production professionals or many actors who give a tin sh*t about the Golden Globes, one way or another.

I suppose the Oscars(tm) might be another story. But really, it's not like the awards won't be voted upon or handed out this year; it's just a question of whether Ma and Pa Couchpotato will get to watch them being handed out. So unless one's looking at it from a network producer's or advertiser's or a home-viewer's perspective...who really gives a crap?
 
Yeah, :).

I'm kinda suspicious towards the Oscars.

I mean it's strange that Scorsese wasn't awarded for Taxi Driver or Raging Bull or Last Temptation of Christ or Goodfellas or Casino but was awarded for The Departed.

The latter was a bit crappy, IMHO.

And this quote by Thomas Newmann really made me laugh:

At the 79th Academy Awards, Newman appeared in the opening segment by Errol Morris correcting a claim that he had been nominated for and not won an Academy Award eight times: "I've lost seven times; tonight it will be eight."

Newmann is one of the finest.
 
The Academy Awards plays politics like crazy.

Scorcese should have won long ago, but the problem was that every time one of his films came up, politics trumped it. So they gave it to him for The Departed, but it's more like they're honoring the films they couldn't honor before.

They did this with Denzel Washington & Halle Berry as well, they didn't get Oscars for the films they deserved it for, politics, but were given Oscars a film or so later for an unrelated and much weaker role.

Doesn't really matter what it's for, though, since as long as you get one, you're pretty much set for life.
 
Cate Blanchette, too. They gave her an Oscar(tm) for Elizabeth, but presented it to her as if it were for The Aviator...
 
LOL. I've read 8 pages of this dribble and have one comment. It is with regards to probably the most important point in this thread.


sadmax said:
...and the self-loaders that chamber it look distinctive.
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Not true. .357 is simply a drop in barrel for my HK and many other handguns. Almost always a .357 autoloader is indistinguishable from a 9mm, .380, .40, or .45, aside from the larger/smaller opening at the front.

Now that the important part is out of the the way.....


...since as long as you get one, you're pretty much set for life.
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So true.


boat_trip.jpg

daddy_day_camp.sized.jpg
 
Sorry, I had in mind .357 rimmed self-loaders, which (I think?) are still unusual.

It's true that a self-loader chambering .357 SIG, or .357 AutoMag, or whatever, will look more or less like any other pistol.
 
No prob. I wanted to contribute something more to the thread, but I think it's all been sufficiently covered.

No argument on the Cuba front, though, I see.
 
And Hitchcock never got an Oscar - this monster of a director.

If Hitchcock never got an Oscar, why would anybody ever want one?!

:grin:.
 
Mattykins said:
I did not post this for you. The only reason I am up now, at 2:30 AM, and typing is issues with my ex and I am trying to figure out what to do about it. So basically I am trying to keep my mind off of it. Thus my long response. No other reason than that.
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Well, I thank your ex, then. That was a very informative read-on, here at 3:48 am.
 
Mattykins said:
I also found something else in your tutorial. The tripod thing, you actually kinda want to stay away from that. Nothing screams student film louder than locked down shots. Note: Cloverfield, or Borne Ultimatum. :)
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I've noticed student films often go the other way, unmotivated camera moves, any excuse to check out that jib arm or steadycam.

I disagree that a locked down shot is the hallmark of amateur filmmaking. I've seen too many features that go that route. It's not as popular as it once was but by any measure, locked down basic framing is as viable as ever.
 
Brian, I made an addendum on a post following it.

I should rephrase, I am talking about the general locked down, poor frame shot typical to student films, poorly composed. The camera, in my personal opinion should be one with the scene. Haha, yes Loki, nothing wrong with sticks. I use them all the time, just need to know how to use them, and how to compose. Just saying handheld can and is used by hollywood and Quigon stated is not the case in the tutorial.
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Well, I thank your ex, then. That was a very informative read-on, here at 3:48 am.
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Haha, that makes one of us :D
 
Maybe it's insistence upon a moving camera, when a locked shot would be an adequate or better choice, and choosing a locked shot, when a moving camera would be the better choice, that marks out poor student work...
 
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