Advice for a Beginner

[Nektonic]

Not sure about all of the train stations, but I remember pulling into the train station in Nice, France (on the south coast) and getting a modern shower there, hot steamy water, oh man that felt so good after spending the night on the train. Lots of people sleep on the train during overnight train rides which are easy to do between major cities, save on hotel, arrive in a train station and shower and/or pack your stuff in a locker and then hit the town for the day. Buy some bread, cheese, mil and hop on the train and you can travel cheap if you can handle the bohemian lifestyle.

Thanks for the detailed info Randall. Maybe I'll plan a European train trip for next year.

I recently found a blog I really enjoy. The author reads unproduced scripts then gives his thoughts on the script. And not just whether he liked it or not, but why he liked it or didn't like it; what did work, what didn't work, etc. And many of the posts have a link to the script so you can read it yourself ... good source for scripts. Here's the link:

http://scriptshadow.blogspot.com/

Same here, just recently found out about scriptshadow. Great resource for taking a peek at some unproduced scripts that have either sold or are generating buzz around Hollywood. It is one thing to read a produced script by a well known writer, but another type of perspective is gained when you can read successful scripts that haven't been put in front of the camera yet (I say successful due to someone wanting to buy these things, not that all of them will necessarily get made).

 

[lambert]

Having a group of friends talking about producing your screenplay is a great motivator. I would echo the response to not wait on books to arrive to start writing. Hit the local library, might be able to save some cash.
Also early in the process I find it very useful (before scenes are written) to use index cards with setting/ scene description. I lay them out on a table and rearrange them. Many people use this technique. Use a pencil to number the cards (so you can change them) Europe is great. Randal makes me want to go back. I had my first Guiness in a bar in London (age 15) the day the Falklands war started. For cheap travel I highly recommend south of the border for the writer (get away from the u.s. border). Nothing like getting on the first bus out of a town after the road has been reopened from guerilla activity or travelling with a beautiful woman you just met. Living with Huichol shamans and being offered a wife. You can make very intense relationships for a day or a week or a month and move on. Much like actors/crew sometimes on a film set . You can pack a lot of living into a short amount of time that will inspire you for a long while. Screenwriting can be a great adventure whether you hit it big (whatever that means) or just get a satisfying table read, or a short film you wrote that you are proud of. Sorry for ramblin' a bit, Randals posts made me remember how neceassary travel for me is to the writing process.

 

[Per-Aage Braun]

If you want to be really good - and this i critical - make sure that you always always, during the next 20 years or so, have at least one project to work with

 

[lambert]

Hey my screenwriting history isn't particularly special or prosperous but it doesn't deserve to be made fun of .
At 23 I had a stageplay I wrote produced, nothing big, but an actor/writer was in it (he had recently had a screenplay he wrote optioned by a tv director). This actor/writer hired me to rewrite the script with him. Over the next 2 years we wrote a couple of screenplays together based on short stories he'd written (I write dialogue that actors are into). I also wrote feature length screenplays on my own. This actor/writer did a big budget movie as an actor and became friends with an A list actor who was forming his own production company. This emerging A list actor loved the work of the writer/actor and hired him to write a film for him (I was brought on after that). Over the next eight years we did about a project each year (all features, none produced). I've written for several other actors and directors you may or may not know. Last year I wrote a few shorts for a working actor to direct. He directed one the them (being mixed now) and has hired me to write a feature for him to direct and produce. Peace

 

[Minitrini]

Someone made fun of you?

 

[lambert]

You know its all good. I'll assume I misread the post and move on.
Has anyone else found value in taking acting classes when they started writing? Mamet and Pinter were failed actors who became playwrights/screenwriters.

 

[JonathanLB]

Being somewhat new to attempting to write feature screenplays, at least (I wrote part of one before, for a class, plus a complete outline and complete scene description -- if you ask me, it sucked hardcore, but that's because the teacher wouldn't really let me make it how I wanted and it ended up being both of our ideas / visions and that was kind of a mess), I wondered if I could ask a question here and hope that it does not seem like threadjacking.

Basically I was wondering for beginners like us, should we just write screenplays that can be filmed on almost any budget level? I mean, for instance, should a new writer only write a screenplay that can be done for $100,000 or more? I have a comedy I'm working on now, it qualifies as something I could self-finance and direct, which I will probably do frankly, and could be done for $100,000 or it could be done for $50 million if a studio wanted to do it and hire A-list talent, etc. You get the point, but what I'm saying is it's very flexible. Now I have another screenplay outline / story concept that I've been mulling over for at least two years now, it's really something I consider like my masterpiece, not to make it sound like something I know is going to be huge for me, only that the idea is fantastic, has never been done before, and incorporates basically a number of things that are important to me and that I believe have relevance. It would be both artistic and commercial, something like a Minority Report, incorporating philosophy (and in this case character drama) into a sci-fi framework, and like Minority Report the sci-fi is necessary not for the sake of "cool gadgets" or any of that nonsense but because the crux of the story depends upon scientific developments / advancements that have not yet been made. So as much as I'd love that not to be the case, it simply must be set in the future, and that automatically makes it a higher budget endeavor. In other words, it is the kind of thing where even if you handed me $5 million and said go make your movie, I'd probably say I don't think I could do it justice for that little money. It would be a studio picture, or it wouldn't get made.

So is it too risky to write a script like that? Is it stupid / ill-advised to write a script that has a much smaller potential number of buyers because of its prohibitive budget? Or is it something where you'd say if you can pull it off, and make a great script / story, then you should go for it on the side at least because it's worth the risk of just your time? I hope that question seems clear. I'm just wondering because I would at least like to put it on paper for myself, in the next year to year and a half, and let it be something I work on behind-the-scenes while doing my real production work, so that if the opportunity ever arose I would have it. I just feel so strongly about the story itself and about the way I want to do it that I almost feel like it must come out of me, like what if i got hit by a bus tomorrow, and the story dies with me. I'm sorry that probably sounds really stupid, I'm only meaning to communicate that it is meaningful to me and I believe it has mass commercial appeal as well, but for the future (not just this script) it would be good to know if most screenwriters are saying that it's much better to just write scripts that can be filmed inexpensively.

 

[Eximious]

Fantastic threadjack, but you do deserve your own thread if you ask me.

Just write. Don't worry about your sci-fi epic's budget. Even if it never gets picked up, writing it will have honed your own mastery of the craft. It's the director's job to translate your vision to the screen. It's your job to have the vision. You can always adapt your screenplay to a novel if it's really that good.

But, you're not really asking whether or not you should write your masterpiece. I'm assuming you actually want to know what the best path is to gaining enough traction in the industry to have a good shot at actually realizing your vision. Here are a couple of avenues:

1. Go all-out with screenwriting. Write low budget, mid budget, high budget. Shorts, features, whatever. Just let the ideas flow and never let them stop. Do everything people mentioned in this thread and more.

2. Writer / Director. Write more low-budget stuff and direct it. Direct commercials, television shows, music videos, whatever. The problem here is you have to be great at both, but the skillsets aren't completely different. The two jobs may hone one another.

3. Novel. Go all out with writing, but try to publish your masterpiece as a novel. About half of all produced movies are based on adaptations. If your novel has any success, you'll have a good chance at adapting it to a screenplay and gaining interest in the industry.

4. Mostly Direct, but forge a lasting working relationship with a great writer. You enjoy directing, right? Writers love it when directors respect their vision and don't order last-minute rewrites on something they've worked on for a year. This is a risky avenue, but hey, it might merit consideration.

Whether you write your masterpiece now or later is really the trickier question. If it really is a good idea, you'd hate to flub the execution, wouldn't you? You can always write the scene outline / treatment, but I'm not sure if that would satisfy your craving to write the damn thing. Or maybe it is a good idea, but after writing it, you'll get even more? It's just that if you write it now, and it's not good, are you going to be able to move on? Some writers re-write and re-write for years without actually improving their skills. They get mired in their "babies." But only you know you.

I hope my big ol' pile of inane rambling holds some nugget of useful information for you. Either way, good luck!

 

[Nektonic]

1. Go all-out with screenwriting. Write low budget, mid budget, high budget. Shorts, features, whatever. Just let the ideas flow and never let them stop. Do everything people mentioned in this thread and more.

In reference to JonathanLB's question, I think this sums it up pretty well. Not every script you write has to fall under some specific budgetary category. Plus, unless you can personally produce/direct more than one feature film a year, then how does it really hurt you to write something just for the sake of writing it and not self-producing it? Sometimes it is very healthy to have a passion project on the side to go to when you get frustrated with your main project (think of it like having a mistress, only you won't get in trouble with the wife/girlfriend).

I had the same dilemma hit me about six months ago. After much mulling, I finally decided that it is better to write screenplays based on what I feel passionate about, no matter if the actual film will require a 200 million dollar budget or a 2,000 dollar one.

Now, let's say you get this sci-fi script out there and Hollywood agents or development execs show some interest. Even if a studio doesn't feel confident enough to bust out their wallet and make your big budget sci-fi film, they might still love the story and actual execution of it on paper, thus opening the door for you to get rewrite/adaptation work. This seems to be how a lot of professional screenwriters break in. Very few of them actually sell a spec. The ones that do, that spec rarely gets produced, if at all possibly years after they've been established in the industry.

 

[RockmanX3]

After much mulling, I finally decided that it is better to write screenplays based on what I feel passionate about, no matter if the actual film will require a 200 million dollar budget or a 2,000 dollar one.

Exactly. I heard too many writers nowadays are trying to copy all of the popular stuff in Hollywood and not writing what they care about in fear that it may not appeal to audiences.

All of my friends are literally telling me to copy The Hangover and other raunchy movies, but I think I'll let those people do their thing while I do mine.

 

[JonathanLB]

Nice

Nice

Hey,

Thanks for the advice! Yeah my first love is directing, I guess, but maybe it's a tie because I have very little interest in directing anything I don't write. It's just not interesting to me. I want to be a writer-director, and I can more imagine selling a script and not directing it than directing someone else's script, I guess. That's mainly because I can picture having good ideas that I like, writing them as scripts, but not being too attached to want to direct them myself every time. As was mentioned, I could only really make one feature per year probably anyway, so if I was able to write more than that I would never be able to make them all myself anyway.

I think it cannot hurt to turn this one idea into a script, even if it has to sit on the sidelines and really go nowhere, at least it will be done and maybe one day I will get to make it. I don't think of anything I'm going to do as some sort of "masterpiece," I guess I'm not sure the word I'm looking for, but I see it as the project that most interests me, an idea that I don't just have and say "oh that's good," but that I really believe in and feel must be made. Other ideas I just think basically oh this is a really fun idea, it'd make a good story, and that's that.

I know that writing screenplays is difficult, as writing any complete work is, and I also know it's probably about like a lottery as far as trying to sell a spec script or win a big contests, etc. That being said, I feel like it's an added avenue, perhaps one of the best, to make it into the big leagues, so to speak. That's because I simply don't have the money to make project after project, as a director, it costs a lot of cash. Any short film I make is going to be $5,000 to $25,000, and a feature is going to cost me $100K to $250K depending on what I try, and that is some serious money. But I can write screenplays for free, just using my time, which I have, and so I feel like almost that's a new set of opportunities. As much as it costs is whatever you spend entering one script into a series of film festivals / competitions, which isn't significant to me, and if you can rack up some wins there maybe you at least get representation or get some connections. It's a really good way I think to give yourself extra chances.

 

[Per-Aage Braun]

It´s important to develop ones sense of originality - do you want a script that will sell or a script that you can be proud of. Btw all the really really succesfull movies are based on a script withs much originality in it

 

[JonathanLB]

The thing to remember, too, is that you don't have to sell your spec script to break in to the business. You can write something original and great that has no chance of ever selling that can get attention and lead to assignments and the like.

A lot of people broke in on scripts they were never able to sell.

That makes sense. If someone recognizes talent, it may be reason enough to sign you as a writer or something but not necessarily guaranteeing that the particular project will go anywhere.

I guess what I would like to do is write stories that I personally love, and I really don't care that much about trying to write specifically for Hollywood. Now don't get me wrong, I am NOT going to write really off-the-wall, non-commercial fare, actually my tastes are usually more mainstream anyway, but I like to incorporate a few messages into work that has broad appeal, like Minority Report for instance was a highly commercial project but it was also philosophical and interesting. It can be done and I think should be done. In any case, I'd like to write stories that I find compelling or interesting, that adhere to the basic rules and structure of proper screenwriting, while also offering some originality hopefully, and more than that I would like most of the work to be possible for me to produce and direct.

I am not suggesting that when I write a script, I must direct it, and would never consider selling it or something like that. I want to write them to be readable to outsiders, not just for me, so following all proper conventions, but that being said I'd prefer to write stories that I could make for $100K to $500K rather than one that requires a $50 million budget and very well could never be made. I just like the idea of writing stories I could afford to tell one day, and those budgets ranges are not out of the question.