Ted Spencer
Veteran
You may have to wait a while on your answer. Kyle hasn't been posting here much lately...
Sold it! My screenplay--finalized deal this week!
- Thread starter kylekmd
- Start date
You may have to wait a while on your answer. Kyle hasn't been posting here much lately...
Martay
Veteran
Ted Spencer
Veteran
Right! Along with his medical practice... : )
kylekmd
Well-known member
You're both correct.
I've been busy with a write-for-hire project, just finished on FEB 22 and now I'm moving on to a pretty cool original horror script. Hopefully, an indie prodco will pick it up because I like this one a lot. And I've been busy at work opening another imaging center. Not enough hours in the day.
I don't recall the exact timeline GRENCH.... but I spent 8 months writing it, sent it out, and within 3-4 months (if memory serves) I had an agent and a deal on the table. Seems like a long time ago.
Here's a file link to AWARD WINNING SCREENPLAYS & OTHER NOTABLES (someone asked for this, I think)
http://www.filefront.com/15739501/AWARD-WINNING%20SCRIPTS%20%26%20OTHER%20NOTABLES.zip
If you're looking for the pdf with screenwriting notes, it's long gone. Sorry. Last year I found it circulating online, with added material that wasn't in the original copy.
Take care guys,
K
I've been busy with a write-for-hire project, just finished on FEB 22 and now I'm moving on to a pretty cool original horror script. Hopefully, an indie prodco will pick it up because I like this one a lot. And I've been busy at work opening another imaging center. Not enough hours in the day.
I don't recall the exact timeline GRENCH.... but I spent 8 months writing it, sent it out, and within 3-4 months (if memory serves) I had an agent and a deal on the table. Seems like a long time ago.
Here's a file link to AWARD WINNING SCREENPLAYS & OTHER NOTABLES (someone asked for this, I think)
http://www.filefront.com/15739501/AWARD-WINNING%20SCRIPTS%20%26%20OTHER%20NOTABLES.zip
If you're looking for the pdf with screenwriting notes, it's long gone. Sorry. Last year I found it circulating online, with added material that wasn't in the original copy.
Take care guys,
K
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Great info!
Ted Spencer
Veteran
Is there anywhere we could read some examples of your work? I realize this one may be legally off-bounds for now, but I'd love to get a sense of your writing. I bet it's every bit as good as your recent success implies...
Sherri Sheridan
Member
Way to go Kyle! Thanks for the credit on using the Writing A Great Script Fast DVD Workshop. You were my first workshop sale! I consider it a good sign you sold a script. Keep selling scripts - it looks good for me. Now you have inspired me to do a survey to see who else has sold scripts. I know of a few others. And please thank me again in your Academy Award speeches if you have time. (Just kidding!) Everyone is so proud of you for giving them hope for the same possibility and thanks again for the credit.
There is a new article going up soon on MyFlik.com called "How To Write For 3D" (from Student Filmmakers Magazine April 2010) with a focus on Avatar for anyone writing for 3D. There are also over 3 free hours of Writing A Great Script Fast videos, and a free 50 page workbook you can download. Lots of libraries are now getting the workshop too, so ask your librarian today and start a film group and do 1 DVD a week. It works and will save you lots of time reading screenplay books. There is also a 10 minute movie on the homepage that covers the Hero Journey plot points from Vogler's book mentioned by Kyle above in his sources.
There is a new article going up soon on MyFlik.com called "How To Write For 3D" (from Student Filmmakers Magazine April 2010) with a focus on Avatar for anyone writing for 3D. There are also over 3 free hours of Writing A Great Script Fast videos, and a free 50 page workbook you can download. Lots of libraries are now getting the workshop too, so ask your librarian today and start a film group and do 1 DVD a week. It works and will save you lots of time reading screenplay books. There is also a 10 minute movie on the homepage that covers the Hero Journey plot points from Vogler's book mentioned by Kyle above in his sources.
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kylekmd
Well-known member
In all fairness, Sherri, I didn't use your DVD course. My intent was to review it for a screenwriting website, but I never got around to it because of time constraints. Sorry about that. I read your book, though, and liked it. That's the biggest problem with this business... not enough time.
I slaved for 12 years learning the craft, writing one crappy script after another. Talk about discouraging. I wanted to quit many times. It's a hard, humbling road--IMO, much more difficult than other professions. If any books or authors or gurus deserve credit, it's these:
Paul Lucey, STORY SENSE
Stanley Williams, THE MORAL PREMISE
Russin & Downs, WRITING THE PICTURE
John Truby, BLOCKBUSTER 22 STEPS & THE ANATOMY OF STORY
Christopher Vogler, THE WRITERS JOURNEY Book & DVD
Michael Hauge, THE HERO'S TWO JOURNEYS DVD
Blake Snyder, SAVE THE CAT series
Dara Marks, INSIDE STORY
Rob Tobin, HOW TO WRITE HIGH STRUCTURE HIGH CONCEPT MOVIES & THE SCREENWRITING FORMULA
M.C. Walker, POWER SCREENWRITING
Karl Iglesias, WRITING FOR EMOTIONAL IMPACT Book & DVDs
Paul Gulino, THE SEQUENCE APPROACH
Chris Soth, THE MINI-MOVIE METHOD
David Howard, HOW TO BUILD A GREAT SCREENPLAY
Pilar Alessandra, ON THE PAGE DVD
Carol Pearson, THE HERO WITHIN - Six Archetypes We Live By
Frank Darabont, Akiva Goldsman, David Goyer, Sheldon Turner, Paul Haggis
And I'm sure I've left out a few...
These authors and books (as well as the 15 or so screenwriting courses I've taken over the past decade) helped to shape my understanding of the screenwriting process and further develop my style. My Lemon Tree script was already written and being polished by the time your course arrived, Sherri. I'm sorry that I couldn't review your DVD course as originally intended.
Just started an indie feature script and having a blast.
Take care everyone!
Kyle
P.S. You can read every screenwriting book out there but if you're not writing regularly you might as well hang it up. If you put all that knowledge to practice daily, YOU WILL SUCCEED. You CAN master this craft, it just takes perseverance.
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Sherri Sheridan
Member
I saw an early post that mentioned you did give me some credit:
Originally Posted by kylekmd
Yes, I did use the stuctures in the booklet--mostly borrowing from Truby, Vogler, Hauge/Williams.
Truby's latest book, The Anatomy of Story, is very good. I used it to get all the essential pieces of the story, then I put them together using Vogler's Hero's Journey model and the Hauge/Williams template (these latter two authors use what I consider the "standard" structure model).
Other good books I used to sprinkle on the details, for the (personal) rewrites:
Story Sense (Lucey)
The Art of Plotting (Cowgill)
45 Master Characters (Schmidt)
Writing a Great Script Fast (Sheridan)
Save the Cat (Snyder)
Power Screenwriting (Walker)
Screenplay: Writing the Picture (Russin)
Emotional Structure (Dunne)
The more authors/books you read, and approaches you study, the more likely you are to find a style/approach that works for you. Or just make a hybrid of your favorites.
Did not mean to take anything away from you selling a screenplay or anything. You were the first person to buy my Writing a A Great Script Fast Workshop so I still consider it a good sign you sold a script a few months later. Lots of the books you mention I use too. Good luck with your writing!
Originally Posted by kylekmd
Yes, I did use the stuctures in the booklet--mostly borrowing from Truby, Vogler, Hauge/Williams.
Truby's latest book, The Anatomy of Story, is very good. I used it to get all the essential pieces of the story, then I put them together using Vogler's Hero's Journey model and the Hauge/Williams template (these latter two authors use what I consider the "standard" structure model).
Other good books I used to sprinkle on the details, for the (personal) rewrites:
Story Sense (Lucey)
The Art of Plotting (Cowgill)
45 Master Characters (Schmidt)
Writing a Great Script Fast (Sheridan)
Save the Cat (Snyder)
Power Screenwriting (Walker)
Screenplay: Writing the Picture (Russin)
Emotional Structure (Dunne)
The more authors/books you read, and approaches you study, the more likely you are to find a style/approach that works for you. Or just make a hybrid of your favorites.
Did not mean to take anything away from you selling a screenplay or anything. You were the first person to buy my Writing a A Great Script Fast Workshop so I still consider it a good sign you sold a script a few months later. Lots of the books you mention I use too. Good luck with your writing!
kylekmd
Well-known member
Yes, that's probably my error... I meant your book, "Developing Digital Short Films" which, by all rights, can be used for features as well. Probably had that DVD course title in my head because it was the last thing I saw with your name on it.
No harm, no foul.
Kyle
No harm, no foul.
Kyle
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Randall_Oelerich
Veteran
Sherri Sheridan
Member
Something is a little strange here Kyle about how you are changing credits and now saying you made a mistake about using Writing A Great Script Fast after having the posts up for two years. On page 4 you mention how your big breakthrough on this script you sold was writing from the theme and give these examples:
Genre is very important, but when I said writing from theme I was talking about what Hauge and Truby refer to as Theme, McKee calls the Controlling Idea, Egri means with Premise. Tierno's, the Action-Idea, is the same concept, and Williams calls it the Moral Premise. It's what your story is really about, on a deeper, more universal level.
old examples...
Wallstreet: Greed leads to corruption.
American Beauty: Desire leads to suffering.
These are specific movie examples directly from my book Developing Digital Short Films, and my workshop Writing A Great Script Fast. Here is a link and movie where I use these examples:
http://www.myflik.com/StoryEngine/StoryEngine11.html
Is there another source you have that mentions these two theme examples together?
Then on page 5 you mention that you did use the Writing a Great Script Fast Workshop for rewrites in April of 2008, but now say it was the book Developing Digital Short Films and list yet another batch of sources above that do not mention the DDSF book.
You got the new Writing a Great Script Fast workshop in December of 2007 (first one I sold and shipped), and then you sold a script in April of 2008 after not selling one for a very long time (12 years). Maybe something in workshop helped everything click together better? Who knows?
"Writing A Great Script Fast" covers the first four chapters in "Developing Digital Short Films" (April 2004 New Riders / Peachpit) where I talk about how to write a script. I hate to admit it, since I wrote it, but I think Developing Digital Short Films is a little hard to read since there are so many ideas on each page, and use it more as a reference book.
Writing A Great Script Fast just pulls the universal story structure blueprint out of Developing Digital Short Films. This is a fast and easy way to brainstorm up a great script, by answering a series of simple questions and using lists of possible ideas at each step to keep any writer's block away.
If I were starting out in screenwriting, I would not want to face reading 20 books, taking a bunch of classes, spending a bunch of years learning different styles, and trying to figure out what was going on from scratch. I already spent 20 years studying writing, screenwriting and digital fimmaking, and teaching it to others. I suppose most writers and teachers of writers have, but not many make the films they write.
And it is very hard to learn screenwriting by reading a bunch of books. The fastest way to crush a young writer is to tell them to read a book like Story by McKee (IMO). They will most likely give up, lost in too many deep story theory ideas, and decide it is too difficult, and that they must not be a writer. Maybe they keep going until they find something that works.
These are the books and sources that both “Developing Digital Short Films” and “Writing A Great Script Fast” covers with an emphasis on digital filmmaking and films you can make yourself:
1) Aristotle's Poetics
2) The Art Of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri
3) Writing Screenplays That Sell by Michael Hauge
4) Creating Unforgettable Characters by Linda Seger
5) Making a Good Script Great by Linda Seger
6) Story by Robert McKee
7) Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
8) The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell
9) Screenplay by Syd Field
10) The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
11) The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler
12) All of Michael Dougan's screenwriting classes at FAF in SF
(USC Graduate/ Sundance Grand Prize Winner)
13) Computers As Theatre by Brenda Laurel
14) Adventures In The Screen Trade by William Goldman
15) The Illusion Of Life by Frank Thompson and Ollie Johnson
16) The Bare Bones Camera Book
17) Writing Short Films by Linda Cowgill
18) Crafting Short Screenplays That Connect by Johnson
19) Making A Good Writer Great by Linda Seger
20) 101 Things They Don't Teach You In Filmschool
21) In The Blink Of An Eye by Walter Murch
22) Deconstructing 100's of films and stories (including every Pixar film)
There are over 3 hours of free screenwriting classes on MyFlik.com and YouTube/MyFlik1. No one else is giving away so much writing information for free these days (that I know of at least). If you can’t get the whole workshop try just getting the Writing A Great Script Fast Workbook from Amazon and see if it does not save you ten or 20 years of reading books and taking classes!
Genre is very important, but when I said writing from theme I was talking about what Hauge and Truby refer to as Theme, McKee calls the Controlling Idea, Egri means with Premise. Tierno's, the Action-Idea, is the same concept, and Williams calls it the Moral Premise. It's what your story is really about, on a deeper, more universal level.
old examples...
Wallstreet: Greed leads to corruption.
American Beauty: Desire leads to suffering.
These are specific movie examples directly from my book Developing Digital Short Films, and my workshop Writing A Great Script Fast. Here is a link and movie where I use these examples:
http://www.myflik.com/StoryEngine/StoryEngine11.html
Is there another source you have that mentions these two theme examples together?
Then on page 5 you mention that you did use the Writing a Great Script Fast Workshop for rewrites in April of 2008, but now say it was the book Developing Digital Short Films and list yet another batch of sources above that do not mention the DDSF book.
You got the new Writing a Great Script Fast workshop in December of 2007 (first one I sold and shipped), and then you sold a script in April of 2008 after not selling one for a very long time (12 years). Maybe something in workshop helped everything click together better? Who knows?
"Writing A Great Script Fast" covers the first four chapters in "Developing Digital Short Films" (April 2004 New Riders / Peachpit) where I talk about how to write a script. I hate to admit it, since I wrote it, but I think Developing Digital Short Films is a little hard to read since there are so many ideas on each page, and use it more as a reference book.
Writing A Great Script Fast just pulls the universal story structure blueprint out of Developing Digital Short Films. This is a fast and easy way to brainstorm up a great script, by answering a series of simple questions and using lists of possible ideas at each step to keep any writer's block away.
If I were starting out in screenwriting, I would not want to face reading 20 books, taking a bunch of classes, spending a bunch of years learning different styles, and trying to figure out what was going on from scratch. I already spent 20 years studying writing, screenwriting and digital fimmaking, and teaching it to others. I suppose most writers and teachers of writers have, but not many make the films they write.
And it is very hard to learn screenwriting by reading a bunch of books. The fastest way to crush a young writer is to tell them to read a book like Story by McKee (IMO). They will most likely give up, lost in too many deep story theory ideas, and decide it is too difficult, and that they must not be a writer. Maybe they keep going until they find something that works.
These are the books and sources that both “Developing Digital Short Films” and “Writing A Great Script Fast” covers with an emphasis on digital filmmaking and films you can make yourself:
1) Aristotle's Poetics
2) The Art Of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri
3) Writing Screenplays That Sell by Michael Hauge
4) Creating Unforgettable Characters by Linda Seger
5) Making a Good Script Great by Linda Seger
6) Story by Robert McKee
7) Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
8) The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell
9) Screenplay by Syd Field
10) The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
11) The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler
12) All of Michael Dougan's screenwriting classes at FAF in SF
(USC Graduate/ Sundance Grand Prize Winner)
13) Computers As Theatre by Brenda Laurel
14) Adventures In The Screen Trade by William Goldman
15) The Illusion Of Life by Frank Thompson and Ollie Johnson
16) The Bare Bones Camera Book
17) Writing Short Films by Linda Cowgill
18) Crafting Short Screenplays That Connect by Johnson
19) Making A Good Writer Great by Linda Seger
20) 101 Things They Don't Teach You In Filmschool
21) In The Blink Of An Eye by Walter Murch
22) Deconstructing 100's of films and stories (including every Pixar film)
There are over 3 hours of free screenwriting classes on MyFlik.com and YouTube/MyFlik1. No one else is giving away so much writing information for free these days (that I know of at least). If you can’t get the whole workshop try just getting the Writing A Great Script Fast Workbook from Amazon and see if it does not save you ten or 20 years of reading books and taking classes!
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Randall_Oelerich
Veteran
Many books on screenwriting that I have read commonly quote the same specific films / screenplays as learning examples. Quite likely a 'self-fulfilling prophecy' of a sort takes hold and many authors continue to cite those examples.
Sherri, many here have graciously commented how your book is filled with great material. I think it is enough to let it go at that and move on and keep this thread on a positive track.
That said, kudos again to Kyle for writing and selling a feature spec, which required years of great effort reading many many many books, working with mentors, writing and rewriting and rewriting and rewriting many scripts and learning from that process.
And a big thank you to Kyle for creating this thread and sharing his wisdom and positive energy to help the rest of us writers learn from his journey and thus dream of eventually writing a spec that sells and maybe even gets made into a film.
Sherri, many here have graciously commented how your book is filled with great material. I think it is enough to let it go at that and move on and keep this thread on a positive track.
That said, kudos again to Kyle for writing and selling a feature spec, which required years of great effort reading many many many books, working with mentors, writing and rewriting and rewriting and rewriting many scripts and learning from that process.
And a big thank you to Kyle for creating this thread and sharing his wisdom and positive energy to help the rest of us writers learn from his journey and thus dream of eventually writing a spec that sells and maybe even gets made into a film.
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kylekmd
Well-known member
On occasion, when trying to ADD CONSTRUCTIVELY to this forum, I may pull information and examples from all sorts of books and web articles... it surely doesn't mean that I've read those sources in their entirety. It's just not possible. There's not enough time to do so.
I do take pride in my extensive library of film-making and screenwriting books, however. Randall has seen photos of this collection. It peaked at just over 700 books, and currently stands at ~500. I've read about 80% of them in their entirety. I'm somewhat of an AMAZON.com WHORE.
I do take pride in my extensive library of film-making and screenwriting books, however. Randall has seen photos of this collection. It peaked at just over 700 books, and currently stands at ~500. I've read about 80% of them in their entirety. I'm somewhat of an AMAZON.com WHORE.
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