Screenwriting

Sydney Summers am I able to email that email with any questions with anything related to the website?

Way to go, Justin Groats - hopefully you get good feedback but you've already won the game by submitting and believing in your work..

When you say you submitted it, are you saying you submitted it for like staffing opportunities/writing assignments or just feedback in general?

Cameron Tendaji just feedback in general, I am confident in my whole idea, but I want to direct my pitch in the right direction

Hey, Justin! Yes, you can email edu@stage32 with your questions :) I hope you're having a nice day!

I would pitch executives here at Stage 32. It's amazing access and the meeting starts with both parties in sync on why you are meeting. Shoot an email to success at Stage32.com and they can help you navigate to the best exec to pitch. Just my 2 cents.

I think Sam nailed it with that one. Good luck Justin.

Sam Sokolow I got my answer, I can just submit it to anyone, who at least can fit in the criteria of what my material is

Justin Groats i highly recommend doing research on the exec that you’re pitching to. If you’re under the impression that you’re pitching to a person that works for that particular company, sometimes they won’t (or they worked for them in the past and they’re in a completely different company or currently out of work).

Great idea, Frank Van Der Meijden! And your project sounds really intriguing!

You passed close to me.

Göran Johansson Fantastic area where you live.

Jonas Vesterberg I can imagine! My sister in law lives in Lund and I love that town as well now. ;)

It is very kind of you to say that you love the city where I live.

I am looking forward to working with all the writers in the class. Let me know if you have any questions.

Great topic to discuss! Especially looking into subtext. Using dialogue with this kind of purpose can really give a script added depth without over complicating things.

Excellent points, Ewan.

This has always been my weakness.

That's a great idea, Rachel Troche! Thanks for sharing, and thanks to your screenwriting mentor for the technique.

Sometimes I'll open Final Draft, write for a few minutes/write a scene, do something else, repeat.

That sounds like a really good suggestion for a schedule, Rachel Troche. That way you're always thinking about the script and don't miss a beat. I do something close to that. Instead, I write out a scene and then get up and do whatever else I need to do. As I'm doing that thing, I'm thinking about the interactions or dialogue for the next scene. By the time I'm done, I've got the next scene fully visualized. This also helps with not sitting for long periods of time.

If you are in production & need something for a DAY soon, and have a writer that can validate script, & working with cast like Leonardo Ramirez suggested play what you are getting over & stay focused. Let's say you're under the gun and writing it yourself contact people in your cast and crew the LEAD and the writer (when it's out their hands)... Set your dialogue in beats Sarah .... Eric ... Sarah ... (that's 1) spend time on page count verses time of shooting & don't rest until it's done, granted the exercise might be a headcase if you must put it down set ALARMS!!

I write using WriterDuet because it has a great interface for iPad and phone. I now write nearly exclusively on an iPad. So where I am I can leverage a few minutes. I am writing this while waiting for my dogs to go to the toilet at 6am Sydney time.

I also believe people make time for important things,

I like your mentor's style, Rachel. Thanks for sharing it. Similar, but without pages, I'll walk through a scene or sequence in my head when away from a screen. At least until I can sit down with it later. Evernote saves me. Nothing worse than cracking a scene, not writing it down and trying to effin' remember what the hell that cool twist was. ;-)

I don't think we've entered the golden age of Mid TV, Pat Alexander. There are incredible shows out, like "Shōgun." And some people think mid shows are fantastic. It's really about opinion. As for the safe part of Mid TV, some shows do feel like the companies behind them played it safe, but I don’t think it's that way for a majority of the shows.

Yeah, I think there's a lot of great concepts coming out on streamers, with big actors and flashy marketing, but I kind of agree with the author of the article. It's a lot of lukewarm shows and few that really inspire. Guess that's always been the case, but it does feel like the volume of mid (safe) shows is high as its ever been. And there's less truly experimental stuff being put out there. It's that mind-numbingly annoying corporate C-suite way of thinking. Execs would rather fail with something they can easily sell to their CEOs -- "it's like Band of Brothers and The Pacific, with Austin Butler and Barry Keoghan!" -- rather than fail with surreal crime mysteries made by auteurs with visually interesting ideas and something to actually say. To use a baseball metaphor, they're playing small ball and going for walks or singles, instead of bringing in home run hitters and swinging for the fences.

My 3 cents....

Streamers and networks are still "mostly" stuck with the closed loop system mindset.

The greenlight or get product from "mostly" within the system or connected to the system or fall within the "norms" of what has been produced. (Which is why 99% of everyone here struggles to break in)

Only when something that catches "them" off guard (like squid game) do "they" wake up for 24 hours and peek at stuff from beyond the normal channels of product.

But then things go back to...well normal.

YouTube and others break the mold but the ROI isn't upfront money isn't there either.

I don't have an answer other than pray for a break or win lottery to fund your projects.

Really enjoyed the article, and tend to agree with the author. Thanks Pat Alexander A sliver of optimism remains every season for me, and I also echo Maurice's comment. This season, Tokyo Vice keeps me confident its not all mid (i will have to watch Shogun!). Yet the only TV I've watched for 2 weeks is another binge of The Larry Sanders Show. That says something to me.

Ian Milne No way, The Larry Sanders Show is what I watch before bed right now every night!

Contests and working for tv & film business is two different worlds. Not sure what you want to hear but every pro occupation where the field is crowded, the best of the best will always get jobs, rise above average talent.

Two successful screenwriters with a huge podcast following, Mazin & August, don't believe in contests. But they're over 60 and established careers before internet script service boom.

My writer-friend from Baltimore is making huge moves as a tv staff writer. Back during covid 2020 when everyone was home, her spec pilot landed in the hands of tv showrunner who was bored at home. Showrunner loved her spec, passed to manager, manager signed her after one phonecall. She got staffed within a year to a streamer tv show 12-eps. Now she is staffed on network primetime tv, 18-22 episodes. Double the work, stress but double the salary.

Two good reasons to participate in a singing contest. 1. If you sing like Elvis. 2. If you think you sing like Elvis and truly don't.

48! Congratulations, everyone!

Congratulations!

Congratulations to all the writers who nailed script requests! Great job all around!

Congratulations on the meeting requests, everyone!

Congratulations! Best of luck to you all!

Amanda, that's great news! Congratulations to all the writers who got meeting requests!

It is interesting how much a screenplay can change with time, Hugh Potter. I wrote a feature script wayyy back, then like two years ago I rewrote it. I changed some things, and the script was better. The script still needs some rewrites. Some of the tech in the script is outdated, but I could update them easily.

Side effect of this biz...projects known to be pending for 20-30+ years, still got made eventually...nothing's over until the lights go out in a movie theater...

Actor Kevin Costner told Writer-Director John Hancock he would do his movie but he wanted to age naturally for the character role. He told Hancock to wait 12-15 years. And costner kept his promise, did the movie.

Best way to learn is watch movies & read stack of pro scripts similar your ideas and study how writers did it on the page with an ensemble intro.

Reservior Dogs, Saving Private Ryan (beach invasion), The Warriors..

also watch & read scripts of ensemble intro movies that you think sucked, and ask yourself why they failed. GL

I would say there are a dozen people in the room and introduce them as they speak or move around. Anyway, that is how I do it. As far as character descriptions go I only briefly describe them and I never describe extras,

Dan, Max and Jessica hit solid points there. And totally agree with Maurice's thoughts. Make them memorable. And keep each one as tight and punchy as hell.

Always handy, to keep the flow, knitting their intro descripts into the scene's actions/reactions, pacing, reveals etc. -- even if they have no dialogue yet. Guiding the eye.

Page real estate is precious ;-)

An ensemble introduction is where the character's names are extra important. You don't want any character name to start with the same letter, sound the same as another etc. Don't introduce a Jack and a Jake in the same scene for example. They shouldn't even be in the same script for that matter. Too confusing.

Also each name should be unique and call up an image of that character just on it's own. Tuco will obviously look totally different than Takashi. So that's another easy way to differentiate quickly. Nicknames are another great way to give characters immediate "looks".

Check out this indie flick "Circle"...interesting approach...

I agree strongly with the principal of starting from the bottom. I focused heavily on the world of short films before my first feature assignment, which was a low budget indie.

Most people I see trying to break in aim exclusively for Hollywood studio level stuff, get nowhere, waste a lot of cash on competitions, still get nowhere, and then burn out. In twelve years, I've never seen that strategy work - yet it's the one most encouraged.

Göran Johansson Build relationships/network online, and in person if the writer is able. Especially network with indie producers, directors, actors, etc.

Being young is an advantage, so is good health, debt free. Nothing sexy living a broke artist life. Maybe learn a skill that pays money like grip, gaffer, sound, postproduction. Never know what opportunities open 'cause you're around. Not qualify. Just around. I was doing wedding video editing from home when I got a call from a post facility. Days later and Im reviewing dailies of tv shows & movies, working side by side with pros, staff engineers on call 24/7, colorists making $200K and still complaining about hourly rate. Basically I am saying if you surround yourself with working ppl, someone is gonna give you a chance.

Dear friends, I understand what you mean.

Dear CJ. The screenplay I try to sell is written for only 5 actors. Can be filmed in "100 hours" on a shoestring budget.

Dear Maurice. One member who has English as his native language has received a copy of my latest screenplay, helping me with proofreading after I translated. And I became a member because I had already connected with a member.

Dear Dan. It was in this way I become responsible for a TV-mini series. Even though I hardly even knew how to use the editing program.