Screenwriting

I’m sorry!!! Head up you got this!

A three month agreement to rep you is beyond ridiculous. I wouldn't be hurt because the manager was not very serious. Good luck with the next one.

How long should a contract be Dan Guardino ? 6 months, 1 year?

I'm sorry you had to go through that. I'm happy things worked out.

Vikki Harris I can only go by what my agent has done in the past. I usually get one year with a right for them to renew for more time with more money to extend the agreement. However ever deal is different.

Formatting. I use Trelby because it is freeware and trivial to learn.

How people speak. Borrow a few plays. Imagine that you are turning them into screenplay. I mean, write one or a few pages with dialog for each. That would give you some idea about how to write dialog.

You're welcome, Connor Griffiths.

Any piece of screenwriting software will solve most of your formatting issues. You don't need something as expensive as Final Draft at all. You can use something free like WriterDuet or Trelby.

I DON’T GET ANY MONEY FROM THIS.

CRAIG20 gets you 20% of Writerduet.

I like to have things look good on the page. But I don’t worry about it. The context and the message is super important. I’ll perhaps play with a surrounding action line to pretty up a page.

Connor - I agree with CJ Walley. Final Draft is the industry standard and when you write professionally you will need to use it, but alternatives like Writer Duet are a good place to start.

"If they were successul they wouldn't have the time to read your screenplay." That's not true at all, Dan Guardino.

Dan Guardino But they might have time to read a comic book. :)

Breaking down a script isn't hard... first thing is figure out locations, see what their real world equivalents would cost, and do a page an hour as a default for how long you need (wrapping up to a day for anything over 4).Everything after that is match (days by rate) for every position, which you can research.

You can give a script to two different producers and they could come back with wildly different budgets because what one may feel is an acceptable in terms of production value might not be shared with the other, plus each will have their own capital vs returns strategy going into the market.

This is why a good pitch has both a min-budget and an ideal budget.

Then you throw in what one producer can get things done for against another, and it confuses things even further.

On Script Revolution, I allow only Shoestring, Independent, and Blockbuster definitions of budgets. The reason for that is because everyone has a different idea when it comes to what actual numbers mean and it's too easy for a screenwriter to misrepresent what they have through naivety.

Personally, unless someone had quite a bit of experience actually funding, shooting, and completing films to distributor standards, all while working with union talent in some capacity, I wouldn't trust any monetary estimate at all. There's just too many moving parts. I've been a producing partner from soup to nuts on two films and I still wouldn't be able to come up with an accurate number, even if I went through previous costings.

Screenwriters shouldn't be doing this and they shouldn't be encouraged to do this.

hi John Metzner I am a line producer and can help with breakdown, basic schedule and budget. please inbox me, I am also able to negotiate on price for it or guide you as well through Gemini crown tech’s services as well if you would like to speak about it and navigating on your own.

Nick Phillips What an amazing experience, thanks for providing us with this opportunity!! Pleasure to e-meet you, Nick

Looking forward to this tomorrow!

Thanks for sharing!

You're welcome, Sydney Summers. This is a great blog series! Looking forward to part three!

Likewise!

Thanks for sharing! Looks like great content.

You're welcome, Evelyn Sandoval Garza. It really is.

I feel partially vindicated after reading this.

You're welcome, Foster West Foster West. I suggest adding a profile picture and a detailed bio when you get a chance. People will feel more comfortable networking and collaborating with you if they know what you look like. And if you have a picture, your profile will show up when someone searches for you. A detailed bio will help you build relationships/network on here. You could add things to your bio like why you became a writer, your accomplishments, your goals, and what movies and shows you like.

How so, Stefano Pavone?

Because I have a tendency to write loquaciously, coming from a novel background, and I am somewhat reluctant to reduce or condense my writing too much when it comes to writing screenplays, fearing that simple, stale language will deprive the story of any kind of atmosphere or personality.

Glad the blog helped, Stefano Pavone. You ("you" as in any screenwriter) don't wanna put too much description, but you also don't wanna put too little description. You gotta find a balance.

Steve Mallinson, not only is this element of screenwriting not talked about much, when it is, it's talked about by people with little to no experience.

My advice here is to tread carefully, take all opinions with a grain of salt, and do your due diligence on who's giving them. There's already some quite bizarre comments in the replies.

I'm afraid this is a creative pain that will be perennial for as long as you collaborate with others. It will crop up during development, it will crop up during the shoot, it will crop up during editing, it will crop up during distribution. There is no getting away with it and it's tough for any artist to go through, as you have a vision in your mind's eye and most likely something to say in the process. Finding peace with it isn't easy either, or even possible sometimes. Just know that you are going through something every working writer does, even those who direct their own material.

Also know this though; you are further ahead than 99.999% of writers ever get. This is a wonderful place to be in terms of career building as you're, at worst, attached to a project that's circulating with investors, producers, and talent.

The producer should be doing what's best for the project, so try to default to that assumption first. Talk with them when you can and learn their reasoning. It's a lot easier to swallow the frog when you know it's less a matter of taste and moreso a matter of logistics, marketing, production value, etc.

At the end of the day, the person to reflect with is yourself. You're an independent artist cutting your own path. What you're comfortable with is your business and you need not justify yourself to anyone. You're going to get people who'll tell you they'd stick by their guns, demand complete control, and insist on gild rates, which is good for them, but they'll most likely be telling you the same in ten years when you've made three films and they haven't even got an option. Been there. Few what to work their way up through the trenches.

In this case, the director might be being a little bullish. I don't know. I had that with an actor who wanted to attach to a project once. They fancied themselves as a producer and had a lot of criticisms of the script. In that case, it stopped us attaching them as they came across as too difficult. One always has to ask, why would anyone attach themselves to something they didn't at least love 90% of? To be frank, it always smacks of desperation and entitlement to me.

On the flip side, I was brought in to rewrite of a script earlier this year. The producer was a huge name. One of the biggest in recent history. The writer was a nobody. The script objectively needed a lot of work. I wasn't interested in a credit. This writer would have seen a feature film produced, been linked to a big name, and had what they'd be credited for massively improved in the background. They chose to be awkward and the project died. Now they have nothing.

These days, I release my spec scripts as novellas first. That means there's a version as per how my mind's eye sees it out there on the record. That keeps me creatively satisfied because I know trying to get into film and trying to maintain creative control are two massively opposed forces.

It's no longer your script, which is hard to swallow but if you're not directing then it's no longer the story you're telling.

Great advice there - thanks everyone.

I think the ultimate goal of every screenwriter is to see their script see the daylight. If that's what you wish then go with the flow and do whatever it takes to see if not your story your characters come to life.

To zag here -- at a point though, if you can already tell you wouldn't be in love with a potential future film made off your script given the changes required, then it's okay to step away and let this option fade out. Or let the director take full control to do what they want to do. There really is nothing worse in this biz than having your name attached to something you don't love or you don't feel proud of, except doing 100x the amount of effort than you initially set out to do to come to that result. There's no shame in moving too hastily at times due to the excitement and possibilities, but realizing an errant step and letting go to protect yourself is also a completely valid option. It's much more spiritually freeing to let go sometimes than to marathon on the rewrite treadmill for what will eventually become diminishing marginal returns on your effort. Having a produced credit ain't everything, but it is the only thing. Just be careful what you sign up for.

Technically, the best free software is Windows Notepad. When you're in the process of writing, you don't want to be editing. Seeing little squiggly lines on spelling and grammar makes you want to keep backspacing and fixing things. I start most things in Notepad. Plus, the files are small and don't run into memory issues as the page count grows. Final Draft or other software can import it later.

As an example:

INT. DEFENDER LIMO - NIGHT

Pikul drives. He can see why the limo is an off-road vehicle: the road is terrible, dirt and gravel, stutter potholes and sharp ridges, the occasional fallen tree.

PIKUL

(manic, scared)

I normally like the countryside, don't you? Normally, the country is relaxing and calm.

I use Trelby. Trivial and intuitive, so it is easy to learn.

@Christopher that's so interesting!! What a great idea.

Its been a while but Celtx had a free function on it.

I get asked this a lot, so I made a page on our Rochester Writers Workshop site.

https://www.rwwny.org/software/

Most “free” apps are really fremium, meaning you get a couple things free, then pay to unlock more.

Short answer for best truly free is Trelby (Windows) and Highland 2 (Mac). Highland 2 gives you a watermark on exports, but it’s unobtrusive.

is this already into a movie?

Yes I have won screenplay awards but still nothing has come out of this and sometimes I wonder? I don't know about you Micke, but I'm continuing receiving emails from screenplay competitions all over the world to enter and they're offering me a discount up to 70% off! Don't waste your time or money! Maybe you need to look at your story and turn it into a GREAT story because GOOD stories don't get made.

Congratulations. Keep up the good work.

Congratulations!

Congratulations. There is a pitch session every Thursday night from Stage 32. I attended a couple of times and I liked it. My time zone does not work well to attend every week.