Screenwriting : Say Goodbye to Screenwriters! by Jeff Lyons

Wow. Just, wow.

Now if they can plug that into an automated CGI system, mr. Producer won't need to pay a crew either.

"Julia was twenty-six years old... and she worked, as he had guessed, on the novel-writing machines in the Fiction Department. She enjoyed her work, which consisted chiefly in running and servicing a powerful but tricky electric motor... She could describe the whole process of composing a novel, from the general directive issued by the Planning Committee down to the final touching-up by the Rewrite Squad. But she was not interested in the final product. She "didn't much care for reading," she said. Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces."

+++ Isn't it interesting that there isn't a name or phone number or "about us" section on this website? The guy who did this, though, is a San Diego super techie who writes papers with titles like....hint-hint (for all you super techies)... "Cross-Cultural Multimedia Computing: Semantic and Aesthetic Modeling." Or at least his computer does. Heh-heh. +++ It looks like the website's purpose is more geared towards eliminating script consultants and script readers. At least for today. Today...script consultants and readers....tomorrow....script writers! Hip, hip...hooray! +++ Computers have been writing for years now. From PPM's to Annual Corporate Reports....from Phase 1 - 4 Clinical Trial Reports to Commercial Real Estate Appraisals. From News Stories to News Department Modernization Plans. +++ Creative writers should be worried, too, about the big public and private think tanks that are using artificial intelligence to write news stories, short creative stories, poetry, novels and movie scripts http://www.businessinsider.com/novels-written-by-computers-2014-11 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jun/28/computer-writing-jour... http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-novel-computer-writing-... ALL OF THE CONTENT IN THIS POST WAS GENERATED IN 4.2 PICOSECONDS BY BILL-BOT 2020 ON BEHALF OF BILL-BOT 2020'S GENEROUS DEVELOPER, BILL COSTANTINI. GIVE A HOOT....DO COMPUTE!

This is nothing new. Algorithms to select best possible screenplays or predict box office have been around in this biz for at least 25 years that I know of. Studios use them, there was a company that serviced indie producers (went to a lecture by one of the guys who owned the company and it was fascinating - he used real film examples that his company had fed into the computer and let us compare their predicted box office to actual box office... then gave us the numbers for a movie that had not opened yet - and it ended up on the money!), and most recently Relativity has been very upfront about feeding every script and project through the computer before they decide to go forward or not. It's all part of the business - and this is show business. Just like any other business they run the numbers before making the investment (buying your screenplay or making the film). They still need the screenwriters to write the script before they can feed it into the computer.... Though there is that screenplay actually written by a computer that my friend Oscar filmed as a short. Look at how that turned out! We still have some job security.

This is the final outcome of a unless cottage industry screaming that art is a series of formulas. I am smirking because it isn't worth laughing at.

If this is used in any new way, why are there flops? Why are there development executives?

We don't understand AI because we don't understand intelligence. We can't teach machines to do creativity because we don't understand creativity completely. https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/15/technological-singularity-problems-b...

Pras: that all depends on how you define creativity. Computers, Applications, and AI do tons of creative things in every line of business under the sun. Will they one day be able to "feel" like humans, and create things from a subconscious way? They are doing that now, Pras. They are doing that now. ALL OF THE CONTENT IN THIS POST WAS GENERATED IN .117 PICOSECONDS BY BILL-BOT 2020 ON BEHALF OF BILL-BOT 2020'S GENEROUS DEVELOPER, BILL COSTANTINI. GIVE A HOOT....DO COMPUTE!

This is a forum for film makers. The last bastion of creativity. Not automating Call Center employees or replacing QA testers. We are handicapped by language. Creativity has 16 million colours. We are the stage with understanding the mind they way a 17th century scientist would think about a working iPhone. Yes he can take it apart, he can make calls with it, take videos. He could draw it, play with it, wonder to infinity about its amazing magic. But he would not be able to replicate it or really explain how it works. Because the FUNDAMENTAL Science and Technology advances that makes an iPhone possible hadn't been invented yet. There are thousands - YES THOUSANDS of small and big technological and scientific principles (like EM spectrum, LCD, etc) wasn't even on the horizon of science then. We are at a similar place with the Mind and understanding Consciousness. Completely and enthusiastically follow, support and excited by AI. Its is the best way to understand ourselves.

Ughhhhh. These people are speaking at Story Expo?? So glad im not this year. it is officially a shit show. this scriptonomics company is the height of scammy bullshit

My best Tommy Chong imitation Far out man!

The World needs more Plumbers anyways. Good-bye Hollywood! Hello, Roto Rooter!

A few things. A) big data, really? They have terabytes of data, bullshit. B) AI really, it is a learning system? C) how's jobs does it remove? For me C is the most important point. It will reduce jobs in the studios. The very people they are trying get to use the system. "Hey Mr Executive, buy my software and your boss doesn't need you".... This is Inktip with a sales pitch.

I doubt if the true meaning of creative writing is fully understood. Stories can only come from what is the human mind. If a software can do that, then its the piecing together of formulas and cliches. We are going nowhere with that.

software has no soul

Rachel....you're a musician and a composer, so you can probably relate to this. A while back, whenever a film or television show needed a sound score, the producers would hire a composer who would then hire the appropriate number of musicians, and a score would be born. These days....many composers don't use musicians, and instead use their friends like Logic Pro, Digital Performer, PreSonus, ProTools, Cubase, Sibelius, and Finale, and are even required to create MIDI scores. I remember when the full-time musicians I know who live in Laurel Canyon used to have scoring gigs in the day, then club gigs at night. And then the softwares started eliminating the scoring gigs, and then the karaoke machines and beat, sampler and drum machines came in with the DJ's...and...the next thing you know....a lot of the full-time musicians became full-time marijuana growers. At least marijuana requires humans to provide water, nutrients, and light. Oh...wait a minute....aye-yah....never mind. I guess we all love technology and all...we all love the Internet, right?....until technology puts US out of a job. Technology has put a lot of artists out of jobs - glaziers, master carpenters, painters, musicians, potters, other types of artists, fashion/graphics/landscape designers, and some types of writers (like some news writers; some technical writers; and some ad writers). It has made other professions obsolete, and put a lot of other professionals out of jobs. It's even decreased the need at some companies for...gasp....software engineers, database analysts, and network developers. I would imagine that as the AI creative writing softwares go into their fourth and fifth iterations....probably in the next 10-15 years...it will eliminate the need for screenwriters, too. And script consultants. And maybe even script doctors. I am only trying to inspire you writers...and have a long history of accurate business trend forecasting. Get it while you can, people. Get it while you can.

If, as Poe postulates, there are only seven plots, then it is not the story but how it is told.

Stevie T: I've heard that said before. So I looked it up and it was Christopher Booker who came up with the seven plot theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Basic_Plots The Seven Basic Plots are the basics of plot-writing. Overcoming the Monster The protagonist sets out to defeat an antagonistic force (often evil) which threatens the protagonist and/or protagonist's homeland. Examples: Perseus, Theseus, Beowulf, Dracula, War of the Worlds, Nicholas Nickleby, The Guns of Navarone, Seven Samurai and its Western-style remake The Magnificent Seven although both are re-iterations of Seven Against Thebes, the James Bond franchise, Star Wars: A New Hope, Halloween, The Hunger Games, Harry Potter and Shrek.[2] Rags to Riches The poor protagonist acquires things such as power, wealth, and a mate, before losing it all and gaining it back upon growing as a person. Examples: Cinderella, Aladdin, Jane Eyre, A Little Princess, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, The Prince and the Pauper, Brewster's Millions.[2] The Quest The protagonist and some companions set out to acquire an important object or to get to a location, facing many obstacles and temptations along the way. Examples: Iliad, The Pilgrim’s Progress, King Solomon's Mines, Watership Down,[2] The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Land Before Time, One Piece, Indiana Jones, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle Voyage and Return The protagonist goes to a strange land and, after overcoming the threats it poses to him or her, returns with nothing but experience. Examples: Odyssey, Ramayana, Alice in Wonderland, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Orpheus, The Time Machine, Peter Rabbit, The Hobbit, Brideshead Revisited, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Gone with the Wind, The Third Man,[2] Chronicles of Narnia, Apollo 13, Labyrinth, Finding Nemo, Gulliver's Travels, Spirited Away, Uncharted, The Wizard of Oz Comedy Light and humorous character with a happy or cheerful ending; a dramatic work in which the central motif is the triumph over adverse circumstance, resulting in a successful or happy conclusion.[3] Booker makes sure to stress that comedy is more than humor. It refers to a pattern where the conflict becomes more and more confusing, but is at last made plain in a single clarifying event. Most romances fall into this category. Examples: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, Bridget Jones Diary, Music and Lyrics, Sliding Doors, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Mr. Bean Tragedy The protagonist is a hero with one major character flaw or great mistake which is ultimately their undoing. Their unfortunate end evokes pity at their folly and the fall of a fundamentally 'good' character. Examples: Macbeth, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Carmen, Bonnie and Clyde, Jules et Jim, Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, John Dillinger, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar,[2] Death Note, Breaking Bad, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, Hamlet Rebirth During the course of the story, an important event forces the main character to change their ways, often making them a better person. Examples: The Frog Prince, Beauty and the Beast, The Snow Queen, A Christmas Carol, The Secret Garden, Peer Gynt,[2] Life Is a Dream, Despicable Me, Machine Gun Preacher, Megamind, How the Grinch Stole Christmas Precursors William Foster-Harris' The Basic Patterns of Plot sets out a theory of three basic patterns of plot.[4] Ronald B. Tobias set out a twenty-plot theory in his 20 Master Plots.[4] Georges Polti's The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations.[4] Come on, there's got to be an 8th plot out there. For example, Jerry Seinfeld, "A show about nothing". We could call the a reverse comedy.

Hi Bill! and all! I just checked this and Ha! Ha! Bill, funny, Yes, and sad, as creative talent gets wasted at the hand of technology at times, ..that's what I mean, technology can be GREAT and I use it to enhance my creations, but it's soulessness leaves some creations that disclude a human touch, just a bit empty. Maybe this will give us a hunger for the human aspect to things in the near future...Artists have to be sooo incredibly diverse and creative to survive in some circles..So there is always a half full/empty cup to drink from. I am incredibly passionate about my music, so I will continue to share it with the world as it pours out of me, but I do understand how sweet and bitter this road can be. Thank YOU Bill! Great discussion! and so nice to share with you wonderful folks! Rachel :-)