I was just chatting with a very talented screenwriter, and after hearing her say, "I just have to go back and get it right", something dawned on me. "Have you seen something you've written on a screen before? Any screen?" Shockingly, because she is a very gifted writer, the answer was "no, not yet."
Ah HA! Here is the advice I gave her, I offer to you as screenwriters, and ask you - what do you think?
As screenwriters, consider participating in the 48 Hour Film Project or something similar where you are forced to both write and produce a film within a set time frame. Not only are you required to stop writing so it can get made, although you should make yourself available during production to make any last-minute adjustments to the script, but you also get the satisfaction of seeing what you've made on a big screen! In front of an audience! Provided you finish on time, of course, otherwise, it'll just be for you and your team on whatever screen you can squeeze it on.
Not the point...
The point is - find a way to make the end of your writing process the beginning of someone else's so you can begin to understand that scripts don't need to be "right" or "perfect" before they go into production, they just have to be ENOUGH. Building up your production team will be part of that process. Find people you connect with who understand your vision and see if they're game to carve out a weekend for some frantic good fun!
Here is the 48 Hour Film Project's home page - it's international, so be sure to see if they have a chapter near you! If not, consider hosting one!
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Yes I have, and I wasn't very impressed.
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It is a very good organization. Women in Film Arkansas endorses them 100%! They have been good friends to WIFA.
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I think being part of a 48 hour film challenge is a great idea - you learn how to write fast and to think about the practical aspects of writing for production. That will help you write screenplays that can be made into films.
But I have seen around 19 of the feature screenplays I have written on screen - many on cinema screens, a few only on TV off grainy VHS tapes. One of my films (made for USA Network) ended up being in the top 10 video rentals in the USA - and I saw that one on the big screen in a cinema at the Beverly Center.
But writing for production helped all of those sell.
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Such truth, Karen! Totally agree with everything you said. The second part of this is not picking holes in what you've done once you are watching it on a screen (if I'm watching a film I've scored I always wince at bits my perfectionist brain isn't a million percent happy with and assume the rest of the audience are thinking EXACTLY THE SAME about obscure mic placement positions etc- but invariably they aren't, because, why would they, they don't care about the kind of mic and the precise angle it was placed at or how it was EQd, they're just watching a film and if it sounds good, they're happy! It's the same for writers- speaking from a non-writer point of view, no one else in the cinema will be overthinking every punctuation mark.) It's a real skill to just be able to sit back and enjoy being in a cinema, but ultimately that's what everyone else in the room is doing- so once the film is made and on the big screen try and join the fest of the audience, let the flaws go, and let any perceived "imperfections" be learning points for next time.