Screenwriting : Budget by Carlos de La Torre

Write something else. Your first 8 or 9 scripts are (statistically) likely to be learning experiences rather than earning experiences, so that trilogy (which may only count as 1 script since it's 1 story) just goes on the shelf and you keep writing screenplays.

You write the book because or the graphic novel because it's the only way it will ever sell. And do what Bill said - write something else. There's no such thing as a sequel until someone else tells you there is.

Look at what Evan Daugherty did. He wrote Snow White and The Huntsman but he couldn't sell it since he had no credits. He went and wrote Sharpnel, which became Killing Season with DeNiro and Travolta. Then he was able to go and sell Snow White. So yeah, what Danny said. :)

The part that made me stop was you "can't" and "don't even care". A) Yes you probably can. B) if you're really a writer, you will care about writing something else. Maybe not now, maybe in a couple of weeks, when you're bored and you'll get an idea.

Carlos, you have the wrong attitude here, buddy. Screenwriting is a collaborative effort. You have to, by it's very nature, conform to certain standards. The only way around this, as others have stated, is to do everything yourself, and damn the torpedoes. If, in fact, as Alle says, the script isn't even properly formatted, you seem to be showing a disdain for learning the craft. Novel writing might be better suited for you cause, but still, you would need to learn that craft or your project will tank.

If you seriously "can't" write anything else and you seriously don't even care about writing anything else then the only thing you can do is try to sell the script you have. Get out there and start making contacts! What are you waiting for? People to tell you it's impossible? You'll find plenty of those people. Only YOU can make it happen.

Stuart, how exactly do I have the wrong attitude? I gave him an example of what another writer with a similar situation did. He couldn't sell his script, so he wrote something else. Isn't that essentially what Danny said?

Carlos 2, think he meant Carlos 1 (the poster)..!

First I would like to thank RB for this wonderful site with such exposure to wonderful and talented members always willing to help others in need. Thank you RB and I only wish I can pay-forward somehow in the near future.

Dave, ohhh. Lol. I was thrown off for a sec.

I've read all of your comments and as a whole I couldn't ask for a better advice. Thanks for your time to all of you great people! I will highly consider everything you mentioned and work along with it. I've known for a very long time (decades) what I got myself into and for some reason I can't let it go, besides I can't write about any other ideas I've got cause I've never been passionate about them. This is where my passion is and after all I'm a true believer that scripts will only materialize when its time for them. I have great faith in my project and its the only thing that keeps me going.

Hi Alle! In reference to your comment: "NOTHING"....I somehow agree cause I know where you are coming from. But in reference to what Danny mentioned you are wrong! There's absolutely no reason to write a book about it. The stories are more than developed to this day in age, our future and they happen to adapt extremely well to GREAT visuals. Not all stories that become great screenplays and great films have great concept visuals and become films, I understand but Films are basically about entertainment, fresh far out stories, good dialogue and innovative great visuals. Books and Novels don't amount to that not even close and I don't see the point of having to write them just for the sake of following advices that after all they just seem practical. About the first 5 pages of the script I sent you Alle....I'm sorry but they were basically description. I can very well read what you mentioned about "format" but I have no idea how you can critique what I have developed in those stories because even after all I've told you, you still have no idea what they are all about because you're stuck on my format.....Good Day Alle and thanks for your time and your comments.

So far just this story. On every other idea I've had I've only written notes on what they are all about and forget about them the next day or so....Maybe someday in the future when I get this one done...hahaha! .Sorry if this says to you I'm not a writer, for what I've seen others go through.....I'm not!

The more I read your posts Alle, the more I wonder if you are for real. First you imply Carlos needs psychological help, and then having undermined him in that way, you say that he'll never sell it to anyone so he should sell to you. For $50 plus above line budget. I'm all for reality checks but you need to look at your attitude. It stinks.

Alle! On that day when you read the first story and the first 40 or 60 pages of the second story then and only then will you understand what this is all about and if you do and agree with me THAT IT'S GREAT then we can do any business you'd like. It's about time you understand I don't know a thing about this business.....but needless to say....I do know I will have a GREAT AUDIENCE! ....hahaha!! Good Day Alle!

I believe I should let Alle bring me personally those $50......hahaha!!!

Thanks for your time and great advice Kathy! I will continue exposing my work for now and do what comes best... I chatted with Alle on several occasions and somehow understand what "she" is all about. This idea of having her travel from Australia to Puerto Rico to hand me the $50 doesn't sound that bad after all, right? hahahaha! Good Day Kathy!

Alle, it's your attempted belittling of those those you like to label newbies, wannabes, stupid etc that I have an issue with. Surely it's possible to give honest advice and encouragement in a more gracious and less grandiose manner?

Did it have to be another novel?

Alle, you have completely missed the point ;)

Alle, I notice you've still made a better offer on this document than anyone else has -- or will. That's just a matter of fact. It so happened it is the... document's... author whose (no doubt unwitting) statements have cemented his reputation as a determined "don't wanna-be" what it takes to actually make any kind of headway in actual movie-making. Oh, well, everyone's gotta have a hobby. There are those who have done their homework and understand what I (and you) are saying on that score, those who might yet do so one day, and those who never will. And you can't do anything about it, not with the unprepared mind. You'd have better luck trying to melt a block of lead with a cigarette lighter. Shrug off this thread, Alle, and accept that you can't be a superheroine in the real world.

Heh. I've got a few mega-budget projects myself. Danny's right -- graphic novels, baby. Do that AND write other, lower-budget stuff. You might be able to find some talented artists here: http://www.freelanced.com/

Just keep writing and hawking it. I guess the goal is to get as much feedback as possible. Sooner or later you will find someone receptive. It has a lot to do with stubborn persevevernce in the end, I think.

Alle, I didn't say anything about denying the importance of proper formatting or clarity. In screenwriting both are absolutely essential, I agree. One of my main preoccupations is trying to find a way of using the formatted screenplay'blueprint' form to convey subtle ideas and integrate a powerful and entertaining story at the same time. I should have said I meant writing more generally. The best advice I've been given is read a lot of good past and contemporary screenplays and learn incrementally from that.

Alle, you're quite wrong. You're confusing the production process with the prior writing process. The scriptwriter's role is solely to get the story on the page. All other considerations come at a budgeted production stage, and are the concern of the director and producer. From that point the writer has little or no input unless they are also the director and/or producer. Stanley Kubrick was a man who brilliantly combined all three of those roles, but it is an exceedingly difficult thing to do well. And you have, through dailyscript.com and drew's scriptorama and many other websites an incredible plethora of good produced screenplays. A surprising number of screewriters have archives of their work, usually donated to university libraries and the like. Why not select a screenwriter you admire and write to them about what you'd like to learn and see what they'll send you, or if dead contact their literary estate and see if any of their work is in an archive that is available to view by appointment? Write a script about the odyssey???

Every trilogy has been a pre-sold idea... something that is familiar and popular with audiences already, Harry Potter, Narnia, Lord of the Rings, comic book franchises... to START a trilogy, from scratch, you need a hit like Star Wars... then sequels. Don't hobble yourself with the confines of a trilogy from the outset. Write a great "first chapter" get it made and take the other two in stride, knowing they are fully fleshed out.

Write three mega-epic trilogies in succession, then pick the best script and expand IT into a trilogy...repeat the process...you'll get THE HOBBIT eventually or STARCRASH III...

...or NOAH...

Make sure the first script is a stand-alone story. This was the success of Star Wars and The Matrix. If it works, the sequels will be valuable. If not, it still stands as a good film. Look at The Golden Compass disaster. The first film was so open-ended no one in the audience left satisfied and the sequels were never made. This almost happened to National Treasure. The film had a very open ending setting up the sequel. It tested horribly, with people hating the movie. They changed the ending to close the story and it was a success. Don't worry about the sequels - worry about the success of the first film. While you close the first film you can leave faint open story elements which can leave the audience wanting more but still leaving the theater satisfied that they saw the whole story you presented.

I don't know if I should or should not do the following…If all of you will agree and like this idea I'll do it! I'm willing to post these first 5 pages of a script I sent to Alle a month ago where she claims not only was formatted incorrectly but also got her so sick after reading the first page that she couldn't read the next 4, yet, she claims by just reading that single page that the next 128 pages are also wrong and there's no way I could write an excellent screenplay….hahaha! Is this for real? Alle has mentioned the above over and over again...This way we may all get over this bullshit once and for all….hahaha!…How about that? And Thanks to all for all of your time!

I'll read your script Carlos.

Last night I decided to post this first story of my Trilogy. After reading three comments I got from three righteous screenwriters in our site I have to accept that Alle was right all along. All three screenwriters didn't approve my format besides a bunch of other rules that I tried to bend along with it. I'm sorry I was wrong and I'm cleaning it up now to send it to a script consultant when its done. Thanks to all of you for putting up with me and my lack of respect for the standard rules that exist in this business.....Good Day!

Yo Dan where do you get that 250,000 figure lol. Let's face it a lot of specs that have been around town for a while are never gonna get made. I think a more encouraging figure is most screenplay contests get about 6,000 submissions a year. or that 90% of people who write a screenplay don't write a second one (that second stat is a guess though)

90% of people who write a screenplay won't write a second one...Hahahaha!! That's the best I've heard about this screenplays business Dave! And since I had someone insinuate that I sound like those writing scripts looking for a lotto ticket, after reading Dan's and your comments....Why not begin buying lotto tickets starting today just in case.....hahahaha!!

i think if you're persistant enough and believe in your dream enough you will eventually learn how to achieve it and don't listen to the people who say it's impossible, forget the setbacks and keep moving forward but still keep an open mind with constructive criticism you'll get there in the end.

What Dan said. If I believe I can fly enough, and jump off the top of the Empire State Building, I still plummet to the street below. It has nothing to do with belief in yourself, in fact, I think the opposite is true. You need to be self critical to succeed. David Letterman thinks he isn't all that funny, so he tries harder. In fact, there's a great doc movie called COMEDIAN that takes two comics, one who thinks he's the funniest guy on the planet and the other who thinks he may have lost his edge and needs to work to regain it... and both end up on Letterman as part of the film. The guy who worries that he's not good enough anymore works his butt off and does stand up every single night trying to hone his jokes and try out new ones. The guy who thinks he's good enough already slacks off and parties. Guess who gets the most laughs? The guy who worked his ass off because he was afraid he was't good enough anymore. His name is Jerry Seinfeld. So the key is to follow the lead of Hemingway and have that built in BS detector that tells you when you're S stinks. Know it's not going to be easy and that you'll have to work ten times as hard as the next guy. Yeah, most writers will never write a second script... and even fewer will write the 8 or 9 or however many scripts it takes.

I've never bought into the if you're persistent enough and believe in your dream enough you will eventually learn how to achieve it line of thought. There are many people who are persistent and believe in their dream who never achieved it. I guess you could say they weren't persistent enough and didn't believe in their dream enough, but more often than not they just didn't have what it takes. some of us, no matter how much we want it, no matter how much we believe, no matter how persistent we are just can't play for Yankees. Same with earning a living as a writer. In fact I suspect there are a lot of people who are persistent and believe in their dream but just don't have the talent to write a marketable, sellable screenplay.

So my guess is Alle the only one talent you don't have is drawing! hahahaha!!!

Respect to that, Dan. My ethos is similar. "Offer to sweep the floors for free and make yourself indispensable."

I believe your scripts make your connections. So, I seem to have just sold a spec about an hour ago (contracts going to my lawyer) and that came about due to something of mine the producer read about a decade ago which lead to a meeting, then some more meetings a couple years later, then some more meetings and an assignment that never went to screen a couple of years after that, and then last year I told him about this spec script I'd just finished which was not in his genre and not anything he'd want to read... and he said send it, and then we had some more meetings and now we seem to have a deal (well, lawyers and contracts are involved). But I did not know this guy before someone passed him whatever he read initially. That script opened the door. Obviously, great to make connections. You want to do something that gets you close to producers or directors or stars. I know a guy who was a star's personal assistant and walked his dog and took his clothes to the cleaners... and that got him his first screenwriting gig. Another guy was an entertainment journalist for a magazine and interviewed directors and stars, and that lead to his first screenwriting deal. There are a million ways in...