Sarah Brockmann's Lounge Discussions

The projector should have a setting for aspect. In film projection it used to be a matching aspect gate.

Otherwise, a new conversion of the file to that aspect might work. That can be done from the editing software or there are third-party converters.

Alternately, a zoom out in the editing software of the entire file yet keeping 1:89:1 aspect to fit in the projector aspect would also work. 3% smaller should be close.

If you’re talking about DCP, they only allow for 1.85:1 (flat) or 2.39:1(scope).

Anything else you do must be prematted into one of those before the DCP is made.

To put it another way, your 4K 4096x2160 movie, which is 1.89:1, should be letterboxed just slightly to keep every bit of the image. Just drop the main timeline into a 3996x2160 timeline and shrink it to fit horizontally.

Another way to go is to crop off the sides. Leave it the same size when you put it into the 3996x2160 timeline and see how much you lose.

Thank you, Mike! We got it sorted, I think (sure looked good when we tested!), but I've shared the info with the director/editor/fx/everything post person just to confirm.

Glad we could be helpful.

Such terrific insight E Langley and Mike Boas - I love seeing this type of support in the community!

Congratulations on finishing the first draft of your tenth feature, Sarah Brockmann!

I’m a Stage 32 Lounge Moderator. I wanted to let you know I moved your post from the Screenwriting Lounge to the Your Stage Lounge. The Your Stage Lounge is a space where members can share updates on projects. If your update includes a service that you used on Stage 32, your post can go in the Screenwriting Lounge. Let me know if you have any questions.

That's awesome Sarah Brockmann. Congratulations! Finishing a script is always a beautiful thing - so satisfying. I just finished one up this week and celebrated with cheesecake. What do you do to celebrate?

Once more with FEELING! THE WGA JUST WENT ON STRIKE AND WE WALKED OUT FOR 8 MONTHS! If you use AI you are not writing. You won't deliver great content. If you can't string one scene after another in a coherent fashion, you're not writing. AI is NOT a cheat for people who don't know how to write. You might have a great story! Do the work and find out!

Ai Revolution is real.

Yep. Full on board with Billie Jo Mason. Period.

Best AI? None. Use you native intelligence and talent. There's no real substitute for those.

@Jane Shebroe, I agree with the comments above. If you're only using it for formatting and structure, get Final Draft. It sets up everything for you really easily. Whenever I have questions while I'm writing, like how to format a dream sequence or something, I google it and get lots of great examples of what that format should look like. You can also google questions like, "how many pages should Act 1 be?" or "what is the structure of Act 1," or whatever you're not sure about, and you'll get your answers.

We just finished filming until spring - got about 4-5 days left, almost all exteriors, and we were rained out several times in the summer and fall. Frustrating, but it's hard to film East Texas summer in the New England winter!

Sarah Brockmann that's great! I'm not sure where to find East Texas in New England, but I would guess you could cheat Texas near the ocean where the trees are more scrubby pines-- I think there's that park in Plymouth. Myles Standish St Park.... We shot portions of The Judge and Grown Ups 2 and Daddys Home 2 down there-

Good to hear that you made it in MA though!

Will you be going to the MA Production Coalition Meeting on Dec 4th? They have some great speakers coming in that night and its a great group of people.

Congratulations on being nearly finished!

Mike - we shot in RI as well, and that's where the rest of the work will be done. There's a desert in RI in West Greenwich! Don't know a thing about that meeting on December 4th. Can you tell me more? Does one need to be a member? I'm peanuts.

anyone that’s part of the community can go to it. like a networking event for the filmmaking community.

https://massprodcoalition.org/event-list/2023/holiday-mpc-meeting

Thanks!

I simply wrote "based on a true story" after the actual logline

Okay, thanks, All, for taking time to offer your insights.

The Cover Page, of course, warrants as much, however, it is, or was, the logline specifically that caused me to make this inquiry. Thanks, All for your input. I think I get it.

Good question. It seems not, as they "must join" at some point. Unclear if you need to taft-hartly them. Call SAG.

Phillip Wade I have two very important points to make: (1) you would not pay to or on behalf of non-sag people something due to sag people, unless your sag agreement says you must. (2) More importantly - you, as a producer, actually signed the SAG agreement without reading the SAG agreement and understanding what it requires you to do? No, no no, no no..... Literally no opinion expressed by anyone here is pertinent or informed about your situation without reference to your specific SAG agreement and situation.

Phillip Wade to Shadow's point...READ EVERYTHING - twice...and the fine print three times. You're entering (or have entered) into a binding agreement with a large and powerful trade union. Also, when and if you get a distributor, do your best to get them to commit to a detailed Distribution Assumption Agreement whereby they, the distributor, is responsible for all the payouts due to your SAG actors and all others before you in the revenue waterfall.

Contact SAG directly. I've found them to be super helpful.

Agree with the advice here - always good to call the union directly. They are there to help and guide and SAG is great with sharing information like this.

I mean, at least it's not the Tunisian sand storm they dealt with in Episode One of Star Wars...

When Inarritu was making THE REVENANT they went over schedule and the snow where they were shooting started to melt and they had to move the entire production to another continent to finish. Productions have wild challenges. But you are making a REAL movie - just keep fighting through and it'll all be worth it when it's done.

Lots of great (?) stories you all mention about delays. On a Paramount feature quite some years ago I was the Location Casting Director in Austin and we had a one-day delay because the Extras took the Director hostage, demanding to get an increase from their $25 a day rate. Things were intense for a while but they got their raise and it all sorted out just fine. // All the examples you all mentioned above illustrate why we try to have Cover Sets and Backup when at all possible. Good luck out there in Production!

Yep, real picture have to deal with this! :) The first movie I worked on as a PA way back when, Red Heat, we went to Hungary in winter to shoot the exteriors in snow. Happened to be the winter there was no snow, so FX had to make some around the town and then the American Crew and Hungarian crew got on a bus and went to Austria in the mountains to shoot the big snow scenes!

It rained AGAIN yesterday and we had an exterior, but it actually worked really well for us, as the scene takes place in the aftermath of a thunderstorm. Everyone was cold and wet at the end (and the director and I had to go into the water to float a raft), but we got the shot and we all actually had a great time!

Bravo!

Sorry you're struggling but CONGRATS ON THE PRODUCTION Sarah Brockmann! That's incredible! Keep us posted on the process!!

Congratulations to you, the cast, and crew on being about half done with principle photography, Sarah Brockmann! Excited to see "St. Jones' Ditch"!

Congrats Sarah Brockmann! Looking forward to hearing more updates!

That's awesome, Sarah Brockmann - there is nothing like production and making it happen with a team you respect and enjoy working with. Please keep us posted on your progress! Can't wait to see the finished film!

I would advise moving on to the next screenplay. As a novelist who has now turned my eye to screenwriting, I can attest that they are completely different animals. If you haven't written in a novel format before, it would take a lot of learning, trial, and error to write a good one. And a bad one wouldn't do you any good.

Depending on what you expect, it's either a waste of time or not.

If you think that the novel version will help sell the script? Waste of time.

Hollywood doesn't buy novels or comic books or any IP... they buy the audience. If your book is a huge best seller and everyone has heard of it? They'll buy it. If it's a a mid-list book or lower? They don't care. The audience is too small.

But...

If you are just writing this book to write the book?

A book is a finished form. It doesn't require $107 million to make into something that an audience can buy tickets to. You can either find a publisher or self publish. People can buy it and read it. Then it's all up to the book - it might sell well, it might not.

Yes, it's certainly possible. I have experience doing the whole writing screenplay to novel with a couple of screenwriters in the US. One of the screenplays was adapted from short screen play, to full length novel, then back to a full piece screenplay. I've also done novel to screenplay, so I'm well versed in both. It's well worth having the screen play AND a novel to target all the creative markets in my opinion.

I think it's possible, but i guess you'll have to rewrite it from the start. A novel needs a different approach compared to a screenplay (in terms of storytelling). But it might be interesting.

One of my screenplays won a competition that allowed me to re-write it as a novel, and honestly, I think it probably worked better that way. I've got another one - historical - that would probably do better, at least initially, as a graphic novel, as it takes place in WWI and would be crazy expensive to produce. I think it really depends on the story.