Roy Phillips's Lounge Discussions

Josh Booker Hi Josh. I’m really happy that the community here has responded to your post, with generosity. May I ask what the genre of this show is, please?

I didn't get into writing books or screenplays. However, I have an interesting real life story to narrate that took place over nearly four decades. It is about the life of a rich woman whose life is ruined after a white marriage with a gay man.

I am looking for someone who is interested in writing the story into a book or screenplay. I can briefly write the story to anyone who is interested. I'm open to suggestions. Thanks!

Hey Josh!

There are plenty of resources online (and offline) to help you as a novice screenwriter. My personal recommendations:

- Film Courage on YouTube: Tons of interviews from people in the industry that clarify the ins and outs of the screenwriting business, whether it's character development, archetypes, plot, writing as a staff writer for a TV series, writing your pilot for the first time, etc.

- Screenwriting from the Soul: Letters to an Aspiring Screenwriter Book by Richard J. Krevolin (1998): A parodic, yet insightful take on the world of screenwriting.

- The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler (1995): The template for every storyteller out there. The skeleton, the map of storytelling itself.

- Story by Robert McKee (1997): An important book if you want to master the story structure and its details to a tee.

- Coverfly: If you want your work discovered and being reviewed by peers, you should subscribe to this website. It's free. http://coverfly.com/

Hey Marcel! Great suggestions! The first book I picked up was Save The Cat and thank God, 'cause every other one got increasingly more complex, lol. Story by Robert McKee, I'm still trying to understand that one, lol. But I also love Screenplay by Syd Field. The Writer's Journey is one of my favorites! I also think that The Screenwriter's Bible is a must have!

Hey, Josh Booker. Great answers in the comments. Stage 32 has screenwriting education (www.stage32.com/education/tag/screenwriting) and TV education (www.stage32.com/classes/tag/television).

And here's a blog for up-and-coming screenwriters: www.stage32.com/blog/the-questions-up-and-coming-screenwriters-need-to-a...

I think you need better loglines, especially the second one.

... The second one isn't a logline. It's a tagline. But you need those too.

Thanks fellows. I'm working on improving my craft

Welcome!

Like the second one Graveyard shift, sounds like something you could direct and produce with a limited budget. Best of luck to you

I finish a first draft of one script before starting another. I have gone back and worked on a script while working on a first draft of another. It's too tough working on two first drafts.

I generally only write one at a time, but I do sometimes flip between drafts on different projects after I get feedback or a request to read. Depends what the priority is. For example, if one is optioned, work on it would take precedence over any other work. If I am working with a producer on a spec script, that script gets priority but, while the script is back with the producer being looked over, I might go back to another script.

Similar to above.. I can only focus on one first draft, which takes up ALL my space.. but once that draft is complete I can bounce around projects.

I should have made a similar distinction to Ramsey in that if it's a first draft, I cannot as easily jump between it and others.

I'm always working on several projects at one time, depending on deadlines, desire, and momentum, I'll focus on one or another.

Hi. What book of yours do you think would make a great screenplay?

Hi, Roy, the one that heads the list is a non-fantastical female Iron Man, called Iron Maiden. I went for very high commercial appeal, exotic settings and very diverse characters. I would class it as an espionage thriller. The three characters I picked to save the world (so to speak), are a young paraplegic girl, a hefty African-American nurse/manager and a white gay guy, addicted to Barbara Streisand records. It actually works in this character mode. Here's a longish tagline: “A paraplegic woman secrets an exotic military combat exoskeleton out of the country for her boyfriend (who is a traitor and uses her as a mule), and then must use it against a thieving military terrorist group on a Cuban-controled island." I can send a synopsis to you if you wish. And thanks for noticing me.

The Hunger Games. It was just the right length, had a story, and seemed to adapt the book well.

Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Avengers

Interesting, with all the shouting out to indie love elsewhere here, that most people's favorites were studio pictures.

I didn't get to see a lot of indies last year unfortunately. 3D means that the big studio films take twice as many screens (one for the 2D, one for the 3D version.) I'm looking forward to watching the French film "Amour" and others on DVD. (Hopefully they'll release them in the cinema around here sometime.)