/swg/ Screen Writer Swag General

Distraction edition

What are your ideas?
What are you writing now?
Why aren't you writing now?

Other urls found in this thread:

awn.com/blog/how-turn-microsoft-word-terrific-screenwriting-program
glibfacsimile.com/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Baniszewski
twitter.com/NSFWRedditVideo

Reworking the outline to the indie film I'm writing, directing, and possibly acting in.

Finished the first draft yesterday and although it is kinda shit, I'm oddly proud of it

My ninjamovie is coming on nicely.
Im soon finished with first draft of treatment.
Now im starting to feel anxious and overhelming with the fact that it might be too expensive to make.

I'd advise against acting in it if you're directing, especially if it's a indie movie you'll be doing most the work on

Unless it's just a cameo of a small supporting role you can't be expected to reach the level of concentration required to play a convincing character while you've got a thousand other things in your head

It's easier for big directors that have a ton of other people to do their shit to play major roles but for a low-budget one it probably won't work

This is coming from a fellow wannabe actor/director

But good on ya user, be sure to link us to it once you're done

Also remember "The first draft of anything is shit"

Wait awhile, revise it. It'll improve

>it might be too expensive to make.
So what? It's not too expensive to write. Get it on paper and send it around to agents. If it's good, they'll option you to write other shit for them, and maybe one day you'll make a connection that wants to make it happen

I'm considering acting in it (after taking a class or two) because it'll force me out of my comfort zone, and I've heard that a little acting knowledge helps writing.

Also budget.

Everything I said goes tenfold if you've got no experience acting

And it doesn't really help with your writing; writing and acting are very similar, but acting focuses on a single character, and focuses mostly on that character. It's also a lot harder than it looks, don't believe the hype around "it's just saying lines for a camera"

But if you are really interested in learning to act, any old class won't teach you shit. Start reading Stanislavski, and the other actors who learned from him. Classes are only really good for learning hands-on

Its ridicilously good. The worst part of this is that i really, really want to direct it.

>John Core-san
>Chinese

I know an outline is pretty necessary, but is a treatment necessary if I don't plan on shopping my script?

If that's the only problem you found in that script i don't think screenwriting is for you user

>What are your ideas?
Not telling you sneaky thief

depends on what you mean by a treatment

When most people talk about it they mean a short few pages explaining the plot in general, such as the 4-page treatment of Syd Feild

But in Robert Mckee's book he recommends writing a paragraph for each scene in your step-outline explaining the subtext in broad strokes

Neither is required (nothing really is in writing) but both can help you in the long run

This script looks incredibly offensive and racist. Not to mention terribly written.

Good luck trying to sell your script to any respectable person. Disgusting.

> When most people talk about it they mean a short few pages explaining the plot in general, such as the 4-page treatment of Syd Feild

Yeah this is what I was talking about. Shit I forgot about the step-outline subtext thing even though I have a copy of Story. Good looking out.

...

please be joking

I'm currently working on a script but I'm a pleb and using WriterDuet.

I pretty much work offline / on the same laptop all the time, what's a good """"beginner""" software to write on?

If you have access to Word. There's ways to format it for screenwriting.

That's what I've been doing since Final Draft makes my computer freeze.

That sounds great bc my pc is recently acting a shit.

Got a tut you followed by to do so?

awn.com/blog/how-turn-microsoft-word-terrific-screenwriting-program

Followed this to a T and my formatting looks pretty decent

Embarrassing question:
I'm writing my first screenplay ever using Writer and I don't know how many indents to make for dialogue

appreciate it

I finished up a pilot I've been working on recently.

I'm wondering if I should go with a cliffhanger ending, or something more self-contained (think the ending of the Justified pilot, how Sopranos episodes usually end).

My friend says the cliffhanger, but I'm worried that cliffhangers are an overused trope nowadays.

never used that, but Celtx was pretty good when I was entry-tier. Simple and easy to use

teach a man to fish

screenwriting.info/

If it's a good cliffhanger, use it. It's overused because it gets results. Just make sure it has actual weight on the plot and isn't hanging for the sake of hanging (cough cough John Snow's death cough cough)

Thanks

The cliffhanger is a guy realizing he left his wallet at a crime scene.

I ended it this way to begin the next episode with someone being tasked with retrieving it.

>There are people that don't know John Core

Summertime Sup Forums, I swear...

hopefully they're just trolling

If it leads somewhere, go for it

> Just make sure it has actual weight on the plot and isn't hanging for the sake of hanging (cough cough John Snow's death cough cough)

> If it leads somewhere, go for it

It does lead to things happening and isn't just a cliffhanger for the sake of cliffhangers. I'll keep it, thanks.

>This is FU MANCHU

Don't you think you should scale it down a bit?

Do something more simple?

It is very simple, but the most expenses come from aesthetics. Its setting is 80's Japan, and shooting in there might be more on the expensive side.

That's what I meant. Shooting something in your city. Unless you actually live in Japan, then go for it.

I dunno, i've set up the story to run around the Japan and theres many nice things that are running as backdrop. It would take some of the charm out of the movie.

I wrote another John Core, pls rate

A glib facsimile.

I don't know what that means but thanks

glibfacsimile.com/

>but thankfully I had access to anime from very early on in my youth years

Holy shit, I was just kidding at first, but this guy seems to really believe anime is the epitome of art

Trying to work on some psychological thriller "superhero" type script

>superhero

sorry, anything resembling capehsit is immediately shit

Its not even capeshit but I have no other way to describe the main aspect of the film.

I was kidding

What's the premise?

The basic premise is a man with the ability to see in the future but when he uses his gift to change the outcome of his visions, he is then blocked on a future vision that will be even greater than the previous.

I'm working on a stage play that I will eventually adapt into a film. It's a serious version 50s sci fi, about a mysterious signal from space and the crew sent to find its source. The story opens with a few people frantically running into an escape pod during a violet mutiny. The whole play takes place in the pod. The captain, first mate, captain's daughter, possibly a scientist (thinking about cutting him cause I don't have much for him to do) and a young space marine are the characters. They launch the pod, the main ship explodes and the sit there a while. We learn that the mission has gone on for untold years, with multiple generations of the crew being born even with centuries of cryo sleep. No original crew members are left. The survivors decide to continue the mission in the pod and continue toward the signal. Eventually the captain is forced to admit that they have been out of contact with earth for centuries and he's been faking it. The mutineers were in the right. They don't even know if earth still exists. The ship was on autopilot, as well as the escape pod. They couldn't change course if they wanted to. They decide to tie the captain up, the first mate takes charge. He forms a budding romance with he daughter, while the soldier grows more and more discontent and jealous.

Cont.

If you want to be a screenwriter user you should learn to avoid walls of text

Any producer would just ignore all of that

Soldier snaps and executes the captain (he has the only gun) then forces everyone to do what he wants. He makes the girl blow him in front of the others while spouting edgy nihilism and how it's all pointless and he knows they'll kill him eventually but he doesn't care. Etc etc, gay ass philosophy of hedonism and whatnot. Eventually he runs out of cigarettes and so he decides to let the first mate kill him, after weeks of tyranny and fear. First though he fires all but two bullets into the scientist, telling the mate to use them wisely. The mate chokes him to death. His relationship with the girl is now wrecked and he can't get over he fact that he watched her with the soldier, etc. eventually she kind of talks him into accepting it and they move on slowly. The girl resumes logging data and doing scientific work but the guy gets fed up and doesn't see the point. They only have food for two weeks. He thinks they should just spend two weeks loving each other and enjoy what life thy have then off themselves, but she want to continue the mission even though it is obviously bullshit. Also she's pregnant so death would be bad. He tells her there's no species to continue. They can't reconcile this point and he kills himself, telling her that now he will have twice he food.

Any feedback would be much appreciated

Better than using reddit spacing you fucking pleb

>reddit spacing

you mean formatting?
This meme has gone too far

...

>"Any feedback would be much appreciated"
>"you fucking pleb"

great mentality you got there user

Not the other guy, but:

>using shitty formatting and style because you're afraid of being associated with some meme website

Jesus Christ, man. Are you afraid to take a shit on a toilet because that's what redditors do?

Geez I was kidding, calm down

The reason for the wall of text is because it's a couple of vaguely detailed posts on Sup Forums explaining my plot. Honestly if I were to give that exact amount of information to anyone, it would probably all be in one paragraph. I would never write a script in that way.

Keep your premise down to 2-3 sentences user

Always remember that nobody in the film industry likes to read

It's not a logline, I just wanted to show my story idea to anons. It's not even a treatment, I slammed it out in 2 minutes on my phone

writing a short, 2-3 sentence high-concept early on will help you keep things in focus.

>A young man posts his screenplay idea to Sup Forums, only to be assaulted with criticism for his idea being TOO fleshed out. He defends himself against several anons to no avail and gives up on writing, defeated and fully aware of how foolish he has been.

Something like that?

>*A young man doesn't know how to take criticism/good advice and confuses them with personal attacks he must "defend" himself from

ftfy

If you're honestly this bad at taking criticism writing in general isn't for you

Nobody here is discouraging you to write. Your basic formatting is just off. Basic formatting is something you can learn in a matter of minutes and it will help you for the rest of your life.

This is literally anons giving you the super simple, non personal, advice that might decided whether you're ever going to go anywhere with this or not.

I'm writing a movie about a detective obsessively searching for a Batman-esque vigilante who is targeting the city's mob bosses.

The twist is that the detective has a split personality and is also the vigilante.

If you're going to give up because a few random anons gave you advice, you should do so now

Any shit you get here is nothing compared to what you'll get if you ever actually make something

You have to stop seeing it as an attack you must "defend" yourself against and start seeing it as quality advice that'll help you in the long run

It hurts to find out you're not good, but would you rather feel bad for an hour, or keep writing shit for the rest of your life?

>split personality twist

how original

but seriously, as long as you can put an original twist on it, go for it

Not him but I can dig it. Has potential.

writing a real life story of me falling in love with a recovering heroin addict only to fall in love with a girl that she arranged for us to have a threesome with.

This isn't Love (2016). I lived it. Even after I saw the movie I wanted to cry because I'm pretty sure that my ex is gonna end up the same way.

>real life story of me

big red flag right there

writing about events that happened to you, especially when the emotions are still fresh, can make it difficult to look at the story objectively

I'm not saying you shouldn't use things that happen to you to inspire your story (in fact, actually experiencing something is the best way to write about it) but a hard adaptation may not be the best idea

Or it could be a great idea, and give you a new perspective your own life. Only one way to find out I guess

Write it, see how it goes

Used to be (or tried to be) a journalist. I'm can be subjective. The whole reason I'm writing is because during the whole break-up phase there was a point where people were saying either me or her were in the wrong for how we handled things.

I'm telling it as accurately as possible so at the end of it someone can either say either: I was in the right, she was in the right or we were both idiots.

like a kind of more fleshed out 500 Days of Summer.

Currently rendering all my scenes individually so i can manipulate them and get a faster render on the finished output so that i can iterate faster
Eventually i'll render it in proper quality - but i need a faster computer really

Not him but I had a similar idea of that too with a relationship I've had but couldn't think how to potray it where it wasn't cliche or overdone

>rendering

nigga are you writing a screenplay in Adobe Premiere or something?

I'm that guy. Can you give a quick rundown of what happened?

Basically it would be on me and who is now my best friend and how journey of being friends, being together, breaking up, hatred, and friendship again and how much it plaus into being truly in love with someone but never showing the love for them.

We would constantly do this cycle and it caused so much friction and drama that its crazy how long we've went and still ended up being in love

How do you come up with sitcom plots for a straight man sitcom character?

no i just treat /swg/ the same as /fmg/
i'm rendering a short film i wrote and directed

>First draft 183 pages
>Second draft 137
>Shooting for less than 120

A lot of it is going to be trimming description, thank Christ.

How do you guys write action scenes? I feel like I get too caught up writing things out beat for beat, which makes them longer than they need to be and deprives them of impact. At the same time, a quick description seems kind of cheap. Where do you find the middle ground?

Surround him with over-the-top characters and scenarios.

could be interesting if you handle it right.

Maybe go by each year, with each year being something completely different in terms of the relationship. Just spit balling. You should try to get it down on paper if you haven't already and let your creativity go nuts.

Thanks man. I'm in the process of layering each event and then hopefully will get to write the draft soon

I usually "launch" the action. Like, "ninjas attack". Then give maybe two sentences of describing what the 'tempo' is of the fight. Then finish it with one sentence. Then comes the aftermath.

I'm always lurking these threads. If you get a draft going I'll give it a look. Probably call myself addict lover or something.

What if some specific beats of action are critical? (Someone gets injured in a spot that's important later, for example)?

wave it off in a quick short sentence
you have to keep in mind that action sequences have zero literary merit, they're just coreography and camerawork. In fact, some people consider fight scenes a 'cheat' for screenwriters to resolve a plot without having to think much, and they're right. So be careful with fight scenes.

I personally try to use it just another way to forward the story (because why the fuck waste time on it if its useless?) and make it a life and view changing experience to all the survivors and always having consequences.

I just wrote a short film outline based on this story
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Baniszewski
It's not about the actual story though, it's inspired by. Also, it's a romantic drama which is cool since that's ridiculously outside my comfort-zone