THE SCRIBOSPHERE

yy
Info

Wouldn't it be easier to find the best of the whole scribosphere in one place? To be able to read one blog in order to get the news on the screenwriting front? This is exactly where you can do it.

SCRIBOSPHERE posts everything written by scribospherians. No one can keep up with all the blogs out there, until now.

Do you have a screenwriting blog yourself, or do you want to recommend one? Email us and we'll take a look at it.

ENTER THE CHAT

The Scribosphere is ON.
The Scribosphere Tutorial.
The Scribosphere Chat.

Trivia: The term "Scribosphere" is an invention of Craig Mazin, pro scribe.

Email Scribosphere

 Leave A Message


 Monthly Round-Ups
Scribosphere Round Up - October 2006
 Previous Posts
The Scribosphere is Evolving!
Tribute to Fencing With the Fog
A Screenwriting Blog-A-Thon!
Love It
Happy Groundhog Day!
Don't Fence Me In, Unless It's For A Really, Reall...
Get Your Instapitch On...
Word Of The Day
I Got A Bridge I Can Sell You.
50 Things About You?
 Categories
 Search
 Links
  The Artful Writer           
  John August                 
  UnknownScreenwriter     
  The Inside Pitch           
  Alligators in Helicopter  
  Mystery Man                 
  Man Bytes Hollywood     
  Screenwriters of Taz     
  Screenwriting Life         
  Josh Friedman             
  Fun Joel                     
  ScreenwriterBones        
  How to Write... Badly     
  Complications Ensue    
  The Thinking Writer     
  William Martell            
  By Ken Levine              
  PJ Rodio                     
  One Slack Martian         
  DISContent                  
  DeadThingsOnSticks     
  Uninflected Images      
  Jane Espenson             
  Scriptwriting in the UK    
  Kung Fu Monkey          
  Tenspeed & Brownshoe 
  Red Right Hand           
  Pen Mightier than Spork
  $1000 Spielberg            
  Eric's POV                    
  A Bucket of Love          
  Writing on Spec           
  Adventures in Pokedom 
  Write Here, Write Now   
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
 Get Your Instapitch On...
From Red Right Hand. Great stuff to inspire and delight.

Oh, and the Doctor Who stuff? I don't get it. But it sounds like a cool episode.

- E.

INSTAPITCH™ (THE TRAVEL EDITION)
In which I promise to get to a point...

Something I read in a very old book has stuck with me through my excuse for a writing career and it's something I keep very much in the front of my mind, next to the big box of those hooking monkeys.

The book in question is The Trouble With Tribbles by David Gerrold and it's the story of how that famous episode of Star Trek happened, from young David deciding he wants to be a writer all the way through through production and the aftermath of the tribble phenomena and the initial rumblings of organized Star Trek fandom. My copy is yellowed and is a seventh printing from 1976, but it's an intriguing look inside the brain of a young writer in a television world that has changed a lot while not changing at all.

The first chapter is about opportunity knocking and that when it does, you better be able to answer the door. Better yet, if you can, have the coffee made and hot and snacks on a tray. That's why I keep my spec pile rotating. I like to have a lot of different things ready to go at any time.

Sometimes, opportunity comes in different ways. you never know who you're going to meet and waht they're going to ask for? Can you think on your feet? Can you pitch something at the drop of a hat if you had to?

Occasionally, I like to exercise my brain a bit by coming up with one pitch for every show I watch, preferably in just a couple of minutes each. It's a good brain stretch for a short drive to pick up some beer and hardcore porn, or in my case, soda and funny books.

You don't have to work it all out. Just a little more than a log line's worth. And be hard on yourself. Is it cool or did you just barf up something to beat the clock? Honestly, my Instapitch™ to myself for an episode of Shark was met with a rolling of my eyes at...myself. It sucked, I moved on.

It's fun because it lets you put a little thought to some shows that are "unspeccable" or not spec worthy. Last night, I did one for Doctor Who (foreign show, no good for the spec) "The Forty-Four Doctors" in which The Doctor must convince The Mighty and Dread Confederation of the Sanguinary Obliton, in essence a "murder galaxy" (population: 500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 very angry rubber-suited monsters (of which there'd only be three or four rubber suits and a lot of cut and paste)), that there is something worse in the universe than them and they're looking at it. Can he destroy an entire galaxy bent on killing everything in sight? How will he do it (hint: here)? What toll will the contemplation of such genocide take on him? Blah, blah blah. Total time thinking about this: From here to the Boston Market for meatloaf (and a lot of that was coming up with the name Mighty and Dread Confederation of the Sanguinary Obliton). Not on the way back. That was the unpleasantness with Shark.


I can only imagine how ridiculous that sounds to someone not familiar with the peculiarities of Doctor Who. Or how ridiculous it sounds to those who do. Anyway, I'm setting that one free...to the wild.

A little test of speed, style and other stuff. You can even do it with old shows if you so desire. Who knows? You might stumble over something you can use somewhere else.

BTW, this whole thing of being ready when opportunity knocks relates to the hand-wringing I've seen of late in reference to Jane Espenson's post about writing spec pilots. It's one agent she spoke with recommending anything but specs to be used as writing samples. And even if something original opens the door, they may want something else after its opened. Do both. Be ready for all eventualities. Go to war with the army you've got, and make sure that army is the one you want. Y'know?

Still working out the kinks of a Heroes spec, but I think I know how to do it now.

Labels: , , ,

Posted by scribosphere @ 2:00 PM

Friday, January 19, 2007
 Crazy Talk
Scott the Reader posts on some "techniques" that writers use that drive him crazy.

Enjoy. I did.

- E.

I've Said It Before, But I'll Say It Again...

I actually have posted on this before, but since they keep popping up in things I read, I feel that I need to rant about these bad screenwriting habits again.

Things that drive me crazy in your script:

CHARACTERS TALKING TO THEMSELVES. There are times when a character might logically talk to themselves -- hell, there are times when I talk out loud to myself -- but it needs to be done very judiciously and sparingly, if at all.

Instead, I read script after script, where the writer, desperate to make us understand what is going on in a character's head, will have them just blurt it out, even if there is no one else in the room.

I read one script the other day that had about 15 different incidences where this happened, with about a half-dozen different characters. And in most of the cases what they were saying was really very obvious anyway.

Trust your readers/audience to understand things, and if you think they need a push, figure out how to do it visually or more inventively. There's always a better way than the random I'm-alone-but-I'm-chatty blurt out.

MENTIONING THE MOVIE IN THE SCRIPT THAT YOUR SCRIPT IS SIMILAR TO. I've read two scripts in the last week that did this, part of an odd habit that is shockingly widespread and endlessly reoccurring.

It seems to be driven by guilt. Writers who find themselves penning scenes (or storylines) that are derivative of something that came before feel driven to namecheck this film, as if acknowledging it makes it okay.

But there are few really-original moments any more, and pointing out the ones your script is borrowing is counter-productive; it just makes the reader even more-aware that even you know that you haven't put forth the effort to make your tale truly original.

Best-case scenario? You make your script as original as possible. But if it does hew close to something that came before (because that's the best way to tell the story), don't feel you have to point it out. If you are doing a story about some kids going on an adventure, you really don't need a scene in which "The Goonies" plays on a TV in the background, or one of the kids mentions that in "Stand By Me" the kids found a body.

CRIMINAL MISUSE OF APOSTROPHES. "It's" is ONLY to be used to represent "it is", not when something is possessive.

"Let's" is short for "Let us", so you shouldn't write "Lets go".

Apostrophes are used as possessives, or to replace letters. If you are talking about the Kennedy clan, they are the Kennedys, not the Kennedy's.

It's The 1960s, not The 1960's. Shortening years, it should be The '60s, not The 60's.

Characters are in their 30s, not their 30's.

VARYING THE NAME OF THE SAME CHARACTOR IN THE SCENE DESCRIPTION. If a guy's name is John Brown, you shouldn't be calling him John sometimes, and Brown others. In the dialogue, fine, but not in the scene description.

And after you intro characters, we should never see their whole name again. It shouldn't say JOHN BROWN as the name over all the dialogue (much less something like ASSISTANT DA CHARLES KINCAID). Pick the first name or the last and stick with that, and make sure it's what you are calling him in the scene description.

EXCLAMATION POINTS IN SCENE DESCRIPTION. These look really amateurish. If you are writing an exciting scene well, you really don't need them.
posted by Scott the Reader

Labels: , , , , ,

Posted by scribosphere @ 7:52 PM

Wednesday, January 17, 2007
 BlueCat Interview!

Interview with the founder of BlueCat - Gordy Hoffman


A lot of writers, like you, enter competitions all the time. There are plenty of them, I don't know how many, but a huge amount. Some better than others.

If a competition provides you with something really valuable when you win, that's great. By valuable I mean like a good shot at getting your script produced. Or a lot of money, enough for you to produce it yourself.

Some competitions even give you feedback without winning. Your script can be awful and loose hard, but still get notes on how to improve it. That's not bad, considering it's almost a win-win situation.

One of these competitions is BlueCat. BlueCat began 1998 and is very successful by now. It has a grand prize of $10 000, actually the most of all similar competitions so far. Also, the four finalists get $1500 each, which still is a nice amount of money considering you didn't win.

But enough talking, let's let the man himself, Gordy Hoffman, tell us about it and then some more:

1. What are you looking for in a screenplay?

A compelling story. What makes a story compelling is how deeply personal the writer invests in the work. If you don’t care, we won’t. If you open yourself, we will feel safe and sit down.

2. Is there any particular genre that does better than others, from what you’ve seen so far?

Not our contest. Our 2005 winner was a comedy that made me laugh out loud more than once and our 2006 winner was a drama that I bawled over all the way through. Basically, refer to answer #1.

3. What do you think makes the difference between a good movie and a bad movie?

The lack of audience identification with the experiences of people on screen.

4. What fatal mistakes can a writer do in his/hers script?

Settle for the first idea or choice that comes to their head, whether it’s a line of dialogue or the last scene of the screenplay.

5. How did you get started on writing?

It was a writing assignment in 2nd grade. A very short story. I remember it to this day, the feeling of creative writing.

6. What do you love most about filmmaking. Writing, directing, producing…?

I love collaborating with other people, working with brilliant actors, meeting the audience. It’s so much fun.

7. Why did you start BlueCat and was it hard getting it “out there”?

I guess I thought it would be fun to start a screenplay contest. Little did I know! But eventually I figured out how to handle the circus, and people have discovered us.

8. You think competitions are a good way to get inside the industry walls, and if yes, are all as good?

Some are better than others, and they definitely help with the struggle for attention from Hollywood. I know we have. Our 2005 Winner has recently wrapped production and stars Seann William Scott.

9. Will you consider having your brother sign to act in the winning script as the grand prize sometime?

The day will come, I’m sure! But he’s a bit busy right now.

10. Any projects coming up soon?

The thing I’m writing at 5:30 in the morning.

------
Big thanks to Gordy!

//Scribosphere

Categories: [general_] [ideas_] [industry_] [market_]

Labels: , , , , ,

Posted by scribosphere @ 12:58 AM

Monday, January 15, 2007
 Mailroom at The Inside Pitch

Mailroom at The Inside Pitch


There are some interesting Q&As over at the Inside Pitch where you can get inside information and tips on how to improve your marketing skills.

Head over and check it out!

//Scribosphere

Categories: [market_] [industry_] [general_]

Labels: , , ,

Posted by scribosphere @ 2:50 AM

Sunday, January 07, 2007
 Complications Ensue - Bridget Carpenter Interview, Part One

Bridget Carpenter Interview, Part One

POSTED BY ALEX EPSTEIN OVER AT Complications Ensue.

Bridget Carpenter is a producer on my favorite show, Friday Night Lights (now airing Wednesdays at 8pm on NBC). She graciously agreed to answer a few questions. I'll be running the interview over the next few days. Stay tuned!

To read the interesting interview, follow this link.

//Alex Epstein

Categories: [television_] [industry_] [market_]

Labels: , , ,

Posted by scribosphere @ 1:57 PM

Saturday, January 06, 2007
 Unknown Screenwriter - On High Concept... Again

The comment that ran too long…

POSTED BY UNK OVER AT The Unknown Screenwriter.

So yeah… I was working on my rewrite… In fact, I’m almost done and I’m pretty happy about it. Anyway, I was working for quite a few hours straight and decided to take a little break…

Yeah right. LOL.

I read a few more screenwriting articles and even modified the post below and added some links that I thought some of you aspiring television writers might want to check out…

After I’m done adding that information to the screenwriting article post, I notice in my WordPress Dashboard that there was a new link to my blog… So like any curious blogger, I click on the link and it took me here:

Dissecting the High Concept Logline

Which takes you to another screenwriting blog called: On The Scene

Cool.

First off, let me just say that we’ve all got opinions and I for one will go to my grave respecting anyone and everyone’s right to their opinion EVEN if I don’t necessarily agree with the opinion itself…

So I read the post and to be honest, I was confused. Not confused about what HIGH CONCEPT is because as far as I’m concerned, I know what it is. What you may not know however, is that those posts caused quite a bit of email that ran the gambit… Everything from “I totally agree with you, Unk” to “You’re a fucking asshole, Unk.”

Cool. I responded to them all when I should have been working on my rewrite… Good or bad, I responded. My responses to the hate email were not IN KIND by the way… LOL. I just kinda shine those on but I do reply with a nice, “I’ll keep that in mind…”

But I digress…

I read James’ post and thought he might have missed some points I had made with my post on the definition of high concept and I had intended to discuss loglines in the future but since this opportunity to do just that popped up, I thought, “Why not?”

So what I’ll do is go ahead and post the comment I attempted to make to James’ post on his blog… I’ll also go ahead and make a comment after all but instead of the actual comment, I will let him know that I turned the comment into the following post here on my blog… But I’m not gonna do that until I finish here…

One more thing…

I do not attempt to DISSECT A HIGH CONCEPT LOGLINE here… I just explain the way I do it. You may do it differently and if you do, may God bless you. LOL. In fact, this is not a post about the kind of logline they use to MARKET a film…

Nope.

They pay marketing geniuses to come up with those loglines… LOL. I’m just a fuckin’ screenwriter.

What I do is create what I call a COMPASS LOGLINE. I call it a compass logline because it’s the logline I create before I ever ever start writing. It always leads the way for me. It keeps me on track when I get off track and I tend to get off track ALL THE FUCKIN’ TIME.

However, that’s NOT to say that you can’t turn right around and take a compass logline and recite it to someone so they know what your screenplay is about… It can definitely serve that purpose…


To continue on this "debate", follow this link.

//Unk

Categories: [plot_] [market_] [structure_]

Labels: , , ,

Posted by scribosphere @ 10:02 AM

Tuesday, December 26, 2006
 Uninflected Images Juxtaposed - My First Agent... My Second Agent...

My First Agent... (or How I got Representation and Didn't Even Know It)

POSTED BY WILL DIXON OVER AT Uninflected Images Juxtaposed.


...digging back into the recesses of the mind, thought this might be interesting post, especially to those living outside the major entertainment centers.

A long time ago, I was residing in the middle of nowhere in mid-west Canada - living the life of a filmmaker in a place I had no business trying to live that life...a place that didn't know what a grip or a dolly or what a call sheet was... hell, I barely knew what they were and I'd graduated film school. But I formed a small company with another local, mostly making educational documentaries for government agencies and then repackaging them as a limited/on-going series for a regional tv network - was making a living, sort of.

Then timing and good fortune shined down (as it always HAS to do) and we found ourselves near the top of list of companies capable of taking advantage of some regional incentives that needed to be spent by some of the federal film funding agencies we have in Canada. And it was us mostly because there was hardly anyone else around with more experience (I only had a few dramatic shorts to my name). And so with my 'drama expertise', and my partner's financing savvy, we managed to produce and I directed two half hour one off tv dramas, and then I co-wrote and directed a one off hour long family drama...all in the same year.

Lucky. Yes. But you still have to deliver when you get your chance. The shows weren't brilliant, but they weren't embarrassing either (one won a Gemini award..Canuck equivilent of Emmy).

What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, the first agent...

Where I was living and what I was doing, getting an agent wasn't even on my radar. And even if I did think about it, I was sure no agent was going to be interested in me or able to do anything for someone out in the middle of nowhere. So my next project was a tv movie I had in development with one of the pay tv channels in Canada. The writing had gone well and the script had been well received, but then it stalled - it needed something to push it over the top.

The year before, I'd met a very good writer from Vancouver (who's now doing very well in LA...see Bones) at the Banff tv festival, and we'd become friends and stayed in touch.
I'll never forget a cassette tape (yes, this was back in the day, kiddies) showing up in the mail (also the days pre-internet, file sharing, etc.) from this friend with Pearl Jam's 'Ten' on one side and Motherlovebone on the other...never heard of these Seattle bands before and they blew me away...so I think I introduced him to Nirvana and we were even.
Anyway, I asked this friend/writer if he would co-write next draft of the tv movie with me to see if that would help take it to the next level. And I'll never forget his absolute shock, "...no way, this is your baby...it's great the way it is!" But for me, it's always been about getting it made/produced, not just written. So I pushed and pushed and he finally agreed (and it did eventually get made).

Oh yeah, the first agent...

So around same time I was in charge of putting together workshops for the local film festival/awards...so I came up with idea of bringing in a couple writers (I also knew a fairly successful writer/friend living in Toronto and his agent), and do an Agent/Writer Relationship workshop. I'd been negotiating with the Vancouver friend's agent for the co-write on the movie, so she and him agreed to come out (she was based out of Toronto). And the Toronto friend and his agent agreed to come out. So it was a go. And we had a great weekend of a long late dinner, the workshop, the so-called awards, another dinner, and everyone went back to their respective homes.

Monday morning, my phone rings. It's my Vancouver friend's agent in Toronto. We exchange pleasantries and boom...she quickly asks if anyone is representing me. I think I laughed out loud. And then said no. And then asked why would she care (I had no clue). She gets very 'agenty' and says she will fax me an agreement and agree to rep me right now if I'm interested. Now keep in mind she had a good reputation and repped several writers I knew, so there wasn't any sort of issue of credibility. But I remember being a little flabbergasted and said something like..."Sure, whatever." An hour later the deal was done and I had an agent - a pretty decent agent by Canadian standards...and all I really did was answer the phone.

So what's my point. Well, I remember asking her some time later why she wanted to rep me, and she said she'd been hearing my name for a couple years, and she'd heard I did good work, and the Vancouver friend endorsed me...but mostly, she said that when she came out for the workshop, I DIDN'T ask her to rep me. It helped convince her that she 'wanted' me, as opposed to me (or anyone for that matter) 'wanting' her...or wanting her as an agent, at any rate.

And I've heard that sentiment echoed over the years from a lot of writers: that it's just so much easier if the agent can hear about you not from you, and begin to think about repping you not because you are telling them to...that it's the agent who makes the first move.

That isn't to put down cold calling agents and trying to get them to read your material to see if you're worth repping ... get in front of anyone you can ... but if you can have a friend or an agent's client to recommend you to that agent, it can only work to your advantage.

And as for my first agent, alas, she's no longer repping me, though we parted amicably for reasons that will be discussed another time.


To read about Will's second agent, "My Second Agent...(Or Some Of The Truths About Representation)", follow this link.

//Will Dixon

Read/Post Comments

Categories: [market_] [industry_]

Labels: , ,

Posted by scribosphere @ 3:43 AM

Sunday, December 17, 2006
 $1000 Spielberg - How To Market Your Film Virally

How To Market Your Film Virally

POSTED BY CLIVE DAVIES OVER AT $1000 Spielberg.

Indie film makers suffer from a serious disorder, that I call “Field of Dreams” syndrome.

“If we build it, they will come.”

Quite often film makers don’t even think about how they’ll build an audience for their film until they’ve finished post production — and when they think of it at all they tend to think in terms of finding a distributor, rather than finding an audience.

The common assumption they make is a distributor will find an audience for their film — all they have to do is make a good film and the distributor will do the rest.

It’s a hard lesson for many film makers when they discover that their film has little or no market value, simply because distributors look at their no-name, no-budget movie and say “I can’t take this on, because there is no market for it.”

But what a distributor is actually saying when they say “There’s no market,” is it would cost them more to build an audience for the movie, than they would make back in sales.

This is because film distributors think in traditional marketing terms, and traditional marketing costs money. They don’t have the time and resources to build an audience for every film that crosses their threshold - so instead they buy safe genre films, they know have the right D2DVD credentials (horror, naked women, blood, martial arts and guns).

However, any producer can change the power relationship between themselves and the distributors, simply by creating an audience for their movie before seeking distribution.

These days there are lots of opportunities for indie film producers to create audiences for their movies, but what the $1000 film maker really needs to understand it takes more than just throwing up a website and making a few “come see my film” postings on the indie film making forums.

The $1000 film maker constantly ask themselves

“How are we going to build an audience for this movie?”

Viral marketing in essence is just “word of mouth” for the 21st Century.

However, to successfully use it, you need to understand the basic principles behind it.

I think the basic principles are as follows:

* Have a high concept movie idea, one that excites people

* Find a niche interest group and target them as your core audience

* Create an interesting story about production of the film

* Start building your audience before you start your film

* Figure out what excites the audience and give it to them in your marketing

* Don’t think about marketing as a scam, give the audience value for their money


To continue on this interesting post, follow this link.

//Clive Davies

Categories: [market_] [industry_] [general_] [ideas_]

Labels: , , , ,

Posted by scribosphere @ 4:31 PM

Thursday, December 14, 2006
 Dead Things on Sticks - Go Union or Go Home?

Go Union or Go Home?

POSTED BY DENIS McGRATH OVER AT Dead Things on Sticks.

Friend of the Blog Callaghan asked an interesting question below:
DMc - a possible future column: how long a young writer should wait before he/she joins the WGC/WGA?

To read the very interesting answer to this, follow this link.

//Denis McGrath

Categories: [industry_] [market_]

Labels: , ,

Posted by scribosphere @ 2:13 PM

Tuesday, December 12, 2006
 Screenwriters of Tazmania - You're a Lazy and Arrogant Writer

You're a Lazy and Arrogant Writer

POSTED BY TAZ OVER AT Screenwriters of Tazmania.


I know there's no way you can finish your script because you sit and procrastinate all day long. You sit in a coffee shop several hours and won't bother to type a single word, because you know it'll never become any finished screenplay. It doesn't matter if you have the highest concept currently possible for the human mind to create, you're too afraid.

Afraid of what? Afraid of being lazy, of not be able to write it good, of getting a writers block along the way, of developing another idea instead, of spending too much time on something that never will be made.

And you're right, cause it won't. Even if you finish that script based on the greatest idea ever all you gonna get is disappointment delivered faster than Fed-Ex can pass a tiny package to its neighbour. There's simply no certain way to get through the filters set up in Hollywood currently, too hard if even possible.

But what am I talking about, you won't finish that script anyway. You haven't even outlined it properly, you're too eager to get started and write the next block-buster. Too eager to find an agent before you even have started or in a hurry to tell your friends you're the next Kaufman even though you know that's not true.

I know why you work that way - you love writing. You love it so much you're ready to become a professional faster than you should, ultimately ending up destroying that chance of yours by disappointing yourself. Ironically it won't be the agent or producers or Hollywood in general that will say "no" to your script. It will be you.

You will be your own enemy.


To read the rest of this post, follow this link.

//taZ

Categories: [ideas_] [structure_] [market_] [plot_]

Labels: , , , ,

Posted by scribosphere @ 8:25 AM

Monday, December 11, 2006
 Complications Ensue - Credits

Credits

POSTED BY ALEX EPSTEIN OVER AT Complications Ensue.


As a writer that has not had anything produced and has only written on spec, is there any value at all to mentioning completed but unproduced screenplays in, say, a grant application?


To read the answer to this question, follow this link.

//Alex Epstein

Categories: [market_] [industry_]

Labels: , ,

Posted by scribosphere @ 5:50 PM

Sunday, December 10, 2006
 $1000 Spielberg - Free Screenwriting Software

Free Screenwriting Software

POSTED BY CLIVE DAVIES OVER AT $1000 Spielberg.


Over the years I’ve spend a reasonable amount of money on tools to help with my screen writing. Most of them have been good investments.

But for the $1000 film maker and the baby spec script writer here are two free tools that you may find useful.

The first is a free screen writing programme called Celtx, for those of you who are still driving yourself insane trying to format your scripts properly in Microsoft Word this will definitely be a step up.

Celtx does all the things you’d expect from screenplay formatting software, in that it lays your script out professionally (You still need to know the rules! LOL)

The other freebie is a beta online version of Storybase.

Storybase is a piece of software which provides a huge buffet of potential scenarios from a given emotional trigger. Up to now it’s only be available as a for as a purchase — now they’ve released a free online version.

//Clive Davies

Read/Post Comments

Categories: [market_] [structure_] [general_]

Labels: , , ,

Posted by scribosphere @ 6:09 AM

Saturday, December 09, 2006
 Complications Ensue - Spec Question

Spec Question

POSTED BY ALEX EPSTEIN OVER AT Complications Ensue.


I'm a snarky female writer with a produced TV movie looking to do my first spec script. I know the go to show is Grey's Anatomy, but I hate it! Should I go with The Office, Ugly Betty, or New Adventures of Old Christine?


Yes, what should she spec? Follow this link to find out.

//Alex Epstein

Categories: [television_] [market_]

Labels: , ,

Posted by scribosphere @ 4:29 PM

 The Inside Pitch - Loglines Revisited

Loglines Revisited

POSTED BY CHRISTOPHER LOCKHART OVER AT The Inside Pitch.


With the holidays approaching, things have been busy, so I thought I'd offer up some reading material without having to do too much work.

So what follows are results from the former Logline Lottery at twoadverbs.com.

For two years, we randomly selected ten loglines a month to be critiqued. The most effective logline - as judged by me - would win a prize of script coverage (for the logline's screenplay) by a professional story analyst.

The point of the lottery was to examine both the presentation and effectiveness of loglines.

The lottery lasted two years and left a library of material in the twoadverbs forum.

This is from the December 2004 lottery.


To read the loglines and a short description of the movie they represent, follow this link.

//Christopher Lockhart

Categories: [market_] [general_] [ideas_]

Labels: , , ,

Posted by scribosphere @ 7:36 AM

Tuesday, December 05, 2006
 John August - Workshops and Idea Theft

Workshops: An invitiation to idea theft?

POSTED BY JOHN AUGUST OVER AT JohnAugust.

questionmark

I was wondering how you feel about workshops. I am an aspiring screenwriter, and am about to enter a workshop of about 20 other writers. My concern was protecting my work. I don't have a complete treatment yet, and god only knows how much my story outline will change before I really write it. I can register something, but it might be pretty different from the final work. Do I run the risk of as yet unmet peers stealing parts of my idea?

-- Frank
Los Angeles


To read the answer to this question, follow this link.

//John August

Categories: [market_] [ideas_] [events_] [general_]

Labels: , , , ,

Posted by scribosphere @ 12:48 PM

 $1000 Spielberg - Three Things To Improve Your Screenplay

Three Things You Can Do Today To Improve Your Screenplay

POSTED BY CLIVE DAVIES OVER AT $1000 Spielberg.

I’m still on the road today, and I’ve a meeting scheduled in half an hour, so this is going to be a quick post.

But, after a week of rants! LOL I really wanted to get back to some positive advice, things you can do today to improve your next movie.

Here are my top three tips:

* Find A Really Creative, Positive Person To Be Your Script Buddy

It is OK to work alone, and when you are screen writing I really believe alone is the only way to do it. But, when it comes to developing ideas the two heads are definitely better than one.

I can’t recommend this too highly — find one or more script buddies. But, make sure they are creative and positive in their attitudes.

You don’t have to write together, but you’ll grow faster if you’re working with someone else who shares the same passion for the work.

A good script buddy will want your ideas to be even better and will help you get there. Finding another person to use as a sounding board will make your movie better. They are the person you test your logline on, the person you use to help with character development, the person who reads those first test scenes and gives great notes.

And, the other benefit is you do the same thing for them, and as a result get to see how they approach screen writing. It’s a win, win situation. And it’s free.

* Assume Your Next Film Is Going To Be A Box Office Smash

If even before you’ve put pen to paper you are assuming your film is going to be a small film — guess what happens, you will write a small film.

But, if you assume your next film is going to be shown in every multiplex in the world, then you will up your game and write accordingly.

Ask yourself, is the film I’m writing going to drive audiences to the cinema in their thousands? If it isn’t, then now is the time to fix it.

It’s OK to aim high, because every time we do this, we should be aiming to make the best film released that year — a film that will live with people for the rest of their lives.

We are ALL much better writers than we allow ourselves to be — you can make your movie better today, just by raising your game and aiming high.

Finally

* Write The First Ten Pages Of Your Movie

No matter where you are in the development process, put down the damn file cards, snap your pencil, put away your screen-writing guru’s text book, snap open the laptop and pound out the most exciting, engaging, heart rending ten pages you can write.

Make yourself want to see the rest of this movie.

Don’t worry about set ups, don’t worry about the inciting incident, just get ten stunning pages down and bathe in their warm glow.

It maybe that you never use them, but come back to them every time you feel your enthusiasm flagging — re write and rewrite them. Constantly ask yourself, will the rest of this film live up to this opening?

Hope these help — I know they help me.

//Clive Davies

Read/Post Comments


Categories: [ideas_] [plot_] [action_] [market_]

Labels: , , , ,

Posted by scribosphere @ 7:12 AM

Monday, December 04, 2006
 Complications Ensue - When Is a Show Ready to Spec?

When Is a Show Ready to Spec?


POSTED BY ALEX EPSTEIN OVER AT Complications Ensue.


When is it too early to write a spec script? It seems that with the popularity (that I saw) of West Wing specs, people would be in a rush to start churning out Studio 60 specs as well. But is it too early? Should a writer wait for a show to get legs firmly underneath it and become established, or do we just take what we have now and run with it? As you've noted, the show has turned to more worthwhile themes for the viewers in the way of personal conflicts, and we are a bit more accustomed to each character's voice, so it seems mature enough to move forward.


To get the answer to that question, head over to this link.

//Alex Epstein

Categories: [market_] [ideas_] [general_]

Labels: , , ,

Posted by scribosphere @ 12:48 PM

 Describe The Ruckus - A Piss Poor Logline

A Piss Poor Logline

POSTED BY PATRICK RODIO OVER AT Could You Describe The Ruckus?

I saw this logline on the Movie-bytes website, and it made me wish explosive diarrhea on myself. Here it is, for a script called Operation Longbow, Before 9-11:

"Aborted attempted assassination of a terrorist, in the Sahara by the use of a special sniper rifle called the Longbow. However, most of the story and subtext deals with serial murders in New Orleans during the height of Mardi Gras."

And my reply is - What? C'mon dude. First of all, your title is insanely dumb. 2nd, this logline is complete shit. If you (the writer of this crap) happens across my blog, I hope you're not too offended. I don't mean to make you feel like an asshole, but have you read the logline? It's terrible. All it sounds like to me is a really stupid, shall I say retarded, idea.

I'd hate to read the synopsis, probably make me want to beat Tom Crymes with a shovel.

My point: As most of you (except for Mr. Longbow) are aware, your logline is your first attack on a producer. If it comes across as dopey-sounding as this, do you think they'd really want to read the script? Hello, no. And if they do, well, then you deserve each other.

//Patrick Rodio

Read/Post Comments

Categories: [market_] [general_]

Labels: , ,

Posted by scribosphere @ 2:31 AM