ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

5 years, 9 months ago - Allan (Mac) McKenna

Good on you Sam. Couple of things you might not know that perhaps you ought to. Or perhaps not. Who knows. This is screen-writing we're talking about and you think you've heard some bullshit about Brexit, prepare to be drenched in bovine excreta. Hollywood employ banks of screen-writers who reject (pick a number 80% 90% more?) yearly. But still these columns teem with advice how to make your screenplay more 'Hollywood friendly'. Not a hope. Well not true, there is some. Well some. And stlll we knock this stuff out. Myself having done some short-story writing (in post-modern style, whatever that means) in my local U3A creative writing group, am currently struggling on converting one into a short screen-play. Easy. Or so I thought. I can see the damn unfolding before my eyes but converting it into vowels and consonants is something else. But I'll continue. There is no other option. And I'll eventually emerge with one of the best short screen-plays ever written. That no-one will want to make. Heigh ho. Good luck Sam.

5 years, 9 months ago - Walter Miclo

Sam,

Try this method. It's called the 12 step hero's journey. It's from a course and its textbook Itook at NYU back in the summer of 2013:

The 12 Step Hero’s Journey
ACT I: 1) Ordinary World
2) Call to Adventure
3) Refusal of the Call
ACT IIA: 4) Meet with Mentor/Helper
5) Crossing First Threshold
6) Tests, Helpers, Enemies
ACT IIB: 7) Approach to Innermost Cave
8) Ordeal and Flight – Crisis
9) Reward – Main Character Changes
ACT III: 10) The Road Back
11) Resurrection – Main Character Changes
12) Return with Elixir – Finale

From the book: “How to Write a Screenplay in Ten Weeks” by Marilyn Horowitz, Copyright 2011, ISBN: 978-0-9799089-1-0

Used in the Course: “Writing a Screenplay in Ten Weeks”, NYU-School of Professional Studies, Professor Michael Zam, Summer, 2013.

Good luck, Sam!

Walter Miclo
waltermiclo@hotmail.com

5 years, 9 months ago - Bob Eckhard

Hi Sam,
It's good that you want to make films and I would focus on that -why do you want someone to write it for you? Because you're new to it? Well, short of having money to pay a writer to do that task - which is a good idea as lerning how to write to the standard of a professional screenwriter takes an average (or so I'm told) approximately 10 years - hence, why those who are worth their salt will not do it for free unless there is payment or the promise that the film will be made and they will receive a writing credit - aka recognition - for all their hours of hard work writing something that they might otherwise not write. My advice either put the graft in on learning how to write or focus on filmmaking first and foremost while learning the art of story as a sideline to the job. Read scripts online and anlayse structure but write your own too, make films and learn what genres and stories are likely to be profitable if made into a film. There are loads of great books, training and couses on the Internet but ask yourself, Do you want to make it or write it? If its the former, you're either a filmmaker or producer. If its the latter, you're a lowly screenwriter who might strike lucky one day if the gatekeeper allows...