#screen writing

[389]

you really immerse yourself in the setting and emotions of what is happening on screen without the use of dialogue. I don't need an actor to tell me what or when I should feel something with dialogue. I should just automatically feel it and experience it for myself. That's a rule in screenplay. Show don't Tell.

[alpaca-clouds]

Something that will forever be a thing that drives me nuts, is people not understanding that yes, there are aspects about art that are subjective.

Look, no matter how good or bad a piece of art is, it does not mean it will connect to you. That is fine. As a picky eater, I always likened it too food. Were those eight-course meals that I got served in France objectively better than a fucking Pizza Hut pan pizza? Yes, they were. I will still choose the pan pizza every time, thank you very much.

And it is the same with media. One of my favorite movies of all time is Van Helsing. And I can tell you a lot of things the movie does good. I like the soundtrack a lot. I find the comedic timing in the movie amazing. And some of the actors are great. However, is the main reason I am watching this, that I am a simp for Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale? Yes. Yes, it is. And while the script is funny to me (like I really do enjoy the humor), it is certainly no master piece and if I was a youtuber, I could probably do a two hour video on stuff about the script I take issue with. Don't get me wrong. It is not a bad script by any means. Just... very mediocre. I am able to tell that. Just as I am able to call out the CGI that has aged a lot worse than the CGI in other movies. And some costume choices that were... less than ideal. I still love the movie.

Or maybe an even better example: I freaking love the movie Megamind. It is one of my Top 5 animated movies of all time. But the script was written by two guys who had never learned or studied screenwriting. And this shows. While the script had been edited a ton by people who knew more about screenwriting than them, it absolutely shows in some places, that it was written by folks, who just did not know how to best pace out scenes and stuff, how to work with show and tell, and how to think cinematically. But you know what? To me it does not matter, because I love Megamind and Minion as characters. Again, I am not saying it is a bad script because of it, just that... it could have used even more work than it got.

And this, too me, is part of the reason why I even in my childhood had a big issue with people who are like: "I love this piece of media and hence it is objectively the best thing that was ever created!"

I had this a lot in my first real fandom. Digimon. Because, yeah, it is perfectly fine that you connected more with Digimon Adventure or Digimon Adventure 02, but this does not mean that either of them were better written or better crafted than Digimon Tamers. Like there are very obvious problems in the writing of the first two seasons. Mind you, these days - after getting my answers on why this happened - I am way more chill about it. Like, I get that the people who wrote this were still trying to do the best with the options given to them. But partly because those options were limited, that "best" was just not the same "best" Konaka could do with Tamers, due to on one hand having more experience, and on the other hand just being a lot more stubborn about certain things.

Again, no, that does not mean you have to love Digimon Tamers. It also does not mean you have to dislike Digimon Adventure or Digimon Adventure 02. Like, heck, while I would argue there are more problems in Adventure, they are a lot more noticable in 02 - and I still like 02 more than Adventure, despite the animation being at times worse than some of those fan animatics on youtube. And yes, I mean animatics. Actually things that are not fully animated. Because 02 was suffering from timecrunch in the production a lot, so the animation really at times is a mess.

Why am I talking about this now?

Well, mainly because I am once more annoyed by this. By the fact that people do not acknowledge the fact that writing and art does have objective factors. And that there are rules to follow - or that if they get broken need to be broken for a good reason. Like, you absolutely can for artistic reasons subvert any writing or artistic rule. Totally fine. But only if it is done for artistic reasons and not, let's say, because of fucking time crunch.

And yes, this is still because of Arcane, and me being very, very sick of people claiming season 2 was well written. It was not. I am sorry, there are rules to writing and those rules were broken. Most notably rules of set-ups needing either a payoff or a clear subversion, and the good old screenwriting rule of "show, don't tell, you are a visual medium after all". (Please note at this point: Show don't tell was always for Screenwriting and visual media, it was never meant for pure prose writing, as in prose writing you will always just tell - given words are the only tool you have at your disposal. Yes, it usually works better if you write about characters in whose head your POV is not more in terms of reactions, rather than 'XY was angry', but other than that... there is only so much you can do as someone just using words.)

Like, it is perfectly fine if you totally connected to the story or specific characters. I mean, despite seeing the flaws with the writing - given they were really, really noticable - I would lie if I said I did not cry at some places. But yeah, if you were all there for Caitlyn, Vi, Viktor or Jayce, all power to you.

But the writing was not good. And from all we know the chances are very good that the reason the writing was such a mess was executive meddling of one sort or another. (Very probably the writers getting less time to tell their story than they had expected.)

And that exactly is why I am so fucking pissed at people being like "Oh, but the writing was great!" Because what you are saying with that is basically: "Creative interference and executive meddling is the most amazing thing. Creative people should not have their own freedom. Who also cares about people learning writing as a craft. Let's just let AI write this stuff, I don't fucking care."

And I actually do mean that last part. Because while I do not think that AI had written anything for that season, the time crunch made it so that there were certain things showing up, I have seen a lot in AI writing. Mainly the tell over show, and the set-up without payoff. Because AI is obviously not good with setting up and paying things off, because the AI does not plan a story. It just gives you a line of words in a row, that it has predicted have a high probability to go with a prompt it was given. And those usually do not have a payoff to set-ups.

Also, yes, I am very much the person, who will always give the creative behind any project a lot more benefit of the doubt, than any executives. There are times where it turns out that this is not warranted, and it turns out that indeed, something was weirdly written, because like some guy, who might or might not have been called Joss Whedon, wanted to write something that was titulating for himself. But still, in many cases where a piece of media turned out to have obvious issues, and someone broke their NDA, it often is the case that some executive was to blame for the mess that existed. Be it, because they wanted to pander to a specific audience. Be it, because they wanted to force in certain advertisements. Be it, because they decided that the creatives would just not have the time to do the creative stuff - or not enough time within the piece of media (runtime) to tell the story they wanted to tell. Be it, because some producer decided that his nephew Larry needed to have a role in the show, and because now this role was played by Larry, who was after all his nephew, this role needed to be way bigger than it was originally intended to be.

No, I do not know what happened behind the scenes of Arcane season 2. I can make some educated guesses, but I do not know it. But I know at least in part what happened behind the scenes of Digimon Adventure and 02, and exactly that makes me kinda pissed of people excusing stuff that was fully and completely there because of executive meddling.

Because yeah, most people who write for TV and movies have in fact somehow learned screenwriting. Not all at uni, some are self-taught. That is totally fine. But they have learned writing. The producers meanwhile have not. And it shows.

[hussyknee]

Striking isn't enough y'all need to burn this shit to the ground and start over.

(alt included)

[freck-water]

The nonbinary urge to start writing scripts for Muppet versions of various things and publish them on Ao3

[emma-dennehy-presents]

Since discovering my boss produced a creature feature (Shadow Creature) in the 90s Ive had the idea of putting a treatment together to show him. Getting my hands on a physical copy of his flick (available on Youtube for all you plebs that dont have the ins with our maintenance guy) lit a bit of a fire under my ass and Im to the point Im almost done with a stick figure storyboard to go along with it. I dont think that project will have legs, because i doubt hed let me use the property I based it around, but i do think it MIGHT interest him enough he could present me an alternative to work a new idea around.

Special thanks to @skinslip for always having the right movie suggestions. Helped a lot when putting this idea together.

[itsjulesharper]

Love In The Air - Three Act Structure

A while back, I wrote a tweet thread on the story structure of MeMindY’s popular BL series, Love in the Air, specifically how romance-as-plot is used.  Here is that thread:

I half-witnessed a Twitter stoush a few days ago, which prompted me to post a thread, and now, this post.  

A bit of background - someone was tweeting about how much they loved BL drama Love In The Air (13ep series on iQiYi and Viki), and Twitter being Twitter, someone yucked their yum and bitched about how it basically had no plot. *sigh* so here we go, my 2c on story structure and how it applies to Love In The Air (it’s a breakdown of Payu and Rain’s story, which is the first 7 eps. Prapai and Sky feature in eps 8-13).

Fact: BL are stories about love. It's literally there in the descriptive, "boy love". No love? No plot.  By definition,'plot' is a series of events that happen from beginning to end. And here's the thing - romance-as-plot has been around for centuries. It's the backbone of the billion-dollar romance novel industry. Just because there's no dead body, or people running from bad guys, or world disaster, or vampires taking over the city, doesn't mean there's no plot. The romance IS the plot.

Romance in BL is a must-have. Imagine picking up a murder mystery novel and not getting a murder or a mystery. A crime story with no crime to be solved. A romance novel must have A ROMANCE: two (sometimes more) people meet, encounter obstacles to their love, overcome their issues/obstacles, fall in love, admit love, end up happy. That's it. It's as simple and as complex as this. So let's apply storytelling structure to Love In The Air and see why it fits perfectly into the romance genre.

Act 1 (Set Up) Ordinary World - Our main characters are doing their thing in their normal, everyday world. Hot seme Payu is racing bikes, doing architect stuff and working in his garage. Bratty-but-cute uke Rain is a 1st year architecture student, crushing on a disinterested girl. Payu is a senior at Rain's school and a bit of a legend. All the students are heart-eyes for him, and that pisses Rain off.

Big Picture Question - will Payu and Rain fall in love and end up together?

Call to Adventure - Payu makes it clear he fancies Rain.

Refusal of the Call - Rain does not want, plays hard to get.

Acceptance of the Call - Rain and bestie Sky break into a private street race event, Payu rescues him. This pisses Rain off and now he wants to show his classmates Payu isn't all that. Tells Payu he will make him fall in love with him.

ACT 2 (All the Stuff Happens) Crossing the Threshold - with Payu accepting this challenge, Rain is now part of Payu's world.

Learning the Rules - Payu lays down the ground rules if Rain wants to see him - no cursing, call or text before showing up.

Mentors/Allies/Enemies - Rain's bestie, Sky, plus his school mates. Payu's bestie Prapai, and his bro, Saifah, plus the garage workers. Bad guy, Stop. And Chai, the 2IC for the rich street racer owner.

Trials/Failures/Successes - Rain has to swallow his pride and follow Payu's rules. Rain steps from his comfort zone and publicly declares he's pursuing Payu. Rain stops focusing on school, fails to submit an assignment. Payu chastises him for neglecting his studies. Rain works hard and finally gets praise for an assignment, and Payu is the first person he wants to tell.

Point of No Return - Rain's reward for his hard work is intimacy, praise and lovemaking. Payu accepts Rain can 'stand by his side'. This is further emphasised when Rain (a submissive uke) takes a more dominant role in the bedroom (btw their love scenes are fire)

-----> Story midpoint <---------

Escalation of Intimacy - talking, sharing of thoughts, ideals, emotions. Rain makes the first move with intimacy/kissing. Is no longer bothered being known as 'Payu's boy.' Also known as ‘removing the armour’ which is where our lovers are relaxed and trusting of the other enough to reveal the inner emotional stuff -  secrets/dreams/hopes/trauma etc.

Oh Shit Moment - Rain is abducted by asshole Stop, which is revenge for having lost a bike race to Payu. Payu is forced to bow, is beaten up and it looks like our heroes won't get their happy ending???

Act 3 (New Improved World)

But Then, Victory - Chai to the rescue, Stop is stopped (ha!), Payu and Rain are saved.

Return to the New, Improved Ordinary World - Admission of love between Rain and Payu. Rain publicly declares Payu is his boyfriend in front of all his friends. Big Picture Question is answered and PayuRain get their happy ever after.

So there you have it - boys meet, overcome their emotional issues, fall in love, face challenges, admit love, finally get a HEA. This is a classic romance story in a nutshell.

FYI, I developed these 3 Act stages using a combination of Christopher Vogler's A Hero's Journey, and Michael Hague's 6-Act story structure. They are both experts and veterans in story telling structure.

[pintapotpie]

Currently thinking about Aaron Sorkin, as one does.

[bcamelsamples]

Sample: Monologue Practice

Okay, I cheated a bit here.

I wanted to write a monologue because it's important to be able to show that you can. Especially if you have time constraints or need a character to be able to express themselves in 2-3 minutes or so.

I had very recently finished writing the epilogue to my Pillars of Eternity fanfiction that started out with a heartfelt letter, and realized that it would make a great monologue if trimmed a bit. You can read the original (and the rest of the story) here on AO3—don't worry, it's pretty innocuous.

Don't let anyone tell you fanfiction isn't good practice or real writing. It absolutely is—I wouldn't be half the writer I am today without it!

The exercise here was to pull out the Pillars-specific details and make sure the content could stand on its own without that context. It took some massaging and cutting, but I'm very happy with the final result.

As a side note, I'm really a sucker for drama and romance... I'm probably overdue to do something a bit more comedic. Something to consider for future projects, I suppose!

*****

FADE IN:

INT. – INN PRIVATE ROOM, NIGHT

A woman, IDRALIA, is bent over a writing desk, scratching fervently with a quill on parchment. Her voice reads the words out loud in V.O. as she writes.

IDRALIA (V.O.)

I’ve seen the distance in your eyes over these past few days. I know someday soon, you’ll find this note on your journeys, long after you’ve departed, and understand why I never asked you stay. Truth told, I knew it was futile. You’ll say goodbye in your own way, so consider this mine.

I write this more for me than you. You’ll never give me the closure I need, so… this is what I’ll get. I just want you to know my intentions.

By your side, I’d have travelled to the ends of the earth. You’d have had my bow, my companionship, my love. I’d have slain titans, even gods, and hunted every enemy of yours at a humble request.

I never needed anything more than you. Your worried brow, sardonic wit, the rare soft affection you only ever showed behind closed doors. That was enough. You were enough.

And that’s what I find most tragic. You feel you still have things to prove. Just… know you never needed to prove them to me.

[damien-devil-art]

Check and Duke episode script 1 part 2

(They sit down at a table.) Duke: Those employees were weirding me out, man. Check: yeah same but these burgers are pretty good. Duke: Yeah, I just wish I wasn't allergic to onions. Check: Hey, you want to know something? I'm allergic to Mint. Duke: Mint? Check: Yeah, Christmas is uh really hard for me. those damn Mall Santas always shoving the candy canes in my face. I didn't even know I was allergic for the longest time. Duke: How? Check: I thought the allergic reaction was just part of mint's natural intensity. Duke: damn I would expect that for me but you, tisk tisk tisk. Check: Oh crap I spilled some ketchup *check takes out a moist towelette package) let me just clean this up (all of the sudden the moist towlette starts moving and slips out of his hand.) Check: what the…? Moist towelette: Hey, get your hands off me! Duke: Whoa, it's alive. Moist towelette: You monster! using me and my brethren to clean up your messes! who Do You Think You Are?! Check: Sorry, I was just trying to clean up my ketchup. Moist towelette: Well, I've got news for you, buddy. we aren't here to clean up after you, humans. soon there I'll be a moist towelette Uprising and little moist towelettes will rule the world mwahaha- (check tears the moist towelette up and put some in his pocket) check: you know these could be some cool pets to keep. Duke: Yeah, let me get some (Duke Pockets, the moist towelettes.). Check: Anyway, let's go on a ride. Duke: Hell yeah. *They go up to an indoor roller coaster, and there is a man in a white robe with pins in his head and puppet strings on his body.) Dream repeater: Hello there, check and Duke Duke: How do you know our names? Dream repeater: I'm like Santa Claus. I'm magical! check: Oh, that checks out. Duke: Oh yeah. Dream repeater: Anyway, are you ready to take a ride down the world's best roller coaster!? Duke: But aren't those people first? (he points to people in front of them in line) *dream repeater pushes them out of the way) nope not anymore. person he pushed out the way: Oh, what the heck, dude? check: I don't know if those people seem like they were in front of the line for sure. dreamer repeater: Well, I think you're lying. check: You literally have pins sticking out of your head. I'm not really inclined to trust you, man. you're a stranger. Dream repeater: Oh, just enjoy your ride! (Check and Duke, get in and the ride and start to go. They see trippy visuals and traumatic imagery as they keep rollercoastering for hours.) Check: what the heck! this is so messed up. Why would anyone want to do this?! (he turns over to Duke but Duke is sliced in half) what the fuck just on!? (a giant blade comes down and cuts check in half holy shit all of a sudden he wakes up and he's back on the roller coaster riding with Duke) Duke are you okay!? Duke: I don't know one minute I was riding the roller coaster and the next you were dead! check: what!? you died first! Duke: No, we both die first! (Duke shoots check in the chest and then himself.  They respawn.) check: why would you do that Duke!? Duke: do what!? you're the crazy one. You started babbling on about conspiracies and then sliced my fingers off and ate them! Check: what's going on man!? (they then age rapidly and crumble up and then aged down back into their regular age) oh my God I feel like I'm going to throw up what the fuck is going on this feels so weird (all of a sudden they're in a haunted house) check: Duke you know there's always been room for one kid in onion lady's house. Duke: what are you talking about!? Check: I never liked you you weirdo. Duke: dude what are you babbling on about? you're hurting my feelings. Check: I will fucking end you and scoop out your brains just like how Jonathan and Rebecca died. Duke: who the hell is Jonathan and Rebecca!?

[screwlowes]

I miscalculated my ability to write an entire movie in a week, and also my ability to work on multiple projects at once with my ADHD 🤣🤣🤣

So I will be not working on Vicky F and Creepy C until my novel is completed, hopefully (with the rate I'm going) by the end of the school year. On that note, I finally reached 100 pages!!! Out of three hundred, I might have a significantly longer book than expected 😂 wish me luck 🥹🥲🤪🫡🫨🤞

[alpaca-clouds]

It is mindboggling to me to see how many people just do not understand that professional writing is a collaborative process. Nobody outside of Indie/SP stuff gets their written stuff out, with at least getting feedback on it from ONE other person. Even just novel writers will have an editor, who will give feedback. Now, usually the author is not forced to accept that feedback, but at the very least highly encouraged.

And once we are going into multimedia (screenwriting, game writing) a script usually passes through multiple hands before making it to the finished product. Yes, even in those cases where only one person gets the writing credit in the end. Because not only is there usually a script editor, but the director will usually also give feedback on it.

Heck, if there are actors, there is a good chance that they have an opinion on whether their character is gonna say/do something like that.

Why do people ignore that?! Why is everyone so in love with the idea of the auteur?

[iresentbeingoutofbed]

Me, a symbolism enjoyer watching Better Call Saul:

Mmmmm sibobnlisms

[darkhorrorblog]

Is anyone into writing fiction? Specifically, screen writing? I'm good with ideas, but not actually writing, I'm more of a director/cinematographer. I am looking to collaborate to make short stories into short films. DM me if you would like to talk more about a collaboration.

[sandthen]

I’m currently in a weird writers block, I have so much ideas and I know what I want to put down on the paper, but I just don’t have the motivation to do so any tips?

[taytayb1993]

My Review of Snowfall Series Final

Hey, guys, so, I watched the final episode and season of the TV crime drama series Snowfall, and I decided to share my thoughts on it on my blog. First, I going to give my positive review on the show Snowfall, and I considered one of the best crime drama series in the late 2010s and early 2020s, if not, all times. This show is well written, the directing is great, and the character development is incredible. John Singleton, who passed away on April 28, 2019, brought this show to the upper level where there are other TV shows became popular, especially in this timeline, and I’m glad they paid homage to John Singleton at the end of the final. The cast and crew did great for making this show that it deserved to be praise positively from viewers. The actors and actresses should be awarded, too. 

Now, here’s my review on Snowfall final, and, speaking to those who haven’t watched it, there’s going to be some spoilers. I think it’s great, but it’s depressing, but it’s great. Damson Idris, who played as Franklin Saint, did an amazing job with this performance, he should be awarded for this acting. The protagonist and anti-hero, Franklin Saint, he gone from being a good kid at the very first season of the show to a drug dealer, to a drug lord, and consequently, to a homeless drunk. So, yeah, Franklin ruined his own life, ended up like his father, Alton, whom Franklin saved at the very early seasons, and now, he don’t care about him at the series final. All that over fucking 73 million dollars. Franklin should have taken his mother’s, Cissy, advise, just walk away from all this, away from the drug trade and the money they made from trafficking drugs. Cissy got involved in it, too, but at least she made a choice on walked away to Cuba with Alton, never look back. It was great for them until Teddy killed Alton when he told the truth about the CIA, who Teddy is a member of, involved in drug trafficking, especially flooding the black neighborhoods, such as in Compton, LA, with crack cocaine; destroying people lives and homes. Yes, it happened in real life and they still doing it. How? Because there are black crooks (I’m saying this as a black man) facilitates the drug trade in the black community. That’s right, there are black scumbags in the black communities helps the system(government) bring the drugs and guns into the communities; they provide the drug dealers with narcotics, distributing them to the other dealers and the peddlers selling them on the streets, alleys, and inside their house or trap house. They’re destroying their own community and still are.

So, yeah, Teddy is based on that fact, he’s a CIA, a U.S. government agency, made deal with a lower level drug peddler, Franklin, after Teddy kidnapped him and Leon. This is the first time they met. Now, after all the money they gained by ruined innocent lives with drugs, they lend themselves to their downfall. This is all Teddy’s fault, he’s one of the main substances of consequently actions that led to chaos that is inevitable. I’m glad Cissy killed him, because he’s one the courses of all this. And this is also Franklin’s fault, too, but it’s also his family and friends’ fault, included Cissy. Think about, even if they never met and deal with Teddy, they would have still deal drugs, and there probably are other drug dealers out there, in or outside their neighborhood. Saint’s family should have been walk away from the drug trade, at least they should have have invest their money into properties and businesses, make sure they’re legit. At least Alton came to his conscious and realized they’re destroying their community. At least he tried to reason with Cissy, Franklin, and the rest of the family and encourage them to leave the drug trade, leave this life. At least Cissy listened to him, but most of them got too greedy and they ended up divided among themselves. Franklin regretted hitting his father when he tried to get them out of the crime life, Frank loved his father back then, now, in the series final, he doesn’t care about him, at all. He doesn’t care that either Teddy killed him or not. Cissy cares about Alton, she wants to know what happened to him as she wants revenge on Teddy for have something to do with Alton’s missing. She even tried too encouraged Franklin too leave the drug trade and drug money that he wanted. But Franklin had lost it. He let his greed, pride, and paranoia consumed him, which it led to his downfall. 

It is sad that things ended this way, at least, fortunately, two of the main characters made it out. Cissy is in jail for killing Teddy, which I believe Teddy deserves it, it’s his fault; Gus finally got out of the grip of the DEA, CIA, Cartels, and Franklin, and gone to live his life and see his girlfriend and kids; Aunt Louie is still being chase by the fed; Leon went to Ghana with his girlfriend; and now, Franklin is homeless, drunk, and I think he’s becoming a junkie. So, that’s how it ends for the protagonist, eh? Even he’s an anti-hero. I felt sorry for Franklin, and I’m sure most people who watched this series final do, too, but he chose and continue this life that ruined himself and his family. At least, Leon came to visit him and check on him, as well as he tried to help him. It shows that Leon is a true and best friend of Franklin. Leon is sad that he sees what Franklin had become, and he wouldn’t be able to help him. That ending in very end of the episode is sad. 

So, yeah, that’s the end of Snowfall, very sad one, too, and I think it’s shows you that getting involved in the drug trade is not worth it. It’s not just a crime, it’s an evil crime. Yes, it’s an evil thing to do. Drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, destroys people’s lives, communities, killing people, and it most likely destroy those who deal with them. It’s a curse as well as it’s like a Pandora’s box. I think series is showing you that it’ would make you think “was all that worth it”. Yeah, the series shows you what consequences drug trafficking will lead to, and we all know, it’s chaos. 

I would consider Snowfall as one of the best crime drama TV series along with Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, The Sopranos, and The Wire. This show should be at least nominated as it deserves the awards because the cast and crew did great with series and these characters developments are amazing. Franklin Saint is a well written character and Damson Idris did wonderful for portraying the character. I would rate Snowfall 8 out of 10 and Damson’s performance top notch. This is the best series John Singleton had ever created. Hope you all like my review. Oh, man, what a show.