#writing a screenplay

[filmcourage]

If You Don't Know These Two Plot Points... You Don't Know The Story - Steve Harper

Watch the video interview on YouTube here.

[gerardwaygirlmoments]

Picture of Dorian Gray AU where he's a celebrity in the modern day (broadly speaking) and his stans post pics of him looking the same through the years on Twitter and caption them "How you age when you're unproblematic 💖💖💖"

[lets-steal-an-archive]

For anyone wanting distraction...

A few general:

TV Writing

Script Slug

BBC Script Library

500+ Horror screenplays (1922 - present)

over 100 unproduced superhero screenplays

A few specific:

Charmed (1998) scripts

Doctor Who scripts: Classic Who, Whoniverse

Gilmore Girls scripts

Hannibal scripts

Highlander scripts

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia scripts

Kolchack: The Night Stalker scripts

Lost scripts

Rick and Morty scripts

The Simpsons scripts

Star Trek (TOS, TAS, TNG) scripts

Supernatural scripts (TV Writing mirror)

Xena: Warrior Princess scripts

The X-Files scripts

[theabigailthorn]

i'm working on a little mini-video (not a full Philosophy Tube) about my acting and writing process - it should be fun!

no call to action here or anything lol I just wanted to share this cause I'm a little proud of it, it's coming together well!

[bodhrancomedy]

The novel ones are all real situations in my novels by the way, the screenwriting one are complied from friends and my own experiences.

Funnily enough, I actually prefer writing screenplays because of the limits. My novels are fantastical magical other worlds with dragons and sorcerers, but my screenplays are mostly realist family comedy-dramas.

(Except the Baby’s First Steampunk Horror and The Mystery Series Set in an Asylum For Were-People, but they’re exceptions)

[ilexdiapason]

just saw a post ragging on the concept of "start a new paragraph where you'd imagine a new camera angle" so i'm here to say that you don't need to change the medium you make art in just because some rando on tumblr thinks that means you don't like the form of art you are choosing to create. if you want your prose to flow like camera shots, if you want to write your poetry like a recipe book, if you want to make physical art that looks like ms paint or digital art that looks like watercolors, you're cool as hell, don't let people get you down about it. also it's a visualisation technique not a sign that you secretly want to be writing a movie instead.

[dr-spectre]

FINALE REWRITE

By: Dr. Spectre

it's finally time to show y'all what I've been cooking.

This will be in a script format because that is where I feel the most comfortable as a writer, plus games are written in this format.

This rewrite will take into account that you have read through the Squid Sisters Stories as well as the Sunken Scrolls.

Once you have pressed read more, you will get bombared with over 20 pages of writing, so be forewarned...

Anyhow, ENJOY!!!!!!!!

[rylxdreams]

I still can't get the unused concept art of Wish out of my head so I've been reading a lot of rewrites and looking at a lot of Wish redesigns...

So... I got inspired. I'm currently conceptualizing my own Wish "rewrite/redesigns", but with a twist. It's gonna be a spiritual "prequel", cuz idk I feel like being meta since we'll be using the original concepts before the final concepts/decisions made for the final movie XD

Many of my "prequel" characters will be stand-ins for the canon characters! So "Asha" will be renamed "Amala", "Magnifico" will be called "Mamoun", and so on. Think of Pokemon Legends: Arceus regarding the relations of these "OCs" with the canon characters.

Anyway, here are the designs I have so far! I only have the designs for Amala and the Star for now. Hopefully, I can get to draw the other characters soon, especially Mamoun and his wife.

The story will be called "Once Upon a Wish"

Here's an overview of what I have so far... Some details may change if I feel like my other choices serve the story better. (Also, small disclaimer, this is just a veryyy self-indulgent AU made by yours truly, so some details may not be accurate with the canon lore present in Wish)

The story takes place on the same island of Rosas, but from many years ago. If my research is right, canon Wish takes place in the 1200s, so maybe my "prequel" can take place in around the 900s-1000s. Rosas definitely wasn't called Rosas back then, but I'm still figuring out what to call it so I'm just gonna refer to it as "an island".

Amala is a shy, meek, but hardworking apprentice of the island's head sorcerer Mamoun (hence, her color palette looks similar to Mickey's outfit from The Sorcerer's Apprentice). Despite all her hard work in her magic studies, she doesn't really excel at using magic, making a lot of accidents during training. If there's anything she really excels at, it's the act of storytelling (She can draw/animate, sing, and write stories like fairy tales).

Amala also has a little sister Ayah, who I can imagine is the Lilo/Anna to Amala's Nani/Elsa. Ayah is spunky and cheerful, but she has an illness that makes her disabled. The sisters are orphans, but they live under an old family friend they affectionately call Grandpa Dabir. Dabir is a retired bard turned doctor who was part of a troupe with 6 other former bards, all of whom he and the sisters still interact.

That's all I can share for now. Feel free to ask me any questions about stuff about this AU!

[ronniaugust]

How to Write on Final Draft (without it feeling so daunting)

It's incredibly difficult to open up a Final Draft document without feeling like you're literally writing your final draft, so here's a few features you can use your advantage!

1. Turn on dark mode

Dark mode makes it look like less of a script and more of an outline. Edit and rewrite in light mode, you will feel the difference.

2. Use speed view

Speed view gets rid of pages and page numbers and therefore you are only looking at the words you type.

3. Use focus mode

Focus mode removes the scenes, page numbers, and outlines you have at the top on the program while writing. Another way to forget about focusing on progress.

4. Make a messy beat board

Throw all your ideas onto the beat board, it should help make the document feel a bit more lived-in and less pristine.

Bonus:

5. Set a template with your formatting and use that to start every script you write

While a script format is very ridged, there are things you can do to personalize it. When you find those things, make them in a Final Draft doc (without actual writing) and save as your own template so you don't have to change all the elements every time.

[innocentlymacabre]

THE CRESCENT OF FOOLS AND FORGOTTEN TIME ⤳ a wip (re)intro

Lucille Carmine is not one to relinquish her hold on someone once her wicked talons have sunk into them, as Jayce all too painfully learns once more. He’s pulled into her employ again, Lott jumping in after his best friend, tasked - under extreme duress, of course - to retrieve The Liminality Paradox. Previously thought to have been nothing more than a bedtime story, Jayce and Lott find themselves unwillingly heading to The Crescent of Fools and Forgotten Time, right into the heart of The Fool’s domain, a place where time and space lose all meaning, where everything that has ever happened is happening all at once and where nothing ever happens all the same. A place where the ends of the universe could be nothing more than a hop, skip, and a jump away, but the five feet in front of you could stretch out to infinity and beyond. A place where the insane rule sovereign and the sane are grinded to a dust, folded into the ripples of the Crescent. All to steal an artifact of untold power for one of the most dangerous overlords of the criminal world, and to lay even more unchecked power at her feet for her to abuse.

STATUS: querying

GENRE: urban fantasy / heist / comedy

MEDIUM: feature film

WARNINGS: description/depiction of wounds, death and pain (will be modified as necessary)

LINKS: WIP tag (x) | Ko-fi 💜 (x)

general taglist in the comments (ask to be added/removed!) // newsletter

any boosting would be much appreciated!

picture credits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

[filmcourage]

If You Know The Ending... You Know The Beginning (Writing Advice) - Andrew Zinnes

Watch the video interview on YouTube here.

[sealrock]

first kill.

[ditadaydreams]

Just thinking about how William Shakespeare was like his generations’ Wes Anderson 😂 An eccentric playwright with a cult fan base, making dark comedies and dramas with social commentary that’s very relatable to the current cultural climate of his audience. In this essay I will…

Scholar Sharpening His Quill oil on panel by Gerrit Dou (ca. 1632-35)

[deimosatellite]

imgoing to fucking throw up from laughing so hard i found the slides that i used for my screenplay pitch for one of my classes and these images are giving me psychic damage together

[psychicbluebirdmiracle]

Ok but what if I wrote a fic of if odysseus had raised the infant?????

[wordsnstuff]

Why does screenwriting have such a weird format? I know it's standard for scripts of all kinds, but it's also alien? It almost looks like it's designed for someone to write quickly??

Why are screenplays the way they are?

Screenplays are interesting pieces of writing because while they can read very beautifully, and quality is apparent in some scripts more than others, it is a medium that is extremely purposeful. The script is not the final destination of the idea, and that is what you have to remember. The script is, more than anything, a map. It gives the cast, crew, and producers the necessary information to get a sense of the story so that it can be adapted effectively. Therefore, the quality of a script is judged by a completely different rubrick:

Adaptability: Scripts are naturally going to go through many changes to serve the filmmaking process. Filmmaking is a fundamentally collaborative process so other members of the group must be able to effectively interpret the script well enough to make strategic improvements. Scripts are definitely works of art in their own right, but the design must account for adaptation into a completely different medium and you will not always be the person making executive decisions on how that is to be done.

Clarity: Creative liberty is acceptable in a lot of forms of writing, and style is definitely apparent in a screenwriter's work, but that is primarily to be found in how they practically form the elements of the story, rather than how it is delivered in words. The clearer your meaning and intent in a script, the easier it will be for the other people you're collaborating with to interpret and translate into the next medium. Even if your work is meant to be experimental, abstract, or avant garde, the script is the place where you make sure everyone that is inside of the production understands the point, so that they can help you make sure everyone outside of it is confused in the desired way. Your talent and style can be showcased in the way you demonstrate the particular brand of humor or suspense or drama in the descriptions, dialogue, and dialogue cues.

Efficiency: Format is extremely strict in the industry because it is a collaborative medium that often brings together hundreds of crew members who are all from different backgrounds/experience. The one thing that must remain consistent and reliable is the legibility of the script. The gaffer and the producer alike must be able to pick up the script and find what they need to learn in order to fulfill their role. The format of the script denotes specific crew member's cues in specific places so they know how to find what's expected of them quickly and efficiently. While on larger productions, there's often many directorial positions who are coordinating and communicating with the crew members who handle more detail oriented jobs, that isn't always the case.

My advice, if you're looking to gain experience in writing scripts that are actually meant to be adapted is to practice self-discipline, pragmatism, and distance. Your script won't always belong to you. There isn't the autonomy in screenwriting that you have in prose. Learn the rules of screenwriting, then learn how to enhance them in your own way.

Best of luck,

x Kate

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