MovieMaker Forums

How do I get started?!?!?!?

2008-05-07T14:04:29-05:00

After I graduate this Sunday, May 11, I will be finishing up my job in Champaign-Urbana, IL and moving to LA in either September or October...hopefully. But I don’t want to move until I have a paying job (not necessarily in writing).

I have experience in journalism, property management, and fundraising, so I am looking to get a job in one of those areas while I figure out how to break into the film industry.

Basically, I’m trying to find a job there so I can at least get started on my career in screenwriting/film. I have VERY LITTLE experience with screenplays but was born to write! I know I can make it but just need to get my foot in the door. Any suggestions for someone without training but who has a passion for writing?

It starts with a great story…

2007-11-07T15:20:33-05:00

Blow me away with special effects (Star Wars 1,2,3), dazzle me with a great character (Napoleon Dynamite - seriously), or wow me with great scenery (Seven Years in Tibet), but if you don’t have a story to tell me, quit wasting my time!

Sounds like a pompous line from someone who thinks he knows something, but it’s not and I don’t. All I know is I like getting wrapped up in a story more than I care about tricks you can do as a moviemaker (Michael Bay, anyone? - Transformers not withstanding).

I’m stuck in the Minnesota film scene which isn’t exactly as hot as Adrian Peterson, so I don’t know the trends of independent movies coming from LA, NY, or Toronto, but what I’ve noticed in the many screenplays I’ve read and movies in which I’ve been involved up here is that few people care to take the time to make sure they have a story to tell (and their sentences are too long - ha). The story doesn’t have to be profound; it doesn’t have to be provocative; it doesn’t have to change the world. But, for the love of Hitchcock, it needs to exist!

Am I in the minority here? Am I the only one who hated Clerks because it had absolutely no story? Am I bound for failure because I care more about story than special effects and innovative directing? Did I get this topic posted in time to get six free issues of Moviemaker? :)

The post (er, novella as it turns out) has become almost rantish (making up words is fun). I hope the majority of up and comers reading this agree with me that story is THE most important part of any movie. It has to be.

Oh, one last thing, I understand my assessment of all referenced movies in this post are opinions and not facts, but I’m curious to know if my opinions are consistent with the minority or majority.

Real or fictional locations

2008-04-15T22:34:20-05:00

I am a bit stuck. I am writing an adventure/fantasy in which the film begins at Magdelene College at Cambridge. I am really utilizing the uniqueness of the location, however I am starting to think I will have much more freedom to tell the story the way I would like to tell it if I create a fictional ‘world class’ university. Does this make a movie less enjoyable for anyone?...when a ‘real’ location is completely made up? Or do you not see it as an issue?

While I’m at it...anyone have ideas for a very British sounding, fictional university name? (besides “Oxbridge")

Thanks!

Screenwriting Articles

2008-03-28T01:02:18-05:00

Screenwriting Articles written by Gordy Hoffman.

You’re an Idiot: Making Value from Reaction to your Screenwriting
If you’re like me, if someone doesn’t like something about my screenplay, my very first reaction is always the same. You’re not as smart as me. If you knew what I knew, you would understand what I wrote. And you don’t understand what I wrote, because you don’t know as much as I do. About everything, in general. In short, life. You know, people. Planet Earth.
(read full article)

The Rogue Knight of Cinema: Why Screenplay Contests Matter
Screenplay contests are changing cinema. Coming from a person who runs one, your first reaction to this statement is most likely, “The only reason you’re saying that is you want me to enter yours.”
(read full article)

YOU ARE THE BOX OFFICE SMASH: The Personal Screenplay
Right this very second, in the heart of every struggling, undiscovered screenwriter, in the dark, hidden corner deep within, there is a voice, a clear whisper, saying one thing: You’re never gonna figure this out. And this is not referring to the story with its gaping hole, the finale missing a payoff, the hit and miss humor, the flat title. I’m talking about freedom. The freedom to work as a screenwriter.
(read full article)

Naming Your Baby: How to Find a Great Title to your Screenplay
How exactly does one work on the title of their screenplay? I recently came up with such a wonderful idea for a movie, one of those miraculous moments, like finding money on the sidewalk. I told somebody, and they said, “Great. What’s the title?” Suddenly, and rather horrifyingly, my beauty of an idea is crippled.
(read full article)

Screenwriting Tips from a Screenplay Contest Judge
After cracking hundreds of screenplays sent into the BlueCat Screenplay Competition, the same problems in the execution of the story and script continue to emerge. Here is a general overview of these persistent issues.
(read full article)

Discovering the Great Movie Idea for Your Next Screenplay
I am lucky. I have no problems coming up with very good ideas for movies. If I never had another idea for the rest of my life, I would not make a sizable dent in the ones I already have.
(read full article)

How to Start a Screenplay: Treatment or Free Fall?
Starting a screenplay can sometimes be as hard as finishing one.
Impatient to pull up to the front door of a classic motion picture, I
want to get everything right so quickly. This impatience challenges my trust in the work, the creative process of screenwriting.
(read full article)

Writing the Classic Movie Ending (How to Finish your Screenplay!)
I’ve only finished so many screenplays in my life. Writing a script all the way to the very last page is always an extremely significant, personal achievement for me. A large part of its significance is the reality that I actually wrote an ending, or, at the very least, typed “THE END.”
(read full article)

Rewriting your Screenplay: The Road to your Audience
The promise of the rewrite is very sweet. I have collected evidence that the more authentic the labor put into rewriting your screenplay, the greater the reward, and the reward is high, for whatever lovely, wonderful moments you might have discovered in the frightening process of plowing through the first draft.
(read full article)

The Heart and Soul of Screenwriting: Writing good dialogue and description
Writing dialogue and description is writing a screenplay. You can argue about format and tab margins and what to capitalize and what not. I won’t. Dialogue and description is where the experience of screenplay for your reader lives. We write screenplays to make movies. They are not literature.
(read full article)

BlueCat Screenwriting Contest
http://www.bluecatscreenplay.com
http://www.myspace.com/bluecatscreenplay.com

How Many Drafts?

2007-11-08T09:28:15-05:00

How many drafts does it take you to find your screenplay acceptable?

Usually I might do two drafts. My latest project, I’m on draft four. Each draft takes it a step further into what I want, yet it opens the door for more exploring. So I was just wondering, how many drafts people usually do?

The WGA Strike and What It Means To Us

2007-11-07T07:29:47-05:00

Article I wrote for Filmonic.com

There is a lot of tension in Hollywood right now.

It’s been discussed for the past few months, but it looks like it just may become a reality. The Writer’s Guild of America very well may begin to strike as early as Monday. They voted by more than a 90% margin to allow their leaders to launch a walk-out. Sure, this sounds like it’s a bad thing, but I don’t think many people actually understand what is going on and how this will effect entertainment in their daily lives.

First, a bit of history. The last time the WGA went on strike was in 1988. The strike cost the entertainment industry about $500 million dollars in revenue. Considering the costs of things today, a strike now could be much, much worse.

You see, the WGA represents about 12,000 film and TV writers. They have a contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, or AMPTP, about their wages, health benefits, and all that good stuff. The contract between the two organizations expired on October 31st. Why didn’t they discuss this before the deadline, some of you may ask. Well, they have been. For months. However, they have not been able to come to an agreement on certain things.

Apparently, the biggest problem in contract negotiations is about ‘new media content.’ For example, say one of your favorite TV shows is Heroes. You are obsessed with all things Heroes, so much so that you go to the official website every week to read the supplemental comic books and watch the webisodes, both of which are produced exclusively for the Internet. Someone wrote those things, and wants to get paid every time someone watches them, whether it be via the website or on your iPod. It’s along the same lines when a rerun of Lost is played on TV, the person who wrote it gets some sort of royalties, no matter how small. Granted, Heroes doesn’t actually HAVE webisodes, but you get the point. The same reasoning goes for DVD residuals. The writers want to get paid more when a DVD of a movie they wrote is sold. The WGA has said that they want to have a “…contract that gives us the ability to keep up with the financial success of this ever-expanding global industry.” Basically, they feel they are getting screwed over their work being viewed on the Internet. AMPTP says that new media content is too new of a medium and is too unpredictable to create some sort of compensation package.

Again, the contract officially ended on October 31st. However, “…every producer, network and studio has a contingency plan based on an Oct. 31 deadline,” says Barbara Brogliatti, spokeswoman for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. However, studios did not reveal their plans on how to deal with the strike, because they wanted to keep their strategies secret from other companies.

So, again, the question is asked: What exactly does this mean for the average American entertainment viewer? People who watch TV will begin to notice a change next week, most likely. But because movies have a longer production time than TV shows, we may have to wait until late 2008 to feel the effects of the strike. Here are a few examples:

Late Night Talk Shows – Expect those hilarious monologue jokes and bit segments to disappear for awhile. With no one to write the jokes, the hosts will have to amp up their celebrity interviews to fill up the time. Not really a problem for Conan and Letterman, where a bulk of the show is made up of celebrity guests. But what about Stewart and Colbert? Their shows are based mostly around ‘funny’ news, written by a team of writers. With them gone, will production be halted?

New Shows – Usually when a new show is aired on TV, it is given a few weeks to find its ‘niche’ before networks decide whether to keep it on or axe it. With no one writing mid-season replacement shows, these failing new shows will be given a second life. Networks could air all the filmed episodes, even if the show is failing, due to lack of new content to take its place. Remember that show Daybreak that ABC used to fill its Wednesday night timeslot when Lost went on hiatus last year? Yeah, well, crap like that would continue to be shown.

How Do I Sell Treatments?

2008-03-16T12:01:42-05:00

I come up with ideas all the time and immediately write a treatment so I don’t forget. Some I have actually done the screenplay for and some I haven’t gotten that far. I think there are a lot of talented and more experienced writers out there who might be short on the creativity as in a short lived slump. I’d love to have them take over one of my ideas and bring it to life in a really great screenplay to movie project. How can I do this without getting shortchanged? I know all about the WGA minimums but being a non-member, I am willing to negotiate. These are a surplus to me and I’d love to see the ideas get farther than my desk. I still continue to complete certain ideas I think only I can flourish, but I’d like to share the others wit people who have the same goals and interests in film. Any ideas out there?

Adapted from or Inspired by a novella?

2008-01-28T04:10:01-05:00

I read Lan Samantha Chang’s novella “Hunger” a few years ago, and haven’t forgotten about it since. Recently, I have become almost *haunted* with certain parts of the novella, and wish to write either an adaption or a screenplay inspired by it.

Which approach should I go? What sort of complications would arise if I adapt it, vs. saying that a somewhat different version was inspired by it?

Are specs dead?

2007-11-07T19:12:41-05:00

Is the WGA strike the last nail in the coffin of spec screenplays?

Michael

Can I register with the WGA? I’m based outside the U.S

2007-12-10T10:10:17-05:00

I’m a writer based outside of the U.S, is it possible for me to still register with the Writers Guild of America? And how exactly do I do that, what fees are involved? I need all the 411. thank you.