So I have a giant list of ideas for scripts for me to write, that I'd like to shoot one day. But whenever I want to write something I always hesitate. I know that some of these ideas I write, I can't shoot. I'm also not at an age where I could a script.

The problem is, I want to write some of these scripts but I can't really shoot them yet until I'm get these budgets, which isn't anytime soon. But I don't want to write them until I'm ready to actually shoot them. So should I just try to write them anyway and then leave the script sitting there for x amount of years?

Always open your mind to anything. Just write, and you will see how resources start popping up. But I suggest for now write something small anything and then just shoot it.

-LearnFilmOnline

If you write shorts now, you are able to shoot them and get the practice. And you need all the practice. If you practice like this there will come a day when you realize that now I could actually write a feature, everything could happen on just a couple of locations and I will still get it to work. That's when you also can handle those ideas that you have now.

If you are compelled to write ANYTHING, write it.

On one hand, it doesn’t hurt to write with no thoughts toward budget, and be free.

On the other hand, it’s good to learn/practice/get used to creating practical, budget driven material for yourself and/or for others.

Look to the heart of your stories, at their core can the characters and conflict work in surroundings that cost little money as well as surroundings that cost a lot of money?

Big expensive productions are often the telling of small well crafted stories, and deep elaborate stories are often the telling of small well crafted productions.
(Shakespeare can be done in a park and a comic book can be done in Imax.)

If you feel your stories suffer for lack of full realization when translated to low budget, then maybe do some practical budget writing for now, and some more ambitious budget writing for later.

Sometimes the creative quandary that presents itself is the storm before the calm, or the cart before the horse, or a way to realize that no matter how high or low the kite is flying, we still hold the same simple string.

Maybe when you create something out of this period you will know why it came to pass, and then again maybe you won't, but the only way to find out for sure is to just keep writing no matter what.


-Thanks-

Nailed it, Buddy.

Can't say anymore than that.

Write them now. Because rewriting can take years and years. No one ever shoots a first draft, or rarely sells a first draft. So, if you start now, by the time you have money or are ready to try and shop a script, you'll have one or two scripts you feel are done.

Also, if you want to shoot your own picture; write with that in mind. Think about where you can shoot, how many actors you can get and write around what you have and not what you need.

I'm also not at an age where I could

That's probably one of the worst cop-outs for not trying that I've ever heard. http://zenweasel.com/images/smilies/smiley_colbert.gif


I don't want to write them until I'm ready to actually shoot them.

Good scripts get worked on time & time again, 'til they shine.

How are you going to plan pre-production of any kind, if you don't have a script?

Just write them. Writing is rewriting - so what you write today may not even be ready to shoot for years. You catch up with it later.

Write while the idea is hot.

- Bill

The best advice I could give is to just write them. Sometimes it does take years. 5 years ago I dusted off two scripts that I wrote as a teenager many years ago and finally fleshed them out. They were originally very short. Now they are much longer and better.

So just write. Get those ideas down on paper before they go away.

- Dale