Screenwriting Help

son, i think your beyond the point of help...

joking. just stick in there. every writer feels what he writes is lame or subpar, and it usually is, we just gotta keep lying to ourselves! thats what it's all about.

son, i think your beyond the point of help...

joking. just stick in there. every writer feels what he writes is lame or subpar, and it usually is, we just gotta keep lying to ourselves! thats what it's all about.

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Yeah... I usually put down my own work, but I seriously need some help with making the movie more than just a ton of effects and action sequences. That's my problem; I'm too "action-y."

Structure... Plain and simple.

amfx22000 said:

Hello, I'm a new filmmaker who's made/directed a couple movies which wre mostly failures ("The Un-Incredibles"; popular, but not that great; "The Un-Incredibles 2: Attack of the Pepsis"; don't go there; "High Noon"; short action flick that wasn't much; "Skipping School"; AWESOME beginning, but lame afterwards.)

I'm currently writing a new film-to-be I've titled "Death by Fire": an action flick with a bit of comic relief to make it easy to watch. Every time I've tried to write an action flick, I've started with an action sequence, which isn't an awesome idea. I know what my plot is (two secret agents are put in charge of a small gun capable of causing MASS GENOCIDE; they are chased by an underground terrorist organization), but it always seems so... so... LAME!

Please, if you can help me...

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Are you following any type of structure or are you just feeling your way along?

Planning your story out with a solid structure will keep your story on track and keep it from being lame... Then, it's up to you and the actors to KEEP it solid.

As far as structure goes...

That part's up to you... I have my own structure that I follow for ALL the scripts that I write. The structure that I've developed for myself stems from having DECONSTRUCTED a ton of films and finding the consistencies that I find entertaining and that have made money at the box office... But that's me.

When you write without a solid structure, you can find your way to the end of your story but normally, by then, you're way over the page count OR your story is only good every so often...

A good solid structure (story plan) will keep things MOVING at a pretty fast clip. Almost every screenplay I read fails in the structure department OR the dialogue department i.e., on-the-nose dialogue. In fact, I just finished a script (I cannot provide the name here on the forum) that was written by an A-LIST writer and sold for just under $2 Million.

Plain and simple... It sucks.

One of the reasons I think it sucks is because this writer has only written comedies and feature length animated films... This particular story fails almost at the very beginning. But hey, it sold. The only problem is that this A-LIST writer also wants to direct it.

It dips UP and DOWN and levels out. It's almost like reading a book. Maybe he will be able to pull it off... I hope so. But the real problem is his structure. There is none. I can tell he simply felt his way through the story and then cut it to the bone... After a few thousand scripts, you can tell the difference.

I hate to keep repeating it but it works... You just have to find a structure that you can identify with and accept but in reality, all the best types of structure are very similar.

Good luck with it...

filmy

I don't want to sound mean spirited but have we missed the meaning of your post entirely? Are you looking/hoping for a brainstorming session to make your story idea/script better?

Nothing bad about what's been posted so far, just curious is all.

Boz Uriel said:

I don't want to sound mean spirited but have we missed the meaning of your post entirely? Are you looking/hoping for a brainstorming session to make your story idea/script better?

Nothing bad about what's been posted so far, just curious is all.

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Looking for advice, that's all.

Well, each person has thier own method- here's mine.

I start with a shot. I visualize a shot that fits the theme I want to write. From that, I work on chracters. I write mini-bios for historical purposes. Then I sit back, think for a LONG time. Grab a bottle of alcohol, and begin writing a short-story-type scenario. I always start with a story, and that story can be re-fleshed and thrown in anywhere... one of my such-stories was the main character brooding on the destruction of the universe and his involvement- him just floating in cosmic dust, remembering things. I'll put that at the end of the script, but at least I have a solid element... the lines start forming up to that end.
Then, I make a rough outline, deciding what I CAN do.
Then, I put what I WISH I could do. Then I find a happy medium.
THEN, I start writing scenes here and there.
THEN I write an outline.
Then I change the pre-written scenes to accomodate.
Then I write the rest.
Then I make a sandwich.
Then I junk most of it, write it all again, changing even the outline, to make it better.
Then I drink more alcohol and get mad and delete the files, making me start from scratch again. But in the end, it usually ends up OK.

That's just my version though... everyone has thier own way.

-Logan-

I start with a shot. I visualize a shot that fits the theme I want to write.I start with a shot. I visualize a shot that fits the theme I want to write.

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I do the same exact thing. The scenes I visualize are usually very emotional in one respect or another and it's from this that I try to pull a story. That's the hard part - making a story out of a single idea/scene! It usually takes me a long time to write anything because I wait until I have a bunch of ideas that meld into a single large theme and story. Part of the reason I'm interested in an Indietalk screenwriting competition. I need to work on getting more out of a single idea.

My story ideas come as burning questions from everyday life as I witness it. I've learned to carry around a moleskin where ever I go because my ideas hit me at the weirdest times it seems. Anyway I love to write so I usually throw the story onto my hard drive and let it sit for a day or so then go back and re-read it. These first drafts usually suck but I love fixing things so it works for me. Getting in with a good workshop where you can hear critiques from other people is good too. Brainstorming sessions in person where ideas just keep flowing faster than you can pen them down are common in my group. Doesn't work as well electronically for some reason (at least not for me).

So if you're just looking for someone to read it and give you an honest opinion of it, feel free to pm me.

I've only skim read the thread, because I'm short of time today, but I think we're in screenwriting tips. If that's not the case I apologise.

Here's the three that mean most to me today:

1) More and more I believe that if you can't say in three short easy sentences what the film is about, then it's probably doomed. When I'm struggling with a script, the root problem is almost always because I'm not clear about what the film is about.

2) Films are about how people react. The plot is just the journey the chracters go on. The better you understand your characters the better the writing. The best way to create great characters is to switch off your TV and go watch people. Most scripts are lame because the characters are just bad rip-offs of TV and film characters, the good writing comes from understanding people.

3) (The weird one) I've realised this week, that as a writer my stories all come from the landscape that I'm emmersed in. You can take me anywhere in the world and the landscape will tell me what film I need to make there. I know that sounds odd, but really it isn't. A film in downtown New York is going to be different from a film set in rural Mexico. The stories are different. So I think a plane/train/bus ticket and a digital camera are the best aid to script writing.