What happens AFTER you finish a script?

Once I finished my first feature script I sent it to friends to read, got feedback, revised it, entered it in the Amazon Studios contest, failed miserably, stashed it aside forever.

For my second feature script, I knew before I started it that I wanted to write something I could shoot myself. We go into production this November!

all of the above and then some - EXCEPT the hide it in a folder on your computer part. Why write it and do all that work just to hide it? You've done such hard wonderful work for so many weeks/months, so why hide it?

You can show it to others (which you already naturally would be doing by doing any of the following):

Enter competitions if that's what you like, there are tons of them out there. Just make sure it's a place worth sending your work to. I am sure there are a ton of threads on here to advise you on that.

Get a director to make your movie (not sure what connections or finances are but this might be easier to do with the shorts than the features, but like I said I am not sure what your capabilities are on that front)

Try and sell your scripts.

You can try your hand at any of these or even more stuff that I have not mentioned (I am sure others will chime in on the topic) just, please, please don't hide it away on a computer. I am not sure how proficient you are but you can never grow and improve if you don't show/share your work.

I hope this helps.

Sam

moonshieldmedia said:

Once I finished my first feature script I sent it to friends to read, got feedback, revised it, entered it in the Amazon Studios contest, failed miserably, stashed it aside forever.

For my second feature script, I knew before I started it that I wanted to write something I could shoot myself. We go into production this November!

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Oh yeah, and one more thing, unless they are in the business and/or have some serious technical or other relevant feedback to give you, you may want to keep your work (especially work you plan on using in competition or are try trying to sell) as far away from friends and family as possible. They are your friends and family and they are not going to give you the feedback you really need to get your work to the highest level possible.

They will more than likely praise you because they love you (and while that feels good it's not enough to get you over the top). On the flip side if they trash and or berate your work you will have this safety net to say "they don't know what they are talking about" (also does nothing to move your forward). Feedback is good but you need the right kind of feedback to draw every ounce of quality out of you that your can muster.

For my first feature script, I sent it off to my friends and a couple of other filmmakers. Everyone said the loved it. I scaled it down so I can shoot it myself, rewrote into a managable low budget production and now I'm on my track to shoot the damn thing!

www.TheTrampMovie.com

Use it as a blueprint to make a movie.

dlevanchuk said:

For my first feature script, I sent it off to my friends and a couple of other filmmakers. Everyone said the loved it. I scaled it down so I can shoot it myself, rewrote into a managable low budget production and now I'm on my track to shoot the damn thing!

www.TheTrampMovie.com

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Oh wow, that sounds like it could be a really cool movie. Can't wait to see what it's like.

writethevillain said:

I've written three feature scripts, a handful of short scripts and have various documents with other projects that I should probably get started with, but I never seem to do anything once I have finished working on whatever it is I have just finished.

So, the title says it all, really; What do you personally do once you finish writing a script? Show others, hide it in a folder on your computer, send it into competitions, or what?

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Yeah, I mean you don't want to just stow it away. All of that work would have been for nothing. If you have the capabilities or know of people who can do what you want them to do, then I would make it yourself. Obviously, it'll cost you time, money, and a shit ton of effort to make it good, but if you know what you want and you have a vision, then you'll get it. My advice though, is to remain as vigilant as humanely possible. If it takes a million shots or a million re-writes just to get it right, then so be it. Movies, especially independent films are sensitive to public scrutiny. Having even the smallest inconsistencies or those few shots that just don't work can ruin most films.

Anyway, If you don't have the capabilities, then I'd send it off to a production company for money.

Once I finished a script, I open a bottle of beer and take a big gulp. And then I panic, "Is it good enough?" and then I panic some more and then I wonder, "what do I do with this?" LOL. Seriously, I am filming a movie with the script half finished. I am still trying to finish the script, so I'd be able to finish the film.

So far I've avoided showing any form of scriptwork to family, and only time I've shown them to friends is if they're starting the road to writing a script themselves as a quasi-learning aid (despite having no track record).
As for going about filming my scripts, after having a hugely disastrous production in college for a final major project with a short film, it's put me in the mindset most people felt after watching Jaws for the first time when it was released - I'm hesitant about going in that water again.

Where do the majority of these paintings end up after each "artist" has invested time and materials into them?
https://www.google.com/search?num=1...0.0.0.51.51.1.1.0...0.0...1ac.1j2.obxvvIS92u0

Same for any of our DIY screenplays.


A screenplay can be seen as an end product itself.
And just like with a painting, most regular people, such as family and friends, have an uneducated view of WTH their looking at, which doesn't invalidate their feelings, only the utility of their opinion.

Any fool can look at and express an opinion on it: It's wrecked, Olie!

No sh!t, Sherlock.

But unless our opinion carries some economic value to it, it doesn't really matter, does it?
Do I know how to repair that? No.
Do I know how to calculate the salvage value to that? No.
Do I even know how to hook it up to a tow truck, let alone own a tow truck and posess a business license to charge you a tow fee? No.
Then who gives a flying fig what my opinion is? No one.

The same goes for family and friends looking over your/my/anyone's screenplay.

Furthermore, WTH is the point and purpose of writing a screenplay if either A) you're not going to direct the film, feature or short, yourself, or B) sell it to someone else as a spec screenplay, (in which case it'll likely need to be in proper spec screenplay format)?
You could just give it away to someone so unimaginative that they have NO ideas of their own: Got camera and sticks, but no i-deers.

It's kinda like having a pretty wife - but you're never going to have any babies with her.
Well... WTH's the effing point of having a pretty wife, then?!
Pretty mamas = pretty babies (God willing.)
Ugly mamas = ugly babies (not always, but likely.)
Pretty screenplays = pretty films (God willing.)
Ugly screenplays = ugly films (almost ga-runnnteeeed!)


Got a screenplay or two lying about hogging memory on your PC?
Join a screenplay review forum, submit it, brace for your beating.
Rewrite it, resubmit, brace again.
Rewrite it again, consider submitting it for coverage if you intend to sell it on spec or just enter it into a screenplay competition. (Yes! There are just as many spec screenplays on the market as squash at local county fairs each year all across this and other nations. Aren't you special! Not.)

One of these un-asked-for screenplays is yours! ---> You're special! I'm special, too! We're ALLLLLL special!!!!



Have an end product plan for a screenplay before investing time and effort into it.
Produce or direct it yourself, or with biz associates.
Or sell it.

There's little point in writing something you don't enjoy, but then, not everybody feels that they're ready enough yet to write something good enough to want to make or could sell.

So let's put all of that aside...

I write, I take a week or two off, I go back, see it again, alter whatever (unless totally broken, then it's gets a Page 1 re-write or dumped), and then show it to a few mates whose opinions I hold faith in.
From there, I re-write, alter, show to other writers who owe me a favour or I'll then owe them a reading later... this results in often better, more focused, feedback.
I then use this (if useful) to re-write, alter, and then decide if this script's going to market or going to be a show-piece, although, I pretty much write everything now with the original intention of it being sold... even the ones that go bad somewhere and get scrapped.

Note that I may have missed a few re-write phases, but you get the gist.
Hopefully, this helps.

I think it's ok to forget about a screenplay you've written. Every successful screenwriter will tell you that their first script was terrible, no matter how talented the writer is. It's an art that takes practice to master.

Why not start on your 2nd and 3rd ideas? Most likely they will flow better than your first, and the experience you gain will improve everything about your writing. You can even go back to that one you forgot about years later, recognize how bad it really is, then maybe rework it if you still love the concept.

Just keep moving forward.

moonshieldmedia said:

I think it's ok to forget about a screenplay you've written. Every successful screenwriter will tell you that their first script was terrible, no matter how talented the writer is. It's an art that takes practice to master.

Why not start on your 2nd and 3rd ideas? Most likely they will flow better than your first, and the experience you gain will improve everything about your writing. You can even go back to that one you forgot about years later, recognize how bad it really is, then maybe rework it if you still love the concept.

Just keep moving forward.

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True, but its still important to show your work for constructive criticism. You know?

I write it, re-write it, show it to others, re-write it. Then I ask actors to read it, and re-write it, then they read it again, and re-write it. Finally I get something acceptable (usually version 8 or 9), and if appropriate then I film it. And during the filming we change a few things, and during editing the film gets slightly changed again.

Some short scripts I never completed or never went beyond version 3 or 4 as I was not happy.

Only a couple of short scripts that are completed I never filmed, either because I did not have the right means or because it was not the right time...

You might want to enter into www.emergingscreenwriters.com for a fee. Or go to Raindance Live ammunition in London next month. It costs £5 and you can directly pitch it to Film Executives. A great way to learn how to pitch.
google them and get it done, I have. Its good fun.

Maybe someone else suggested this and I overlooked it, but you might try and find representation. You will have a much easier time getting through doors via a reputable agent than you will "over the transom", as the saying goes.

FYI, I wrote more than a dozen feature screenplays (that are sitting on my shelf) before I got signed. Maybe you're a natural and won't have to work that hard, but in my experience a potential rep will want to see more than one example of your work before taking you on as a client, just to make certain you're not just a flash in the pan.

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