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idea help
- Thread starter chris.
- Start date
1. Start typing.
2. Ask peers for honest critiques.
3. Rinse, and repeat.
Also, it doesn't hurt to read up on the process of screenwriting.
2. Ask peers for honest critiques.
3. Rinse, and repeat.
Also, it doesn't hurt to read up on the process of screenwriting.
Don't waste time revamping a TV show.
There's the pages long glockenspiel about legal this and that.
Just... don't.
Instead, update the scenery and scenarios, alter the character personas enough to stay out of the courtroom and gopherit!
Find movie screenplays here to learn general format: http://www.imsdb.com/latest/
(Sorry. I don't know where any TV screenplays are).
Read and write using this: http://www.scribd.com/doc/12721428/Professional-Screenplay-Formatting-Guide
Have you got a screenplay format program?
This one is free and works just fiiiiiine: http://celtx.com/index.html
Go crazy.
GL & GB
Ray
There's the pages long glockenspiel about legal this and that.
Just... don't.
Instead, update the scenery and scenarios, alter the character personas enough to stay out of the courtroom and gopherit!
Find movie screenplays here to learn general format: http://www.imsdb.com/latest/
(Sorry. I don't know where any TV screenplays are).
Read and write using this: http://www.scribd.com/doc/12721428/Professional-Screenplay-Formatting-Guide
Have you got a screenplay format program?
This one is free and works just fiiiiiine: http://celtx.com/index.html
Go crazy.
GL & GB
Ray
Most spec scripts for TV start as work-ups of an old or existing series. Most of the formatting rules for movies also apply for TV. Half-hour TV comedies, for some odd reason, follow a different set being double spaced. You can find TV scripts on the internet in different places. Often you can write to a TV production company for their spec guidelines--if you wanted to write on spec for CSI, etc.
Ray is right in that you couldn't sell the series as your own. However, sending a script off on spec is not out of the question. However, if it does catch someone's attention, you probably won't get any acknowledgement ($).
Because most large agencies CBS, NBC, ABC, etc. run their own shops, it is difficult to sell them a series from the outside. It's easier to piggyback as a writer on one of their existing series, build up some credit (and connections), and then try to sell the idea.
There are many planned re-vamps at the moment in development. Bewitched, someone mentioned "Beverly Hillbillies", "I dream of Jeannie" and "Gilligan's Island". It's not that there's a lack of creative writers, just execs like to stick to what's worked in the past. Unfortunately, I don't think the same audience interest exists. It invites a lot of comparison which is often unfair.
In finding older TV scripts, you can put in your search engine "CSI scripts" and you can usually track down a couple. The only caution is that there are 'spec scripts' and 'shooting scripts'. The shooting scripts often have details of camera shot and angles that you wouldn't include in a spec script. It's instructive to see both. But if you do submit a spec script, realize it should not include shooting information.
Ray is right in that you couldn't sell the series as your own. However, sending a script off on spec is not out of the question. However, if it does catch someone's attention, you probably won't get any acknowledgement ($).
Because most large agencies CBS, NBC, ABC, etc. run their own shops, it is difficult to sell them a series from the outside. It's easier to piggyback as a writer on one of their existing series, build up some credit (and connections), and then try to sell the idea.
There are many planned re-vamps at the moment in development. Bewitched, someone mentioned "Beverly Hillbillies", "I dream of Jeannie" and "Gilligan's Island". It's not that there's a lack of creative writers, just execs like to stick to what's worked in the past. Unfortunately, I don't think the same audience interest exists. It invites a lot of comparison which is often unfair.
In finding older TV scripts, you can put in your search engine "CSI scripts" and you can usually track down a couple. The only caution is that there are 'spec scripts' and 'shooting scripts'. The shooting scripts often have details of camera shot and angles that you wouldn't include in a spec script. It's instructive to see both. But if you do submit a spec script, realize it should not include shooting information.