Hey everybody. I need to ask a very important question. I am going to be making my bigest project yet this winter. It will require good acting, cinematography, lighting and most importantly a GOOD SCRIPT. I am currently working on it but I am really heading down a dead end. Th characters are flat, The scene are draggy. I about one-quarter in. SHould I destroy it and start from scratch or try to salvage it. Thanks.

That sucks. I hate that ****, I do it constantly. I know how it drives you nuts, believe me. Ive erased my script over and over, as many classic screenwriters used to do, instead of "salvaging" it. What I would do is save the cureent screenplay as a different file, and then tuck the old one away somewhere and dont look at it. The just completely attack your script and remodel it. Just make characters do something crazy or interesting, and just play with it. I dont know, Im stuck in the same ****. Sorry.

I would say wait a couple of days, and start writing from scratch, but keep your other file. This will help you not know exactly what happened, and will free your mind up some more. Keep the file though, just in case you like soemthing about the original and need to refer back to it, just don't get stuck writing the same stuff you don't like.

you say your characters are flat, and the scene are draggy. So find out exactly what it is about your characters, and scenes that you dont like. Then think of why you dont like them, and once you have that think of what can make it better.

Your always gonna run into writers block so its best to be familiar with it.

Cheers

Thanks for all the input. I know sometimes people feel that the story to a student film isn't as essential as the knowledge of filmmaking displayed in the film. I disagree though. Just because us student filmmakers might not have a big budget and A-list cast it doesn't mean we can't put depth and meaning into our script. But that is another topic in itself.

One other thing that I feel makes screenwriting important to the student filmmaker is its on-screen value. Lets look at this hastily assembled chart below to express my point.

(Hypothetical situation)

SCENE: A man is driving home one night under the influence and he smashes his car right into a telephone poll.

Option A - Focus your energy on the crash and forget about its meaning. Get all sorts of fancy angles and buy an old junker to smash up or... (Cost: Hundreds of Dollars!)

Option B - Focus on what brought this character to this point. Using dialouge in a voiceover as the man is driving and keeping the crash off-screen could work just as many wonders as the crash itself.

(Cost: A lot cheaper than the alternative)

So just remember that before you go carelessly grab your camera and tripod, gather some friends to start filming (I'm guilty of doing this from time to time) remember to have a script that doesn't suck!

P.S. Did I just get into a Michael Moore style rant.