Anyone else do this? It's a great way to keep motivated for people like me who don't write or make movies for a living and constantly need a kick in the ass to keep them going.

Basically all it is is a constant e-mailing session of ideas and critique while two writers write a script (I'm talking full size here). The only full legnth script I've ever finished was carried by a writing buddy (actually my neighbour, but I'm quite confident an e-mail based relationship would work just or nearly as well).

I'm not talking about a daily review and contemplation of theme and characters, I'm talking about "Hey, got 4 pages done today. My character Fred was hit by a truck. How's yours coming along?"

If it's not helpfull critically, it's usually helpfull competitively.

So my writing buddy from ages ago has long moved away and I'm about to start another full legnth script. Anyone starting a full script soon want to stick it out with me?

Sounds cool

This message has been edited. Last edited by: FashtheStampede,

Yeah I got a writing buddy, but I got to kick him in the ass for him to ever get anything accomplished.

So Fash, you'll stick it out with me for however long it takes? A month? Half a year? I'm looking for someone persistant, who can keep the hype up (even via two sentance e-mails) at least three or four times a week.

But no reason not to start right now if you're up to it. I'll send you an e-mail.

One of my goals of next year is to hammer out a feature length script.

Why don't we create a thread where everyone can just vent their ideas and get some critism or whatever?

That could turn out to be pretty cool, imo.

Because some shark could steal the ideas, because they aren`t in most cases copyrighted.

The one on one atmosphere also makes things a little more competitive. Plus, you'll get better critisism from someone who's been following your project from the beginning than from someone who's only seen what you're asking to be reviewed.

So who's up for it? One of you must be starting or about to start a script,

I'm about to start a feature length script. Probably is I'm moving out very soon, so may not have access to the net.
I'll give it a go if you want, because I plan to write flat out over the next couple of weeks.

Hey, I actually happen to be moving out around the end of January (also my birthday). My problem is I'm working two jobs and have very little time between work, a music video in pre production, friends, family, and most time consuming of all, females. I'm still up for it though.

I'm just saying if you're going to be writing flat out for a few weeks, you'll be going at a way faster rate than me, but either way if you were to throw your stuff on a disc and send me an e-mail every few days, I'd do the same.

I wish I could find a serious online writing buddy. It's easy to find people that will talk about it but getting down and doing the actual work is different, even with close friends that are screenwriters.

You can probably just set an auto-bot to email you every 2 days saying "Work! Hurry and finish the damn thing!"...

Aside from that, I'm not exactly clear what you want. If you're planning a script day by day as you write it, it's not going to be very good. Start with a one page or even one paragraph treatment that contains the entire story, just without very much detail. You need to have the entire framework roughed out before anything is written.

Well I'm 1/2 through my current full-length script, but it's been a blast and wish I'd seen this a bit earlier :P

I'm going to look at writing another full length script in March if someone wants to write one then

Evan said:

quote:

You need to have the entire framework roughed out before anything is written.

Some of my better early shorts I wrote as I went along, with no idea of how it would end or what characters would do.

My team's got about six minutes of a movie that we wrote and shot in two parts in two days (one day in April and one day in June) with no clear idea of how it would turn out, and I really like what we have. A couple weeks ago, we watched the footage again, stuffed some latent symbolism in there, and decided to animate one portion of it. We'll probably finish it up sometime in February. It's called Death by Misadventure, if you care.

Anyway, I'm digressing something awful here, but I don't agree that you need the entire framework before you start writing a movie (or even start filming necessarily).

By the way, Brandon, would this email correspondence entail sending and receiving and reading and reviewing actual pieces of the scripts or just providing updates as to the progress? It seems if you're writing your own script, all the while actively involved in the writing process of another, you would be mixing ideas a lot, maybe even subconsciously. Whether that be a good thing, I don't know...

A short and a feature are totally different... if you have a very clear picture of the character, some people claim that they 'follow that situation' and don't know the ending ahead of time. Others, like me, think that people who say that actually do know the ending but hide it from themselves until the characters reach that point (or that page is written). Either way, you need to have a good focus on the material. Sometimes I feel like I'm just putting words on the page; I set the script aside for a day or two and come back to it after more ideas have emerged.

quote:

A short and a feature are totally different...

Ah -- very true. I forgot we were talking about feature scripts here. Structure is a nice thing to have in those.

hardly. whats teh difference? You're onyl limiting it if you're structuring around a time limit. You have access to DV tapes for under 15 bucks, you can shoot mass amoutns of footage, a feature no longer should be 120-180 minutes of crap. It should be perfected. Dont waste your time building up dialogue that means nothing, get to whats real and what matters. Dont bs yourself, sure if you're writing for an audience you're already ****ed, but if this is something you want, you damn well betetr put all your heart into it. Otherwise you wont be satisfied!

Shorts are dead, there should never be such ever again. The yavoid everything film, art can be. HOw many stdentfilms have we seen that are nearly silent with only pretty images? Look around the site, where's the real expression here besides "look what I can make LOOK interesting" rather than BE. Its like a game, leading to different points, all inbetween depending on point B, **** the structure. Its been beat to death and is dead.
be random, chaotic. Anything can happen.

as far as writing, this is the hardest thing to do. Mainly because there's hardly any inspiration (concerning looking for films to draw from) I say **** all the movies, just turn it all off, sure there's great movies out there, but set them aside for another day, this is YOUR chance to say something. when writing dont have those hollywood pictures inside your head, its only deludding you and keeping you from getting to the goood stuff. Look around, your life. We've all had crazy wild fun depressing experiences....full ideas from that, change them around, expand them, lie, make them something else, switch **** around ,WHATEVER it takes. Dont worry about it leading anywhere, once again, just let chaotic things occur, thats what life is. Crazy events lead us to places we've never been. Write down general outlines, what you'd like the characters to do, have mostly pages of dialogue, whatever, random assed conversations, have actors improvise, the script, your idea, will go into new places you never expected or could have planned.

There's no fun in movies that you know where you're going, dont plan for an ending, writers alays say start fro mthe end ,thats BS, if anything endings should always be left unwritten, cause once you decide that the actors/characters already know where they're going , therell be no chance for change with such blind characters stuck in their puppet fates.

everything planned = boring as hell.

Stray!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kyle Johnson,

quote:

writers alays say start fro mthe end ,thats BS, if anything endings should always be left unwritten, cause once you decide that the actors/characters already know where they're going , therell be no chance for change with such blind characters stuck in their puppet fates.

The interest comes from the characters attempting to escape that fate, and whether or not it actually happens...

It probably sounds incredibly cocky, but when I read statements like "Shorts are dead, there should never be such ever again. The yavoid everything film, art can be" I have to disagree. That doesn't describe my work at all, and I think what I do is entirely valid and hopefully compelling.

Short films have never been a mainstream form, even in Europe, where they sometimes screened before features.

There's nothing wrong with structure, especially when it helps to clearly depict and externalize whatever you want to express.

I don't know that anyone said anything about 'starting with a time limit' and working towards that. I generally know how long a short will be to within 45 seconds to a minute after finishing the final draft, but that's because a good sense of pacing and timing is important.

quote:

everything planned = boring as hell.

Boring for you. Not boring for the audience.

Here's a stretched example: I'm about to throw a giant party, and I'm PLANNING (about an hour or so into it) to click on the overhead fan (which has a flashlight attached to each blade), kill the lights, and dump buckets of fog from holes (which I have drilled in my living room ceiling, connected to an array of pipes). For me, I say ho-hum -- seen it. For everyone else, it should be a shocker.

Planning breeds perfection. Neglecting structure usually stems from laziness. And that pertains to a lot more than just writing.