The Screenwriting Thread: Without Us You Would Be Staring at A Blank Screen

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > The Screenwriting Thread: Without Us You Would Be Staring at A Blank Screen

Sober: Nov 19, 2011; First touch: Life.
Second touch: Dead again. Forever.

That looks really outdated. Also most of the TV scripts posted there are from this site. Or wherever that site admin gets ahold of them (I've seen the scripts posted on that site "for sale" on other places).

Even with the above you would get really lucky to find a script for the show you want that isn't the pilot or the pilot isn't just a early draft or a middle of the road production revision they ended up editing even more. At the very least try the site above if you have an idea what you want to write a spec for. OF course I hope you've been watching the show intently, that should be a given though. Recent screenplays on the otherhand usually are easier to find, especially after awards season.

If you've written any other screenplay or teleplay then you shouldn't have to worry too much. From what I have noticed there aren't huge differences and writing in spec is gonna be that. Speculative as hell, especially since if you could easily get your hands on a middle of the road episode teleplay for whichever show you were writing a spec for, well you're already a few steps ahead of everyone else. I don't think they are expecting you to have all your sluglines formatted precisely like they're using because you have no clue (for example), you just have to approximate that stuff. What I'm sure they're looking more closer at for your spec is that you can write their characters and write to their tone/style/pacing and all that. Basically write fan fiction without it turning into fan fiction

# ¿ Aug 30, 2015 06:53

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 15, 2024 14:00

Sober: Nov 19, 2011; First touch: Life.
Second touch: Dead again. Forever.

Has anyone gotten feedback from submission contests like Screencraft?

Put in 2 pilots and got feedback. Didn't know they scored the things but I wished they were more specific about what they mean in each category. Sometimes they give you a poo poo score or a really good score but don't say anything about it.

The thing that really irks me is Screencraft's feedback (at least for their pilot contest) has "format" as a category but I have no clue what it means at all.

# ¿ Oct 4, 2015 23:34

Sober: Nov 19, 2011; First touch: Life.
Second touch: Dead again. Forever.

Golden Bee posted:

If you want feedback, The Blacklist is useful. The fee goes directly to industry readers, not random internet peeps.

Sorry if I seem uninitiated about the Blacklist, but: 25$/month to host a script with them where any of their professional members can read them. It's 50$ for a read, where it gets read, rated and feedback given. Rating sorta sorts your script on their listings for their professional members as well to see what rises to the top. Is this actually a worthwhile thing for discovery assuming you are rated well? (Aspiring screenwriter here) Am I missing anything?

Also, what happens if I unlist my scripts, does that mean my membership lapses until I keep at least one script hosted with them?

# ¿ Oct 5, 2015 01:57

Sober: Nov 19, 2011; First touch: Life.
Second touch: Dead again. Forever.

Hmm, question in general, how does everyone feel about people who post screenwriting jobs on say Craigslist, or is this a scam (even if you can find way/they are offering to pay you)?

# ¿ Nov 19, 2015 00:19

Sober: Nov 19, 2011; First touch: Life.
Second touch: Dead again. Forever.

I don't know if it matters or not but even though I live in Toronto the list of opportunities isn't that great, at least what I'm aiming for. There's a lot of people who bounce around trying to do smaller projects but personally I'd rather be doing the grunt work of writing on a series. The only problem is the TV writing scene in Canada in general is pretty dire vs. going to the US. So as much as I would love to just sit around and write a bunch of stuff I can one day try to pitch I feel like I'm missing something in the meantime.

Networking is super hosed too, there's literally only one or two avenues to meet either other screenwriters who are at my level (have written but nothing produced to show for it) or working writers/writer-producers, and you're lucky if they decide to show up to those.

So as much as it sucks it feels like even the non-scammy ones are either decent networking opportunities or I should just double down for LA somehow by trying to get into production studio programs over there.

There's literally a single screenwriting program in Canada, it only takes 8 people in the entire country per year, and apparently people who have gone through it are still backlogged on finding work through agents they meet through that most of the time.

# ¿ Nov 19, 2015 09:15

Sober: Nov 19, 2011; First touch: Life.
Second touch: Dead again. Forever.

So apparently Amazon has released a free screenwriting app on their service that's tied to your account/uses the cloud, etc.

https://storywriter.amazon.com/

Also if I'm understanding it correctly they removed the 18 month free option on submissions so submitting to them (Amazon Studios) isn't going to be a big hindrance to shopping around either?

# ¿ Nov 20, 2015 19:28

Sober: Nov 19, 2011; First touch: Life.
Second touch: Dead again. Forever.

Alan_Shore posted:

Rise from your grave!

Let's talk formatting. I'm writing a sci-fi film, and as expected there are spaceships in it. So here are a few questions:

1) When writing the ship's name down in the scene heading, would you use speech marks? Here is a typical example from my script:

INT. SPACESHIP "BRUCE"

Then either italicize or underline the ship's name in dialogue or action, correct?

2) Should I name every ship? For example, there's a small evil ship, but man I don't want to give it a name, so for now it's called "Angry Croissant Ship", because that what it looks like (though it's not important really). Should I just describe it as an angry croissant, give it a lame name then move on?

3) When I move back and forth between locations on the same ship, I write it like this:

INT. SPACESHIP "BRUCE"/LOUNGE
Blah blah blah

INT. SPACESHIP "BRUCE"/CORRIDOR
Blah blah blah

I think that's the most specific and least confusing, looks a bit unwieldy though. What do you think?

As always, as long as it's readable and easy to parse it shouldn't really matter. That being said:

1) No rule that you can't use quotation marks in scene headings. If "Bruce" is your main ship though (that the protags fly on for instance), I think INT. "BRUCE" - SUBSECTION is plenty enough, especially if you lead with describing "BRUCE" pretty much off the bat. And yes, for consistency's sake italicizing in dialogue in action is a good practice but not really required.

2) Well treat other ships as you would characters or enemies. Is that one important? If it's a chase scene do I need to know that our heroes are outrunning "Stallion" and "Bushwhack"? Or are they just 2 generic spaceships chasing them that'll eventually crash into some asteroids or something? And on the other side of the coin, would you not say name the enemy flagship, and describe it in detail as much as you would any other character?

3) It's all up to you but again, formatting doesn't really matter as long as it's clear where we are. I've read scripts where it takes place almost entirely on a ship so they never even bother with proper scene headings and just go like "CUT TO CIC", "CUT TO BRIDGE", etc. If you're jumping back and forth from other ships or planetside or other characters in different locations then best practice would be to keep your sluglines clear.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2016 19:53

Sober: Nov 19, 2011; First touch: Life.
Second touch: Dead again. Forever.

My general rule is enclosed space = interior, but people will know what you mean either way you write, jokes from Clickhole aside.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2016 02:23

Sober: Nov 19, 2011; First touch: Life.
Second touch: Dead again. Forever.

I'm the opposite right now, can't really come up with a feature length script to save my life, but I could probably slap a pilot together in a reasonable amount of time.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2016 17:59

Sober: Nov 19, 2011; First touch: Life.
Second touch: Dead again. Forever.

Just for someone from Canada who wants to come down, it's already a huge barrier of entry on top of a big one. At least if you live in the US you can just pack up and move to LA and chase the dream. Every day I think about it, the less likely it seems and the more likely the best that will happen is getting work locally.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2016 06:10

Sober: Nov 19, 2011; First touch: Life.
Second touch: Dead again. Forever.

Remember, formatting doesn't have to be so strict as long as it's readable.

Personally I would do:

code:

ON BLACK, FADE/SNAP IN TITLE:

[short film title, maybe just say it's white if it's what you want]

[your dialogue. presumably with some punchline or some meaning]

FADE IN/SNAP IN
[and leave any extra instructions like holding the title past black if you plan to do a Mr. Robot-esque title drop]

EXT/INT WHATEVER

SUPER/CHYRON I've seen interchangeably. Someone can correct me if they technically mean something different though.

Titles in screenplay format I suggest just throwing into all CAPS. Putting something in all caps usually draws attention to it be it a particular object, action, etc. Just don't overuse it unless you mean it.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2016 10:01

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 15, 2024 14:00

Sober: Nov 19, 2011; First touch: Life.
Second touch: Dead again. Forever.

Your script doesn't always have to start with FADE IN. It can be a variety of other things. Again, readability and establishing an interesting hook even before the picture comes up can work. If I'm understanding you right, I believe this is something around what you might want?

code:

In 1998, the U.S. Government discovered UFOs in low orbit above the deserts of Utah.

A team was sent to meet with the visitors aboard these flying spacecraft.

What happens next is based on true events...

HARD ROCK BLASTS as we...

FADE IN:

EXT. DESERT - DAY

A convoy of Jeeps rolls down the desert at high speed.

If you're still drafting I wouldn't care too much about how exactly the final product will look in post or whatever. Or even being extremely careful with camera angles unless you want to create a specific image. Most of these things are left for later. Things change. But I'm sure those first three lines brought to you an image of what you have seen before in other films, for example.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2016 20:43

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > The Screenwriting Thread: Without Us You Would Be Staring at A Blank Screen