Writing a Short Film Script. 750 Words Saturday, 3 September 2011.

I'ma shave tomorrow

So I’ve been chatting with someone on Google+ and Twitter.

 She’s a screenwriter and lover of films, which in my book are both groovy traits to have.

 Any who, on Wednesday, actually it might have been Thursday, it was around that time of night where the day changes, she asked me to write an outline for a short film by the am, I took that to mean by 11:59 in the afternoon. I didn’t do this, I had other things to do and forgot to do it, then made up a bunch of bullshit as a pretty weak excuse. But she called me on it last night and said she’d give me an extension. I then asked her to pick a number between 3 and 15, she chose 14. I said 3 to 15 because I wanted to write a script longer the 3 pages but no longer then 15. So she chose 14 and I told her that I’d not only have an outline written up today, but also a 14 page short film script with nothing more then a vague idea of what I’ll be writing.

 So this morning I woke up, made myself some breakfast and a cuppa tea, sat and watched a little television, then turned on my computer. Watched a little more TV, then and only then did I open the text edit word processor. Its very basic but I write all my treatments on it because its just rich text so the file will open on any computer. I thought for a few minutes, then want down stairs to make another cup of tea, I thought a little more about how to kick off this script. You see that was my problem, I knew what it was about, but I couldn’t get it started, so I thought in reverse starting at the beginning and working my way back to a point I thought would be good to start with.

 Once I found that point I got to work and wrote out about 6 lines for the outline of act one. Yep six line, after then I took another break, came back and wrote another 6 lines, which was the first half of act two, I had another break and came bake to write the second half of act two, I took another break then came back and write act three in another 6 lines.

 My outline was done in 24’ish lines. Humm

 From that I wrote maybe half a page of text to act as the treatment, it didn’t really need to be that extensive as I was making this shit up as I went. And figured that for a short 14 page script half a page of treatment was enough.

 So I decided to try and space out everything in three and a half page intervals, act one being pages 0 to 3.5, first half of act two is from 3.5 to 7, second part of act two from 7 to 10.5 then act three from 10.5 to 14. And so I figured I’d have 4 sessions each 3.5 page long. Act one ended up being about 4 pages, so did act three. But thats okay. And I only got to 13.5 pages, not bad really, I mean when you think about I had no idea what I was going to write this morning wen ti woke up and now I have a 13 page rough draft of a short film script. Think thats the most I’d written in one day. Not including the outline and treatment.

 I did end up going back and forth as I was writing it, so I could make the pages I wanted for each of the four sessions. Like act one was a full page short, so I found a point and added more shit to it, I ended up adding a page and a half almost. Sometimes it just kinda flows.

 I’ll be the first to admit, it needs some work, especially in the dialogue, I think the visual element in the action are fine, but of course I write from a stand point of filming this stuff, so I’m not thinking about someone else having to interpret it, I know the shot I want to use and I write these in when I fill a particular shot will add to the visuals, I even chose to add focus point directions in this script because that how I wanted it to be. I know as a screenwriter I shouldn’t do that but as the aspiring director I feel the need to. Sorry about that.

 So there you go, I uploaded it to my online server with Apple so she could download and read it, don’t expect to much from this, because I see this script in my head as I write it, I even edit the film in my head as I write it, I practically know what shots I would use, closes up and and wide shots and particular setups for master shots. Thats just how I write. If I’m writing for other people I’d tend to write more descriptive text. And even though this script was asked for by her, I wrote it for me.

A Short. 750 Words Monday, 15 August 2011.

I writed something

So today I finished a rough draft of a short film scripts called ‘The Copy Boy’. I’d only written 5 pages of a possible 10 before and today I thought, I have nothing to do, so why not finish it. Not exactly sure of how much I’d actually write I sat down turned off the TV and turned up my iTunes, I selected the Led Zeppelin playlist and just let it play.

 I opened up the Final Draft file and stared at it for a bit, 5 pages, why did I only get that far. I opened up the treatment file and read through it again, I was half way down the thing. I only wanted this to be a minute minute script, hence a 10 page script, and being 5 pages in already I thought it shouldn’t take to long to finish up.

 I made a cuppa then got to it, I remember stopping before because my brain simply gave out on me and I couldn’t figure out what to write next, this time I just sat there and it started to just pour out of me. This happens a lot by the way, if I leave something long enough.

 I must have wrote 3 pages by the time I figured it would be a good time to have a break, some family had turned up and were downstairs, another excuse to stop for a bit. I had a few cups of tea spoke to them and about an hour later they had left and I was back in front of my Mac writing, checking my treatment then writing more.

 16 pages. The final rough draft is 6 pages longer then I wanted it to be. But thats ok, I could easily shorten the film in post, by tightening up the editing or just removing some parts. I’m actually happy I wrote to much, this gives me more to play with later on.

 All I’d need to film this short is;

A cast of 4 or 5 main players. Two of which are principle cast the others supporting cast. Some extras. Redressed to fill different scenes from different angles. A Taxi, which I’ve done before and isn’t an issue, you just slip the drive a little extra. A bus, I have no idea how this would work, either rent a bus or, as the scene is at night, wait until its really fucking late then ask the driver if we can film stuff quickly. An office, a reception, a copy room. A bar a few quite streets and a flat. A decent camera and simple lighting, a china ball and some fill lights with gels. And a hugh roll of clear plastic sheeting (Don’t ask).

 Of course I still need to play with it a bit, I already know that I need to change a few things and add one or two others. Just to make a point a little more clear for the audience. I usually write scripts from my point of view first, and as I get everything thats going on I usually forget that the audience might not. So the first rewrite is usually to make sure that the audience can understand whats going on. Again, stuff can be removed in post so filming to much doesn’t really matter, I can then make it obvious or subtle in the editing phase.

 Now I’ve written this and finished a rough draft, I’ll print that off in A5 size so its easier to carry around and with a red pen make revisions. And I can start the next one. I think Horror and thriller are most likely going to be the main genres I write, mostly because they are easy and I don’t really need to get in-depth with the emotional content of a character. Happy, sad, scared, afraid, crying, easy. In this script I stayed away from the blood, and the violence is more implied. I think it just worked better for the story.

 If I do happen to come up with a story thats either romance or drama then I’ll write something down, but I doubt I’ll actually be able to write something like that and make it any good and worth watching. I’ll give it a go though, if I came up with something. Don’t hold your breath though my mind usually defaults on horror or thriller.

Of course I need a job and a budget a camera and a new iMac (Not really) but it would be nice. If I get this job, the one I had an interview for on Friday I’ll be doing all the over time I can get. So I want be around much and doing a daily 750 will be harder to get done when I’m working the day shifts, night shifts I can write it at work.