Film Script Submission

[James Marinero]

OK, not core to Cafe Life perhaps, but many of us dream about having one of our books turned into a film (witness the thread ). It seems that writing a screen adaptation of a book is a big task. Maybe it's better to set out to write the story as a screenplay which I guess requires a different perspective. There is plenty of advice available on formatting - maybe one of you has already prepared a script?

Anyway, I came across this site FilmarketHub for submitting scripts. It seems legit. On the positive side it is a requirement of submission to them that the IPR is pre-registered.

It wasn't immediately clear to me how the commercial angle is handled. If I were in the lucky position of someone being interested in making a film of one of my masterpieces (!) then I'd want an agent firmly in place to do the negotiating - and handle the adaptation process.

 

[Howard]

I wrote a script once as an entry for a competition that was looking for pilots for new TV series. It is a weird task, and really far removed from regulation writing. I also sit down, every year or so, to try and convert the first two books I wrote into the screenplays they should have obviously been. I do not last long. Trying to strip everything back to the barest dialogue and reshuffle it all into a good flow is a daunting task. It is not, however, something I have given up on...

 

[MaryA]

Some years ago I worked with a couple of other more experienced screenwriters developing educational documentaries for a local broadcaster. I sat with a stopwatch and timed every bit of dialogue, rewrote over and over to make the voices different and not info-heavy. Then I cut all my screen directions to the bone. It was hard work. When we watched the completed documentary on TV, the director had changed almost everything in it and encouraged the actors to improvise, then cut that and written his own dialogue. It can be a volatile medium.

 

[Howard]

Some years ago I worked with a couple of other more experienced screenwriters developing educational documentaries for a local broadcaster. I sat with a stopwatch and timed every bit of dialogue, rewrote over and over to make the voices different and not info-heavy. Then I cut all my screen directions to the bone. It was hard work. When we watched the completed documentary on TV, the director had changed almost everything in it and encouraged the actors to improvise, then cut that and written his own dialogue. It can be a volatile medium.

Indeed. I do get the feeling that the film/TV industry is there only to make the publishing industry look restrained and logical, and I ain't even part of either!

 

[Katie-Ellen]

In a recent Village Hall discussion about this, Peter said he felt you would stand a far better chance of seeing your story in film, writing it as a book, unless you are already known, and are very well connected within the TV/film industry. That a script is a technical document, a whole different skill set.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

My mum used to write scripts for a children's television show. The group of writers would meet at our house and spend the whole day banging out a script around the dining room table. I would sit under the table and listen. That's about as close as I ever expect to get to script writing (though I'd be happy to have someone turn one of my books into a blockbuster movie )

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Young people are doing it for themselves. Sprog 2 is this week shooting a film, a comedy, script written by a friend. They're going to try it at film festivals, have got some local press attention for it and the Odeon is going to premiere it when it's out. Shoe string.

Why the cinema showing? What's the publicity trick here? Two of the actors live in a local care home and have been diagnosed with dementia. They are the super grannies of the title and they are doing a great acting job by all accounts. Sprog 2 is cast as their feisty/arsey carer.

 

[James Marinero]

Young people are doing it for themselves. Sprog 2 is this week shooting a film, a comedy, script written by a friend. They're going to try it at film festivals, have got some local press attention for it and the Odeon is going to premiere it when it's out. Shoe string.

That reminds me of the Blair Witch Project. Of course 'shoestring' is relative, but $60,000 seems like shoestring to me as a budget. It was written as a screenplay - just 35 pages it seems. That can't be too hard ;-) @Howard where are you - have you got a storyboard for your game?

This thread is drifting but this is worth a mention - listen to this highly enjoyable BBC programme if you get a chance - it's about low (and I mean low) budget filmmaking in Uganda ($200) The bullets are carved from wood...Wakaliwood Film Making

 

[AliG]

I've written one. Story popped into my head as an animated film so I wrote it that way- loved the process. My son (co-writer) and I laughed all the way through- was a total delight to create. Following Peter's advice it's currently morphing into a book, but as I see it as a film, the morph is tricky to do. Worth it though, otherwise it will just fester in a drawer. Yes, I did register it. Seemed safest that way.

 

[Howard]

@Howard where are you - have you got a storyboard for your game?

My wha-a-at? Did I miss something here?

 

[James Marinero]

My wha-a-at? Did I miss something here?

Maybe it was another thread that you mentioned 'game' in. Maybe it was another Litopian...I'm having a week of thread confusion...it's an age thing. G knows how I keep track of my plots...

 

[James Marinero]

I've written one. Story popped into my head as an animated film so I wrote it that way- loved the process. My son (co-writer) and I laughed all the way through- was a total delight to create. Following Peter's advice it's currently morphing into a book, but as I see it as a film, the morph is tricky to do. Worth it though, otherwise it will just fester in a drawer. Yes, I did register it. Seemed safest that way.

Interested to hear how you registered it?

 

[Howard]

Maybe it was another thread that you mentioned 'game' in. Maybe it was another Litopian...I'm having a week of thread confusion...it's an age thing. G knows how I keep track of my plots...

Oh! The comment I made about games in my horror thread? You are as confused as I am. Yes, not interested in making games whatsoever, but do still occasionally dabble with scripts. Far more focussed on getting something published these days for such distractions.

At some point, though, I will have to go back and have another bash at the script I entered into the competition. The feedback I got for it was just too damned good for me to ignore, but I just don't have the know-how for putting a good script together, just the killer idea.

 

[James Marinero]

Oh! The feedback I got for it was just too damned good for me to ignore, but I just don't have the know-how for putting a good script together, just the killer idea.

It's dead easy just follow the Word template... https://www.und.edu/instruct/cjacobs/ScreenplayTemplate.dot

Please invite me to the premiere!

I've got a short story which I'd like to convert to a 15 minute radio play, but I can't handle the change of voice required. I might just do it as a straight read. Has anyone here used a good audiobook reader?

 

[Howard]

It's dead easy just follow the Word template... https://www.und.edu/instruct/cjacobs/ScreenplayTemplate.dot

Please invite me to the premiere!

I've got a short story which I'd like to convert to a 15 minute radio play, but I can't handle the change of voice required. I might just do it as a straight read. Has anyone here used a good audiobook reader?

Oh, the format I am totally copacetic with, its the content. Trying to keep pace, expand dialogue and deliver plot in that tiny, confined space is beyond me right now.