Don't know about the TV stuff, but I thought 96/100 for coverage is like amazing. What reading service was it through?
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Screenwriting |OT| INT. RESETERA
- Thread starter kai3345
- Start date
Don't know about the TV stuff, but I thought 96/100 for coverage is like amazing. What reading service was it through?
Sorry for the late response— not sure why I didn't get a notification.
I entered it in the Wescreenplay contest, which came with free coverage. But since I wanted coverage and don't really care about the competition, I guess it's more like paying for coverage and getting a free competition.
Yeah, same one. I actually just got my Austin notes back recently. It was funny because it reminded how much I re-worked the script after submitting, since most of the points aren't really relevant anymore.
Anyone have any insight on the state and health of the spec market right now? Searching around reveals a lot of doom and gloom, relative to say, a decade ago. Asking because someone I know wrote an amazing screenplay, got in the top list on the Blacklist and lo and behold nearly a year later the script's just sitting there with presumably no offers of option just yet. And the screenplay was very excellent. Just wondering whether the Blacklist really is a viable avenue. I've heard people call it a lottery - as in, even if you make the top list there's still a very low chance anything will actually happen. I still want to try. I mean they'd at least give me some brief feedback and I'm interested to just see how my new script would score - but are screenplays being optioned on spec any more? Or is it becoming a rare occurrence?
Wondering if anyone has any insight to share - how they fared on the Blacklist etc. Thoughts?
Wondering if anyone has any insight to share - how they fared on the Blacklist etc. Thoughts?
To piggy on this topic also, asides from BL what options are there? I know you send out letters or something, but I don't know the process at all nor don't even know how to get representation. Really, I just did BL because it was all I knew I could do.
The bottom dropped out of the spec market in the early 2000s. It's mostly now just idea and concepts to be developed than getting a big pay day with a spec or getting to a level for representation (either the project itself or the writer). Don't go into it thinking you'll sell it, go into it hoping you'll get notice and can work with someone on it and, hopefully, it gets to a stage where it can be sold and produced.
I'm on this from both sides. As a producer, I worked with a writer for over a year on his project, we eventually went out with it and now it's in the early stages at Sony TV. Keep in mind neither of us are still getting money, he still has to close a deal to eventually get to that stage to get the go-ahead to write the first draft on a rewrite. We just had a four hour meeting with the showrunner yesterday and it's still not at a stage with the higher ups for that go-ahead. Thats me, another producer, the writer and the showrunner pretty much doing it all pro-bono with the hope (and likiness) that the execs will like the takes and the treatment and start early production with the script.
As a writer I have a project at a company with financing and a director attached, but it's also slow going and not getting money until we can get the script to a stage to go to financiers, studios, distributors etc...
There is no "I love it, here's 100k for the script with an additional 250k if it gets made and you'll get an EP credit for even more $$$$" like there was in the 1990s.
It's the great Catch 22 of the entertainment industry. You can't get a rep unless you've done something but you can't really do anything without a rep.
Your best bet is script competitions or workshops/screenwriters labs. Stuff like a script service or BL is good for feedback and making something better but not to really put yourself out there. Also networking is key. Writer's groups. Industry meetings. Friends of friends etc...
Yeah my main problem is I don't know anyone.
Well that and I need more tension, ha. ... Don't we all?
The more I hear about the process of getting things made, the more amazing it seems that anything gets made at all. I have huge respect for the people who can navigate that world.
Here I am, overwhelmed by a Brooklynn Nine Nine spec.
Here I am, overwhelmed by a Brooklynn Nine Nine spec.
ObiWan or anyone else who knows about TV stuff, can I ask about structure? I'm working on a pilot and right now the cold open is 4 pages, the first act is 11, the second is 10, and the third is 8 (plus a 1 page tag). Does that sound normal? Based on pilots I've read I think it is, but almost half the script being the first act makes me nervous.
Were you able to find anything? Haven't looked into it, but when it comes to HBO or netflix original or such, I believe you have the ability to avoid some of the hard-stone structuring? Or at least, that's what I find when I watch VOD originals.
From what I've read, it seems like it's probably fine, since pilots often have longer first acts.
In terms of Netflix/HBO, my understanding is you generally want to write in act breaks regardless since you want to be able to shop it around anywhere (though that feels like I'm getting way ahead of myself).
Are you trying to do an episodic story or a continuous one? I'd say just aim for 50 pages and try to put the beats accordingly. You might drive yourself crazy trying to adhere to those rules, as long as they are near the right place, it should be good? Usually the structured page breaks like that are mostly for commercial breaks, so that's kinda why I was asking.
Anyway, y'all gunna try to do new stories this year? I'm on the tale end of my project for the year. Been through tons of changes, went from horror mashup to just a western vibe.
What techniques y'all use when brainstorming a next project?
I wrote for a show on a broadcaster without commercials, and we did write with the 'commercial act break' structure in mind. This was Belgium of course and not the US. I think now it's less necessary to do so, just as episodes don't all have a similar length anymore. But having some structure in place always benefits your story I guess.
For my 2019 plans it seems I'll have quite some writing ahead. My adventure movie is in its final drafts. We're applying at the film fund in march, and it's our final chance after being denied last time. I have a good feeling about the state of the script now, but you never know what the jury will think.
Next to that I was working on a adaptation of a book by Michael Morpugo, which was intended to be an animation. Now Morpugo and his agent have changed their minds and want to see it in live action (probably hoping to attract a bigger studio too in stead of a European co-production). We had to renew the rights after having them for some years, but they declined. This sucks, but might actually turn out for good. 40% of the screenplay was original content which we will now expand upon, and this might actually solve some problems with the script. It's half a new story though, which I'll start working on next wednesday.
And than I have excepted to co-write a children's film with a very young, beginning director. The idea she has is great, so I'm looking forward to developing it, even though this will not be 'my own baby'.
Lastly, I got screenwriting funding last month for a animation idea, which I'll write in my own time over the next year.
Yall writing the feature in Dutch or is it going to be English dialogue? I don't mind subtitles, though. Hopefully we will get to see it one day, any of your projects.
The animated feature not based on the book anymore is probably going to be in English or French (in the latter case translated). The rest is written in Dutch.
I hope those projects get of the ground. The bottleneck in funding is real.
I have a co-writing credit on Cool Abdul though, which will start shooting in september. Did an extensive restructuring and wrote some of the later drafts + touch ups. I hope it at least will do some international festivals in 2020.
So I learned there is such thing as "Consider with reservations" on coverage. I Guess it's the same as a consider?
Yes. Not sure why they have "with reservations" a consider is a consider. I mean, I get what they're trying to say, but it doesn't change the consider factor.
Feels like consider implies reservations, otherwise it would be a recommend, no?
It's an episodic sitcom, so yeah I think I'm going to end up doing this.
It's an episodic sitcom, so yeah I think I'm going to end up doing this.
Happy eitherway, today is my birthday too, so it was a nice surprise regardless. Also got good notes (from a second coverage also) and I think I got enough to finally be done with this.
Had a question about labeling race when introducing main characters. I don't mention anything about someone's race, nor do I really have a set idea of what they should/could be, I just leave it open to where anyone could play the roll depending if they can make the character work. Should I just leave it like that, or should I just decide on things and put it in when introducing the characters? If so, what kind of language works for it?
Not professional either, but that's always how I approached it. Few times in coverage It's been mentioned that the character names "sound western/white" but I feel like they can be for anyone. I never wrote anything that would infer skin color either, asides for mentioning someone having a bruise, which would infer light enough skin for it to be seen.
I put race when it's integral to the story you're telling in the script/pilot. One script I've written involves dealing with the persecution of being a specific minority in a professional sport, so that character is specified as being Native American in his character description. Another pilot I'm working on involves a family dealing with one member's mental illness, and I haven't assigned any race to them, as I could see them being black, white, Asian, Hispanic, etc...
If you do envision specific races for your characters, I'd take a second to ask why that is. Is it inherent to your story? If so, consider ways that you can highlight whatever it is you want to say about their ethnicity and cultural background in the plot and dialogue. If you just introduce someone as SAM (25, South Korean) and then have nothing in the script that has to do with his heritage, then odds are it'd get changed by a producer/casting director later on. However, if you were to write something like "Black-ish", it'd be pretty damn hard to change those characters to Caucasian without completely changing the show.
If you do envision specific races for your characters, I'd take a second to ask why that is. Is it inherent to your story? If so, consider ways that you can highlight whatever it is you want to say about their ethnicity and cultural background in the plot and dialogue. If you just introduce someone as SAM (25, South Korean) and then have nothing in the script that has to do with his heritage, then odds are it'd get changed by a producer/casting director later on. However, if you were to write something like "Black-ish", it'd be pretty damn hard to change those characters to Caucasian without completely changing the show.
well, I have hard enough time just writing "black" into a character description, no way i'd write "black-ish". Going to keep it open ended for now .
Side note. Blue Cat a waste of money?
Side note. Blue Cat a waste of money?
Anyone applying to Imagine Impact? The submission period just opened (it closes the 20th). It sounds like a very cool opportunity, but I'm not sure I can relocate to LA on such short notice, even though it's paid. But figured some people here might be interested in it.
On the off-chance you're not joking, "Black-ish" is the name of a show. I was saying if you were to write the show called "Black-ish", which features an African American cast of characters often dealing with issues that relate to that segment of America, it'd be impossible to do so with white characters.
I got some positive coverage on a pilot I wrote so I'm feeling better about what I've been working on, although it did hurt to see a pro on Twitter say no one wants to read pilots anymore and now they want features.
Anyone getting ready to enter some contests this year? I'm counting down until Nicholl and Austin.
Anyone getting ready to enter some contests this year? I'm counting down until Nicholl and Austin.
I'll do Nichol and Austin, this year I'm more prepared for both. Haven't decided on blue cat.... honestly don't know if it is even worth it.
I'm debating this too but I'm not sure. You heard anything good about it?
To be frank, I see it as a meme contest that I don't really think benefits people? Maybe I'm wrong? I just know its been around a long time. I guess if you have the funds and since the 80 gives you some notes, might be worth it. Have until next weekend to make final decision.
Thanks and you too. This is technically my 12th draft of the main 3 characters over a year span.... time to just relax for once. Complete change in the plot but the underlying characters are the same. Character who died on page 2 ended up staying around the whole time. In general it's the best copy of the happy ending since the change way back in august. Back in November I realized that I was trying to keep the same events while making slight changes to make it work different. Ended up basically doing the full rewrite, dropped all the horror elements, but it is still exactly what I wanted. 80s feeling teen adventure, coming of age. Only difference is, now it is more of a western vibe and not a Gothic horror. Exact same distant future world though.
Finally got back to my sci-fi project. Worked on ideas last year but was slacking on the actual machination of working on the screenplay. Changed that yesterday and worked a straight 7 hours. Really enjoyed it and it reminds me how much I love screenwriting. At my current speed the draft will be done in 2 weeks.
One cool thing I wanted to ask you guys is maybe we could work together in generating a list of submission platforms and the notable competitions? Basically a comprehensive list of where to submit our features once they're done?
Here's what I have so far:
And then in addition to this you have personal contacts such as screenwriter friends or agents you may know. There's always cold calling agents (as in blindly sending an email) kindly asking them to consider your work but I've had very limited success in this regard. I have maybe one agent who says he's willing to read my work but outside of that it has been a mass of rejections or "we don't accept unsolicited submissions" over the years.
So regarding the list above, anything I'm missing? Can anyone expand it or add to it? Could be super useful for all of us.
One cool thing I wanted to ask you guys is maybe we could work together in generating a list of submission platforms and the notable competitions? Basically a comprehensive list of where to submit our features once they're done?
Here's what I have so far:
And then in addition to this you have personal contacts such as screenwriter friends or agents you may know. There's always cold calling agents (as in blindly sending an email) kindly asking them to consider your work but I've had very limited success in this regard. I have maybe one agent who says he's willing to read my work but outside of that it has been a mass of rejections or "we don't accept unsolicited submissions" over the years.
So regarding the list above, anything I'm missing? Can anyone expand it or add to it? Could be super useful for all of us.
Last edited:
Any information on query letters/submission steps would also be appreciated. This type of info along with the above things would be good to have in OP.
Also, coverage services?
Ah yeah, just added the Screenplay Readers to my post, as it's the best coverage service I've ever used.
Have a bit of experience with query letters/submissions (to agents and so on) and basically you need to bypass the protocol of "we don't accept unsolicited submissions" that's true of most agents - and the only way I've ever found around it is to write a very kind, polite (and even flattering) email to a potential agent at the agency (just one, and their specific email address listed on the agency site) asking them whether they'd be happy to read your work and consider you for representation. Sometimes they say their list is full and thus are not on the look-out for new clients. But sometimes they reciprocate positively and agree. Definitely don't attach any work until you expressly have their permission to send work across. That moves your submission over to "solicited" because they've said yes.
Perhaps some of the more frequent members here might be a bit more versed than I in this regard. But I'd love for us to work together and expand my list.
Ah, thanks dude! Heard great things about that one. Adding it to my list (my offline Notepad file and my above post here).
I guess it would be helpful to have the full deadlines, so here there are for Austin:
Early: March 29, $45
Regular: April 19, $60
Late: May 15, $70
If money is tight I would enter Nicholl and this.
Early: March 29, $45
Regular: April 19, $60
Late: May 15, $70
If money is tight I would enter Nicholl and this.
I do plan on doing Austin, Final Draft, Nicholl. Having the early dates really helps.... also helps save money.
So I went through the process with https://screenplay.market/
It either wasn't on the page or I over looked it, but if you have coverage from ScreenplayReaders.com you can host it for free, their site says "[email protected] for your code for free access. "
As far as anything else about the site, I don't know yet.
It either wasn't on the page or I over looked it, but if you have coverage from ScreenplayReaders.com you can host it for free, their site says "[email protected] for your code for free access. "
As far as anything else about the site, I don't know yet.
Thanks so much for this dude. I do have coverage from the Screenplay Readers so guess I can host for free too. Awesome.
Nicholl Fellowship is now open.
https://nicholl.oscars.org/
Saw it posted on facebook. The website says it isn't open yet though, but it is.
https://nicholl.oscars.org/
Saw it posted on facebook. The website says it isn't open yet though, but it is.
Last edited:
Going to wait until closer to deadline, no reason to jump it. Got blue cat feedback along with a black list evaluation to see different perspectives. Only doing smaller changes from here out though. Mind is too tired and my anxiety issues can only keep me doing this so long. Certain point you just gotta give it up for your own sake.
Got very worried at my ever increasing page count as my project is turning in to a sci-fi epic - but checked and thank fuck The Blacklist's evaluation limit is 175 pages and I'm way under that so it's all good. Looks like their limit is just under 3 hours for a film which is perfectly reasonable. Was worried because scoping around certain services (mainly coverage and so on) are 120 so 175 is pretty generous - so looks like I'm good. Really proud of this new draft. Might just be the best thing I've ever written. I'm about a week out from completion. Very much looking forward to having that final PDF sitting in on my computer.
I always get weary if i even get close to 120, I try to target 100, plus or minus 10.
It's one of those situations that you have to do what makes it the best it can, though.
Hopefully you won't get marks off for the length.