1. VRaptorX

    VRaptorX New Member

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    Hello. I'm VRaptorX

    Discussion in 'New Member Introductions' started by VRaptorX, Sep 15, 2012.

    I'm a student, going for a degree in game design...though while taking an elective of screenwriting I found myself far more interested in that. I have already cranked out 13 drafts of a 120 page script over the process of almost 3 years. my website is www.davidmonticchio.com and that's about it.

    I just got sick and tired of the "advice" I got on GameFAQs creative writing board. Seriously, if I hear one more person suggest I just write "she limps" instead of "UMBRA (17), a ragged female, is amongst the rear pack. She drags her feet in the sand as she slants back and forth attempting to walk a straight line at a slumbering pace." I feel I would lose it. I needed to find some place with people capable of reading something beyond Garfield comics.

    So I googled writing forum and this was the first one I found. I signed up....and found I have to give feedback to two works before I can ask for any, and I need 20 posts/14 days. And here I am. That's really it.
     
  2. Banzai

    Banzai One-time Mod, but on the road to recovery Contributor

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    Welcome to Writing Forums, VRaptorX!

    I hope you find what you're looking for here, whatever your interests in writing.

    This forum aims to provide the best workshopping resources on the internet, and to that end we have a few rules which you should familiarise yourself with before you get stuck in. The main section of the site is the Writing Workshop, where members can post their writing in order to receive critique of their work.

    However, before we allow members to post their work, they must have met some basic requirments. Firstly, you must have been a member for fourteen days, and have made twenty posts on the forum overall (please note, posts in Word Games do not count towards this). This is so that members, when they post their work, have familiarised themselves with the forums and contributed to them (as well as hopefully learned something for themselves). Secondly, members must provide two constructive reviews of other people's work for each piece of their own that they wish to post. This is because we believe that the focus of workshopping should be equally upon giving reviews as receiving them, as they allow a writer to practice and improve their editing skills, which they can then apply to their own writing.

    Beyond the Writing Workshop, you will find that we have extensive forums for discussion of aspects of writing, as well as a community area for general discussion. We also run periodic short story and poetry contests, which are good for challenging yourself and expanding your skills.

    If you have any questions or problems, then the moderators (myself, Cogito, Lemex and Dante Dases) should be your first port of call. Any technical problems with the site itself should be directed to Daniel, the site administrator and owner. I would recommend you have a look over the rules so that you know what to expect, and what is expected. But aside from that, I hope you enjoy your time here.


    Banzai
     
  3. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    welcome, vrap!
    btw, 'she limps' is the way a pro would do it... all that other gluck would be a sure sign the writer is an amateur, so i don't know what you'd have against writing 'lean and clean' when that is how a spec script by a newbie must be written if it's to have any chance to be read past the first page... if that's how you're over-wording your action/direction element, it would help explain why it's 10 pages over the preferred length...

    i write/rewrite screenplays for clients and mentor aspiring screenwriters, so if you want any help 'getting it right' just drop me a line...

    welcome to the forums!

    love and hugs, maia
     
  4. VRaptorX

    VRaptorX New Member

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    I was taught 1 line = 1 second. If I have 3 seconds of an action, I must have 3 lines of text to describe the action. 40 scenes, exactly 3 minutes per scene. Total = 2 hours. Save the Cat.
     
  5. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    ...the industry standard is 1 page = 1 minute of running time... and that is not applied to each page, but to the total number of pages, since dialog and action will often take up varying amounts of screen time, as i explained in my reply to your thread on this subject...

    ...this makes no sense when you consider the many-minutes-long chase/fight scenes contained in most action films... in reality, those minutes are offset by the seconds it takes to speak a line of dialog...

    ...download and look at the script of any movie... how many words are contained in an average page-line of dialog?... rent the movie and time how many seconds it takes to speak a whole section of dialog vs how many lines it takes up on the page... then time how long a chase or fight or love scene takes on screen and count the lines in the action/direction element for that same scene...

    ...google for "screenwriting 1 line = 1 second" and you'll find only 5 results... and they're all relating to music, not a script... google for "1 page = 1 minute' and you get almost 3 million hits!

    ...snyder's only award was a 1992 'razzie' [given to the movie of the year] for 'stop, or my mom will shoot'... his only other screenwriting credit was for 1994's 'blank check' [a disney bomb]... apparently, none of his other eleven spec scripts were ever produced, or released... so to accept anything he says as gospel isn't a good idea... the acknowledged bests in how-tos for screenwriting are syd field and david trottier... here are the ones i recommend in my 'tools of the trade' list:

    --------------------

    hope this helps you and any who read your post, vrap...

    hugs, maia
     
  6. VRaptorX

    VRaptorX New Member

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    OK. I do have Trottier's book.

    As for the minute long fight scenes, I was told that you break it up. For example, walking to a door, unlocking the door, opening, walking through and closing are all different actions. So that's how you make a fight scene fit the minute, break it up.

    Would it just be better to make the spec script into a novel? It's already 30,000 words.
     
  7. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    if you wrote a screenplay that way, you'd have 500+ pages for a 120 minute movie!... whoever told you that doesn't know beans about writing scripts... writing that much detail in re physical movement is doing the director's job, which is not a wise thing to do... it's generally called 'micromanaging' and i call it 'bi/bo' writing [for 'breathe-in/breathe-out']...

    have you downloaded and studied any movie scripts?... taken a good look at how fight scenes, action/chase scenes, and sex scenes are written?... if they're early drafts and not director's or shooting scripts, you'll find they don't go into the kind of detail you refer to above...

    then, you also have to factor in that you're an unknown newbie writing a spec script, not a pro... which means you dare not step on the director's toes by doing what s/he's paid the big bucks for... and specs must be written 'lean and clean'... leaving the directing to the director... after you have a golden guy or two on your shelf is when you can indulge in your own idiosyncratic style, if you have one...

    here's what i said in my reply to your pm [repeated here, so others can benefit from it]:

    word count doesn't count, if you have it in proper script format... plus, the style, format and content are so completely different there's no way to 'convert' a script into a novel using what you have... a novel version has to be started from scratch, written in a totally different way... all your script would be is a sort of expanded outline to follow as you do that...

    whether it would be 'better' depends on how well you can write screenplays and whether the story will work better as a novel...
     
  8. VRaptorX

    VRaptorX New Member

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    OK, but then how the heck do they determine timing on those grading charts for writers? You know, emerald, sapphire, ruby, diamond and pearl levels? How does one write in time without being on the clock?
     

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