Hello everyone,

As most of you might know, I am writting screenplays in some spare time. I do not attend a film school, though I would like to end up in the buisness. Now, I've been trying to get a crew for making a short film for quite some time, but that didn't work out too good. So bassically, I will not be making any movies.
Yet, still I love to write and people often tell me I write good stuff. So my idea right now is to offer screenplays to people who need them. No offence to anyone, but I've seen a few short movies on this board and often I think I could do better.

Is there anyone who wants to make a short movie and still needs a screenplay? I offer both my stories as my services to adapt a screenplay from a story that someone else wrote.

Anyone interested?

What kind of screenplays do you typically write best?

Erik wrote:Hello everyone,

No offence to anyone, but I've seen a few short movies on this board and often I think I could do better.

But not better than mine.

Brendan M. wrote:

Erik wrote:Hello everyone,

No offence to anyone, but I've seen a few short movies on this board and often I think I could do better.

But not better than mine.

As a young film maker (15) I often have some very good screen plays, but sitting at your computer and writing something good is completly different then actually going out and making a movie out of it. Because I'm not working with pro actors, I can't ask then to memorize paragraphs of dialogue, even though sometime I write them. You have to have actually made a movie with amatuer actors who are just doing it as a favor to you before you can write a real script.

CrazyEight wrote:

Brendan M. wrote:

Erik wrote:Hello everyone,

No offence to anyone, but I've seen a few short movies on this board and often I think I could do better.

But not better than mine.

As a young film maker (15) I often have some very good screen plays, but sitting at your computer and writing something good is completly different then actually going out and making a movie out of it. Because I'm not working with pro actors, I can't ask then to memorize paragraphs of dialogue, even though sometime I write them. You have to have actually made a movie with amatuer actors who are just doing it as a favor to you before you can write a real script.

Use as little dialogue as humanly possible when working with actors or non-actors like that. After all, film is a visual form and the 101 rule is "show, don't tell." Watch Bicycle Thieves and pay attention to the ending for a good example of that.

I know what you mean though. I hate writing dialogue and thinking its great, and then when I actually shoot it, it comes out as shit.

Eternalist wrote:What kind of screenplays do you typically write best?

I wrote a few screenplays in various genres. Some people who have read them, marked a short horror and a feature length Sci-Fi/Thriller as the best of them. The short horror is one of the two that already is in production, and the feature length screenplay, well...you can't make that one. It contains buildings collapsing, allien spacecrafts and tons of FX-stuff. It is best to be discribed as a mixure of War Of The Worlds and Signs, but also completely different then that.

Brendan M. wrote:But not better than mine.

I liked yours

CrazyEight wrote: As a young film maker (15) I often have some very good screen plays, but sitting at your computer and writing something good is completly different then actually going out and making a movie out of it. Because I'm not working with pro actors, I can't ask then to memorize paragraphs of dialogue, even though sometime I write them. You have to have actually made a movie with amatuer actors who are just doing it as a favor to you before you can write a real script.

Point noticed, but you have to understand that I do not only give you a screenplay, I will help fixing problems. Now, I can't come to the set, but there will occure some problems that you already see while reading the script for the first time. Just tell me what has to be changed, and I'll change it into something that you can make.
It's not just that I want my stories to be filmed, I also want to be doing something with it. I think I would like it more to change some of the screenplays to make them fit, then handing over a screenplay that already fits and does not need any changes anymore.

Brendan M. wrote:Use as little dialogue as humanly possible when working with actors or non-actors like that. After all, film is a visual form and the 101 rule is "show, don't tell." Watch Bicycle Thieves and pay attention to the ending for a good example of that.

I know what you mean though. I hate writing dialogue and thinking its great, and then when I actually shoot it, it comes out as crap.

Well actually, I'm not the master of dialogue. I'd say my dialogues are ok, but not outstanding. This will actually be something I just mentioned. I think that most of my screenplays need a little work to fit. Just read my version, tell me what needs to be fixed and I'll fix it.

Hey Erik, my Christmas break is starting as of Friday and I got a long one way flight back home to the eastcoast. That means I finally have the free-time to do stuff other than school work. Send me your PM and I'll reply with my e-mail and send me some of your work. I'd like to read it.

Well, if you want to have a proper future in screenwriting, there's no stopping you from starting now. But I've found over the years that you shouldn't over-prepare for films. You just have to know what you'll do on the day of shooting.

Screenwriting is still a good hobby. It's something that I quite enjoy doing myself.

christophmac wrote: But I've found over the years that you shouldn't over-prepare for films. You just have to know what you'll do on the day of shooting.

I disagree. I would much rather be over prepared for a day of shooting then under prepared. When your going to shoot you want to be confident and have a game plan. You want to have already visited were you are shooting and made mental notes of the environment and then walk yourself through each shot. You also want to be as organized as possible, which is a part of preparation. You don't want to just show up to filming an pick your shots as you go along. It takes more time and it make everyone on set feel like your not prepared. Sometimes things change and you find a better shot, that happens and is fine. But most things should be planned out.

Alright, it's been a month since the last post in here, a little update;

One of my short movies I wrote and was going to be produced is cancelled (it was going to be produced by Daniëlle, aka 'chee', but she dropped out). The movie she was going to produce is very short (would be about 2 minutes of film) but quite good. It's a parody of almost every horror film/story you can think of. Production is quite easy, all you need is four teenagers, a car and an abandoned road by night with a building that could be a freaky motel or something. If anyone is interested in this, let me know!

Meanwhile I did some writing work for Brendan M. He read some of my work and decided that I could adapt a screenplay out of a treatment he wrote. He has not had the chance to reply to me yet with his opinion about my work, but I was quite satisfied with it. I wrote a script of 24 pages out of a 1 page treatment, wich is probably a little too much, but now he can choose between scenes he likes and dislikes for the actual short movie. I really enjoyed this and I hope Brendan likes my work.

Is there anyone else who got interested in my offer to write for you?