Not sure what to do.

I have my beginning, middle, and ending (about a handful of pages to go). But I'm having a problem hitting the 100 page mark. I'm currently at 65, but will be at 70 by the time I'm done with the ending.

I don't like screenplays that have 2 pages of slug lines with only maybe 3 single lines of dialogue, so I avoided doing that. I mean, I can easily fill multiple pages with grandiose, meaningless slug lines, but I simply won't.

For those who haven't seen my thread in "Work in Progress", my story is post apocalyptic and takes place 6 or 7 months after the events of a huge blackout. The city never recovered, general pandemonium ensued and a handful or people are left. It's essentially where The Walking Dead picked up but minus the zombies, similar to 28 Days Later.

I was conflicted when deciding where to start, so I included a flashback from the protagonist's POV, which will include a glimpse of the antagonist, and will show the start of the chaos, but I don't know if I want to show more than that.

So, I'm stuck. I have everything laid out and the characters are detailed enough to satisfy the story. I did write this with a sequel in mind, but it could also be a stand alone.

I too frequently get stuck at this point as well.

The last 30 pages and the beginning 30 are the easiest to write to me. I hit somewhat of a road block at page 70-80. I know how the script is gonna end, but I always seem to slow down here, because I don't like what I have in my head.

I don't have any quality advice to share. I try and power through. Write down what comes to me, then refine it later. It's important to me to have the whole script done from start to finish in any form. It will be horrible at first and look like garbage. I leave out action lines, write placeholder dialogue etc. It's just important for me to see the whole story on the page. The movie is already in my head, I'll refine it on the page later because it become much easier for me to visualize things once I know the whole plot scene by scene. It makes an edit much easier, because I see what's lacking where.

Thanks.

I'm trying to avoid using flashbacks as a crutch to fill pages, instead I'll just add some more scenes and see what happens.

You don't add more scenes... you add more story. 70 pages can be enough for a script, so long as it is filled with action. 70 pages doesn't necessarily mean 70 minutes, indeed, it rarely does. Those numbers are just a guideline.

If I was shooting this myself, I wouldn't give a damn how many pages, you know? But when submitting somewhere, I know the page count is looked at and depending on the festival, the script could be dismissed when just looking at it's basic info.

There have been scripts that've sold and they were like 60 something pages long. I get your concern, but like Dustin said, it depends on your story. If it doesn't have much dialogue, the page count will go down.

But, yeah, people will judge you if it's too high or too low.

Looks like I'm going to be at the 75 page mark, possibly a couple of more.

I'm debating on whether or not I should end this with an "open" ending.

Like I said before, the catastrophe was a massive blackout, with the scope being unknown but presumed nationwide. The group of characters makes their way to the peak of the mountain and see lights in the distance.

Do I take them to the lights, or do I end it here?

Quoted from Steven Like I said before, the catastrophe was a massive blackout, with the scope being unknown but presumed nationwide. The group of characters makes their way to the peak of the mountain and see lights in the distance. Do I take them to the lights, or do I end it here?

Only you know the answer to this question.

I WANT to end it at this point, but when it comes down to a table read when submitted to a festival, assuming it gets that far, it could be the determining factor for someone.

I have to take a long, hard look at this thing once more.

Quoted from Steven I have to take a long, hard look at this thing once more.

Leave it alone for 2-3 weeks. Start something else. Then, come back to it.

Maybe it's the mid-point reversal. Whatever the goal is initially should be reached in part by, in this case, page 45ish. Then it becomes a slightly different movie with a new refined goal. (i.e. Titanic is a love story that becomes a survival story. Collateral is Max doing nothing to Max taking action. Jurassic Park is a research trip then becomes a survival movie. Monster House is about staying away, then it's about going in. Sixth Sense is about therapy then it's about ghosts.) So my guess is that the blackout is figured out in-part by the mid-point. The twist happens and you then get about 45 pages to reach the new goal/movie.

Quoted from Demento Leave it alone for 2-3 weeks. Start something else. Then, come back to it.

That's what I'll do. I have one short that is about to be filmed next month and another that I've been working on for a while now. I'll polish that one off and take a little bit of a break.

Quoted from Steven That's what I'll do. I have one short that is about to be filmed next month and another that I've been working on for a while now. I'll polish that one off and take a little bit of a break.

I get what you're saying. The main plot was for the group to get to the peak of the mountain to see what's out there (there is a vast desert on the other side of the mountain). But now that they see lights off into the distance, the plot changes to them getting to that point

OR

I end it here.

Quoted from Steven Looks like I'm going to be at the 75 page mark, possibly a couple of more. I'm debating on whether or not I should end this with an "open" ending. Like I said before, the catastrophe was a massive blackout, with the scope being unknown but presumed nationwide. The group of characters makes their way to the peak of the mountain and see lights in the distance. Do I take them to the lights, or do I end it here?

I don't think anyone can give you a specific answer there. But you could ask yourself this question in search of what's right for your story:

- Does the search and finding of light end the challenge? i.e., are all major obstacles or challenges to your characters resolved - or at least promise to be resolved - by the discovery of the light. I don't know the story - but let's say a character (MOTHER) is trying to find her daughter lost when the blackout occurred. Does seeing the light resolve that for MOTHER? I would say no - I would want to see the reunification of MOTHER and her child.  Again - just make stuff up to illustrate the point.


-

I know it's hard for anyone to really give an "answer", and I don't think that's what I'm looking for.

But to answer your question, no, the source of the light isn't the answer to anything, but more of a question - what's out there? Since the blackout is so massive and the time frame is about 6 months, there should be no area with power. Even if gas powered generators are still working, gas should be depleted or at least just about gone.

I'm writing this with the plan on something bigger happening. You never see a post apocalyptic story (that isn't zombies), that goes on for multiple movies/episodes. Mad Max could be an exception, I guess.

This was meant as a tight, small story where only a handful of characters existed. I built the city so that the ocean is to the west, and a mountain range surrounds the remaining perimeter. Yea, it's fictionalized, but who cares. The only immediate exit for these people that was in close proximity was a long road up the mountain. They walk up it initially, then drive up toward the end.

The two groups of characters meet up about 1/4 of the way through the story, after both dealing with one of the antagonists - an ex Vietnam vet and his crew looking to stir things up and re-live the days out in "the shit".

Once the groups converge, not all of them survive, but then they're faced with the other threat - a blockade in the middle of the mountain road. There is a mobile home park up there where the residents decided to take a "toll" or "donation" from anyone wanting to pass. Safe to say they're violent in the way they do business, as evident by the MC's wife being shot and held hostage.

I'm taking some influence from Robert Kirkman in that he describes The Walking Dead as "a human drama taking place during a zombie outbreak". So, for my purposes, the blackout is a backdrop, and the real threat is people, and how they "change" when there is something to be taken advantage of.

All I can really ask is for you guys to read it. There will be some grammatical errors but my action lines are short and non-literary.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_vHHlz3zmHYazJDdHgwMlFES1U

Steven, I've read it. My thoughts:

Very much like the overall premise. i.e., a journey that people take in a world without electricity. IMO, that is a solid start. It is well written for the most part.

For me, there were some big logic issues that I could not get over.

SPOILERS

1. Where are the women and in particular -  the children? You have one major female character (Sherrie) and zero children. In my view, that is incomplete to the point where at least it would have to be explained and their absence is a missed opportunity for drama. Think of the added drama if Frank and Sherri were accompanied by their ten-year-old son - or if they had to shepherd the neighbors orphaned kids through that pass at the Rim of the World.  Anyway - their absence from the story was noticeable.

2. Frank has a working vehicle (the patrol car on page 13 that he decides not to drive). Despite that - he does not use it to get to the Rim of the World???

3. I thought that the hike up was done to quickly - I wanted to see more of the challenge/struggle associated with climbing a mountain.

4. I think you need to have some more detail or explanation on how is it that all of the batteries are gone - all of the food - most of the fuel. Ed has gas for his truck - why doesn't anyone else?

5. I didn't get a real sense of what happened to all of the people in the town - it seemed abandoned but why? The outage was wide spread - where did they go? What happened to the infrastructure - no government, no military? no church? etc. ?  I mean there I know that there is no electricity - but there is 12 hours of day light every day. It was just hard for me to connect the lack of power to the apocalyptic landscape portrayed in the story. Part of that iis that electricity was invented just 150 years ago and not in widespread use to much after that and we all survived quite nicely. Many places on the planet without electricity today that thrive. So what is it about this outage that creates this much chaos and anarchy?  

In terms of your original question: IMO the story is not over when they see the light. The film may be if you plan on sequels or a series. But is single contained feature I thought the ending was premature.

Hope this helps - all the best.

Let me explain my original concept of the story, which I abandoned, but now considering a rewrite because honestly, I don't have rational answers to those questions. I wanted to get to the finish and fix things along the way when I was done.

But here it goes, the story completely changes at this point and turns into some serious sci-fi.

The cause of the blackout is an EMP which was intentionally emitted by the US Air Force.

Here is where things get a bit weird.

The Black Knight Satellite is a strange object that has been hovering just outside of the Earth's atmosphere since as early as 1960, I believe. No one knows what it is or how it got there - that's a true story.

The original title was to be Orbiting Darkness, by the way. So, in that story (which I have written in long form, about 20,000 words so far), The March Air Reserve Base that Harry is to be stationed was recently turned active, and the people there are monitoring the Black Knight - because it is a secret satellite that can cause devastation via EMP's. So, a decision was made to  test out the satellite for the first time, and what better area than a local city?

The cast of characters are still the same, but there is a longer introduction to Harry, who actually has a satellite phone on him the entire time. He gets a phone call just after the EMP and obviously people are suspicious, and eventually he comes clean and explains what he knows. He didn't know of the EMP attack, but he knew what the Air Force was doing at the recently converted base.

Then there is Ed, who is actually a plant with the Air Force. He still has the VFW, but in a back room, there is a "safe room" for lack of a better term, that is shielded by EMP blasts. He has direct contact with the Air Force base as his mission is to monitor and report what is going on with the general population. So Ed doesn't kill anyone directly in this story, but he is leading these few men and they're the ones breaking into houses and doing what they do.

James, Marcus and Sherrie are still part of the story in the same capacity as they are in the screenplay I posted.

So the first half of the story was going to take place 6 months after the EMP, then during the flashback showing the EMP happen, we learn what is really doing on.

I'm just struggling on how much I show. I know I have to have a scene with some high up military officers discussing the plan to use the EMP, and I have to show Ed in his safe room talking to these same people.

Well, that indeed is a different story. But I am not sure it solves the logic problems.

Forgot to mention these things:

-Frank uses Sherrie's car to drive through a reinforced gate at the police station to get to the armory, basically totaling it in the process.

-Frank's cruiser is attacked by looters and they're forced to abandon.

-There are more people in the original story, most of them do leave through the highway over the mountain.

-I need to come up with a clever way to explain how Ed has gas without the other people in his crew being suspicious. He doesn't let anyone else into his safe room, by the way.

That probably works - but I still think your biggest hurdle is explaining/describing why a town losing it's electricity results in armageddon for that town. It's this - yeah, I get the dire landscape - I don't get how the loss of electricity causes that landscape. We lived without it for most of civilization.

Well, to be fair, people lived without electricity because it was never invented. But with today's population, cutting electricity will cause a huge problem. There will be no more utilities, so that means no more hot water, no way of making phone calls because cell towers will be useless.

I think it's safe to say that after 6 months of that, a large percentage of the population will go ape shit in one way or another. There will be a gradual breakdown of society especially considering emergency services won't be available with the dialing of 3 numbers. Not to mention the people providing emergency assistance will be taking care of themselves and wouldn't even be aware of emergencies in the first place.

I believe 70-100 is perfect for spec (you want an economic read that will actually get the pages completely turned.) We are in the social networking age of wanting things immediately and then moving on to the next. Don't feel the need to write subpar filler just to have enough to satisfy. Satisfy through quality, page turning flow, and a kick-ass story that creates buzz.

As pointed out previously, if you're stuck - open another project...  then the other. Read more scripts, come back with fresh ideas and solutions.

Get as much feedback as possible.

Gl

Tony