LOL! @ edit!
Will these be assigned a new adjective for each month?  ;D

November was educational. Time for December!

DECEMBER FORMAT EXERCISE
December => Christmas => Beginnings
Theme: Write a short about anything to do with beginnings.
Lives, relationships, realizations, companies, political parties, GMO organisms, careers, whatever.
Elements: December 1, 2010 New York Times Headlines.


Food Safety Overhaul Approved by Senate
The bill would give the Food and Drug Administration new powers to order recalls , increase inspections, oversee farming and hold companies ...

Colombia's Beauty Pageants Put Income Gap on View
Each November, the port city of Cartagena puts Colombia's social inequalities on open display when it hosts the Independence Queen Contest ...

F.C.C. Chairman Has Plan to Regulate Internet Broadband Providers ...
A speech by Julius Genachowski will outline a proposal that forbids both wired and wireless Internet service providers from blocking lawful ...

Google Faces Antitrust Inquiry in Europe
The European regulator said it would examine claims the Internet giant has abused its dominance in online search.

AIDS Activism Growing on Campuses
Unlike the first generation of patient-activists, this crop is composed of public health scholars, mostly heterosexual.

Keeping Romance Alive in the Age of Female Empowerment
As more women match or overtake men in education and the labor market, they are also turning traditional gender roles on their head, ...

Nazis' 'Degenerate Art' Resurfaces in Berlin
Sculptures once reviled by the Nazis as 'degenerate' art that surfaced at a site in Berlin are on view at a museum.

Terror Stings May Strain Relationship Between F.B.I. and Muslim ...
Many Muslim leaders applauded the FBI's efforts in the failed bombing plot in Portland, Ore., but some said that cases like that one risk ...

Terrence Williams Leaves Nets as Landry Fields Lifts Knicks ...
Based on draft position, one might expect the Nets' Terrence Williams to be an NBA starter and the Knicks' Landry Fields to be in the ...

Hanukkah, Rekindled
Why it's so hard to get excited about a holiday with the Hasmoneans.


Think about it for a few days.

Write a short for a few days.

- Make the title match the story.
- Make the logline match the story and be enticing.
- Watch your slugs.
- Watch your action lines and dialog.
- Watch your typos, spelling and grammar! LOL!
- Try new "special things", like MONTAGEs, SERIES OF SHOTS and FLASHBACKs.
      Try something new, take your lumps or your positive reinforcement.

Look over your OCT OWC.
Whatever it was you got hit on your OWC or saw someone else get hit on - fix it.

GL.
See you in a week or so.


Just... stuff.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/12721428/Professional-Screenplay-Formatting-Guide
http://www.screenwriting.info/
http://www.storysense.com/docs/SPFormat.pdf
http://www.archetypewriting.com/articles/QTers/logline_MM.htm
http://www.writersstore.com/writing-loglines-that-sell
http://twoadverbs.site.aplus.net/loglinearticle.htm

My apollogies for just now getting around associating ON THE OTHER HOOF with this exercise.

OTH was the result of researching into the first headline.
Food Safety Overhaul Approved by Senate
The bill would give the Food and Drug Administration new powers to order recalls , increase inspections, oversee farming and hold companies ...
Once you start poking into the greatest food born killers, E. coli O157, you find out it's some pretty nasty stuff.
Bad way to die.


My bad.
(Dumb Dora!)


Perhaps it'll mitigate the annoyance if I just go ahead and link AUTOMATED here, now, as well, sparing a second reply!

Ray, I have to be honest. Sometimes you put so much information in one post, it is not clear IMO what it is you are trying to get across.

I am by no means a very smart man, so please, dumb down what it is you are wanting for this exercise.

I wont be doing the other one that deals with Star Treck only because I have never watched an episode and am not interested.

Now...for me...in simple terms...what is your exercise?

What is the time frame?

Thanks from a simpleton...

Shawn.....><

First, it's compulsory.
Second, in your past shorts and feature screenplays have you been getting beaned on format or story/charcter development?

Often I/we see nubes (I might be considered a day past nube) get beaned on format so hard that readers can't even read the actual story itself.
Two different things.

Slug lines ain't right.
FADE IN: is non-existant or justified right.
Too many lines of action.
Too much "novelistic" description.
Blah blah blah, the list of legit grievances goes on.

If we can help nubes to pound-out their format problems then readers can provide useful and actionable opinions on problems with story structure and character development.

This monthly exercise is a easy way for those getting hit on format to just pound out a few pages based on "irrelevant" news stuff/fluff/whatever.


When people read YOUR work do they nail you for story or nail you for format?
If story - then your format is fine.
If format - then this exercise is for you.

Also, if your happy with SLUG/ACTION/CHARCTER/DIALOG meatNtaters writing then cool.
If you wanna try your hand at some of the secondary screenwriting skills then here's the place to see if you are doing it right.


And there's no time frame.
Just whenver you're ready or done.

Clear as mother's milk?  :)


EDIT: It breaks my heart to see someone's 135 page spec script, knowing how many hours goes into such, and then reading comment after comment about how all 135 pages need to be reformated by removing CUT TOs, scene numbers, camera angles, action blocks needing to be cut up, too d@mn many adjectives need to be removed, unfilmables made filmable, and WTH is going on with that logline?!
And almost no mention of the finer points of character personality nuance and arc change, if any.

Lose little.
Don't lose big.

Shawn,

Write a short in a few days.

- Choose one these stories to write about.  Give your script the same title as the headline and write a logline that is close to the synopsis below it.

Food Safety Overhaul Approved by Senate
The bill would give the Food and Drug Administration new powers to order recalls , increase inspections, oversee farming and hold companies ...

Colombia's Beauty Pageants Put Income Gap on View
Each November, the port city of Cartagena puts Colombia's social inequalities on open display when it hosts the Independence Queen Contest ...

F.C.C. Chairman Has Plan to Regulate Internet Broadband Providers ...
A speech by Julius Genachowski will outline a proposal that forbids both wired and wireless Internet service providers from blocking lawful ...

Google Faces Antitrust Inquiry in Europe
The European regulator said it would examine claims the Internet giant has abused its dominance in online search.

AIDS Activism Growing on Campuses
Unlike the first generation of patient-activists, this crop is composed of public health scholars, mostly heterosexual.

Keeping Romance Alive in the Age of Female Empowerment
As more women match or overtake men in education and the labor market, they are also turning traditional gender roles on their head, ...

Nazis' 'Degenerate Art' Resurfaces in Berlin
Sculptures once reviled by the Nazis as 'degenerate' art that surfaced at a site in Berlin are on view at a museum.

Terror Stings May Strain Relationship Between F.B.I. and Muslim ...
Many Muslim leaders applauded the FBI's efforts in the failed bombing plot in Portland, Ore., but some said that cases like that one risk ...

Terrence Williams Leaves Nets as Landry Fields Lifts Knicks ...
Based on draft position, one might expect the Nets' Terrence Williams to be an NBA starter and the Knicks' Landry Fields to be in the ...

Hanukkah, Rekindled
Why it's so hard to get excited about a holiday with the Hasmoneans.

- Be especially careful about your formatting and try formatting something you haven't tried before, like a series of shots.

Hope that helps,

Michael

Thanks Michael.

That makes sense to me.

Shawn.....><