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Colored Skulls by Nemo The Sixth - Short, RomCom - When Bob finds himself about to be burnt alive as a part of a ritual, he gets a chance to go home free if he can only prove that he's loved. - pdf format
NOTE: This is longer than 10 pages but the script is mostly dialogue so it would be a 10 minutes or less short on screen. Aaron Sorkin would have approved. Please consider it.
I don't know if Aaron Sorkin is reviewing the OWC but run of thumb is 1 page is 1 minute and you're at 12 pages. parameter 5-10 pages
Ok usually I'm the last guy to call out pissers but...
I don't want to be that guy, but the note on the title page didn't put me off. I'm not usually a big stickler for rules. What did bother me on the title page, though, is that everything is off-center. Did that happen automatically? Anyway, onto the review:
Unfortunately, this one won't be getting a good review from me. There are a large number of typos and grammatical errors in here (I know they're easily cleaned up and it was only a week, but I'm at 19 of them on page 5 thus far). In addition, the dialogue is nothing but pure exposition. The only thing that wasn't so far was the side bet that was placed (in all fairness, it looked cooler in "Die Hard"). You said Aaron Sorkin would approve, but I don't agree. He wouldn't a static room with people lobbing generic exposition at each other. But, there's still another half to go and I'm hoping it finishes off strong.
In truth, it didn't get any better. The same problems kept showing up. The use of the chocolates and flowers were a nice touch, but the dialogue had too much talking without enough being said. You hardly knew anything about anybody. It could be made better, but if I were you, I'd tear this down and start with a page 1 rewrite and attempt to do it with 20% of the dialogue you used the first time around. Might do better.
Sorry but this is out by a page and a half so it's definitely a DQ from me. Also not going to read it at this point with 40 scripts that have potentially met the parameters.
I might come back when I'm finished the rest, or after the OWC.
I'm sure you had a lot of fun writing this, but I'm not buying a ticket to this rom-com.
The parameter called for 5-10 pages. Here, you have to play by the same rules.
There's good exposition... and there's bad. All I can do is give you a few suggestions, do a bit more showing, then telling, and second, I would have been more forgiving if you had found a better way to make the “info dump” entertaining.
Methinks whether it's for comedic or dramatic situations - the audience will accept it. But this is JMHO, I have no dog in this fight. Kudos for finishing.
Enjoyable concept, but definitely needs some polishing. It’s hard to put my finger on it, but I enjoy the more casual descriptions, so that wasn’t my problem.
The dialogue just wasn’t on point. I’d probably watch this, and enjoy it, but I’m not in love with it. Good work with the script!
NOTE: This is longer than 10 pages but the script is mostly dialogue so it would be a 10 minutes or less short on screen. Aaron Sorkin would have approved. Please consider it
You could easily find a page and a half to cut. The fact that you didn't is a DQ.
If it was tight as hell and still over 10... then, maybe, just maybe I'd let you slide. Probably would have only docked a point... but, it wasn't.
I thought the idea was clever. Probably not a romcom, but I can see your argument that it was.
Tighten, tighten, tighten and you might see your story jump to life.
PaulKWrites.com
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I don't care about the note on the title page, but usually you'd reserve that for the first page of the script. The formatting of the title page really put me off.
More than 10 pages? If you go 10 and a half, fine. This is way over. You failed to meet the restrictions of the challenge. And Aaron Sorkin, you ain't.
I was going to give it more of a chance, but when you go meta and actually call out your own terrible script, that's the last excuse I need. Hope it was fun, good on you for at least entering.