SimplyScripts Discussion Board
Blog Home - Produced Movie Script Library - TV Scripts - Unproduced Scripts - Contact - Site Map
ScriptSearch
Welcome, Guest.
It is March 29th, 2024, 12:38am
Please login or register.
Was Portal Recent Posts Home Help Calendar Search Register Login
Please do read the guidelines that govern behavior on the discussion board. It will make for a much more pleasant experience for everyone. A word about SimplyScripts and Censorship


Produced Script Database (Updated!)
One Week Challenge - Who Wrote What and Writers' Choice.


Scripts studios are posting for award consideration

Short Script of the Day | Featured Script of the Month | Featured Short Scripts Available for Production
Submit Your Script

How do I get my film's link and banner here?
All screenplays on the simplyscripts.com and simplyscripts.net domain are copyrighted to their respective authors. All rights reserved. This screenplaymay not be used or reproduced for any purpose including educational purposes without the expressed written permission of the author.
Forum Login
Username: Create a new Account
Password:     Forgot Password

SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board    One Week Challenge    October, 2011 One Week Challange  ›  Preparation for the October, 2011 OWC
Users Browsing Forum
No Members and 2 Guests

 Pages: « 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 » : All
Recommend Print
  Author    Preparation for the October, 2011 OWC  (currently 5375 views)
RayW
Posted: September 27th, 2011, 11:05am Report to Moderator
Old Timer


Freedom

Location
About a thousand years from now.
Posts
1821
Posts Per Day
0.36
Hi, guys

Looks like there was a pretty good turn out for the SEP OWC.
32 accepted entries.
Nice!
Eventually I'll get around to applying my typical excruciating dissection to them, spreadsheet and everything.

Regarding the 2011 OCT OWC I'll commit to this and suggest some reference back to last year's entries for some direction.
http://www.simplyscripts.net/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b-10OWC/m-1287202296/s-90/

First, I'd like for it to be horror. It'll be October, folks. Channel the (negative) energy of the  season. Use the power, rather than fight it.

Second, last year there were
- 20 "Ghosts, Haunted Houses, Possessions & Spirits" stories submitted,
- 7 "Monsters and Physical Non-Human Things",
- 8 "Madmen and Psychotics", and
- 10 "Upset People" stories.

A - Do we want to go with the gut instinct majority?
B - Exploit less traveled avenues?

The conundrum is is that the ridiculous audience wants something familiar - and - unique at the same [expletive] time.
Goooooooood.
Lorrrrrrrrd.
So, what do you wanna do?
How do you wanna crack that nut?

Tried and true cliché?
Blow their minds with freaky new sh!t?

Third, in last October's "SimplyScripts Radio - The Pagan Edition" Ed Pagan had discussed his views on the future trend in the development of horror, primarily from "Madman-with-an-Axe to Monster Movies".
http://www.simplyscripts.net/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b-RadioSimply/m-1286499940/s-new/

With that in mind plus in consideration of the second point above, I'd suggest proposing a monster/creature feature (which I believe Babz has clients looking for, anyway [think of a short that could become a feature, in other words]).

Who saw the indie debacle of "Creature"?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/11/idUS372254666720110911

Yeah.
Let's try not to do that, though.
Please.



Quoted from Don
Thoughts?  Hopes?  Dreams?

Thought I had a clue
Hope I get one.
Dream of whirled peas.



Logged
Private Message Reply: 15 - 66
SLM
Posted: September 27th, 2011, 11:26am Report to Moderator
Guest User



I quite like the idea of a script with non-human characters.

But can I ask - would Tories count?

(A joke there for the Brits)

Seriously though, what about taking the Sept OWC one step further and limiting the script further - say to just one speaking character. A monologue.

Just a thought, for what it's worth...
Logged
e-mail Reply: 16 - 66
SLM
Posted: September 27th, 2011, 11:30am Report to Moderator
Guest User



One other thought...

I know it's Halloween, but what about NOT having a horror theme?

Bit radical there!
Logged
e-mail Reply: 17 - 66
bert
Posted: September 27th, 2011, 11:35am Report to Moderator
Administrator


Buy the ticket, take the ride

Location
That's me in the corner
Posts
4232
Posts Per Day
0.61

Quoted from SLM
I know it's Halloween, but what about NOT having a horror theme?


It's been done.

But it's never popular.

But it's never stopped them.

It's like anything-can-happen week.


Hey, it's my tiny, little IMDb!
Logged
Private Message Reply: 18 - 66
SLM
Posted: September 27th, 2011, 11:43am Report to Moderator
Guest User



Some people will write horror whatever the theme, I suppose.

Monologue - the last man on a zombie infected world as they batter at his door.

Rom Com - Man falls for zombie girl

Shakespearean - Hamlet comes back as a zombie
Logged
e-mail Reply: 19 - 66
Dreamscale
Posted: September 27th, 2011, 11:48am Report to Moderator
Guest User



A 1 person monologue script would be a complete nightmare to slog through.  No one would want to do it and hopefully, only few would even write.  I know I sure wouldn't (hey, there's an idea, if you want me not to participate in this coming Halloween OWC, go for the 1 person monologue idea!   ).

Limiting it to non human characters is also very lame...and far from cheap to produce.

Ray, are you aware that Creature now holds the record for lowest ever Box Office on a feature film that opened wide, at a minimum of 1,500 locations?  Yes, it was, and yes, it looks horrendous.  I couldn't even get myself to go see it.
Logged
e-mail Reply: 20 - 66
RayW
Posted: September 27th, 2011, 12:03pm Report to Moderator
Old Timer


Freedom

Location
About a thousand years from now.
Posts
1821
Posts Per Day
0.36

Quoted from Dreamscale
Ray, are you aware that Creature now holds the record for lowest ever Box Office on a feature film that opened wide, at a minimum of 1,500 locations?  Yes, it was, and yes, it looks horrendous.  I couldn't even get myself to go see it.

Yessir.
Painfully aware.

It was such a high profile disaster I think it has managed to do a great deal of damage to the entire "independent film' industry.


Finishing a feature screenplay is great and all.
Getting someone to produce and direct it is delightful.
However, no can start popping the champagne just yet.

Unless you want it to go direct to video or video on demand (and you'll be lucky even to get that), the producer/studio needs a distributor.
And as you can see from my indie films distribution spreadsheet even having B or C stars + festival acclaim + distributor doesn't guarantee the producer/studio jack sh!t nothing.
https://docs.google.com/spread.....E&hl=en_US#gid=0

Theater owners & purchasers can be every bit as much of a cock-blocker as distributors can be to filmmakers as director/producer/studios can be to screenwriters banging out (un)holy writ on their drives.

170 theater's & 15 weeks on average.
$7.7m expense
$7.9m gross

To say this sh!t is hard to do in this industry is kind of a disservice platitude.


BTW, how you coming along with that spreadsheet you're working on?
I'm (perversely) very interested.



Logged
Private Message Reply: 21 - 66
Hugh Hoyland
Posted: September 27th, 2011, 12:05pm Report to Moderator
New



Location
Florida
Posts
328
Posts Per Day
0.07
This will be my first October OWC.

Now if I can only come up with a good idea and make a good screenplay out of it I'll have it made! Thats a tough task for me, but I'll give it my best lol.

I do think I'm learning a lot here, but of course I have a lot more to learn. Im not kissing up but I honestly think this is the ULTIMATE site for beginner and pro writers. I'm glad its here.

Now for October I'm thinking sidequel to my September entry! ;]



Logged Offline
Private Message Reply: 22 - 66
Dreamscale
Posted: September 27th, 2011, 12:30pm Report to Moderator
Guest User



Ray, I decided against pursuing my spreadsheet, as I've lost faith, so to speak and decided that I was tired of trying to "prove" various points to SS'ers.  I can E-Mail it you if you'd like to give it a look and want to work on it, etc.

IMO, if you can make a decent to good movie for under or around $10 Million, get it released wide/semi-wide, you'll recoup your costs and then some (when it's all said and done).  The  big problem is that the majority of movies are not decent or good, but they're still making money...that's why they're being made.

Creature is a bad example for being a warning for indie movies, IMO.  I did not see it, but based on what I've read, I clearly see why it was destined to fail right from the start.  

1) It's a throwback monster movie with a guy in a cheap looking rubber suit.

2) Ridiculous backstory/premise

3) No star power (except for Sig Haig).

4) Few/lame onscreen kills and gore.

5) Ridiculous characters doing and saying ridiculous things.

6) Horrible word of mouth.

If you want to make a throwback monster movie, you at least need to have it be gory and show your kills.  You need a premise/setup/plot/story that makes some semblance of sense.  You need it to be scary or intense.  You need a memorable monster.

This had none of the above.  If I won't even go see it, who the Hell is?  I think they had an average of 8 paying customers per showing over its first weekend.
Logged
e-mail Reply: 23 - 66
SLM
Posted: September 27th, 2011, 12:41pm Report to Moderator
Guest User




Quoted from Dreamscale
A 1 person monologue script would be a complete nightmare to slog through.  No one would want to do it and hopefully, only few would even write.  I know I sure wouldn't (hey, there's an idea, if you want me not to participate in this coming Halloween OWC, go for the 1 person monologue idea!   ).


Can I vote for a Monologue OWC now please.
Logged
e-mail Reply: 24 - 66
RayW
Posted: September 27th, 2011, 12:45pm Report to Moderator
Old Timer


Freedom

Location
About a thousand years from now.
Posts
1821
Posts Per Day
0.36

Quoted from Dreamscale
Ray, I decided against pursuing my spreadsheet, as I've lost faith, so to speak and decided that I was tired of trying to "prove" various points to SS'ers.  I can E-Mail it you if you'd like to give it a look and want to work on it, etc.

Yessir, I'd love to.
If you composed it on goog docs then you can PM me a share link.
If you've composed it on an Excel-like spreadsheet then yeah, email it to me at rewriteitagain@gmail.com.

Very much appreciated!

Regarding "Creature", yeah, it's not so much that the movie sucked, it's that the producer was able to call in so many favors and markers to get this POS into so many theaters (1,500 is a HUGE! distribution for an indie film where the average is 170 theaters).
This makes it very difficult for other distributors to coax revenue guarding theater owners to go with non-major/minor studio product.
Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad for the indie biz.

If you're gonna fail - please keep it discrete.
IDK WTH so many theater owners were thinking.
Sometimes I wonder if they were doing this just to screw Sid Sheinberg on purpose.
I wonder if he's p!ssed off quite a few folks in the past.



EDIT:
Got it!
Thank you.
Replied back to you.




Revision History (1 edits)
RayW  -  September 27th, 2011, 1:12pm
Logged
Private Message Reply: 25 - 66
Dreamscale
Posted: September 27th, 2011, 1:14pm Report to Moderator
Guest User



You throw your vote in there, Simon. I'm sure it carries alot of weight.

I think you should just go for a single character monologue October OWC entry anyways.  I'm sure peeps are lining up already to read it.  I for one, just can't wait.
Logged
e-mail Reply: 26 - 66
RayW
Posted: September 27th, 2011, 1:22pm Report to Moderator
Old Timer


Freedom

Location
About a thousand years from now.
Posts
1821
Posts Per Day
0.36

Quoted from Dreamscale
You throw your vote in there, Simon. I'm sure it carries alot of weight.

I think you should just go for a single character monologue October OWC entry anyways.  I'm sure peeps are lining up already to read it.  I for one, just can't wait.


Are you drooling acid, again?





Logged
Private Message Reply: 27 - 66
SLM
Posted: September 27th, 2011, 1:27pm Report to Moderator
Guest User



I would think the idea of a Challenge is to be, well, a Challenge...

So a Monologue is a Challenge. Especially if you haven't written them before.

I have, and might have a go, if it fits the theme.



Logged
e-mail Reply: 28 - 66
SLM
Posted: September 27th, 2011, 1:29pm Report to Moderator
Guest User



@RayW

He Can Drool Away. It makes no difference to me whatsoever.
Logged
e-mail Reply: 29 - 66
 Pages: « 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 » : All
Recommend Print

Locked Board Board Index    October, 2011 One Week Challange  [ previous | next ] Switch to:
Was Portal Recent Posts Home Help Calendar Search Register Login

Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post polls
You may not post attachments
HTML is on
Blah Code is on
Smilies are on


Powered by E-Blah Platinum 9.71B © 2001-2006