Hey Rip...

You have still got five days man!!! Get going!!

D

Hey Dana,

I'm not in this. Lol. I was just saying. I gotta get back to writing.

Gabe

I'm never gonna get the final draft finished in time, so I'll upload the trash draft.  I did write the thing, may as well enter it into the challenge.  It gets the point across as it stands, just a shame you won't see a superior version...

-Lee

What the hell? Lee? You can write a script in 24 hours... I'm totally shocked. Last time you mentioned this script it was at third draft stage. Whagwaan?

Sent mine in for a read to screenplay readers....got a consider on the vomit draft...now if I can just tweak the problems and work out the kinks before Friday!

That's excellent Dena!!!! I sent mine in on Saturday, but haven't heard back yet. I'm sure I'll get two angry PASSes though. Oh well. You can only do so much.

Back to the wedding woes.  

I'm sure you will get Considers or Recommends Pia...you are a veteran!

I could only afford one read this time. I'm sure it was just luck for me. Mine still needs MAJOR work!

I scored highest on strength of concept, climax/payoff, and overall clarity...they suggested character work, and a stronger goal which I think was a pile of shit...but they did give me some really good notes and I'm trying to work through the script once more before submitting it.

Thank you and Don for kicking my ass into shape... I wrote two first 10 pages...then wrote a whole other 100 page script! So you accomplished getting me fired up at least!!!

Happy for you, Dena. So, you haven't posted first ten for this one, right?

One of yuor first ten was very good. I don't know why you decided to trash it.

So, anyone ever got a Recommend from them?

Quoted from DustinBowcot What the hell? Lee? You can write a script in 24 hours... I'm totally shocked. Last time you mentioned this script it was at third draft stage. Whagwaan?

Not the final draft.  Most of the stuff I've submitted have been vomits and first drafts of concepts, and they take me a few days at most to complete.  But final drafts on the other hand, well, they can take me anywhere from 3 weeks to 2 months to complete.

As it stands, the final draft (3rd draft) of Shadow Games is at a mere 16 pages after roughly 2 weeks, mainly because I'm focusing on the Destiny Universe and Girl of the Lake.

Well mainly focus on Shadow Games then. It's only a few days. I've got other stuff I'd much rather be working on, but I've made a commitment to finish this script and I've got like 40 pages or so to rewrite I think. And I still have to tie in the story better on another run through. I've left myself with quite a lot of work to do but I'm determined to do it.

Finishing things is what it's all about. Anyone can write a vomit draft... they're easy, little better than an extended treatment. The hard part is finishing it. That's what you need to get down.

Even if I focused primarily on Shadow Games, it wouldn't get done in time.  It takes me longer in real cities because I have to study the layout so I know how long it would really take someone to get from, say, Little Italy to Times Square at night.

An example of this would be the moment Swanson has to get from the Docks at Greenwich Village to the Senate Office in Midtown East at 10:35pm which is 3.3 miles and he has 5 minutes to get there.

This is why it's taking longer.  Geography... I hate it.

Quoted from khamanna Happy for you, Dena. So, you haven't posted first ten for this one, right? One of yuor first ten was very good. I don't know why you decided to trash it. So, anyone ever got a Recommend from them?

I don't think anyone hardly ever gets a recommend...their stats say 1% get recommends...I'd like to be in that group *sigh*

Thanks K ...my first ten got ripped pretty good...enough to sway me from finishing  for the time being...so I decided why not try to write a mostly contained thriller...it still got a little over budget(in my eyes), and it's so hard to keep the tension and escalate it in a contained (to me).

I'm a walking zombie today Happy Tuesday to all!!

Quoted from Pale Yellow Sent mine in for a read to screenplay readers....got a consider on the vomit draft...now if I can just tweak the problems and work out the kinks before Friday!

Out of interest, where do you send scripts for this sort of thing? It's something I'd like to experience if I can ever get mine finished.

http://www.screenplayreaders.com is the fastest/cheaptest I have found...it's $79 for one read. They offer all sorts of other services but I do the cheapest....but the notes come back in like one to two days which is awesome if you are in a pinch.

Quoted from Leegion Even if I focused primarily on Shadow Games, it wouldn't get done in time.  It takes me longer in real cities because I have to study the layout so I know how long it would really take someone to get from, say, Little Italy to Times Square at night. An example of this would be the moment Swanson has to get from the Docks at Greenwich Village to the Senate Office in Midtown East at 10:35pm which is 3.3 miles and he has 5 minutes to get there. This is why it's taking longer.  Geography... I hate it.

It sounds like you and I dealt with very similar issues on this challenge.  I also had my protagonist running all around the greater New York area. My time span was 4 hours. Since I seem to have made it out the other side intact (wrote FADE OUT two nights ago and have been editing since), maybe one of the cheats I used could help.

1. Is your script strictly real time, or just awfully close? When I first hatched my idea, I was thinking strictly real time. As I thought my story beats out, I realized it would be impossible. I gave myself 10 hours, then pulled it back down to 4. From that point on, I was never really worried because if I finished my script and it turned out the events would take 5 or 6 hours to play out, I’d just go to my opening scene and replace the words, “you have four hours” with “you have five hours”. So when you say he has 5 minutes to get there… is there any way he could have 10 minutes instead?

2. Location Vagueness. If you’re using known places, people can call you out on travel times. If you use a vague location, you can make the travel time whatever you want. My vague locations include a gym, a hotel and a school. All I know about the gym and hotel is that they’re a few blocks from each other. The school is a 5-10 minute drive from the first train stop off the Williamsburg Bridge. Where exactly? Who cares? If this could apply to your example, maybe the Senator isn’t in his office. Maybe he’s at a restaurant. Maybe that restaurant is in Greenwich Village. Suddenly the travel time gets a lot shorter.

3. You’re probably already doing this but… keep your characters moving. In this scenario it’s not just for pacing, you’re accounting for travel time. A 5 minute scene with your protagonist talking plus a 10 minute drive time, equals 15 minutes. Having your protagonist talk while he’s driving brings it down to 10.

There are some other things, but it might be a little late in the game. For instance, I found having multiple characters helped rather than hurt, cause it allowed me to cut away every time my protagonist was doing something boring, like sitting in a cab. Of course, characters need more reason to exist than that. But perhaps you have a character that’s been underutilized?

If you do submit a “lesser” draft, I’d polish it up at least. Try to ensure that the notes you get are more about the story than the writing.

Anyway, Good luck with it. And to everyone else too.