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.
I too was thinking that a drive towards real collaboration would be a good move for the community (as you mentioned in point 3). Obviously Michael's games are fantastic - really fun, and actually a good exercise to continue storylines and use characters that aren't your own. And the ongoing series we have - SoulShadows, Michel's Seven Deadly Sins - they're really good initiatives too.
However... couple of weeks ago I nearly started a thread to float the idea of some sort of Miniseries Challenge. I hadn't worked out all the details, but thought that it would involve groups of perhaps three or four who could work together to produce a series of perhaps six to eight episodes. Each team would elect a Show Runner (as they have on real writing teams, I believe) who would lead the team and make the ultimate creative decisions, but everything would be worked out by the group. All they'd be provided with is a genre - say, comedy - and the beginnings of an idea - say, 'Difficult preparations for a big event'. The rest would be up to them.
But I didn't post, because I wasn't sure it would work. It would take months, and require people to commit to a certain level of consistent engagement on the forum for that time (which might be tricky since we have real lives too). Even so...does it sound like the kind of thing people might be interested in?
Particularly like the idea of trying to build some notion of what distributors are looking for shorts-wise.
Not really sure what the mechanics of that idea would be Jonny? Sounds very interesting, however. The idea of working something collaboratively is very appealing - but, as you note, it does depend on members' already hectic schedules.
Maybe there could be some sort of monthly thing - a challenge of varying degrees? The only thing with increased activity is what extra strain that would put on Don to actually get these things up on the site? Ultimately, he's working hard on the site, so to what degree he feels extra scripts would be a good idea seems a deal breaker maybe.
Oh, and Bert/Sniper - you are both like a Peter Pan character; infinite wisdom which belies your youthful looks
EDIT: Snipes, you definitely still look like you would kill at a football match.
Not really sure what the mechanics of that idea would be Jonny?
As I say, I never really got into the nitty-gritty of how it would work, but I did think it could go something like this:
1. Theme and genre are announced. Anyone who wants to enter has 5 days to split up into teams (or, alternatively, everyone's names are thrown into one big hat and teams are picked at random), elect a Show Runner, and work out the order they want to write in (Show Runners would write the Series Premieres).
2. The teams are announced. Teams then have 7 days to work out characters, the main idea of their series, start tossing around storylines, etc. At the end of that week, the series titles are announced.
3. Teams then produce an episode every 21 days. That could be split up like so: - The team member whose turn it is gets to pitch the storyline for their episode. The other members then discuss it, and the Show Runner makes a decision on what, roughly, will happen. This could take 5 days. - The writer then has 10 days to write their episode and send it to their colleagues for feedback. These drafts could be sent as PDFs to team members' private inboxes, in order to minimise the amount posted on the site. - The remaining 6 days could be used for team members to make suggestions on where they think the episode could be improved. The writer could make as many revisions as they want before the final deadline.
4. The episode is posted. Then the process of point 3 starts again.
So basically, if we had teams of three producing six episodes, that'd be 18 weeks plus the initial twelve days...just under twenty weeks for the whole challenge.
I know that sounds vague and scrappy. But I think that at the end we'd have learnt how to really write collaboratively, and also, with a bit of luck, might have some recognisable 'product' that could be shopped around, if people wanted to do that.
Again, I must stress that I'd never worked this idea out fully. But I did think that it seemed vaguely intriguing. Although I couldn't help but think if it was THAT good an idea, it would already be happening...
Sounds very interesting and workable to me, Jonny.
Between November '09 and February/March '10, I will be in a perpetual state of travelling, until I resettle in Oz for a year, so that could upset the applecart for my participation; however, would be great to get something like that off the ground if others fancy it.
decadence, would you mind embellishing your ideas re: 2, 'cos from where I stand there appears to be an interest.
I remember three years ago there was a LOT more crap and arguments going on. None of it had anything to do with screenwriting. We had some really argumentative people here back then... One in particular comes to mind that was eventually banned.
Don also tried something new in order to get some more reading going. For two weeks or so, all boards except for script boards were locked. The only posts you could make were in script threads. Did it make people read more? I think so, but at the same time it was very quiet here. Conclusion...as annoying as some of the crap threads in general chat and the like are, maybe they are vital to the boards.
Also don't forget we've had the Script Club too, which is something I liked.
Dec and Jonny you make some really cool suggestions. I like the later one especially with the ongoing team challenge. Maybe it could be used to write some TV stuff?
However the only prob with team stuff is the fact we are all over the globe. the january OWC in pairs was fun, but it was hard with the different time zones.
Um, also, the Script Club was good, but I always felt we should've done more stuff by the SS people. If a new feature(or short- perhaps alternate) was randomly selected it would get more reads. I dunno, just a thought.
anyway, good kudos to Andrew for begining this whole discussion. when you are over here I'll take you to an Aussie Rules game.
I like the later one especially with the ongoing team challenge. Maybe it could be used to write some TV stuff?
However the only prob with team stuff is the fact we are all over the globe. the january OWC in pairs was fun, but it was hard with the different time zones.
I think trying to write a TV miniseries would be a good aim. And, if everyone got stuck in, I don't think it would be too hard, either. The only downside I can see with the current Collab. exercises we have is that they don't produce a real end product, a script that has the best bits of everyone's ideas in. They're not meant to - they're games, and I took part in the last one, and it was both useful and terrific fun. But this would be something different.
As for getting around the timezones...well, though I said teams could be randomly chosen, I think people picking their own groups would be better. I'm sure people here know a few people they wouldn't mind trying to work with. And if that means that people in the same timezone end up working together, then that'd be fine.
From my recent experience at a television convention in LA, if you have a comedy show, you'll have no problem getting read! All the people I met that had TV comedy pilots ran out of hard copies...
Tommy lad, never one to miss one of my references. Well, maybe that was true before I posted that To Be business. Business though is surprisingly good.
This Andrew is one of the more interesting and intriguing threads around here. For that you're to be commended. As is your Avatar. Glad to see you made safely off that confounded ship to dry land and brought a smile.
I think Me is someone who's found success within this business. I read her posts very carefully for success in screenwriting is a bloody rare thing. She is also a bloody good writer. Pardon swearing. I just reread that fucking script that couldn't fucking stop it. It's absolutely fascinating and hilarious.