Quoted from dogglebe So, what's your point, biotch? Phil

It's official, Travis Bickle is on the board.

And they were probably saying "There's rice chex on the floor".  Every $.99 cent store you go into, there's always an abundance of rice chex.  I won't comment on our sociological class difference and how I'm better than you because I shop at the $1.00 store.

Mike & Phil, you guys need to try Costco and get it over with... And what's Rice Chex anyways????

Mike & Phil are just having fun.

Rice Chex is a type of cereal.  Or a snack food if your mom loved you enough to put them in the oven and bake them with other delicious snacks like peanuts and pretzels.

Mine didn't.

ok I never had this stuff! (calling my mother) hey, mom, what's up..do you love me?

Quoted from Shelton Rice Chex is a type of cereal.  Or a snack food if your mom loved you enough to put them in the oven and bake them with other delicious snacks like peanuts and pretzels.

My mother never served Rice Chex at parties.  She served scotch.

It was the fifties!


Phil

Phil, and other members, I need some help here, please. I'm trying to describe a building. The set up must have all the neighbors at a somewhat close proximity to each other, watching each other. And if you put a camera in the front entrance you see all the units. Here's what I came up with so far. Any opinions?

" A two-story Spanish building split in the middle by a brick path. The front section has a front yard and four units, two on each side. Then the path leads to a courtyard, and to the back section, which has six more units, three on each side. "

Well, it seems to be to specific. Why don't you try to aim to be more intermediate between general and specific?  

Gabriel

Gabriel, Because very important part of the story depends on that specific building set up

Well, I guess you could write as so...if you know the specific locaton in which you are decribing and are postive if the owner allows you to film there.

Gabriel

First, to the description. These can be as general or as specific as they need to be. If you see something specific and it is necessary for the plot to work, then be specific. If not, then don't.

As for writing, it depends on the idea for me. Fempiror fermented for about 8 years before a first draft popped out finally. I wrote about 10 snippets and outlines, and I continued to rework the backstory and rules and that sort of thing until the first draft of the first script was done. I continued to rework the history and rules while writing the second script and even the series pilot until it was all where I wanted it. I just kept going back and revising the drafts with the new info.

Most of my writing is 50/50 though. Sometimes I get an idea and write a first draft within a month; other times, I get an idea and sit on it for awhile because I like the idea, but I'm not sure where to go with it.

for me, i get multiple ideas at a time. i write them down in as much detail as ai can, then i think up of a plotline to link them up

that's happened many a time now, and so i have 3 full film ideas that i just need to write

My writing process is a little bit more in detail.  When I first started writing I think I just freewrote the entire script from start to finish and didn't even care about plot points, set up, development, etc.  My Mercenary and Quake screenplays are written that way.

After Quake though, I knew something had to be changed.  There had to be some way to plan out a screenplay so that you don't hit any blocks down the line and end up at page 80 and say "screw this".  I have done that many a time.

There are four things that are required in order to write a feature length screenplay, regardless of genre.  That is:  Ending, Beginning, Plot Point #1, and Plot Point #2.  In that order.  If you do not know your ending, you don't know your story.  The beginning can also be created by the genre of your script.  If it's an action/adventure, maybe you want a big action sequence (The Matrix).  If it's a drama, maybe you want a more symbolic and emotional beginning (American Beauty).  It all depends on your style.  Plot Points #1 and Plot Point #2 are the two events your screenplay that switch your screenplay from Act I to Act II and from Act II to Act III.  These usually appear on Page 30 and Page 90 in a 120 page script.  For example in my Slaughter script on Page 30 the group of college kids arrive at the doomed slaughterhouse, throwing them into a new scenario and on page 70 (only a 95 page script)  Rachel, the main character, decides enough is enough and decides to take on the killer head on.  

The rest is just filling in the gaps.  Your first Act should be the attraction to your audience a la explaining the main characters and conflicts.  Act II is the anticipation of the main conflict being taken on by your main character and the obstacles leading up to the final confrontation, and the thrid Act is the resolution.

I used to use index cards as well, 56 total cards that would span throughout Act I to III, but it kills your suspense of the script.  I don't know about other people, but I think one of the joys of writing a script is seeing how you yourself can be surprised at how your characters end up.  Iin every single one of my scripts, my characteres end up telling me what to write, instead of me telling what the characters shoudl do.  A bit wierd I know, but we're writers right?

I suggest you read produced screenplays by some of your favorite writers and see how they mapped out their screenplay.  Many writers like M. Night Shyamalan and Paul Haggis are masters at this.  Sixth Sense and Million Dollar Baby are excellent examples.  It's amazing at how the Acts flow together and keep the screenplay moving.  

Writing a screenplay can be a bitch, believe me I know.  I have been through about 5 different ides and about 200 pages of scripts in the last two months that have all been tossed out because I just didn't like them or they sucked.  You just have to find that one idea that you can really grasp and care about and just let the story flow.
  
That's my piece.  Happy writing.    

That was excellent and very informative. Thanks guy

I consider certain scenes in a story as " hurdles " and truly treat them as such. These are usually scenes that I've never written before, and had no idea at the time how to tackle. In my story The Giant Elk, a western, I ran into alot of those hurdles. The geographical location of the story was in Montana, why? because Elks and Grizzlies are there, but I've never been to Montana! and never seen a Grizzly in my life, or an Elk for that matter. So I hit the books. And that's where my subscription to the National Geographic Magazine finally paid off! All of you writer guys should subscribe to it, it really is a great research tool. Through that research I was able to move my characters around comfortably and gracefully, because I knew all these places that I described truly existed, Fort Peck, Fort Benton, the steam boat landing and that came right off of the national geographic articles. and that's, my dear friends, is the secret to my greatness!!... ok. ok stop shaking your heads I was kidding!

Always enjoy reading these types of threads, seeing how other writers go about their work.

As a new writer, my process is still being shaped.

For me, it all starts with one idea. It has to be in some way original, I'll always do research on the idea to see if someone has done it before. The ideas usually come while laying in bed, it's my muse.

First thing I'll do then is write the idea down, just a simple paragraph or so, I need that hard copy or I'll forget it. Then I'll leave it.

My brain then does the work while I do other things. It'll connect dots, come up with characters, and then come up with an ending to the whole thing. Knowing the ending is often what drives me to write the rest.

Then once my brain has snapped the pieces together, I start working on a pitch, getting down all the ideas for my series (or movie). I'll then post the idea (or ask friends online) and see if they like it. If there's interest, and nobody says "dude, that's a rip off of...." I'll cook up an episode outline.

My outlines are not too detailed. I write every scene I want to do, but not too deeply.

Once I'm happy, I write the script. Bingo bango.