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Insanity by Javier E. Otero - Short, Thriller - Two man in search for relief of their disturbed minds. They soon realize that there's just one way to get the peace that they want. 31 pages - pdf, format
Well, right off the bat there are some grammar and punctuation issues, but I'm not too picky about that.
The first dialogue is very stiff. Why is the character speaking out loud? Why is he reporting everything that is happening to him? No one talks like that.
I like the beginning. The fact that the first few shots show Joseph's eyes shown up definitely sets the tone.
The cursing is a bit much. I'm all for some profanity, but it seems a bit excess.
I love how we find out that Joseph is suicidal because he asked "the Lord to take his life away". Very smooth.
Lots of spelling errors on page 6.
IT is narrating. But who is IT talking to? Why is he saying this? Is he breaking the fourth wall?
Derek grows up in a broken household with a malevolent force watching his every move. Kind of ordinary for horror/drama films, but I can dig it.
Derek's childhood goes on for quite awhile. All of this can be cut down and edited to take up less time.
He cuts the hamster. Creepy.
So Joseph's a rapist. I don't know what that adds to the plot thus far, but I haven't finished it yet.
I don't know why Joseph is reaching out to Derek. This is some maniac he just met on the side of the road.
Now we're learning Joseph's backstory. I don't know why this is important, seeing as Derek has been presented as the protagonist thus far and Joseph is dead.
We keep cutting between past and present. The structure of the story is very weird and confusing. Why didn't we see IT whispering in Joseph's ear when we first saw Derek jump in front of the van?
Gets really nihilistic at the end. God is IT? How scary.
Overall, a good story, but a lot of it is unnecessary and doesn't contribute to the main plot. Cut and chop and edit and you should have a good short film.
"Thanks for the read I appreciate your time. the reason that there are so much grammar errors is that I'm a latin and I don't know much English. I translated it myself to English so if you can help me with that I would appreciate it."
"he is scared. he doesn't know what is happening to him, because he is tied and his eyes are sown up"
"IT, is something that only Derek sees, that tries to influence him into make horrible things. We will never know what is, or what is like, is invisible to us"
"It was cut off. But it is necessary for the character development. The audience needs to know why he became a killer and why he doesn't feel anything while killing his victims"
"Joseph is a rapist and he doesn't feel good about it. That's why he wants to die but he is afraid to do it himself"
I don't know why Joseph is reaching out to Derek. This is some maniac he just met on the side of the road - "That is an irony. In other words the only one that can understand him is another insane person. So I like the fact that Derek takes his life."
Now we're learning Joseph's backstory. I don't know why this is important, seeing as Derek has been presented as the protagonist thus far and Joseph is dead. - "Both are the protagonist of the story. two stories that connects to other.'
We keep cutting between past and present. The structure of the story is very weird and confusing. Why didn't we see IT whispering in Joseph's ear when we first saw Derek jump in front of the van? - "IT, is just a force that influences them. we don't need to see it."
Gets really nihilistic at the end. God is IT? How scary.- "IT, is not God. It opposes all that God is. IT think he won but Derek actions goes over him cause he refuse to do, It's will."
Overall, a good story, but a lot of it is unnecessary and doesn't contribute to the main plot. Cut and chop and edit and you should have a good short film - "it was already cut off. This is the third draft of the script. It was 35 pages long. Thanks again for the feed"
I'm pretty sure I know what you are doing here, and I think visually, you're probably conjouring a powerful image in your head - but it's really not being communicated well into my head.
Honestly - I think it's probably got potential, but I can see people just chucking this away - it's worth working, but here's why it gives me a headache - but this is just IMO - so see what other people say on it.
## Darkness. -- cool. Nice beginning. Bold.
## And the sound of the raining falling outside an unknown place. -- Okay. Line two and there's issues. - Using the word 'sound' is not great in a script. - All you had to say here was 'Rain falls'/'It's raining'/etc or some variation. - 'raining falling is not grammatically correct. - 'outside an unknown place' - this is in darkness. It could be outside the Empire State Building and we wouldn't know.
## Thunders rumbling lightly and the howling of the wind forcing through the windows. -- this isn't a nice sentence. I'm not totally sure how thunder rumbles lightly. Why not:
Distant sound of THUNDER.
Wind rattles a WINDOW PANE.
Same sound, just a little cleaner?
## Meanwhile... someone’s breathing, while waking up from an unconscious state. - 'Meanwhile' is clutter. - 'waking up from ... ' lets go back to the 'darkness' here...
## The person coughs and groans in pain. He coughs louder. -- This all sounds a little plain. Situations like this - I think - are played better short and sweet:
A COUGH -- a GROAN. It's all the reader really needs to know, and it helps to keep things tense.
## The rain and the thunders are heard OUTSIDE. INSIDE, the howl of the wind. -- For some of the reasons above - I didn't like this. It also feels like you're confusing things a bit - you've just gone inside - and you don't need the OUTSIDE - as we're well aware that the sound of the thunder must be coming from outside.
## He is staring psychotically at the man we cannot see. -- The problem with this line is that you're not thinking about what is going to be on the screen. All you would see is 'A man staring psychotically'. So there's nothing wrong with putting that - most people reading scripts only want to know what is visually going on from a screen point of view - if we are seeing a man staring psychotically - then clearly we can't see a man we can't see - does that make sense to you?
## In his left hand he is holding a KNIFE, and he is stroking the edge with his index finger. -- You can cut this down. People sometimes specify which hand someone is doing something with - unless it's essential, there's really no need.
'He holds a KNIFE - strokes the edge with his finger.' - visually there is very little difference between this and yours - it's less specific, but the image is gotten over with more brevity.
So that's page one done with.
But I did really think that visually this has got something going for it - but it really needs to come off the page well - I need to skip over the pages, not stick to them like glue.
Thanks for the feedback, as I explained before this was translated by myself to English and I'm a spanish speaker. so if you guys help me with that I will appreciate it. This is my first attempt in writing something for the screen so I'm listening and learning from your feedback. There's no negative in your words you are just helping. And thanks for that.
Believe me I spent a lot of time searching in the net for the best translation. sicoll007 I know what you mean about the writing but I'm just learning.