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SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board  /  Western Scripts  /  Hell to Pay (was Gehenna)
Posted by: Don, June 20th, 2010, 2:05pm
Hell to Pay by Aaron Guzzo - Western - A young widow in the Old American West makes a deal with the Devil to protect her daughter. When she realizes it will cost the life of a good man, she follows the Devil's trail of destruction to undo the deal at any cost. 100 pages - pdf format

Writer interested in feedback on this work



(note this is a merged thread of old comments and new)


Posted by: Dreamscale (Guest), July 23rd, 2010, 12:58pm; Reply: 1
Hey Aaron, listen...I think this may have potential.

Your logline, although poorly written, intrigued me.  I opened this up and read the intro.

There are lots and lots of problems here with your writing, but there's also something here that seems to work.

I like the setup, I see the potential.  You need to read other scripts and leave comments, so people will do the same for you and your script.

If you're around, and start commenting on other scripts, I'll come back to this and throw out some feedback you can use.  If nothing else, maybe this bump will draw some interest from others and you can get some feedback.

Take care!
Posted by: Aaron Guzzo, July 28th, 2010, 11:37pm; Reply: 2
Cool -- I'll start reading stuff that catches my attention right away. Getting this script produced is already going to be an uphill battle -- It's going to be hard to get interest for a Western, and then even harder when there's a Dark Fairy Tale / Fantasy element.
Posted by: screenrider (Guest), July 29th, 2010, 8:12am; Reply: 3
Scuzzoa,

Dreamscale's right.  This premise has potential.   It's a very original concept.  
Now just imagine it in the same vein as Zack Snyder's "Sucker Punch".   His is a 1950's period peice with a dark fairy tale/fantasy element.  So you may not be too far off the beaten path.  

Unfortunatley the way it's written right now, it's clunky.  You have huge blocks of dialogue which definitely is not indicative of a westen, and your description scenes are overwritten.  My advice is to read some the other "good" scripts on this site and mimic their style.  Or better yet, team up with a guy like Dreamscale, somebody's who's super-savvy on the technical aspects of writing, and clean this thing up.

I believe you have a very marketable story here.  It just needs to be fleshed out.

Here's just a few of SS's top dogs to follow.   Mr. Z, Me, Dogglebe, & Shelton.  Study their scripts like a nit under a microscope.

Best of luck.

Posted by: RayW, July 29th, 2010, 9:01am; Reply: 4
Howdy, Aaron

In all my tongue-in-cheek spare time, I've been poking around SS for only a few days now.
You can read a WHOLE lotta cr@p posted/submitted on the SS Unproduced Scripts page:
http://www.simplyscripts.com/unpro.html
OMG, I feel sorry for industry spec script readers.
Now I know why there are slush piles!

Or specialize your reading amongst similar submitted cr@p in your own genre by clicking the appropriate link on the left side of that page under the "Unproduced Scripts by Genre" heading. They are listed in alphabetical order and certainly not by quality. Looks like about two dozen under "Western", however, GHENNA obviously has some strong drama or thriller aspects to it.
http://www.simplyscripts.com/unpro_western.html

Mike Cornetto ( http://www.simplyscripts.net/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?v-memberpanel/a-view/u-mcornetto/ ) laid on me the following link I find quite useful:
http://www.simplyscripts.net/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b=,v=portal
In addition to finding the most current posts you can see who the "Old Timers" are on the left hand margin under "Top Members".
(This community appears to REEEALLY appreciate mutual contribution of a useful nature.)

From there you can go hunt down their SS semi-Unproduced work here:
http://www.simplyscripts.net/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b-knowyou/m-1095531482/s-all/
I just found this page last night and have yet to exploit it.
I'm guessing some of the SS Establishment likely have decent screenplays, even if in bits and pieces.

I am simply AMAZED! AMAZED I tell you, at the number of improperly formatted material submitted to SS. And then there's the quality of cr@p.
Yours is the first I've seen any positive scuttlebutt, formatting aside.
FWIW, I like your premise as well and agree with others the logline needs editing.
"I've paid someone to kill me by Sunday midnight and I want you to stop them!" - premise variant with a nice satanic twist. Nice!

I've not yet found a site "Top 20 or 50 by Peer Review" at Unproduced Scripts.
If you stumble upon one I'd like a link. Gracias!

Ray
Posted by: Aaron Guzzo, August 3rd, 2010, 2:31am; Reply: 5
Well I'll definitely be starting a re-write soon based on Dreamscale's notes and a few other friends' notes. Another idea I've been kicking around is making this into a graphic novel.
Posted by: Dreamscale (Guest), August 3rd, 2010, 10:53am; Reply: 6
More notes still coming, Aaron...
Posted by: Logan McDonald, September 19th, 2017, 9:35am; Reply: 7
Hey Aaron,

I read the first thirteen pages and I am enjoying the set up so far. The action blocks are well written and to the point. I was able to visualize the action very well and cool action it was.

It’s always hard to set up an emotional moment like the love interest jumping in front of the bullet and getting shot to the hero’s dismay this early in the movie and it just felt a little weak. Its great motivation for the main character, I’m just not as hooked yet to feel anything toward it.

The screaming in rage transition is a little cliché. And since it’s still early in the script it might come off as a bit much to viewers.

Theresa seems like an interesting character, I’m always down for strong female characters.

I’m excited to keep reading and I’ll let you know what I think of the rest of it as I go.
Posted by: CameronD, September 29th, 2017, 11:23am; Reply: 8
You finished a script so congratulations. No small feat.

Bu this does need work. Lots of rookie mistakes, for example no need to have the studio logo referenced in the beginning. TEXT should be written as SUPER: The first page is a TON of narrative exposition that cut be cut.   The font also changes halfway through the first page. Whenever a character is introduced for the first time on screen you need to write their name in all CAPS.

This is all just things I noticed on the first page. Rightly or wrongly, when you submit a script chock full or errors that's all the reader will see. It doesn't matter how good your story is, nobody will see it. It's a lot of work to read and give quality feedback on a script so please respect their time by giving them your best.

When I first finished my firs script I did the same thing and posted it for all to see, hungry for feedback. All I got was comments back like what I wrote above cause it was not only bloated but FULL of typos and mistakes. I didn't resubmit until I had rewritten it multiple times and only then was I getting the story feedback I wanted.

I love the western genre and applaud anybody who wants to write it. Keep working. Keep grinding. You can do it!
Posted by: JEStaats, June 8th, 2021, 1:34pm; Reply: 9
About 35 pages into this and love the story so far. Fantastic characters and great dialogue. I find the action is a bit prosy and overwritten, but that can be easily rectified. You also need to be careful with the amount of un-filmable descriptions, tense, and context. Sorry about not taking notes like some folks do on SS.

So far, though, I'm a big fan of this.
Posted by: JEStaats, June 9th, 2021, 3:27pm; Reply: 10
Finished this. Pretty f_cking awesome. Here's my two cents: Your story, dialogue, character building and arcs are fantastic. Very original with some pretty cool visuals/sets. The potential problem is that your writing style is against the unwritten rule book and standard for screenplays. I could care less but many will point out your long blocks of action, passive vs. active prose, and being very overwritten as a whole.

You want people to read this and you'll need to decide whether to bend, break, or stand firm on your style.

All the best with this and thanks for sharing. Would love to see this filmed.
Posted by: Aaron Guzzo, June 18th, 2021, 8:27pm; Reply: 11
Thanks so much! Will take all of this into account. Glad you liked it.
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