I stumbled across this documentary on Netflix, it was worth a watch. :)

Tales from the Script

Dozens of acclaimed Hollywood screenwriters discuss their successes and failures, share amusing anecdotes and insider insights, and reveal their experiences with big-name actors and directors in this fascinating documentary. Writers include William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver), John Carpenter (Halloween), Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption) and many others.

Mark

Yeah, I saw this last year. Forgot all about it. I do remember it was definitely worth the watch, though.

It was a little disheartening to hear them speak so painfully about being a screenwriter though.  It seems the only way to truly be happy with the translation of your script to film, is to direct it yourself.

Or just understand that every movie is made 3 times. Once in pre-production (script), once in productions, and once in post-production. Obviously the one everyone sees is the post-production version, but if you go into the process knowing that it can never be perfect, you won't get hurt as much. Even if you direct it it won't be exactly what you envisioned. Compromise.

Just from my very very very little experience so far and to let you know, pre-production does not include the script.  (Maybe the SHOOTING SCRIPT.  But not the script we write.)  Just the casting and choosing the locales themselves (part of actual pre-production) can change the script.

The casting alone in the short film I just had produced even changed the theme of my whole entire story.

I wrote it as a sad little piece about a young girl who loses her baby late in her pregnancy.  The character I wrote was black in my head, because I do live in a black neighborhood, but never mentioned it in my script.  The director cast a young african-american as the pregnant girl, and now the director's advertising it as a piece about how racist white people can be, even though there's absolutely no racism in the story.

I still liked the way the story turned out in the end, because some of it is true, but it wasn't even close to the theme I was going for.

(EDIT:  And because I had heard horror stories of how bad scripts can change from script to screen, I was happy as horseshit that MOST of my original dialogue was used.)

That's why I clarified it. I wanted to use the 3 relevant terms, but knowing a script comes before pre-pro starts, I still called it pre-production but clarified that I meant the script being written. Sorry for the confusion! (I seem to be saying that a lot recently)

It is indeed a very educational watch for all of us. It prepares you for a lot of the most common pitfalls of our craft, even in the indie productions that we're more likely to be involved in. It helps you navigate the perils of production and give you a more realistic picture of what's going on, although it's not all as dark and depressing as it tends to to portray.

However, as a movie, it's a bit dry. It features only talking heads with very few film clips or other diversions to break from the mould so I do feel that its runtime overstays its welcome even though the stories remain interesting and enlightening throughout.

It's a pretty decent talking head piece.
Though some of the subjects get a tad broken record after a while.

A woman extolled the virtues of a teen novel she wanted to adapt...
It was called, "The Grounding of Group 6".

She made it sound so great, I tracked down the book and read it...
Wow. What a piece of flotsam. No wonder she was pimping it during the shoot! ;D

There's another documentary about aspiring screenwriters that's neat...
It's called, "Dreams on Spec". You can watch it here...
http://www.hulu.com/watch/118172/dreams-on-spec

E.D.

Just watched it. I think I'll stick to my day job. Where it is nice to commiserate with the pros who've sold scripts, it is really a nasty biz.

Plus, pure writers are being written off more and more unless you're a novelist. Better than half the movies I watch are either based off of a novel or written and directed by...

If you want to break into screenwriting, better pick up a camera and shoot something good.

James

I don't know if that's the case. I have zero interest in directing, I can't even take a decent photograph, let alone realize a complete movie.

The documentary does, and quite possibly for comic effect, indulge in the negative side of the business and the bad experiences that writers have. But that's not the whole truth. The other side is why we went into this the first place.

I've had to endure quite a lot of professional abuse by various people in my very humble beginnings of a scriptwriting "career" and it's nasty when it happens. But in the long run every single one of those negative experiences have taught me a lot and have made the highs even higher. It's part of the job. I've chosen that job and I accept the harsher sides of it as well.

This has been  discussed on another thread last year.

It is good to watch and interesting as well, but for me, it's a bit dull overall.

Not sure why this isn't in the "movie reviews" thread, where it belongs.