Frustration and Lack of Motivation

[Acoui]

Hey everyone,

To start off, I'm 16 years old and from the suburbs of Philadelphia. I've shot many short sketches before but never a real short film. I'm looking to make one 8-15min long, but I can never get past pre-production.

I write a 23-page script, review it, revise it, and hate after a week has passed. Sometimes I can't even get even get to finishing the script, and then I hate it. Most of the time, I just get a surge of motivation from a great idea, and then start mapping characters and open up Celtx, then I get extremely frustrated and throw the idea away.

It was my New Year's goal to film a real short film, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to complete that now. I want film to be my career, but it can't if this keeps happening. What's wrong with me?

 

[Acoui]

Okay, I'm going to be brutally honest. It's not a great script, BUT it is a pretty decent story idea. The twist at the end is good too.

One of the biggest problems I saw was that there was a LOT of cliched dialogue. Stuff that seemed to come out of everything from B-grade action films to after school specials.

Another problem is the change in Wayne character. It seems to happen too easily. He seems to have come to terms with being bullied for most of his life, so why all of a sudden would he change? I know it has to do with his girlfriend dumping him, but he didn't seem all that upset about that either. So it seems a bit unlikely that not only would he suddenly develop a backbone and become a bad ass, but also that he would have enough harsh feeling toward the girl he loves to frame her for the killing. I would add more development on the character arc for Wayne.

As far as formatting the script, you did a good job, but leave out any kind of camera direction and song choices. I realize you plan on directing the script, but just as a habit it's best to leave that stuff out.

But like I said, it's a good idea for a short story. I would try to find someone to work on it with you to help with dialogue and fleshing the characters out a bit more.

Really good effort though!

Wow! Thanks for that. Working on cutting out a lot of the cliche stuff right now actually, haha. I can't seem to come up with any ideas for developing Wayne.

I know this is a stretch asking people on here for help, but if anyone is particularly good at writing and would like to give helping me out a shot, I'd make sure to give you credit in the final film.

Thanks again.

 

[Phil_UK]

Slightly off topic. But I am 17 now and never tried writing my own thing. I just suck at it. I know what my strengths and weaknesses are. I can direct and I have an eye for cinematography. I can edit and People love my editing style, but I hate it with a passion.

I can't write for shit. Combination of me not being a wordsmith and being german. I speak fluent english and communicate nicely and have no problems forming correct sentences (I think? :S ) but writing is just not for me. Staying in the right tenses and stuff is just too hard.

I can't produce.. I am not a person to keep things together prior shoot. I am actually quite surprised that I managed to get 11 people together and have them working for me for my short film

 

[Acoui]

Slightly off topic. But I am 17 now and never tried writing my own thing. I just suck at it. I know what my strengths and weaknesses are. I can direct and I have an eye for cinematography. I can edit and People love my editing style, but I hate it with a passion.

I can't write for shit. Combination of me not being a wordsmith and being german. I speak fluent english and communicate nicely and have no problems forming correct sentences (I think? :S ) but writing is just not for me. Staying in the right tenses and stuff is just too hard.

I can't produce.. I am not a person to keep things together prior shoot. I am actually quite surprised that I managed to get 11 people together and have them working for me for my short film

Sounds great but how in the world do you get your screenplays written? Do you hire other people to write them for you or what?

 

[dr stilly]

Hey everyone,

To start off, I'm 16 years old and from the suburbs of Philadelphia. I've shot many short sketches before but never a real short film. I'm looking to make one 8-15min long, but I can never get past pre-production.

I write a 23-page script, review it, revise it, and hate after a week has passed. Sometimes I can't even get even get to finishing the script, and then I hate it. Most of the time, I just get a surge of motivation from a great idea, and then start mapping characters and open up Celtx, then I get extremely frustrated and throw the idea away.

It was my New Year's goal to film a real short film, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to complete that now. I want film to be my career, but it can't if this keeps happening. What's wrong with me?

It sounds like your process is backward so it's dragging like a dead weight. Try this; forget character descriptions, back stories etc, in fact don't even open your script program.

Get some sticky notes and pin each one to the wall representing each scene. If it stops, think about it, take a day, two days a week until the next sticky note goes up. If it's goes wrong go back, rip some down and replace them. Once you complete the story this way I guarantee that writing the script will be the easy part because now you have a guideline. Dialogue will come easier too.

Let me just say though that even with using sticky notes I sometimes just STOP. When this happens I say 'the story died'. When that happens I move on to a next idea because this story was not the one. But at least I haven't wasted time in front of a laptop. Now I've moved on from sticky notes and plan the story first on outline, if the story dies in outline, i move on.

If you work this way, then when you do finally finish a story, it will be one worth telling.

 

[Acoui]

It sounds like your process is backward so it's dragging like a dead weight. Try this; forget character descriptions, back stories etc, in fact don't even open your script program.

Get some sticky notes and pin each one to the wall representing each scene. If it stops, think about it, take a day, two days a week until the next sticky note goes up. If it's goes wrong go back, rip some down and replace them. Once you complete the story this way I guarantee that writing the script will be the easy part because now you have a guideline. Dialogue will come easier too.

Let me just say though that even with using sticky notes I sometimes just STOP. When this happens I say 'the story died'. When that happens I move on to a next idea because this story was not the one. But at least I haven't wasted time in front of a laptop. Now I've moved on from sticky notes and plan the story first on outline, if the story dies in outline, i move on.

If you work this way, then when you do finally finish a story, it will be one worth telling.

Great idea, thank you so much.

Wow, you all are so nice and helpful here. Love this forum.