How do you know if a script is good before purchasing it?

[harmonica44]

I wanted to purchase a feature length script to produce and direct myself, and have been looking around, but so far, I haven't found a script that really pops out. How do other filmmakers tell which scripts are worth making, compared to not, if they just have one shot?

Also, just because you think it's good or bad, does not mean other audiences would. So how does one go about accessing it? Do you just say I like it, let's buy it, and make a movie, and that's it? Especially because it can be hard to get good feedback from many people, in such a small window you have to buy the script, before anyone else does. Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks .

 

[IronFilm]

I haven't had the money to do more shorts unfortunately since I went overbudget on the last one, and have been saving my money for a bigger better script such as this. I have been helping many others on their shorts over the years.

Just make a few "zero budget" short films, the experience will be invaluable.

 

[IronFilm]

LOL!

H44 has been struggling for 3 years.
Sfoster puts on his cape and fixes it in 10 minutes...

If Harmonic44 had less fear about sharing his work here, then he'd get heaps more valuable feedback just like this. And he'd learn more and improve faster.

Harmonic44, I'd recommend keeping this in mind. What if you'd got this help years earlier? Consider how much further along you'd be now!

 

[IronFilm]

I knew it had bad sound to begin with, I just accepted it. Alright I will give another crack at casting and crewing a short. However, when they ask what I have done before, and I don't have anything with good sound or production value to show them, what can I do to persuade them to join me since I don't have past shorts worthy of showing them when they ask?

Often a case of just simply slogging away and building yourself up as you go along.

You start off with no experience and nothing to show, so you make some sh*t with just your non filmmaking buddies.
Next you find a few film enthusiasts at least who can make one a bit better.
This then helps attracts an actor with a few shorts under their belt already, you make a bit better one than before.
Then you're getting to somewhere almost maybe half way decent, and you get a keen DoP and half competent AD on board.
Then after that you.....

....and so on and so on, rinse and repeat a dozen plus times!!

After that you'll be finally getting somewhere! But there are no magic shortcuts, it takes time.

 

[AudioPostExpert]

~APE can give you a better explanation.

You might also want to add a small hollow reverb if the sound is coming from another room down the hall, so that it feels as if it is bouncing off the walls in that hallway towards the mic that was on set. In this case, "hollow" would mean that you make the reverb less wet I think. There's actually a slider that calls itself "Wet" or "Wetness," which I believe refers to how piercing and ringing the reverb appears.

There are a lot of variables with making a sound appear to come from another room, a good starting point would be a LPF (Low Pass Filter) set somewhere between 700Hz and 2k and a fair bit of reverb.

Wetness by the way, is a balance setting between the original (dry) sound and the sound with reverb. At 0% wet there will be no reverb (only the original dry sound) and at 100% there will be only reverb and none of the original (dry) sound. In practice a reverb is usually used at 100% wet, as they're usually inserted in the signal chain via a send/return routing set-up.

G

 

[FilmmakerJ]

There are a lot of variables with making a sound appear to come from another room, a good starting point would be a LPF (Low Pass Filter) set somewhere between 700Hz and 2k and a fair bit of reverb.

Wetness by the way, is a balance setting between the original (dry) sound and the sound with reverb. At 0% wet there will be no reverb (only the original dry sound) and at 100% there will be only reverb and none of the original (dry) sound. In practice a reverb is usually used at 100% wet, as they're usually inserted in the signal chain via a send/return routing set-up.

G

Okay, then instead of Wet probably meant to say the frequency of the reverberations and the size of the room, because if the room size is made too big and the frequency too wide, then you get a Cathedral or a bathroom stall sound, whereas a hallway should sound more dull and flat.