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Need Screenwriting Advice Please

MrJay

MrJay

I'm in the process of writing my first feature screenplay and have a couple questions, looking for advice/tips.

1. The budget I have to make my movie is very limited, so maybe 4-5 locations. I'm just wondering how you build a whole feature length movie off of that limited amount of locations, and still keep it interesting.

2. I know you need about 60-80 scenes in a feature length movie. So how do you guys think of so many scenes without making it feel like the scenes are there just to make it longer?
 
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lol wow, sorry my name isn't Quentin Tarrantino. Geez give me a break I'm just trying to learn the craft man. I'm 20 years old.

Can someone please answer the question without being a smart ass?
 
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MrJay said:
lol wow, sorry my name isn't Quentin Tarrantino. Geez give me a break I'm just trying to learn the craft man. I'm 20 years old.

Can someone please answer the question without being a smart ass?
Click to expand...

2001 isn't being a smart ass.

He's correct.


IDK where you came across the cited 60-80 scenes needed parameter, but throw that notion right out the window ASAP.


Google "list of one location films" and "list of few location films" and you'll find plenty of examples of films from Buried, Devil, and The Disappearance of Alice Creed.
Make your viewing list.
Watch those DVDs or BluRays.
Take notes of the story itself, odds are they follow some semblance of the three act structure.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsBznn8D13zOdEI1dGU1VUxaVDhCQmVnVFBLeUxSaWc#gid=0

20110720StoryConstraints-Compact.jpg


THEN go back and note location and scene changes. Disregarding the count. Concentrate on HOW the locations were effectively utilized.

NOW, go back to your own story.
Drape it over the three act structure and see how it paces out.
Adjust the story to accommodate for timing.
Determine how your available location resources can be effectively utilized.

Odds are, it's best to find an existing film, irregardless of genre, that moves along a similar structure and just use that as a template.


And your age is irrelevant, BTW.
 
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rayw said:
2001 isn't being a smart ass.

He's correct.


IDK where you came across the cited 60-80 scenes needed parameter, but throw that notion right out the window ASAP.


Google "list of one location films" and "list of few location films" and you'll find plenty of examples of films from Buried, Devil, and The Disappearance of Alice Creed.
Make your viewing list.
Watch those DVDs or BluRays.
Take notes of the story itself, odds are they follow some semblance of the three act structure.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsBznn8D13zOdEI1dGU1VUxaVDhCQmVnVFBLeUxSaWc#gid=0

20110720StoryConstraints-Compact.jpg


THEN go back and note location and scene changes. Disregarding the count. Concentrate on HOW the locations were effectively utilized.

NOW, go back to your own story.
Drape it over the three act structure and see how it paces out.
Adjust the story to accommodate for timing.
Determine how your available location resources can be effectively utilized.

Odds are, it's best to find an existing film, irregardless of genre, that moves along a similar structure and just use that as a template.


And your age is irrelevant, BTW.
Click to expand...

Thankyou for a sensible answer
 
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I'd answer, but I my smart ass mode is always on. Also note, I'm not a scriptwriter, this all comes from my theory training on the subject, so some, if not all of this may be of no use to you.

Look at examples of what you're trying to shoot. Work out how they made it work. Look at Saw (while not really only 4 locations, the amount of locations is limited outside the main room). Also look at 12 Angry Men which is shot using 1 main locations and 2 minor locations. Pay particular attention to the conflict, character flaws and the dialogue and how it carries the movie and the characters within the movie and how it makes the audience feel.

I know you need about 60-80 scenes in a feature length movie.
Click to expand...

Get that concept out of your head. Your movie is exactly as many scenes as necessary to tell your story. How many scenes is 12 Angry Men? How many scenes is Cloud Atlas?

So how do you guys think of so many scenes without making it feel like the scenes are there just to make it longer?
Click to expand...

You don't. Scriptwriting is usually the opposite of what you're talking about. If you write your movie along the line of: write the story, pad it with useless crap until it's the right length most of the time you're going to end with a poor script.

Write your script then cut and cut out anything that isn't adding to the story. If after you've cut it down you don't have a movie anymore, it's time to restart or add more relevant plot points. There are other ways to do it.

I suggest that you grab a couple books on the subject and read. Work out what your style is, whether you're a structured writer or an unstructured writer, work towards your strengths and learn how your style puts things together.

All this will come to you as you gain experience, so practice, practice, practice.
 
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Sweetie said:
I'd answer, but I my smart ass mode is always on. Also note, I'm not a scriptwriter, this all comes from my theory training on the subject, so some, if not all of this may be of no use to you.

Look at examples of what you're trying to shoot. Work out how they made it work. Look at Saw (while not really only 4 locations, the amount of locations is limited outside the main room). Also look at 12 Angry Men which is shot using 1 main locations and 2 minor locations. Pay particular attention to the conflict, character flaws and the dialogue and how it carries the movie and the characters within the movie and how it makes the audience feel.



Get that concept out of your head. Your movie is exactly as many scenes as necessary to tell your story. How many scenes is 12 Angry Men? How many scenes is Cloud Atlas?



You don't. Scriptwriting is usually the opposite of what you're talking about. If you write your movie along the line of: write the story, pad it with useless crap until it's the right length most of the time you're going to end with a poor script.

Write your script then cut and cut out anything that isn't adding to the story. If after you've cut it down you don't have a movie anymore, it's time to restart or add more relevant plot points. There are other ways to do it.

I suggest that you grab a couple books on the subject and read. Work out what your style is, whether you're a structured writer or an unstructured writer, work towards your strengths and learn how your style puts things together.

All this will come to you as you gain experience, so practice, practice, practice.
Click to expand...

Good advice in here :) Thank you
 
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I'd suggest any of the non-fiction books on hollywood by William Goldman. "Adventures in the Screen trade", "What Lie Did I Tell", and/or any compilation of his screenplays.

Goldman is an easy read (I think), honest, and in his screenplay compilations you get the great movies (Example: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and the one's that he will tell you "Stiffed" or failed... and he tries to tell you why.

They aren't actually "How to write a screenplay" books, but I honestly learned more from them than I did FROM the "How to write a screenplay book" i bought. Heh.
 
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MrJay said:
I'm in the process of writing my first feature screenplay and have a couple questions, looking for advice/tips.

1. The budget I have to make my movie is very limited, so maybe 4-5 locations. I'm just wondering how you build a whole feature length movie off of that limited amount of locations, and still keep it interesting.

2. I know you need about 60-80 scenes in a feature length movie. So how do you guys think of so many scenes without making it feel like the scenes are there just to make it longer?
Click to expand...

60-80 scenes or were you referring to pages? That's a lot of scenes on a limited budget..
 
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Don't use age as an excuse. You can try reading the screenwriting books but I think you'd be better off throwing that 60-80 scene notion out and hammer a script out. Then start the next one. After finishing that do a third. Now go back to that first one and know it would have been a bad idea to film it.
 
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Well, I think you're focusing too much on your constraints and not enough on the story. Obviously, you should be mindful of your limitations when writing a screenplay you plan to shoot, but over saturating your thoughts with it, clouds the mind and hinders you from developing a good screenplay.

My advice would be to focus on the premise, first while keeping your limitations in mind. Try to explain your story in 2 to 3 sentences. From there, map it out so that you have a nice story arch and then write a nice 2 to 5 page treatment. Once you have the treatment, you can decide what you want to keep and what you want to take away either for the story or for budget's sake or both.

But the most important thing you can do if you're trying to limit your scenes and locations is to consider what that scene and location does to drive the story. Only use what you need to use to say what you have to say. Anything more is a luxury, only granted to those with a lot of money.
 
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I'd definitely read a lot about screenwriting, aside from the famous ones I like Paul Joseph Gulino's 'Screenwriting -the Sequence Approach' (try Google Books -it's all there). Dara Marks (whose webinars I'd recommend, e.g http://conference121.eventbrite.co.uk/ ) wrote an excellent book called 'Inside Story'. But the quicker answer lies in your viewing.'Buried' takes places entirely inside a coffin. Watch that as an extreme but successful example of restricted locations.
 
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hi pal,
No worries. only thing you need to learn is developing your screenplay in such a way that you should use these locations effectively and you might be having lengthy scenes, so how would you keep audience engaged and can keep playing with camera in and around all the locations will be a key, good luck and let me know in case you need any further support.
rgds
 
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Think of it like a stageplay. I do not mean write it like a stageplay, because stageplays usually come off stiff or wooden when adapted too directly to film. What I mean is that virtually every stageplay produced in the last few centuries has had to tell its entire story in only a handful of (or often only one) locations. This is for practical concerns of course, since they can close the curtain and change the set pieces only so many times. Yet they still manage to tell full-length, continuously dramatic stories. If you really need to write a film with only a couple locations it might be wise to read some good plays to see how they pulled off drama with limited space. Reservoir Dogs could easily be adapted into a stageplay. Some great limited films adapted from stageplays include Glengarry Glenross and 12 Angry Men. And even in film form, the storytellers only needed to add one or two short scenes in additional locations.
 
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MrJay said:
lol wow, sorry my name isn't Quentin Tarrantino. Geez give me a break I'm just trying to learn the craft man. I'm 20 years old.

Can someone please answer the question without being a smart ass?
Click to expand...

Age is irrelevant, I'm 20, these people give you the best advice regardless of your age so you should appreciate it.

I'm writing my first feature at the moment, without the (sometimes ruthless) advice of the people on this forum, I'd be nowhere near ready to take it on.

I wish you the best of luck with it though.
 
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I'm not so sure that locations have a ton to do with your budget either. They could of course, but my current project is a very low budget, and has probably somewhere along the lines of 10 locations if not a few more. I am just mindful of my limits, so I think of locations available to me already, or easy public locations (the lake for example). I make these work in with my story and it works out pretty well. Of course there are limits to this, for example it would be hard to write a Star Wars screenplay in this manner.
 
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however, it is important to stick to a schedule/routine when you write

taking your time is helpful, too, and just like writing a short, know your characters really well, build a strong treatment, card out your major plot and turning points, then go to a script, and rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. or at least thats my method
 
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