Christopher Chance's Lounge Discussions

Welcome to the Writers' Room, Christopher Chance. Email writersroom@stage32.com.

Congratulations on being published Christopher Chance! Really fantastic news. Keep us posted on the adaptation! And of course feel free to reach out at any point - j.mirch@stage32.com

Hey, Christopher Chance. You can delete a script in the logline section of your page. Click the edit button, then go toward the bottom of the page. If you put your mouse over the pdf button, a trash can symbol will appear. You can upload new versions of your script.

Christopher Chance yes I feel your pain;

I spent a similar chunk of time cutting a script of mine down from about 140 to 130 and wanted to get it to 110 (also an adaptation of my novel),

my sense is that, depending on the material, sometimes polishing and grinding will only get us so far;

so I went ahead and selected an entire 15-page sequence to cut and just chopped those pages out, kind of leaves a lurching gap that obviously needed to be smoothed over but perhaps you might be able to identify a sequence somewhere in Act II that can be deleted and even makes the pace of the read faster;

at that point obviously you can save that material and talk about it with interested parties later on if you think it needs to be added back in?

just kind of a temporary fix but it did give me some new insight into story structure and also a good experiment in making tough editorial choices.

Hi, Christopher.

I'm sure you're going to hear this several times, but odds are you're not making much progress in the editing because you don't want to kill your babies. There are scenes, phrases, action lines, even people that you are so attached to (because they're so good) that you find it hard to cut them. Well, you're gonna have to. Anything that does not have a direct connection to the spine of your story has to go.

It's hard. I know. We all hate it. But I'll tell you a few tricks that will help you work up to it.

1) Get rid of all your orphan lines. Those are the ones that have only one word (maybe two short ones) occupying an entire line. I guarantee you, there's a way to rephrase that particular sentence that gets rid of that extra line. If you can get rid of four orphan lines per page for 10 pages, you just reduced your page count by one. Do it 10 times... you can do the math.

(Of course, this also works on lines where you could just be more economical in phrasing.)

2) Go over every exchange of dialogue. Edit out (most) greetings and repetitions. Overt expressions of feelings can be 'shown' by character action - which takes up less space.

This has forced you to look at your script with fresh eyes, and kept your mind busy while it starts to recognize those little darlings you're about to kill.

3) Go ahead. Do it. Kill them.

Yes, you love them. They are proof of how good a writer you are. An audience would love them too...

But not in this story. They gotta go.

And if you're like most good writers, this is a minimum of three pages - excellently written, fantastically vivid - that you can and have to take out. Try not to be too sad. Mourn them, and then go make more great babies. But kill these.

4) If all else fails to get you down to that sweet spot page count for your genre, then use the last resort cheat (and I do mean last; no fair doing this first). Go to your page layout menu in your screenwriting software and click 'tight' formatting. If you write with a good amount of white space, going from 'normal' to 'tight' will reduce your page count by 4 pages or so. But again, it's a cheat. And it's not going to fool anyone if the script reads like you didn't put in the work everywhere else.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

I am ever so grateful to Jason; Pat, Maurice, Daniel and Sheila for helping me and I will endeavor to implement your advice but I am going to take a few days away from Assassins Code One and return with fresh eyes. Thank you all so much. BTW, I have downloaded the complete script for anyone who is interested.

Stepping away and coming back with fresh eyes can help, Christopher Chance.

Hi Piotr, I wish you best of luck and success.

Chris.

First off, Piotr, welcome to the community. Fantastic to have you and your talents in the mix. Second, congratulations on all your success. Truly inspirational! This platform is all about community and lifting each other up. I'd love if you'd spend a little time in the Filmmaking Lounge and share some stories regarding how you tented up these films, raised the financing, secured distribution and so on. Think it would serve to motivate and educate the tens of thousands of filmmakers we have on this platform. Cheers!

Thanks so much. That's great to hear. Always happy to chat about my work so far.

Nice to meet you too Daisy :)

Hi All, my email is jeremy@thefilmandtvcompany.com thanks. J

Hi Jeremy, welcome. I have 7 completed feature specs, one of them is optioned and another earmarked for a sequel. I live in Gt. Oakley, between Kettering and Corby, so not far from you.

Best,

Chris Chance.

Jeremy, please accept my apologies for not getting back to you in a timely manner! I am sending you the Robert Johnson Project within the hour! Pay particular attention to the ROI that can be realized!

Hi Jeremy,

What sort of films/TV projects are you looking for?

Have (3) copyrighted screenplays posted here on Stage 32 under log lines. Take a read if you like.

Way to go!

Nice to meet you Marie!

Welcome Marie! Writer/Director here working on a few projects of my own. Please let me know if I may support you in any way. Cheers! www.CaliGilbert.com

Hello Marie, tell me about it!

Best,

Chris.

I think my biggest issue is brain overload...and forgetting to come on here and respond and say hello to everyone. HELLO!!!!!!

Haha! You're not alone Marie. Hope all is well. :)

Owen, I misunderstood you. I thought the sentence you put in bold was your own... I prefer to let go of this part of the conversation. If Claude has something to say, I hope he feels free to do so.

When I feel a bit down I think about JK Rowling and how long it took for her to strike lucky, because that's what it is - LUCK. (Of course talent is part of it).

My 1st agent gave up on me with my books but instead of taking the BIG hint, I started my 3rd book.

As I started my 'map' for my book I thought it prudent to send my synopsis for my 1st book to a couple of publishers before I get too involved with my 3rd project. So off went my synopsis to supposedly closed doors and - bingo; I scored. Not only with book 1, but book 2 quickly followed. They are with Penguin/Random House and book 3 was published with Strand Publishing.UK.

I changed from books to screenwriting and I wrote an adaptation of book 1, which caught the eye of two prodcos; one of them optioned it and I found a new agent to handle proceedings. My agent told me to continue writing to build a script portfolio because when the work is produced I should have other scripts to hand simply because people will be interested and ask, 'What else have you got?'

I soon realised I must continue to get my work out there because that's my job - not my agent's job. So here I am, hoping for Lady Luck to intervene and hoping that nobody tells me I'm crap at what I do.

A friend of mine has worked as a reader for a production company for years while trying to get his own sold in the past 20 years. He has since found his niche in writing one act plays and has had them bought/performed by small production companies and schools world wide. He is thrilled. I consider myself very lucky. It's taken "only" two years to be hired and six years to see my script made into a film. (Which is only geting a release date at last, early 2018!) Yes I've gotten a foot in the door thanks to friends in the industry (and sadly that seems to be the chief way in) and I have yet to have one of my own spec scripts made or sold, but I enjoy the collaboration and challenge of taking someone else's ideas and turning them into a workable script. If I get enough of a name in my field, then maybe I'll be asked about what I have in my files to produce!

Claude, all the very best for your new project!!! I'm glad if anything in this thread inspired you.

A writer doesn't dream of riches & fame.

A true writer longs to leave behind a piece of themselves. (C.K. Webb)

Hi John and Welcome to Stage 32!

Welcome to Stage 32 John! Congrats on your win in Glasgow! Your in the right place to connect and share your ideas. Happy networking!

Hi John, a fellow Glasgow based Writer/Director here! Well done on you 48hr project success.

Welcome, John. Do feel free to get in touch anytime. Phil

Welcome!

Sent you an email.

Dan the man knows what to ask. Let's see if this guy gives us anything to work with. Those were the same questions I asked in my email.

Sounds good - Check my 'loglines' page on here to see what I do.

Best,

Chris.

Congrats!

Congratulations! I have been to that battlefield and, like Gettysburg, you can't help but feel this overwhelming emotion. Every battle is horrific, but trench warfare must have literally looked like hell on earth. Best of luck with the script!

Hi guys, I've just finished writing 'MRS RUTTER.' A feature about the lone female drug runner using a high speed RIB (fast boat), between North Africa and Spain. She does this to save the life of her man - and therein lies the tale. Action and an insight into how real drug smugglers operate. Based on a true story. Have a great weekend.