Steven Morris's Lounge Discussions

Welcome to LA Jessica. I just moved here myself and looking to collaborate with other writers. Hope we can meet someday

Hey Jessica, good to finally meet you!

Hi Jessica. Welcome. I would like some feedback on my pilot as well. Maybe we should help each other

Hi Jessica, nice to meet u!

Look here - http://www.hishousemedia.com

What's good, Teo!

Living life, moving one step at a Shawn. Whats good with you?

hi

My man... I'm a working actor, producer, screenwriter finishing another screenplay. Lead storyteller for BIG BOSS FILMS in Denver.... Basically, I'm not shit, jus another dude trying to get out of the d-league :) What about U? What are your goals on S32?

I enjoy networking man, I made my debut in film earlier this year in February and each month has thankfully been more lucrative than the one before whether it be through the knowledge I have attained, experience I've accumulated, or people i have had the honor of meeting.

Correct Dan, plenty of shit movies in every era, but we tend to comment on what's current.

Agree with Dan. And just thinking off the top of my head of films that pioneered various elements of CGI - Avatar, Titanic, Final Fantasy, Fight Club, Toy Story, Lords of the Ring, Tron, even Westworld - there is a lot of story/plot/character development in those films.

People who complain and think otherwise should go see Logan, Wonder Woman, Transformers, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, and the upcoming Planet of the Apes installment, but I kinda guess that they really don't get out to the local theaters much, and probably really don't get out much anywhere else, either.

I think the problem right now is an over-reliance on pre-existing intellectual properties, that studios think have such a built in audience that story development isn't being given much thought. The reason that big dollar FX may seem to be the culprit is that much of this IP right now seems to be in the sci-fi/fantasy area and studios are just focusing on the FX and the spectacle, rather than digging into the story and finding about what made the property popular to begin with.

congrats...good luck

That is awesome news!!!! Hope this keeps going for ya!!

Good luck --- keep us posted. Fine work you've done!

Wonderful!

Well I didn't advance, but I have entered another contest and see what they say. And I'm talking to a few people via the Internet. Maybe someone will grab it.

Hi Anthony from time to time Screenwriting U holds a free rewrite teleconference which I've taken and enjoyed. You can check their site at http://www.screenwritingu.com. best, Diane

Always outline your script before you start. You don't build a house without a blueprint. My best advice would be to read Linda Seger's "Making a Good Script Great" and follow the suggestions.

I start macro and then go micro -- meaning start with the overarching stuff like structure, beats, character development, voice, etc. and then go smaller with scene work, dialogue, tightening narrative, stuff like that. When you do it that way it's actually RE-WRITING instead of EDITING.

You have great advice. Try printing, then checking line by line (which I hate bth) and if you have someone you trust hopefully another writer, have them read it for clarity/feedback. Erik's advice to get Dr. Seger's book is a great idea, the woman is a pro. Good luck.

Do I have to put tech stuff into a script ...I know you have to put action .....but lighting uh oh me no understand ....

Cafes. All the background noise keeps me focused. The other perk is that cafes provide an endless supply of characters and overheard dialogue ideas,

This is going to sound really depressing but I like being shut in my room with the blinds shut and dark lighting while I sit on my bed and write. Or sometimes I like to sit near a window where I can see the sky (I'm hoping it would be blue and not the saddening grey). And in the future of an established career (hopefully), I would like to have a house by the beach where I would write.

In a bar. At my computer. In the tub.

@Eric. So you liked Trumbo, did ya?

I also sit in a chair in front of Dan's computer....

If you want to start writing try this. Write a single scene of two people in a room talking. The entire world we live in boils down to people interacting with people. See if you can tell a story with as few a words as possible. Think of Hans Solo about to be frozen in Carbonite. There could have been some huge exchange between him and the Princess. But they made it heart breaking with five words. Princess "I love you" Han "I know"

Record all of those ideas, then go back later and try fleshing them out. Develop the ones that you find "have legs." :)

Alden, congrats on starting to learn. thats great. but youre asking the wrong questions. youre years away from being ready to pitch or look at pitch sites or agents. Just learn the craft. you will NOT sell a pitch unlesd thetes an insanely good script written already to back it up. stop worrying about selling and just keep reading, writing and learning.

Hey Alden. Click on Blog from the top menu bar and then hit the Screenwriting tag on the blog page. You'll find dozens and dozens of screenwriting guest blogs posted here from the last 5 years.

You can read all of the 2016 awards scripts. In many cases reading them will be a lot more painless than watching them and you can avoid the Coca-Cola ads.

INT. PLANE (MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN) - SUNSET GUARDS beam a green, four-foot FUGITIVE. He whistles and dangles feet. Flashes over to an intimidatingly beautiful, SIREN who shifts uncomfortable. His infatuation latches on her. GUARD: Quiet or tighten those shackles. Louder whistling. A guard breaks the seated line of security. Cautiously advances. GUNS COCK. Guards shift. The fugitive winks at the siren. She stiffens. BOOM. The plane swerves, debris and flames burst from the cockpit. Guards topple over. Masks drop. Chaos erupts. The fugitive shape shifts into human form, pulverizes all the guards in two flashes of the lights. Snags a parachute, straps it on. Kicks open the plane door. FUGITIVE: This is my stop. -- Hocus pocus ain’t gonna on work me, witch! He extends a hand. She hesitates, accepts, swings onto his back. They hop out the plane.

I'm shy, until I figure what I truly want and if its truly necessary.

@Dan MaxXx if you're going to push,... only push as much and you can handle being pushed back. I'm pushy, I know, I've been knocked down plenty of times. So push with pure intention or be crushed when truth's unveil. I hope this helps Dan because I've been there before and thought similar gorilla tactics, but we're not gorillas, and neither are they. You can't charm a gorilla indefinitely. If you do, you may have a job at the Animal Channel. Good luck lol!

Okay this is the best advice you will ever hear. If you are talking about the business side of your writing then learn some marketing techniques, it can be simple. I'd listen to two podcasts 1) Seth Godin's Startup School 2) the beancast. They have nothing to do with writing, but they will get you thinking about things like product, position etc. When it comes to promotion there are only two things that matter, reach and frequency. You have to get in front of the right people often enough to be remembered. There is an underlying assumption that your message is correct. If your message is wrong you will be remembered for that. So if your message makes you look like an ill prepared amateur then you will be remembered in that way. There is another thought. Which is find a promising person their way up (before anyone else recognises their talent) and help them. Be a friend and they will return that help. James Cameron told a story about Sam Worthington. He said Sam had to delay a meeting by a day, because Sam was helping someone move house. That person will never forget that, that sort of loyalty people will die to repay. As shameless self promotion you can also listen to 'Making Business and Sales Work' my podcast from years ago on iTunes.

Not huge on self-promotion, but I think one issue many writers have is that rather bizarre (imo) fear of their ideas getting "stolen" and as a result they sit on their work rather than getting it out there. You have to be willing to share it if you ever want to do anything with it. I always figure that while someone can take my ideas and run with them (because ideas are free to all) the chances of an exec really wanting to steal anything of mine would be kind of flattering, lol. Most of the people so worried about their work being stolen don't have much to worry about, because it's usually not something worth stealing. Take normal precautions, do a little research, but get the work out there.

Dan MaxXx: And the dozen or so rejections that she encountered - including one with a "don't quit your day job" reply - didn't stop her from continuing to try...and try...and try.... ...and the rest, as they say...is history. What a trooper JK Rowling is. Now get yourself out there, M.F.! Heh-heh. (Good luck!)

Well everyone's mountain is different, or there's no mountain at all. Perhaps it's really ourselves we're battling, our will. Tackling one goal at a time and moving on to the next may be a better approach. Small steps. Work your way through. And tunnel vision can also be a good thing. You focus on your goals, avoid distractions and ignore naysayers. Being visionary sometimes means going against the grain. So perhaps go around the mountain. Take a different path. But whatever you do, just keep going. ;)

@Claude @Beth I'm on my lunch break. Pondering the responses. I've decided my mountain needs either a stick of strategically placed dynamite, or a highly-advanced alien weapon that can convert the molecule of the mountain into a gaseous state. I'm going for the latter.

...and the beat goes on, Desiree!!

Thanks @Claude. Thank you @Linda.

I go back and re-read one of my earlier works. The comparison between where I was and where I am now gives me the inspiration to move on. Or I read a book or novel that inspires me to reach down deep and pull out a new idea that desires to be shaped into a story worthy of being a screenplay. As Jedi Master Yoda would say, "There is no try, there is only do or do not do."

I've recently read some great articles and script examples where the main character / hero could be viewed as the antagonist or cases where the mentor / sidekick character takes the shape of antagonist. Matrix, Indiana Jones, and Romancing the Stone come to mind as blended examples. In those instances there is clearly room for empathy towards the antagonist. The definition leaves room for the antagonist to be any character. Indiana Jones, Neo & Morpheus, and Joan Wilder while these are the main characters typically viewed as the pro, are the ones that opposes the evil / jerk protagonist of Nazi's, Agent's, and Jack Colton. Def: An antagonist is a character, group of characters, institution, or concept that stands in or represents opposition against which the protagonist must contend. In other words, an antagonist is a person or a group of people who opposes a protagonist.

You're not alone. Feeling empathy for antagonist strengths stories and is almost needed for survival. We don't have to defend allegations or anything about us but we do. Like storytellers want to divulge information that makes the bad guy appear normal/human. Okay they're bad people but people nonetheless and we all can relate which touches us as individuals. The Joker for example, forged by Batman had a troubled past. So while we don't approve of his actions, we say "oh that explains it." And hope the mouse gets away from the cat just once because we feel sorry for him.

The antogonist is the protagonist in his own story. He needs a well developed backstory: even Satan knows love as he was cast down from the highest throne of angels in heaven.

Steven Morris: You know, I kinda of, for a brief moment, felt empathy for the Joker in The Dark Knight. When he was telling his story as to how his father cut his face as a child. So, yeah we as human beings feel sorry for even the most evil people, once we know what made them what they are. Thanks everyone for stopping by!! Keep writing.

"Here's the everlasting rub- neither am I good nor bad"- Ian Anderson (the Jethro Tull guy, not the Ian Anderson who posts on stage 32).

I'm a night owl, so I typically work in the evening for a few hours at least. Based on your question, I also think it's worth noting that you don't have to write every day to be successful. There's more to being a writer than putting words on a page. For example, one of my "writing" goals is to watch or read one new thing (as a TV writer, it's usually an episode of a show) each day, and I count that as a sort of "writer's education", because I learn from what I'm watching or reading. Some people do write every day, and that's great. Find a system that works for you....some people (even in this thread) get up at 5AM to write - again, awesome for them, but if I did that I'd just fall back asleep and drool all over my keyboard. The real question is, are you giving it your best? And you yourself are the only person who can really answer that.

Clever Jim. I see what you did there. What a great analogy, Matt. I erased homework from my vocabulary after graduation. I'll find it though and create my own assignments. Funny thing, I use to do the brainstorm thing they teach you in English class. Jot down a bunch of crap, non stop. Found it works well. I guess when was making excuses, I couldn't consider how to get it done. And I'm a how to get it done person. Thanks for all suggestions. They shall not fall on deaf ears.

When I had my day job and often worked 48 hours a week doing manual labor, my rule was that I had to write one good page before going to work. Only one page. I carved out an hour every day for that page... and the pages added up. To 3 screenplays a year. http://sex-in-a-sub.blogspot.com/2016/01/film-courage-how-to-be-producti...

Maybe get in the habit of jotting down notes or recording messages when inspiration strikes at inopportune times. Then pull these out to ignite your imagination when you do have time to commit pen to paper.

Lol I do. I carry the pocket size composition notebooks around all the time.

What is Ginger, Judith? Kevin: LOL I must be doing it wrong then, I start with the screenplay then devise a logline for it. I'm one of those writers that doesn't start off knowing all the twists and turns in the story until I fully write it. Afterwards I can do a pretty good job of coming up with a logline/summarizing it, but not until then. Makes for an interesting conundrum, I tell you. -G.R.B.

Hi G.R., Ginger is soft ware that helps the writer edit and it will also read aloud what you have written. I love mine. It does not care what the words are the reader plows right on. LOL.

G.R., you can check it out. www.gingersoftware.com/download

I agree with Kevin. Loglines are the worst. It's hard enough to keep a story under 100 pages, then to write a 2 page summary, but one sentence to capture interest is nearly impossible.

Loglines not so bad. Go to logline.it for practice, helping other really sharpens your own skill. But a treatment I hate. I know my ending when I start and how it will flow. But I am crap at prose, so treatment is hard.

I think it's a perfect summation Regina. It certainly highlights what I meant when saying, worry about learning the business and the craft and it will serve you as a writer much better than picking apart what others are doing. There are countless roads in but only one destination.

Thank you, Laurie, because I know that I'm a crappy "summarizer," exacerbated by the fact that I'm often trying to write quickly so I can get back to the 10-page outline that I need to respond to now! :-)

And agree with Laurie - in terms of career growth, we can each only work on ourselves and what is in our own control. In terms of non-entertainment societal change and social good, of course, you have to worry about changing hearts, minds, laws - but that has little to do with this thread. :-)

Hey everyone, the latest blog post is in response to some of these questions/thoughts about S32 and "success," perhaps give it a read: https://www.stage32.com/blog/A-Summation-of-Successful-Successes#comments. :)

Personally speaking, "what makes a story good" - or any piece of art - is if I like it. That answer is purely subjective and a personal answer, based on my own needs and aesthetic values. I would never question someone's proclamation on their belief that something is "good." Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I'm not arrogant or misguided to believe otherwise. If Doug would have asked, "what are the elements of story-telling?", then the conversation would certainly be different.

Check out ROAD WARRIOR - all kinds of information through Max's actions. The key is to make sure the actions give us specific information about the character - and not just the surface of the character, but what makes them tick. I did a class at 3 Rivers Screenwritring Conference a few weeks ago where I used a multiple Oscar winner as an example of how to show deep character through actions (and situations). There are all kinds of Oscar winning films about people who can't (or don't) speak or hear, so it has nothing to do with the amount of dialogue... only the skill of the writer and the quality of their visual storytelling.

Clint Eastwood famously removed pages of dialogue from the spaghetti western scripts because he was able to convey so much more with a simple look.

Less is more. David, or Eastwood said it best.

Thanks for all the great advice.

Not to change the subject, but Laurie's link to readwatchwrite.com reminded me about Brad Johnson's 52-Week Script Challenge. He has PDF links to great scripts there, and the stories are across genres. The link also goes back a few years. Here's the link: http://readwatchwrite.com/the-52-script-challenge-2016-edition/ Great post as usual, Laurie!

Laurie: Thanks. You are too kind x 100 with your time. I get it. I must say when I was writing, The Secret Dancer, which is loose biographical (my story) I listened to free style dance songs of that year (1984) to get in the mood, to transport me back to the experiences I lived. Anyway, I very grateful for ALL your tips and I will apply them, which is very soon, I start my rewrite for that screenplay. You are a blessing and a gift to this community.

Hi Laurie, maybe you're thinking about TIME AFTER TIME? http://variety.com/2004/film/markets-festivals/wild-pitch-is-just-in-tim...

Hi Regina - I hadn't read that story, thanks! That wasn't the script I meant though, it was a spec script that was sent out with a CD and the writer had notes within the pages as to play track # _ here, and there was a disclaimer in the front that said they didn't have to play the disc but it would make the story more enjoyable if they did. I usually remember everything, for some reason I'm blanking -- it will come to me.

Yes! My brain works. It was Zach Helms' STRANGER THAN FICTION. He distributed the script with a CD of punk rock, really wanting to invoke a grittier script that what ended up being on screen.