Reynaldo Leal's Lounge Discussions

Hi Rey, great to have you in the community! I'm Molly, the Screenwriting Contest Coordinator at Stage 32. If you're ever interested in entering a script into one of our contests, please check out the Script Services tab and shoot me an email at contests@stage32.com if you have any questions. Glad we're connected!

Depends what stage you are at in your career and what suits the film you want to make. A genre does not make a voice. If you are in an experimental phase, try and differentiate as much as you creatively can or want to. If you are starting to find traction of have, use the voice that has already been recognised and build upon it. Hope that helps!

I think you should write according to the idea that you have in mind at that moment and you are passionate about developing.

After a lot of trial and error - if you're serious/dedicated/addicted to screenwriting - you'll find your own comfort spot. It took me several years to settle into my 'happy place' (comedic/paranormal - like Beetlejuce).

There are too many variables and while one executive might be looking for television pilots in the vein of horror, another may be looking for features in the genre of true story. To second CJ's post, don't limit your creativity.

your first script should be the genre you are passionate about. Why? Because it's the passion of that genre that will help you open your laptop and keep writing and get it finished. It's the passion that will get you through another darn re-write or handle rejection or coverage notes.

After that I think it is good to try different genres as it helps you with tone, voice, mood, settings, dialogue etc an you get better at your craft - which is telling s story.

Naturally we all gravitate to a genre that we love writing in but I would say don't limit yourself to just that genre. Have a go at something else, even if it's just 1 polished script to show your breadth.

I use parentheses for the first instance with the spoken language indicated - EG: (in Spanish), and write the text in italic. All future instances of text written in italic will be spoken in that language until stated otherwise - EG: (in Italian).

I second Stefano - although if you want the opposing character to not understand or something along thoe lines, feel free to type it in Spanish as it easily communicates that.

Welcome, Reynaldo Leal. If a character speaks Spanish, I write it in English, then put "In Spanish" in ( ). If a character (or two characters) speaks in Spanish for a long time, I put a note in action description (something like "She speaks in Spanish") and bold the note. I do this to save space.

As long as you write it in a way where your intentions on how the audience will see it are clear its ok. The easiest way to do this is to write the English dialogue normally and under the character heading write for example "(In Spanish, Subtitled)" for the Spanish dialogue and write that dialogue in English but in italics.