Screenwriting

I like that pun, Banafsheh Esmailzadeh. I like puns, but I don't think I've used any in my stories. Thanks for the idea.

You're welcome, Maurice Vaughan, and thank you :D I also like anagrams but I'm hilariously bad at them (I didn't even clue in that "Neo" is an anagram of "One" until it was pointed out to me lol, that's how bad I am), so I stick to my strength with puns. You can do so much with them, it's a blast :D

I didn't know "Neo" is an anagram of "One," Banafsheh Esmailzadeh. I want to try using an anagram now. Maybe in a Mystery script.

Hi, Meriem Bouziani. Hope you’re having a great weekend too. I haven't pitched to an executive live yet, but Stage 32 has a verbal TV pitch beat sheet and a verbal feature pitch beat sheet. You can get them by emailing success@stage32.com.

Here's three Lounge posts with pitch advice:

www.stage32.com/lounge/screenwriting/Pitch-Advice

www.stage32.com/lounge/screenwriting/Pitching-44

www.stage32.com/lounge/screenwriting/Why-Pitching-Matters-And-How-to-Mak...

The Pitch Practice in the Writers' Room is the best pitching resource in my opinion. Pitch Practice is every Thursday night at 5:30 P.M. PST/8:30 P.M. EST. You can sit in and listen to members practice their projects and give them feedback. You can pitch your project too, but you have to sign up. The hosts, Noel Thompson and John Mezes, take names during Pitch Practice for people to pitch the following week. You have to sit in and listen at the practice one or two times before you can pitch. You can sign up for your first month of the Writers’ Room free here: www.stage32.com/writers-room/plans-vip

The Pitch Tank in the Writers’ Room is an incredible pitching resource too. The Pitch Tank is where you pitch your script to an executive and get feedback. The Pitch Tank is once a month.

Stage 32 also has a free pitch webinar: www.stage32.com/education/products/pitching-tips-from-the-pros-your-blue...

Thank you very much for your help.

Yes, the Writers’ Room feels like the best space to practice pitching. I’ll definitely join it Maurice Vaughan

You're welcome, Meriem Bouziani. Great. There's a lot to do in the Writers' Room. I hope those pitch resources help!

If I'm doing a phone pitch I have my script ready to go. I'll rehearse it several times to make sure it's not to long and that helps me make sure I reach all the things I want to tell them.

Always finish up with "I'd be happy to answer any questions you have." It helps sounding confident and willing to to work with them.

Good luck.

Thank you very much for your help.

I wish you the best of luck as well Bill Albert

Hi, Tatiana McClintock. Happy Thanksgiving! I’m a Stage 32 Lounge Moderator. I wanted to let you know that I moved your post from the Acting Lounge to the Screenwriting Lounge since it's about the Writers' Room. Let me know if you have any questions.

You can sign up for your first month of the Writers’ Room free here: www.stage32.com/writers-room/plans-vip

There's a lot of perks in the Writers’ Room:

You can submit your scripts to Open Writing Assignments (OWAs). Here's a post that explains what a Stage 32 OWA is: www.stage32.com/lounge/screenwriting/What-is-an-OWA

The Coverage Reports are every Monday. WR members read a member's script and write feedback on the script before the Coverage Report, then everyone gives their feedback during the Coverage Report.

There's an Executive Hour webcast every week where an executive comes in and talks about the industry, gives advice, etc.

Pitch Practice is every Thursday night at 5:30 P.M. PST/8:30 P.M. EST. You can sit in and listen to members practice their projects and give them feedback. You can pitch your project too, but you have to sign up. The hosts, Noel Thompson and John Mezes, take names during Pitch Practice for people to pitch the following week. You have to sit in and listen at the practice before you can pitch (I think once or twice). One night each month is the Pitch Practice Happy Hour where everyone hangs out and gets to know each other better. I think it's the 3rd or 4th week every month.

The Pitch Tank in the Writers’ Room is an incredible pitching resource too. The Pitch Tank is where you pitch your script to an executive and get feedback. The Pitch Tank is once a month.

There's a Writers' Cafe different times throughout the week. The Writers' Cafe is like a writing accountability group/encouragement group.

There's also a private Writers’ Room Lounge for members to network, ask questions, and more.

The Writer's Toolkit. The toolkit has documents to help you on your screenwriting journey. Documents like scripts you can read, pitch decks, a query letter template, etc.

And there are other WR perks (I'm copying and pasting from the "Frequently Asked Questions" section on the Writers' Room portal page):

10% off Stage 32 Coverage, Consultations, Contest entries

10% off Stage 32 Next Level Education Labs and Classes

Annual members receive 1 (one) free contest entry per year

Surprise Perks including Free webinars, discounted Pitch Sessions, and more! The savings that you’ll get on the services pays for the Writers’ Room membership! The more you utilize the Stage 32 services, the more valuable the membership becomes!

Hi, Salisu Abdullahi. I’m a Stage 32 Lounge Moderator. I wanted to let you know I moved your post from the Introduce Yourself Lounge to the Screenwriting Lounge since it's about screenwriting. You can talk about this in your introduction post, but you need to introduce/reintroduce yourself to the community. You could check out other posts in the Introduce Yourself Lounge to get ideas for your introduction post. Let me know if you have any questions.

Phone Booth is one of my favorite Contained Thrillers. It's a unique Contained Thriller because it's in a phone booth and everyone's watching the protagonist.

"At what point does a limited setting stop serving the story and start feeling repetitive or claustrophobic for the audience?" A Contained Thriller can start feeling repetitive and bore the reader/audience. I like to add exterior shots of the location and add exterior scenes so the story doesn't feel repetitive. I also like to have the protagonist/characters leave the house, building, etc. to go outside sometimes, like at the midpoint of the script.

"What's the smallest space you've successfully used for a full feature-length script, and how did you keep the visual variety and tension high?" I've set a script in a room (can't remember if it was a bedroom or living room). I keep the visual variety high by using objects and giving the monster/antagonist an unique appearance and outfit. I keep the tension high by adding conflict, dilemmas, stakes, a ticking clock, and twists.

Good question. Just watched 'The Long Walk' which translated into 'The Long Watch'. At some point - the walking and talking go to be too much for me. Perhaps aim for 75 pages and find a few side locations to mix it up!

"Hi Stephen,

That is a great point about The Long Watch (or The Long Walk). You nailed it—that feeling of the setting becoming repetitive is exactly what I'm trying to avoid with The Venice Glass House.

I absolutely agree that the solution is to aim for a tighter page count and find those strategic side locations to maintain variety. I'm taking your advice to heart!

I noticed you have fantastic credits, especially on thrillers like October Burn and your production work on A&E and PBS. As a writer/producer with a discerning eye for story and production, I'd love to hear your thoughts on my specific logline for The Venice Glass House—it's a contained thriller that I've designed for the micro-budget space, keeping production logistics in mind.

Would you be open to a quick Direct Message exchange or an email to see if there's any creative synergy between what I'm writing and the kind of high-impact, independent work you produce?"

I know this is a little off-topic, but ep. 5 of All Her Fault, which I saw last night, is an example of how a screenwriter can use the midpoint of a series to really confine the action and concentrate on character dynamics - has anyone seen it? - it's intense! - and the screenwriting (Megan Gallagher?)—in this episode especially—is top class...

"Hi Michael,

That's a fantastic, insightful point! I haven't seen All Her Fault yet, but your comment on using the midpoint of a series to confine the action and concentrate on character dynamics is brilliant. It perfectly summarizes how a contained space must serve the internal drama, not just the external plot.

In writing The Venice Glass House, my goal is to let the tight setting crank up the pressure on the protagonist's emotional and psychological state.

As a fellow novelist and writer, I'd truly value your perspective on story structure. Would you be open to a quick Direct Message exchange or an email to talk more about how a contained thriller can best maximize character stakes?

Best,

Salisu"

Congratulations on getting positive feedback and several awards, David Miller! Reach out to the Success Team at success@stage32.com. Geoff and his team can help you connect with reps.

Hi, Julie Lamont. I look for a writing partner who has the same vision for the project and someone who'll be professional and respectful.

You could make a collaboration post on the Job Board (www.stage32.com/find-jobs).

Emilia Maria Agents are different internationally than in Hollywood. Here, traditionally you will find a manager first, then an agent once the money starts rolling in. The exception is if you have a film premiere at a festival like Sundance, or a script that takes off like lightning for some reason.

Julie Lamont Depends on the reboot, but most often the studios will have OWA (open writing assignments) for reboots and will go out to a handful of writers with big credits or who they're fans of.

Jon Hersh Well, I'm hoping for the latter, hah! Thanks so much, it's definitely more difficult here for any sort of representation. But will keep my eyes peeled, thanks again.

Jon Hersh thanks for the reply about reboots. I was more interested though about what if a writer has the script and pitch for a reboot the relevant network hasn’t considered yet?

Suggestions in finding a manager to represent my feature film or series screenplay will be much appreciated. Just starting on this path. Thanks!

As a viewer I actually love the opening image, becoming totally immersed in that world, as a writer I don't know yet. It's all equally daunting tbh.

I love all of it.

I think I love them all.

Each part carries a different emotional timbre.

Even though I’m still writing the script, I can already feel the distinct emotions of every section as I develop the narrative architecture.

In my case, first act is what they wanna do in their daily lives. and later i give them surprises and twist and turns like.

Another thing is that whole story is in your head entirely, but i become paralyzed when i thought what they will do in their daily chores.

Elle Bolan when McKee said that Act I is Inspiration, Act II is Craft and Act III is Philosophy, well I concur with that and I see Act I as kind of being the most fun, I can pretty much posit whatever I want as a writer and of course I will have to suffer for it later haha to make it plausible.

I love writing Act I and outlining the story beats and getting that first 25 pages built, from there the span of 75 more pages can be daunting, and one needs to create and know the ending and the better you know yourself and your world view the more easily that Philosophy is set at the end like a cornerstone,

Act II is also fun and can be the deal-breaker if it's not going well, an uphill marathon to get scenes in movement and story logic and the journey realized.

Then again maybe my favorite part is when they ride off into the sunset page 104 or whatever, finishing a screenplay even in first complete draft is an amazing creative feeling and saying YES to the Format, the Form, the Craft and the Art.

But yes in watching films I do enjoy most the opening five minutes as long as it is all new and cinematic, I am settling into my seat for the journey and the adventure.

Sometimes it's better to take a lot of time on a project, Meriem Bouziani. Something I do when I keep thinking of ideas is save them in a file to work on later, and sometimes I make a short outline for the idea to get it out of my head, then I make the outline longer later on when I'm ready to work on the project.

Thanks, Ehsan Rahimpour. Shutter Island and Bourne Identity are incredible! I still need to see Collateral.

Yes, exactly — that’s what I do as well.

I am focusing on The Silent PFC War, while also taking notes on every new idea that comes my way.

And I also develop titles for them.

Titles are the anchors I use to remember my ideas

I’ve noticed that ideas without titles are far more likely to be forgotten Maurice Vaughan

Maurice, I've got a comedy-Western ("Kitten on the Keys") and an action-crime-comedy ("Got Any More Bullets, Sister?")...but I'm more likely to (and I like to) mix comedy with drama.

I like the Comedy Western mix, Jim Boston. I haven't heard about a lot of them.

Hope the pitching goes great, Fares Moha! You could pitch your script to executives, managers, etc. through Stage 32's Pitch Sessions (www.stage32.com/scriptservices/pitch-sessions). The Pitch Sessions are mainly to get feedback on pitches, but members have gotten managers, signed shopping agreements, etc. through the sessions (www.stage32.com/scriptservices/success-stories).

And you could post your pilot script on your profile. Producers search profiles for projects. That and networking are how I sold four short scripts to a producer. Click the gear symbol in the top right-hand corner and select “Edit profile” in the drop-down menu. Scroll down to “Loglines” and click “Add/edit loglines” to the right of “Loglines.” You can also post your script on your profile this way: www.stage32.com/loglines (near the top where it says “Add a Logline”)

thank's maurice ;)

You're welcome, Fares Moha. I'm a Stage 32 Lounge Moderator. If you ever have any questions about Stage 32, let me or another Lounge Moderator know. We have badges on our pictures. Or you could email support@stage32.com.

And it's Stage 32’s policy that members have a proper first and last name or a pen name on their accounts. A lot of Stage 32 members are reluctant to accept network requests from profiles that don’t have proper names, and they’ll report the accounts as spam, which will cause the accounts to get removed.

thank you very much for your message and for your help.

No worries on my end regarding my name: my name is Fares, so everything is in order. Thanks as well for the information about connection requests and the risk of being reported as spam — I’ll be careful.

Have a great day, and I look forward to connecting on Stage 32!

You're welcome, Fares Moha. I suggest adding your last name. Have a great day too! I hope you find success on here!

Great points and tips, Fares Moha. I rewrite as I work on the first draft, but the first draft is mainly about getting the draft done.

So keep working the way you do. Take the time to build your own certainty, to strengthen what you want to say, and to feel proud of your story. After that, convincing others almost becomes a consequence, not a battle.