MARAUDING FILMS

Well I just finished a rewrite on the first draft yesterday and I’ve already found a new place to try it out on, www.your-insider.com. I read about it in the new “Creative Screenwriting” magazine I picked up at Borders last night.

Why did I choose to spend $77(it’s actually $87 up from $57 at premiere but if you mention “creative screenwriting” you get a ten dollar discount.) on this new outlet? First if he likes the script, he’ll try to front it through his connections. Yeah, we’ve all heard this, but there has got to be some people who can do this right? Or else we’d all walk around with negative thoughts and not show or promote our scripts. What I really like though is he said he will give notes depending on what the script needs. If it needs 2 pages or if it needs 10 pages it will receive it. I will keep you posted and look forward to reviewing this new service.

That’s right and I just finished a rewrite of my script “Death rides shotgun”. It was a tough ride. I found a couple books on the subject but they really only contained a first chapter on the subject and the rest was dedicated to screenwriting basics. Something that did catch my eye though was that you should look at rewriting as a chance to get it right. Like a armchair quarterback or having twenty twenty hindsight. What’s tough to get past is moving on. I just want to move on to the next project. I think in some ways I maybe afraid to look at it again.for fear of finding writing that is subpar and not as good as I remember writing.it.

The biggest problem I found was reading the script. Let me explain. While reading it I have a tendency to make corrections as I read. As long as they are grammer and spelling they don’t seem to hamper the read,(currently I am in the process of relearning grammer). The problem comes up when you find dialogue or Action that you don’t care for or maybe you don’t understand it, (this has happened). I start to find myself bogged down in these details and I lose my place when I leave the keyboard to think it over and quickly forget about it.

So I have developed a technique that works for me. I read through quickly just making grammer and spelling corrections. While reading I have a stack of index card which I number according to scenes. On the top I will put a brief description and number. If I don’t like the scene I put why in the body of the card. I also put a star next to the scene number and then I put back in the stack. This way when I am done reading I can pull a card and think the scene over, leaving it on my keyboard so I don’t forget and can constantly have it near the top of my thoughts. It works good.

I’ve been gone for awhile mainly cause I don’t see the life of a filmmaker that interesting but I guess it’s not supposed to super exciting and it will help flesh out my thoughts so stick with me. So now that my script is finished I am going to try to send it out into the world. This will involve coverage, consulting, cold calling, contests and pitchfest and lots more. I will keep you up to date with the ups and the downs as I learn to take a script from my desk to sale or production. I think I will try a service called Virtualpitchfest. com first as it seems very easy and targeted. I could be wrong but at ninety bucks I won’t be out that much and it’s a start. They say you’ll get a reply in five days. I’ll let you know.