Post by George Willson on Sept 28, 2005 18:00:24 GMT -5
In May, I had read a request from someone on a screenwriting message board I frequent at www.simplyscripts.com for a someone to help with a story. Not doing much writing-wise at the time, I volunteered to help.
He said he wanted a story of a boy who contacted aliens on a CB radio and then gave some scenarios he wanted to happen. The cast was to be all male between the ages of 12-16 and limited to no more than 10. He also indicated a limited budget and some options for locations.
Ok, no problem. I set to work and drew up a basic outline in a few days. He was cool with that and said I had 4 weeks to write it. I was hoping for more time since my outline had a few holes in it, and that's quick for a screenplay.
Well, I completed it just under the wire and sent to him what amounted to a first draft with my spelling and grammar checked. It was only 70 pages. A typical length is at least 90, so I was a little disappointed, but knew that some sequences would take more time on screen than they did on paper. At a minute per page, we're looking at about 70 minutes. He was overjoyed and set to work at the beginning of June.
I had some scant communication from him keeping me updated on his progress and occasionally apologizing for all the changes his improvisaional actors were making to the dialogue. I told him not to worry about it. Dialogue is my weakest skill, and they'd probably come up with better jokes anyway.
A few weeks ago, he told me the movie was done. He had finished cutting it together and considered uploading a rough cut of it for me to see. I said I'd like to see it, but he was never able to get the files small enough for the upload. Oh well. He said he'd burn it onto a DVD and send that to me.
Yesterday, I got the DVD. I watched it with anticipation. The production was amateurish, but I didn't mind. I still got a kick out of it. I was overjoyed to find most of my dialogue intact with minimal changes. They followed some of the scenes as I had written them, but some means there were a LOT of changes. Most of them appeared to be for budgetary reasons.
The length of the final cut? 33 minutes. That's a lot of cuts. The story mostly worked out the way I had conceived of it. There were some pieces missing whose importance I guess they missed in the reading. I think the script could have used some more work, but hey, I did it in under a month, and that includes moments of "where in the world am I going to go with this" moments. The outline contained several instances of STUFF HAPPENS in it.
If you want to read my version of the script, it is here. If you want to see the movie, I'll have to see about the files on the CD he sent and see what I can come up with. It's amusing, but at the same time, it is my first movie (complete with my name misspelled as George Wilson) in the credits.
He said he wanted a story of a boy who contacted aliens on a CB radio and then gave some scenarios he wanted to happen. The cast was to be all male between the ages of 12-16 and limited to no more than 10. He also indicated a limited budget and some options for locations.
Ok, no problem. I set to work and drew up a basic outline in a few days. He was cool with that and said I had 4 weeks to write it. I was hoping for more time since my outline had a few holes in it, and that's quick for a screenplay.
Well, I completed it just under the wire and sent to him what amounted to a first draft with my spelling and grammar checked. It was only 70 pages. A typical length is at least 90, so I was a little disappointed, but knew that some sequences would take more time on screen than they did on paper. At a minute per page, we're looking at about 70 minutes. He was overjoyed and set to work at the beginning of June.
I had some scant communication from him keeping me updated on his progress and occasionally apologizing for all the changes his improvisaional actors were making to the dialogue. I told him not to worry about it. Dialogue is my weakest skill, and they'd probably come up with better jokes anyway.
A few weeks ago, he told me the movie was done. He had finished cutting it together and considered uploading a rough cut of it for me to see. I said I'd like to see it, but he was never able to get the files small enough for the upload. Oh well. He said he'd burn it onto a DVD and send that to me.
Yesterday, I got the DVD. I watched it with anticipation. The production was amateurish, but I didn't mind. I still got a kick out of it. I was overjoyed to find most of my dialogue intact with minimal changes. They followed some of the scenes as I had written them, but some means there were a LOT of changes. Most of them appeared to be for budgetary reasons.
The length of the final cut? 33 minutes. That's a lot of cuts. The story mostly worked out the way I had conceived of it. There were some pieces missing whose importance I guess they missed in the reading. I think the script could have used some more work, but hey, I did it in under a month, and that includes moments of "where in the world am I going to go with this" moments. The outline contained several instances of STUFF HAPPENS in it.
If you want to read my version of the script, it is here. If you want to see the movie, I'll have to see about the files on the CD he sent and see what I can come up with. It's amusing, but at the same time, it is my first movie (complete with my name misspelled as George Wilson) in the credits.