John August

QandA

Portraying "endurance"

QandA

I am working on a screenplay where I am trying to portray extreme endurance
on the part of the main character. The problem is I am afraid that my method
of illustrating this leads to a sort of monotony in my script. What creative
approaches could I use to portray redundancy while maintaining the momentum
of the story?

–Jonathan

If "endurance" is shown by having the character run for pages and
pages, then yes, I think you’re right to worry that your script will be monotonous.
But one of the amazing things about both movies and screenplays is that they
can compress space and time to great effect.

For example, let’s say you had your character run from New York City to Miami
without stopping. That’s pretty extreme endurance. If this action were supposed
to take five days, you’d probably want to show the passage of time in some
form: sunrises, sunsets, and shadows sweeping past in time-lapse. Maybe there
would be rain storms that come and go. If your runner were a man, maybe you’d
notice his beard growing.

Next, you’d need to show how far he’s running. You could cheese out and show
a map of the Eastern seaboard, with an animated line charting his progress.
Or, perhaps more cinematically, you could show his journey in relation to major
geographic icons: running across the Brooklyn Bridge, through the Washington
Mall, down the Georgia coast and into the heart of Miami’s hotel district.

Regardless of exactly how you show the journey, I suspect you could do it
all in less than a minute of screen time, which means less than a page of script.
That’s a pretty economical way to establish this information.

Got the story, but I can’t write

QandA, Treatments

Is it possible to sell a "story," "treatment," or "outline" instead
of the full script? I see separate story & screenplay credits on films
all the time. I’ve got some great ideas, but have no screenwriting skills and
I believe they would make great films. What can I do?

–Edward Brock

The "story" and "screenplay" credits you see on movies
are actually determined by the Writers Guild after the movie is finished, and
don’t necessarily mean that one person wrote a treatment and someone else wrote
the script. Often a person getting story credit did write a script, but a later
writer changed so much that only the essence of the story remained, thus reducing
the credit. (For the record, "Written by" means the writer receives
both "story" and "screenplay" credit. The rules are so
complicated and contentious I recommend you don’t even think about it unless
you’re lucky enough to get a studio movie produced.)

In Hollywood, a person with a great idea and no writing talent is called a
producer. Or a studio executive. Or a bag boy at Ralphs.

I’m being glib, but it’s true. Treatments or pitches from non-writers rarely
go anywhere. What can and does happen is that a person with a great idea pairs
up with a real writer and either (a) decides to work on it together, or (b)
somehow convinces a third party to pay the writer to write it. This is how
studios develop movies "in-house," and how a lot of producers function.

My advice? Find a writer. If there’s a known writer who’s perfect for it,
hunt her down through her agent. Or find someone who’s written a really good
script, maybe out of a screenwriting program, and convince them to do it. It
won’t be easy, but that’s how to do it.

Dead rapper’s mom is calling the shots

Producers, QandA

I have a situation
that is very complex. I’m in the process right now of producing a movie with
the mother of a famous rapper who was killed. This will be a feature film about
his life as a youngster up until his death. The problem is, she wants us to
also use the screenwriter who wrote the first draft of the script, who she
has a personal relationship with. How do we deal with this situation once the
director gets involved?

–D

Carefully. And prepare for it to get rough.

I’m including your question not because I can offer you any real help, but
to remind readers that producers don’t have an easy life. Aspiring screenwriters
tend to think of producers as sharks or gurus, but often they’re people like
D struggling to make a movie under difficult circumstances.

Just a guess, but I suspect the screenwriter who wrote the first draft is
inexperienced, and may not be up for the task. If D or the director decides
to replace him, who’s the bad guy? If the mother freaks out, who’s going to
deal with her?

The real world, outside of the safety of 12-point Courier, is chock full of
these uncomfortable situations, and producers aren’t always the bad guys.

Do I show my scripts or my short?

Film Industry, QandA

I have just finished my first feature APPLESEED LAKE which
I wrote/directed/produced on a very low budget. I am now at the stage where
I am preparing
to show it to people whilst at the same time writing my follow up script. Would
it help me get (writing) representation by showing agents the finished film?
Or should I just stick to showing prospective agents scripts that I have written?

–Peter

If you’re interested in both writing and directing, you’ll obviously want
to find an agent who handles both fields. Both your screenplay and your feature
will be important at some stage.

Because of the time commitment involved, not many agents are apt to pop in
a videotape to check out a low-budget movie from someone they’ve never heard
of. The odds of suckage are just too high. They are, however, more likely to
crack open a script. Your instincts are right.

If your film gets into some festivals, however, that can be a great way to
get the process started. Say an agent sees your film and introduces herself.
That’s a tremendous opportunity to talk about the scripts you’ve written and
offer one to read. Most writer/directors at a film festival don’t have representation
going in, and smart agents will always be looking for new talent.