short story or screen play?

[chu]

/edit Not sure if this would be the right forum, I consider story writing an art, if not feel free to move me

Have any of you written a short story or screenplay? If so have you ever sent or thought of sending it to a movie producer?


Because right now I am working on a short story and then down the line possibly a screen play. I have had ideas for other short stories or what kind of movie I would like to see, but this one has attained all my focus, I really like what I've got going. I hate to *toot* my own horn but it's necessary to have positive encouraging thoughts about any work you do, never start thinking "...well maybe not."

 

[The Dark Elf]

It's highly unlikely it will even be looked at unless you have previous experience. They wont look at it and send it back unopened/unread to avoid any problems if they happen to do something similar and you decide to sue them.

Also consider there are thousands of people such as yourself pitching stories to producers and such every day. It's a very hard area to get into, mostly it happens from pure luck and knowing the right people. I'm not trying to put you off or anything though, please dont think that. I'm just letting you know that it'll not be easy atall. Your best bet would be to start from the bottom and move up slowly through the ranks. Or even make your own films, learning different area's and showing you mean business. Gradually using bigger budgets and eventually breaking into the indie market. By that time you should have a lot of useful contacts and be in a much better position to pitch idea's and storylines.

Or maybe take a job as a runner, move up a different area like lighting or camera work, often the successful writers have gone that way and while its taken time to get where they want to be, they've got a good deal of inside knowledge behind them, and are well aware how sneaky people in the industry can and will be.

Or try your local TV station, their more likely to listen, but even then its not easy. The show I'm the lead designer on has been well established for the past twenty odd years with a huge fan base, and even then its not proving easy. Something new is even more of a struggle.

However the short story route, thats possibly an easy way to begin. Though I don't have intimate knowledge of that industry. But it does seem relativly simple to get short stories published with others in compilations. Then at some point a publisher / agent usually suggests longer works if what your doing is popular. But again I'm not too sure about that. Maybe get yourself an agent or have a chat to a few, maybe contact a few publishers and talk to them, try asking them questions and such instead of trying to push the short story, I think they respond more to that approach, they probably get tons of people contacting them and saying they have this story that they think is really good, like the producers. So maybe going the long way around it might work more to your advantage?

Hope none of this has put you off though. Hope you do get something worked out and see your name in lights, that would be cool

ooh, you could always consider that Source films.. maybe make your first story in the source engine with them? millions cheaper than a pro CG or live action film, and much easier. and looks far better than a fan made film done on some low end DV camera. And you never know who might be a fan of HL2 and like what the source film thing has done and just happen to be looking for people to work on their next big project.

Good luck anyway

 

[chu]

You just don't quit with your good advice, do you? :cheese:

It doesn't put me off, I know there will be lots of work and dedication to fulfill either route. I don't plan on it being anything close to a short term goal, right now it's just a hobby and maybe sometime down the road it will progress to something bigger. I know that chances are it will never happen, but I am still going to try and keep the drive to achieve this, someway, somehow.

Right now I am in the brainstorming phase. I have been working on charcters mostly right now, and some documentation on story line. I have just been going day by day thinking about new ideas and joining them to create a story board. I have just been picturing scenes in my head and then questioning myself "..and then what?" I am trying to make it all fit together.

Soon, I will right a short summary of what the story would be and then I will post it here to get your guy's opinion.

Thanks

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by chu
You just don't quit with your good advice, do you? :cheese:

heheh wait till someone asks how to stop their girlfriend cheating. Or anything about dancing or singing... or sport or anything not art related and I'll not have a bloody clue lol

besides, its only good advice if you go off and make millions on your first book, if you fail then I'll beg Munro to delete these replies so i wont take the blame

It doesn't put me off, I know there will be lots of work and dedication to fulfill either route. I don't plan on it being anything close to a short term goal, right now it's just a hobby and maybe sometime down the road it will progress to something bigger. I know that chances are it will never happen, but I am still going to try and keep the drive to achieve this, someway, somehow.

In the beginning try not to set your aim too high. You'll be up against very stiff competition and they will crush you. I learnt that the hard way and it wasn't fun atall and I almost gave up completely....a few times heh. Gradually though begin to aim higher as you get more experience. Eventually you'll get people asking you for advice on how you write, establish characters and so on.

Your well on your way at that point and will have likely had a few shorts published in some books or papers... ooh and don't underestimate writing erotic stories for certain magazines (don't laugh ) Those kind of stories actually teach quite a lot, and if you do it under another name, you've nothing to lose Certainly don't think it wont happen though, nobody can see the future and for all you know your first story could be picked up by the first producer who reads it. It's rare, very rare, but it has happened, never say never as the saying goes

Right now I am in the brainstorming phase. I have been working on charcters mostly right now, and some documentation on story line. I have just been going day by day thinking about new ideas and joining them to create a story board. I have just been picturing scenes in my head and then questioning myself "..and then what?" I am trying to make it all fit together.

Sounds like a good plan and that you've thought this through. I hear this a lot so it makes a refreshing change seeing someone not thinking they'll be the next Stephen King immediately with their first story

Have you tried writing backwards? Establishing how it ends and then working back to the beginning. I've heard a few times from different places that it can be a pretty useful method. I've tried it but my problem is i can do great endings, mediocre beginnings and bugger all in the middle haha but then I'm not a proper writer.. apart from erotic stories haha hey it was fun at the time

Taking breaks is a good idea too. Maybe just stop completely on your story for a week and write something completely different, I hear that can do wonders. And if you ever get writers block, stop, go out get drunk or whatever, but dont force yourself. It's easier to forget it for a few weeks and then come back to it, than force it out of you only to rewrite it weeks down the line because it didn't turn out how you'd hoped. You probably knew that anyway, but it might be useful to someone else and applies to anything creative I think

Soon, I will right a short summary of what the story would be and then I will post it here to get your guy's opinion.

Just don't give too much away , and make sure your lawyer has a copy safely away in their safe and unopened before you show anyone, trust nobody, not your family, loved ones and especially not your friends, you can probably trust your enemies cause atleast they'll be honest that they'd screw you in a second, friends don't warn first , just incase (costs a bit for them to do that for you, but its better than losing your idea to someone and sitting at home watching them on TV and in the papers making millions from your idea's)

 

[chu]

Originally posted by Fenric1138
In the beginning try not to set your aim too high...


Have you tried writing backwards? Establishing how it ends and then working back to the beginning...


Taking breaks is a good idea too. Maybe just stop completely on your story for a week and write something completely different, I hear that can do wonders..

Right now the only thing I am aiming for is adding new material to the story. I have been doing a lot if not most of my thinking on the ending. As of right now the ending has changed several times, due to new characters and the role they will play.

I am one step ahead of you. I have also been working on another story. This one is a horror/suspense story, while the main one is a fantasy story.

 

[Dedalus]

that's some good advice from Fenric. couldn't have said it better myself.

generally, when i write, i usually just create a couple of great senarios, then somehow try to merge them so they have some coherency. for example, i have to write very detailed descriptions of the levels in my game, so i've worked out a load of level structures, and individually they're absolutely awesome. the trick is to sew them together so it makes some logical sense. that's similar to Fenric's idea of writing backwards. remember: do not throw out an idea, it might come in useful later on.

it's good to hear that you're so determined. have you ruled out being a writer on a game project? if you know a good artist then maybe you could turn your short stories into a comic. the possibilities are almost endless when you can write.

good luck to you.

 

[chu]

Another Q:

How do you go about getting material copywrighted?


Does all it take is one of these bad boys? ©

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by chu
Another Q:

How do you go about getting material copywrighted?


Does all it take is one of these bad boys? ©

well the moment you create something its yours, putting © on it is kinda what young-un's do to look like the pro's. Unfortunately if it comes down to it one of those wont help much and you'll need to be able to prove it was your work originally. You can habe it registered as copyright to you, do that early on and then its quite clear to anynoe its yours, costs a bit but not much, useful to do.

You can mail a copy to yourself so its dated by the post office and then keep it unopened, or a better way is to have your lawyer keep it, for a fee, unopened unless you end up having to go to court over someone stealing your work. To be even more sure, do the above about a month before you show anyone anything, and when you do show them, make sure they sign an NDA first (you can get your lawyer to write one up for you, or do one yourself if you know what to write) its just a bit more protection for you and if someone goes talking about what they've seen after signing one they can get in a lot of trouble.

However, it also depends on the country, some don't recognise copyright of things like that so there wouldn't be anytihng you could do to stop them.. though the NDA might help, even Russia has those heh

You should look into copyright law, its pretty interesting really

 

[EVIL]

Myeah, its diffrent. In my country (The Netherlands) all your work is automaticle copywrited. but you can offcourse get a sertificate that officially confirms it. but thats not neccesary. and it will be copywrited without the ©, so the copywrite symbol is not neccesary. But that goes for The netherlands.