Preparation

Before the last 14 Day Screenplay I put a few tips on my blog to help people get ready for the challenge. Here they are again for anyone they may help.

I looked over the stats for NaNoWriMo, the novel equivalent, and they aren’t pretty. There seems to be an average of about a 13% completion rate each year. The first year was by far the highest, mainly because it was a writers club doing it, but since it went mainstream only about 1 in every 7 that start it ever finish. That’s why over the next 12 days I’ll be sharing a few things that will make it easier to reach that mark of 110 pages.

While you can’t begin to write FADE IN: until 12am June 3rd, you can plan out your script, and you’d be a fool not to. A film script is a lean beast. If you hint at something at the start then you better pay it off at the end. You need to introduce you characters quickly, introduce the problem, then solve it in a way that isn’t predictable, but is entirely plausible.

So, what is your screenplay going to be about? What genre is your film going to be in? Are you wanting to write a romantic comedy? A horror film? Sci-Fi? Action? Work that out and then try to think of similar films that have been produced.

Got that? Know what your basic story is? What are the act breaks? About a quarter of the way in something usually happens that propels the story forward. What is that event? About three quarters of the way in something happens that makes it look like they may not reach their goal. What is that event? How does it start? How does it end?

Write down ideas for those, then in the next few days try to see some similar films, and also visit some sites that have films scripts for you do download. Read a script similar to yours. See how the pro’s do it.

And head on over and introduce yourself in the forums. If you have any questions ask away.