Hi everyone. I just wanted to make everyone aware of a potential scam doing the rounds. I’ve had two emails like this word for word despite not having posted my email on my title pages in months. I just find this pretty suspicious and don’t want any writers losing their money. It may be genuine but it definitely comes across as suspicious.
Logline: A socially awkward artist finds connection with a woman online through their love of painting. His condition may tarnish the connection he desperately craves when their friendship advances.
Genre: Drama
Format: Short
Length: 11 pages
Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1L2jz8C4PeFnxB7VsM3EIipuW4ynHl2ER/view?usp=drivesdk
I just want to know what’s working and what isn’t so I can solidify its strengths and work on its weaknesses. Thanks very much everyone!
I live in a working class part of Northern England where many people with mental health issues and similar disorders were referred to as ‘mad’ or ‘mental’ for many years before the growth of mental health advocacy.
I thought of multiple people I know while writing this. I’ve included things inspired by my own observations and how there might be more to these people that entire towns brand with unsavoury labels.
Please let me know what you all think! I’m thinking of directing this one day.
I’m making my first short film that’s due to start filming in just over two months. I’m also on board as the writer and co-director.
Casting was a big, anxiety-inducing headache. Not everyone wants to volunteer their time for a 22 year old’s passion project and I’m deeply grateful to those who have. I wouldn’t be making it if it wasn’t for them.
We casted a guy who had a small role in an acclaimed UK TV show as the protagonist’s dad and he nailed the tone I was after in his audition. However, once I announced the cast things went downhill.
Someone online had accused him of some pretty serious stuff. I won’t go into detail about it. We have some young actors taking part so safeguarding and their wellbeing was the first thing that came to mind.
I asked the actor for his side of the story and he assured me it was part of a smear campaign from an ex-partner and the matter was under police investigation. He also assured me he holds a clear DBS due to the nature of his job.
The other co-director works within safeguarding as a teaching assistant so I shared my concerns with him and asked him for advice on next steps to take. We discovered that the actor wasn’t on the update service which is where DBS certificates are hosted and findable by employers. The other co-director is on the update service and pays to host his DBS there, so this came across as a red flag.
I decided that the whole situation was too ambiguous and there were too many unknowns to confidently have this actor be a part of the project so we decided to let him go and recast the role. I told the actor that although we weren’t inferring that he was guilty of the allegations he was accused of, we had to prioritise the safety and wellbeing of the young actors we were going to have on set and that we would have to let him go.
Something I’ve learned from this is that safety and wellbeing must come before the project even though this could create logistical and creative issues. I couldn’t justify having him being part of the project now so I definitely wouldn’t be able to justify having him on the project to the parents of the young performers if these allegations were proven to be true and if something happened to their child.
This honestly makes me feel sad, especially since it’s coming from a BAFTA winning editor.
My favourite part about making films is working and collaborating with other people. Using AI to create films completely removes that element.
This comes after I saw an article about an AI film being accepted by Tribecca and how it ‘moved’ the jury.
Two years ago I sent my first screenplay, a feature, into the sub and (naively) to the Blacklist. Oh boy did I find out how much of an amateur I was! It wasn’t formatted properly because I didn’t have screenplay software (I now use FadeIn), people hated my villain for all the wrong reasons and it didn’t really have any drama. It was just a sequence of events where the protagonist’s life got easier way too easily.
After taking lots of notes, learning techniques, actually reading screenplays and learning some very valuable lessons from u/pre-WGA, I started writing shorts, a medium I grew to love and developed a newfound respect for. I’m directing my first short film using a short that I wrote!
Writing shorts came with its own challenges as every format does, but as I wrote more shorts and worked on my craft, the more positive feedback I got. It also helped me appreciate how difficult writing a feature is and how difficult screenwriting is in general.
Going back to my first short, it was doing too much, being too clever and in many places lacked what great stories had. However, even though I’d shelved it, most of the premise that made the story what it was still lingered in the back of my mind. A substance-abusing ex music who didn’t make it and alienated himself from everyone getting one last chance to redeem and reinvent himself at a Manhattan jazz club.
A few days ago I decided to start a major rewrite. So far I’m doing my big structural rewrite. I’ve removed entire scenes and characters and centralised the protagonist’s addiction which many people thought I originally should’ve done. It’s still gonna take a lot of work to get it where it should be but I’m starting to fall in love with it again. Once I’m happy with it, notes will only make it better.
I’ve written a few script since which I’m happy that are purely practice scripts but my ‘first script will almost always be a practice script’ is something I’d disagree with. Sometimes there’s still a great premise buried underneath all the bad writing, you just need to arrive at a place where you can turn that great premise into a great script.
Have any of you revisited or rewritten an early script?
I’ve been writing my own scripts for just over two years now and planning to produce and direct a short that I’m happy with in the summer. The notes I’ve received have been genuinely helpful to make the script what it currently is.
Something I’ve been doing lately is giving notes on another screenwriting sub (which I hope have been helpful to writers). Some of the replies I’ve seen from writers to other readers starkly reminded me of how I used to react to notes when I first started out and honestly I feel like a complete douche.
These people are reading scripts for free and giving notes to help strengthen a script or tell a writer that something or the whole thing isn’t working. I’ve realised that a lot of notes are given because something isn’t being clearly communicated on the page or just generally weak and getting defensive or explaining a choice reaffirms that said thing isn’t effectively doing what it’s meant to.
I know some notes can be given based on taste but if ten different people are telling you something isn’t working it probably isn’t.
I think this realisation has seriously helped me as a writer and to help me remove myself from my work in order to look at it through an objective lens.
Happy writing everyone!