Anyone Ever Written A Movie?

I have had a movie plot in my head since I was in twelfth grade. I've always wanted to write but I'm not even sure how to begin.

I took a couple film classes in college — back in 1996. I'm sure I have a couple text books in my parents basement. I plan on looking next time I'm down there.

I'm just wondering if anyone has advice or tips.

Hell, for starters, I don't even know how many pages a 90-minute movie would run.

Am I better off to write a book — since I'm a reporter already — than a movie script? And then, try and write a script after the book?

I'm finally going to do this. My best friend is halfway done writing a novel. I told him if he can write a book, I can surely write a movie.

 

Paging GBNF...GBNF to the white courtesy phone please.

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/52708/

 

Dammit. I knew there was a thread on this before. I searched "written a movie" but it came back empty.

Thanks Kokane!

 

I wrote "Backdoor to the Future, Part IV." Brilliant plot, if I say so myself.

 

I've written a few, two of which have been produced (nothing major, I assure you). So I can answer basic questions.

As a rule of thumb, a page equals a minute. Assuming you're using standard spacing and format (details of which are available online) it averages out to a page a minute whether a specific page is dialogue or a descriptive of a non-dialogue section.

As for book vs. screenplay, I think it kind of depends on how it is in your mind. People assume screenplays are the easier format, just because it's fewer words, but I don't think that's the case. A screenplay depends on the reader being able to have your vision in their head, where in a book you can paint a much more detailed picture.

As far as marketability, they're both bad gambles.

But good luck -- if it's in there, you'll feel better getting it out.

 

I wrote a porn called Greasy! It's basically Grease, but porn. Just imagine Grease, then imagine every scene ending with sex, ending with the big climactic end-of-the-school-year fair/orgy.

That's all I've got.

But I wish you the best of luck, because one day when I mature a bit, I want to write a movie as well.

 

Step 1: Get Final Draft. It is the industry standard for screenwriting.
Step 2: Write the three crucial occurences of the movie. For example: Man wins $30 mil. Man spends $30 mil. Man must recoup $30 mil.
Step 3: Break down the three major plot points into nine sections. My writing partner and I are on our second script, with the third script in the beginning stages, and by breaking it down into nine, it's become much, much easier.
Step 4: From the nine major/minor plot points, write a rough outline of 45 scenes, averaging 2-3 minutes. Obviously, some scenes will be longer, or two scenes can be combined into one a la 40 Year Old Version: When Carell tells the lady he doesn't have sex, she freaks out, he chases her on the bike. That's really four or five scenes rolled into one.
Step 5: Write an incredibly rough first draft, just to have the story on paper.
Step 6: Register that first draft with the Writer's Guild of America.
Step 7: Have someone you trust read that draft, and make sure they're brutally honest.
Step 8: Go back and make the first 15-30 pages brilliant, and I mean brilliant, so you can have a pitch.
Step 9: Make everything brilliant.
Step 10: Keep us posted.

 

Step 11: ???

Step 12: Profit!

 

Thanks so much for this.

 

Hey dude, in case your clueless in how script-writing goes, here's a link that helped me understand the process when I thought about getting in.

http://www.joblo.com/moviescripts.php

It has the actual scripts to many of the movies of the last five or ten years. Find a movie that is similar to the idea you have and you'll get an idea of how the writer sets up things like character descriptions, e.t.c.

 

Thanks. I'll check it out.

 

In case you don't want to buy Final Draft up front for $200+ (and get charged later for tech support if you need it), consider Celtx (pronounced KEL-tix, it's an acronym for "Crew, Equipment, Locations, Talent, XML"). Open-source, free, cross-platform, based on Firefox. Keeps track of everything in one file. Also useful for people writing novels and short stories.

http://www.celtx.com/
http://www.celtx.com/overview.html
http://marcusmakesmovies.blogspot.com/2007/01/celtx.html