I just volunteered to host a Denver screenwriter's group. I've been hosting events in other groups all of my life, in different industries, so I know the value of informal gatherings and chatting. It leads to new knowledge and inspiring discussions.
Find a mentor, be a mentor. That's the best way I know to stoke your passion.
So hosting my first informal gathering I came up with an ice breaker, and I would love to hear from all of you too. What was the coolest or toughest research you had to do to write a script?
Travel anywhere? Dive into awkward lifestyles? Meet a new friend? Push beyond your comfort zone? Get invited to a no-public-allowed-behind-these-doors thing? Run from wildlife that had teeth?
I'm looking forward to your tales of adventure.
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Great advice, David Veal! I researched the FBI Hostage Rescue Team for my Action TV series a while back. I read articles online and watched videos, and I called the FBI.
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I love the research aspect of screenwriting, learning and creating simultaneously. The most fulfilling research I have done of late was for my screenplay "Wrongs and Rights," where I had to research case law on Miranda rights, along with other precedents for the lawsuit (social justice) in the screenplay.
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For me, right now, and most likely why I came up with the question, is I'm doing a dive into Xenolinguistics - The imagining of what alien languages might look like. And it isn't as simple as it might seem. If it were simple, everyone would be doing it. The script is a Sci-fi Dramedy for t.v. or streaming. The pilot is written, the first season practically plotted out. But I'm deciding still about the language, as my aliens slowly learn english.
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Fun question! For my survival thriller AN ENTIRELY IMPOSSIBLE ROLLERCOASTER I had to research all sorts of survival technics - from fire-starting with nothing but a bullet and cotton balls, to field dressing bucks, to patching wolf bites, to crossing a mile-deep canyon using only cuffs, chains and an episode of Bluey. Needless to say, if you drop me in the Rockies now, I'm good.