Screenwriting

Recently I posted a synopsis for one of my Godzilla scripts. It was for Godzilla Against the War-Relics, the 2nd instalment in a Godzilla trilogy I'm working on titled Elder Godzilla Trilogy. The 1st instalment in the trilogy I've begun writing and it's titled Godzilla and the Technicolor Guards. Here's its synopsis for anyone interested:

The year is 10.547, and almost all of Earth’s people reside inside one enormous metropolis, while those who feared the Utopia's ideals chose to live far outside its borders. The city is protected by an invisible circle made of energy, has cured all illness, its people grow to reach an average of 10-feet tall, and they develop numerous technologies.

Earth has become a dumping ground for monsters from other worlds whenever a planet doesn't have the capacity to destroy the giant creatures. So they have Earth’s greatest champion, Godzilla, destroy the monsters for them.

Earth receives over fifty shipments of Infant-Tier and Juvenile-Tier monsters. They are teleported to a vast battleground where they all duke it out for supremacy. A heavily battle-scarred Godzilla arrives and wipes out many monsters. A spaceship lands outside the battlefield and shoots Godzilla with a tractor-laser that lifts him off the planet and sends him far out into the galaxy. All those inside the invading ship commit suicide, except for one. 

The Utopians learn from the survivor that the ones who took Godzilla are from a planet that refused to sign over the deed to their home planet in exchange for Earth using Godzilla to vanquish a monster terrorizing their society. 

The Utopians retaliated by teleporting an even more powerful monster to the alien planet to destroy its people. The planet under attack sent the most intelligent into space to perfect the technology that will transport Godzilla away from Earth.

A group of twelve children are part of A-Squad, meaning they're the top cadets at the academy where they are prepped to become Earth's saviours. Four of them attempt to become the Astro-Team responsible for finding Godzilla, while the others train to become the soldiers that will vanquish the monsters stuck on Earth if the astronauts fail.

The four child astronauts from A-Squad are chosen to go looking for Godzilla, while the eight others from the squad continue their soldier training. 

After fifty years, the Utopians have long lost contact with the Astro-Team and surmise that the astronauts will fail. The Utopians equip their greatest warriors, those from A-Squad, with their finest hi-tech gear and send them out to destroy all monsters! 

The seven Technicolor Guards and one Shade Guard exit the Utopia. The second-best combat experts, the Technicolor Guards, fight together in unison. The top combat expert, the Shade Guard, fights alone. 

There are twenty-three Spurt-Tier monsters still alive on Earth. Outside of the Utopian city, the world has devolved into a New Stone Age. The Shade Guard arrives at a large stone city and saves its citizens from a monster. The Utopian soldier is thanked and treated like a God. 

In space, the Astro-Team has located Godzilla. He is trapped inside a giant cage floating in space. The Astro-Team board the ship generating the cage, and a gun battle ensues in which two of their members are killed. The two remaining astronauts take command of the ship. 

The Shade Guard returns to Utopia. He has grown used to being pampered by the New Stone Age people and does not want to give up his high status. He overthrows the government and takes rulership over Utopia. 

Using their Utopian technology, the Astro-Team re-animate Godzilla and teleport him back onto Earth. Then the astronauts begin their five year trek back to Earth. 

The seven Technicolor Guards find out about what the defective Shade Guard had done to Utopia, and they return to their home-city to challenge him. The Technicolor Guards also lose two of their members from the battle, and the rest are forced to surrender. 

The Shade Guard discovers Godzilla was indeed found and sent back to Earth. Knowing his power and how he has toppled false governments in the past, the Shade Guard assigns more soldiers to hunt Godzilla, so he can continue living in luxury for many years. Ever since surrendering to the Shade Guard, the Technicolor Guards have sworn not to interfere with his quest to murder Godzilla. 

The Astro-Team land back on Earth and see much of the planet is now in ruins. They touchdown inside of Utopia and are greeted by the Technicolor Guards, who tell them the world is being destroyed by the battles between the Shade Guard's soldiers, the ten Peak-Tier monsters left on Earth, and the one Elder-Tier monster, Godzilla. 

The two astronauts are convinced by the surviving Technicolor Guards to don the deceased Yellow and Pink Guards's equipment and train to take their place.

The Shade Guard has been trying for the past five years to murder Godzilla. His Utopian soldiers do the fighting for him while he watches from his throne. 

Godzilla has acquired two bodyguards, Chainviper and Gnasher, together they defeat two other monsters. After the battle between the giants is over, the humans begin their attack. The monsters battle the humans and kill the soldiers quite easily.

After an intense battle, Godzilla and his bodyguards kill an enormous loner monster. The three giant monsters are weary from their previous battle. The Shade Guard’s soldiers have a slight advantage. The soldiers murder Chainviper, who sacrifices himself so Godzilla and Gnasher could escape to the ocean. 

The astronauts-turned-Guards prove themselves by helping battle two monsters who travel and fight together and are on their way to invade Utopia. The Technicolor Guards fight in unison to murder the monsters before they have a chance to destroy Utopia entirely.

The Shade Guard finally has lured Godzilla into one of his camouflaged Teleportation-Tower traps. The teleporter starts to warm up and whir. Gnasher recognizes the sound and pushes Godzilla out of its energy-stream, and she gets caught in it instead. Since matter can only be teleported once, Gnasher explodes from the inside out, into chunks ranging from tiny to large. 

The Shade Guard's soldiers attempt to kill Godzilla now that both his monster defenders are gone, though he is too powerful and makes quick work of the soldiers. 

The Shade Guard learns there are only three Peak-Tier monsters left for Godzilla to battle, and they are all converging at the monster battlegrounds. The Shade Guard finally joins the fight and he and his soldiers travel to the final showdown. 

The new Yellow and Pink Guards convince the other Technicolor Guards their purpose is not only to defend Utopia, they must also help defend Godzilla and kill the Shade Guard since he is Utopia's biggest threat. 

The monsters arrive at where they first met. Godzilla battles the main monster’s two bodyguards first. The Shade Guard and his soldiers arrive and decide to wait until Godzilla defeats the first two monsters, then help the third finish him off. 

Godzilla defeats the two bodyguards and before the Shade Guard and his soldiers can attack, the Technicolor Guards show up to stop them. The Technicolor Guards convince the Shade Guard’s soldiers to join their cause. The Shade Guard murders his former henchmen then fights the Technicolor Guards. Godzilla battles the final Peak-Tier monster on Earth. 

The Technicolor Guards have a chance to defeat the Shade Guard and instead they help Godzilla when he’s close to death, then they return to their initial battle. The Shade Guard has recovered and defeats the Technicolor Guards. Before he ends their lives, Godzilla kills his monster enemy and turns his sights on his human enemy. 

Godzilla breathes radioactivity onto the Technicolor Guards to help them recover rapidly. The Technicolor Guards get up and stand next to their saviour. Together they kill the Shade Guard. Godzilla stomps away, and the Technicolor Guards return to Utopia.

Who else is a huge fan of the Godzilla franchise? Here is a synopsis for my Godzilla spec titled Godzilla Against the War-Relics:

Godzilla lounges in the forest. He perks up when he senses a militia arriving outside of Earth. He looks to the sky. There’s three massive ships, even bigger than Earth, and a much smaller egg-shaped ship visible from space. 

In Utopia, they spot the alien invaders on their radars. A Utopian team is sent to travel to Godzilla and see what the aliens are up to. The team of specialists reach Godzilla to see a rocket rapidly strike and get lodged in the Earth, directly in front of the giant monster. The rocket explodes with colourful smoke. Godzilla is coated with and breathes in the smoke.


An alien broadcast ship blasts a concentrated sound frequency that is only heard by Godzilla. He collapses, tries to block his ears, and writhes on the ground. The sound wave causes an exact copy of Godzilla to splinter off the original. The sound frequency is shut off. The two Godzillas recover from the noise and get up and examine each other. The egg-shaped ship doubles as a cage and it showers Godzilla II in a tractor-beam. He’s teleported inside. The alien armada departs from Earth.


Godzilla II is placed on an uninhabited planet. He explores his surroundings. Godzilla II is challenged to a fight with a bulky, human-shaped robot, the Chrome Knight. Godzilla II has his left arm sliced off by Chrome Knight’s sword. Godzilla II continues to fight. The Knight puts Godzilla II in a chokehold and forces a device onto the stub where his arm once was.

Liquid metal sprouts from the device and hardens to form a hi-tech replacement arm for Godzilla II. They fight more, until Chrome Knight knocks Godzilla II unconscious. The sparring-robot leaves him to recuperate and when he wakes, get acquainted with the devices now at his disposal with his new metal arm.

Godzilla II has become mostly-machine part-organic, he is now Zoidzilla, and he has mastered the artillery and weapons he has been equipped with. Zoidzilla finally breaks the Chrome Knight into pieces. The alien army teleports Zoidzilla back inside the egg-shaped ship and return him to Earth.

The attacking aliens send a transmission to the Utopians. They are originally from three planets who previously had monsters teleported to Earth for Godzilla to vanquish. Instead, Godzilla was temporarily taken prisoner and it was the human Utopian Guards who killed the monsters.

The aliens are very angry the Earthlings broke their contract. Luckily they kept handy millennia-old weapons of planetary destruction. The three planets decided to militarize and leave their worlds in favour of using Godzilla against the humans for not committing to their arrangement.

Zoidzilla is teleported at Godzilla’s location for him to challenge and kill Godzilla, and instead he flies into space and completely destroys the alien militia parked outside of Earth for torturing him for years. Zoidzilla lands back on Earth and moves right past Godzilla, on his way to reduce Utopia to rubble for not saving him from the alien’s wrath. The Utopians use what little time they have to prepare for a battle against Zoidzilla.

The Utopians place their million-strong army outside of Utopia’s defence system, an invisible circular shield of energy. Zoidzilla arrives and a massive battle ensues. Zoidzilla broadcasts a message to all Utopians to disable the Force-Shield and he will not destroy Earth, he will only kill the political leaders within the city. Thousands gather to break into the Utopian Mainframe, some do and turn off the shield.


Zoidzilla breaks through the ring of soldiers and into Utopia. He lied to the Utopians and proceeds to demolish everything in sight, killing thousands in mere minutes. He is nearly killed by a group of new recruits with very little training. Godzilla aids Zoidzilla and saves his life. Zoidzilla is free to destroy Utopia and all Utopians he can.

Zoidzilla gets his revenge. He takes a seat and relishes the damage he brought, Godzilla stomps over to his side. Zoidzilla twists off his robotic head housing his brain. He pulls the wires connected to his brain and he shuts himself down.

I know what my primary objective is when I do research before writing a screenplay.

What's your main objective?

Hey guys How many of you awesome people have seen this movie "Gaslight"? I wasn't just blown away by how it was written, but by the way it was directed and performed by actors. This is about an insidious method of mind control by a narcissistic husband to convince his wife that she was " mentally ill  " by planting repeated incidents and suggestions then denying to his wife that they actually happened.  

I've never seen another film theme like this and it is damn creepy. The husband is masterful with his deception on such a high level. This could even be more devastating if it had a group of people involved in destroying her pysche. The husband was a badass antagonist that really made "Jokers" Character irrelevant. Lol! If you want to see sick and twisted manipulation. This is it!! Has anyone else thought about incorporating themes like this in their scripts?  Any share my love for this type of film? 

https://youtu.be/BICqcEvzhVw

Writers are often told by teachers & screenwriting gurus to refrain from using flashbacks due to fears of misuse. But A LOT of our favorite stories and films in history use them A LOT!

https://www.scriptreaderpro.com/how-to-write-a-flashback-in-a-script/

My script came out to 136 scenes for a 110-page script! Many are continuous. Example: there is a train set piece which takes place in every car on the train and also on the roof. This action sequence is 18 scenes over 9 pages, and bounces between 3 different POVs (PROTAG, ANTAG, hostages). Can you use mini slug lines if one scene is on the roof, then the caboose, then the engine? Likely they are different locations in production (the roof is probably a green screen sound stage, and the interiors are practical, etc.). Am I "over-slugging?"

FADE IN:

TOETAN JULES, master of all dogs and cats confronting a DOG and its CAT LOVER in a local Pup packed with CATS and DOGS -- doing their business; reading the PAPER upside down, chatting away, having conversations that go nowhere, until....:

CAMERA MOVES OVER TO Toetan Jules - who talks BUSINESS - not USELESS CHIT-CHAT --

TOETAN JULES

"Well there's this passage I got memorized. Ezekiel 25:17. "The path of the RIGHTEOUS DOG is beset on all sides by the inequities of the SELFISH and the TYRANNY of EVIL CATS. Blessed is the CAT who, in the name of CHARITY AND GOOD WILLl, -SHEPHERDS- the DOGS through the VALLEY OF DARKNESS. For this CAT is truly his DOG-BROTHER KEEPER and the finder of LOST PUPPIES. And I will STRIKE DOWN upon thee with GREAT VENGEANCE and FURIOUS ANGER those who attempt to POISON and DESTROY my BROTHER-DOG. And you will know I am THE LORD OF CATS when I LAY MY VENGEANCE upon you." I been sayin' that CAT SHIT for years. And if you ever heard it, it meant your DOG ASS. I never gave much thought to what it meant. I just thought it was some COLD-BLOODED SHIT to say to a DOG before I POPPED A CAP. I saw some shit this mornin' made me think twice. SEE NOW I'M THINKING ', maybe it means you're the EVIL DOG. And I'm the RIGHTEOUS CAT. And Mr. 9 Millimeter here, he's the shepherd protecting my RIGHTEOUS in the VALLEY OF DARKNESS. Or it could mean you're the RIGHTEOUS DOG and I'm the SHEPHERD CAT and it's a CATS' WORLD THAT'S EVIL AND SELFISH. Now I'd like that. - BUT THAT SHIT AINT THE TRUTH- . The truth is you're the WEAK. And I'm the TYRANNY OF EVIL CATS. But I'm tryin', "Ringo". I'm tryin' real hard to be a SHEPHERD CAT."

CUT TO BLACK

OPEN ON:

CAT OWNER

"Toetaaaaaaan-Tooetaaaaaan -- come eat your 'cooked beef'. Yes, nice kitty... "

TOETAN

"Nice, NICE?!! . It's that you feed me, MAN, otherwise I 'would' have "BEEF" with you and shoot your ugly head clean of."

CAT OWNER

"Toetaaaan ...Are you talking to yourself again, come on my little princess.

Can one of you wise minded souls help me understand the specific rules about posting something success related? I am assuming that the Stage 32 success stories is for work, jobs, awards that have come by virtue of Stage 32? Hence, if you won, let's say an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, it wouldn't go there. Or, I assume here either. But rather, on your wall? Thanks for clarifying, 'O mighty writerly family! :) Hope all of you are staying safe and hopefully finding time during this unusual period to write and create.

I have started pitching Temperance, my feminist horror-thriller feature screenplay, and the best part of the pitch is telling them how the story idea originated!

I tend to write female-driven pieces to begin with, but I don't want to create lead characters people will think are based on me. Haha. That said, Temperance totally came from my life experience. I stayed for a winter in a converted shipping container out in the high desert, there to ghostwrite the memoir of an eccentric elder. They were a relative of a famous literary figure, an author who was highly influential in my life, so of course, what a thrill it was to be there!

But, if you know the high desert in the winter, it's COLD and the shipping container was f-f-f-freezing. The elder also was a bit more challenging than I had realized so it wasn't long before I was suffering.

Suffering aside, I realized I had a pretty interesting concept for a screenplay. Then, as a way of upping the feminism and trying to steer away from the way overdone witchy stuff, I also drew on my knowledge of the freemasons and used masonic symbolism as the base layer to the imagery.

After Temperance was finished, I drew upon my experiences leading teen addicts in a wilderness therapy program to write Sun Dogs, a tight feminist thriller set pretty much entirely in the forest. I'll admit, the lead wilderness counselor in Sun Dogs is somewhat more like me than any other character I've written.

For me, life experience is a great way to get screenplay ideas! What do you write about? How does your life experience inform your screenplays? And do you tend to write a lead character who is somewhat like yourself?

I've never been much of a planner, but in my screenwriting endeavors, I have come to the conclusion that I need some kind of planning if I am going to write a decent screenplay. I developed a very simple template that I -- a pantser -- could use to plan a screenplay or really any other kind of writing, and I wanted to share it. I'm not sure how the best way to do that would be. First, I want to post it someplace where anyone who wanted to could look at it, and I thought it would be too much trouble to answer emails to send it out individually. Now, you may ask why I consider myself qualified to do this. I teach composition and I give my students an outline template for planning their essays, and when they use it, their work is so much better. I have preached to them that writing is a process, not a sit down one and done thing. Then, I realized when I try to write a screenplay, I don't do a whole lot of planning myself. So I decided to practice what I preached. Any advice on where I could post it and even if I should? I'm not a genius, but I kind of took a lot of things I've read and synthesized them into something I believe I could use, and maybe other folks could too. It's short and concise. Any help would be appreciated.

Hello, I'm Amir Jedari, Iranian Writer and Director of Cinema and Theatre. I currently have two powerful and good scripts (feature and short) (registered in the cinema house) and I need a producer and an investor.