Screenwriting

So i just started writing an hollywood script just after selling out two previous ones i wrote recently..Who is the lucky producer that'll have this beautiful script to his production..Let's watch out!!

Spend two minutes with me on this introduction to my free writer's course. In each video there are key pieces of information, sometimes so simple we forget we should be doing it.

Start here https://youtu.be/hDrzsKyL2I8 and then go on to video 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2S8i216Rag)

Visit my website to learn more about me.

www.aleishabrooks.com

Check out the live seminar (from February- cut it to 38 minutes from 3 hours) https://youtu.be/tpFqS6MsPbs

Heyyyyy guys,

I wrote a coming of age dramedy that tackles gender stereotypes, self-love, parental trauma, race, and inclusive love. It all centers around an acid trip. The feedback I'm getting on it is wildly divisive because of the premise. I'm looking for some open minded AND BIPOC opinions on it. Would love to script exchange with someone who also has a coming of age dramedy as well. Comment on this post and I will contact you.

If anyone is looking for insight on what retirement is really like, hit me up. I retired 2 years ago and have an award-winning blog on the subject that's been running strong for 5 years. I'm also a published author, with my book "Keys to a Successful Retirement" hitting #1 on Amazon. Happy to assist with anyone hoping to make "retirement more realistic" in any of your projects.

Here's a link to my blog, shoot me a message if you'd like to connect. https://www.theretirementmanifesto.com/

How are you consciously including all people - colors, genders, sexual orientation, ages - in your writing?

Hello Writers, I have a free video series for writers coming out soon. I also have a kindle book for writers. Message me if you'd like details. :) Best, Aleisha

Given everything going on, is this a right time to market our screenplays? What is the best way to go about it? One of the platforms was candid enough to suggest that this indeed may not be the best time as studios are not even looking for new scripts or perhaps new writers.

And also, the market might be more focused on stories and locations in Europe and Latin America, especially with Netflix who has global presence and market share in these emerging markets. Production might be in short supply due to the virus but I'd imagine, networks must be hungry for new contents.

Thoughts.

It took me a long time to call myself a writer ... more than 1,000 half-hour teleplays, two produced features, and an award-winning short. By the time I was on my second award-winning short film I finally began to consider myself, and call myself, a writer. It was when that film was in qualification for the Academy Awards (after screening at 31 festivals and winning 31 awards) that I was also given a bit of sage advice: "In this business you ALWAYS need a second act." Hoping that my film would be nominated, and with only two "finished" screenplays in my arsenal, I started writing in earnest. In the 3-4 months that followed I polished up those two screenplays and finished 3 more. I had a "fire under my butt" so to speak and the fire was this -- if I was so lucky to have my film shortlisted that year, I knew that anyone I'd want to work with in this business would come calling and ask me, "So ... what else have you got?" I needed to be able to answer that question with a variety of interesting stories. Completed stories. Stories I was proud to pitch AND hand over. Since then I've written/produced and directed several more films and written several more screenplays. And if you ask me now, "Are you a writer?" I would answer you with a resounding, "Yes." Oh, and by the way, my film wasn't shortlisted, but it IS available for viewing on IndieFlix. It's called "Worth."

A.I Is the new big deal for production companies. They don't have to spend two hours reading your fantastic feature script... making budget notes / estimates as they go along. NO, hell all they have to do is read its A.I and they good a good (BAD) idea of its production cost. Actors aside, the biggest production facture is LOCATION. Now, your A.I report on your script shows a good story with not to big a major cast. Problem is, it shows the locations: New York - Israel - Australia - France. A product cost nightmare! Your script is thus not even read. Had they read it, they would have read;

- Two Israely men sitting in a kitchen of a mud stone build house plotting a bomb attack. Nothing you can't set-up in a studio.

- Guys chasing in jeeps across the Australian outback. America has similar landscape where it can be shot.

- A gun fight and bomb explosions on / in the Ifile Tower. Blue screen and stock shots will sort that out.

* The entire film can thus be made in America!

FACT: - The movie, Sole Survivor was shot primarily on location in the El Mirage Dry Lake in the northwestern Victor Valley of the central Mojave Desert, within San Bernardino County, California.

I've said it before... I'll say it again. A.I is not good for the movie industry, its deceiving. Only a human can get the true story by reading it. That feature script that took you six months to write, takes the A.I a minute to tell a prospective producer, Hay or Nay.

By the way. I have another 5 scripthop codes if anyone wants them?

I'm an actor but am popping into your screenwriters lounge because Kyle Little, here on Stage 32 asked a question of how, basically, to create an ‘actors screenplay’.  So I wrote this outpouring of what, for me, constitutes a bad or difficult screenplay to read as an actor.  I have mentored screenplay writers that have gone on to be commissioned and this is an issue I’ve dealt with time and again so, I’m now making my views public. It will also, I hope, make some actors aware of why some scripts ‘trip them up’ and stop them being their spontaneous best. Also there's a hint of how directors can be too infected by over specific stage directions as well. As actors, we learn to spot them.  That aside, if you want to know how actors, in my experience, read screenplays and what is a common annoyance feel free to read my rant . .

It's basically this, experienced actors don't like to be physically dictated to in the stage direction moments. Here's an example,   ". . . She turns and grabs the door handle that slips out of her grasp a few times before she manages to open it" . . .   

Seems okay but, for a start I might not need to turn, depending on the blocking, so that's redundant, and if I manage to open the door first time, in my characters panic-state on set, I don't want to feel guilty for not following the stage directions that closely, "did the director notice, have I got this wrong,?" All sorts of stuff comes into play to tease me with failure but trust me, I will show panic and I know delaying the opening of the door might be a good nail biting addition.  

Therefore I don't mind reading,  "She's in a panic. . ." , (reassuring statement), but hopefully the dialogue or story will dictate that to me anyway, so all I really need to know is:  'I head for the door and open it'  with a note suggesting the 'panic' makes the door opening more problematic. eg  " . . . the shock weakens her grip on the handle delaying her further. . . "   In short, please have confidence the actor will show, organically the writers intention through their own spontaneously found physicality. Give them emotional context and some room to deliver the intention their way.

Don't get me wrong, sometimes it's really important to be specific about the action, e.g.

" . . . She takes a seat and tips her left arm to look at her watch, spilling the contents of the coffee cup into her lap. . . "  This was a comedy scene that then leads to another moment where the boss points out she's wet herself.  She HAS to sit down to localise the spill and she MUST have the coffee cup in her left hand to get the watch viewing and spill to work.  That's all fine and necessary. THINK then, when it's NOT necessary, the same amount of attention is placed on reading the specific stage directions because actors can only assume there's a point to be made by them. Often this is not actually the case and the reading of such specifics becomes laboriously distracting.

Basically, as an actor, I'm far more interested in the 'emotion' of the character during action than being told how to DO the action.  Another example, " . . . Her shoulders drop she, bows her head and turns away to hide her tears. . ."   That would make me so wooden and superficial.  What I need is  ". . . disappointed and hurt she makes every effort to hide her tears. . . ."

Yes, that mention of disappointment might make my shoulders drop but at least, whatever I do in the moment, I'll be coming from a place of internal emotional motivation rather than just following a list of actions I should perform as the writer sees it and trying to figure the emotional context on them. Would seasoned actors even do that?  No, of course not but we still take in what’s been said as we read and it colours our judgement. We then have to edit out the distractions ourselves and hope the director's happy with that. It just adds doubt to our natural choices.   Think of a lady on a white horse. . . . Now forget her. . . not so easy huh.

That's the other problem with action specific scripts, some directors  'look' for those specific actions and try to get them out of the actor, believing that's the only type of reaction that will work because they've fallen in love with the idea of it, when in reality, the actor has actually done a great job performing the intention of the writer through their own personal interpretation of the character and emotional state anyway. Several takes of the scripted version and the superficial result is on the cutting room floor along with a crest fallen director. Don't colour the pallet, that's an actors job.

Keeping character choices consistant gets difficult when the writers version is dictating your every move and influencing the director too. Luckily, some directors get the gist of these directions but then let the actor do things their way as that is always going to be the most natural and 'real'.

Specifics can be drawn out on set of course.  If the camera is set on the actors right then it might be wise for the actor to use their left hand to offer some flowers, for example, so the camera can see them better. The actor opposite, receiving them, would do better to take them with their right, so everyone is 'open' in the shot.  That's okay too.  We all work for the DoP.  Yes, screen trained or experienced actors know the rules here. If the actors don’t  . . .yet . . .the director should instruct them : you have to find your light, you have to work within the depth of field, you have to be in the frame and not move, you have to be a bit bigger when in a distance shot than in a close up etc.  

We all know the problems on set will be worked out and the actors can, and should, manoeuvre accordingly to help make it work. However, if the actions are too specific in the script they are even more distracting when on set. Some can't be 'felt' by the actor in that particular physical way to denote the emotion expected and some physical moves written can't be executed that way given the limitations of the shot.

I've had a director tell me to blink my eyes as I look into the camera. That instruction tells you nothing. In this case if the script had said " She looks back at the camera with a nonchalant strength." OR  the director told me , "You're all powerful, you don't need this, look back at the camera and let me see that in your eyes.. . ."  either instruction makes me naturally blink my eyes as I turn my head, all the while feeling aloof and commanding.   Even if I didn't blink, the power and the feeling of being dispassionate in my reaction would still be shown somehow. Perhaps the thought,  "you must be an idiot or joking" that I might 'think' to help the motivation, could induce a slight tilt of the head instead.

Honestly, the director has to choose the actors that give a performance they trust and then honour what they offer if it’s a healthy and equally effective alternative. Some actors tell me they were taught not to be slaves to the script. In dialogue, I can't see this would work and I certainly wouldn't go against the words of the writer, the dialogue is the king of character information for me but I do understand why stage directions can get in the way of spontaneous performances if they dictate your moves.

This over specific writing mistake usually comes from a 'writer director' because they visualise every detail OR a 'newbie' script writer because they don't know actors are fuelled moment by moment on 'emotional' intention and motivation. They are trained to let that come through them 'spontaneously' from their gut. The last thing they need is to be told how-it-should-look when they do that. Wherever it's originated from, script or director, that only leads to a possibility of superficiality or misinformation about a character that hampers the actor to make it their own.

Of course, if a character has a twitch that has to be made evident because it’s noticed, referred to or causes the character a physical problem, it’s okay to suggest the ‘twitch’ is there and maybe responsible for the dropping of a key down a drain for example, but don’t remind us, or put it in, every time the character does any action. Trust the actor to know how to use the twitch to effect in their way. The director is there to make sure it’s evident and balanced in the film too.

Directors note -  if your actors need a step-by-step guide, you run the risk of inexperienced actors 'demonstrating' rather than 'living' the performance. Experienced ones will know how to practice the move until it becomes a part of their characters make up, and make it their own i.e. until that needed move, regardless of how uncomfortable to start, feels natural, and totally wrong doing it any other way.  

At an audition for instance, I was told how big my hysterical reaction was to be, by the director, who demonstrated, very loudly, as he saw it!   I was courageous enough to mimic that performance in the audition with conviction and then worked out the rest of my character based on that outburst, eventually bringing it to the set, as I got the role. There was no need for him to suggest or demonstrate anything further, I had got a measure of where he wanted the character to go by that one direction. The rest came spontaneously from my gut because I had done the work and figured how the character got to a place where that hysterical extreme was natural.

Back to our coffee cup spill. A good actor knows the joke comes from everything being so natural and fluid the viewer doesn't see it coming, they don't see the mechanics or the prep, or what must have been written in the script, the actor just does it naturally.  That goes for every stage direction and delivery of dialogue too and it takes self-confidence in the actors instrument to pull it off well.  Please don't trip us up by expecting a tilt of the head, instead tell us the character feels empathy or unsure. Don't make us 'thump the table' if that's not crucial, i.e. the table has to be marked or broken in the next scene, instead perhaps let us know our rage is so accute we could 'take our anger out on the furniture.'

Some directors tell you not to take any notice of the stage directions and that's probably because what happens on set, the limitations of shot choices and the resources available, will change everything OR they don't want the actors hampered by the writers image of events and are trying to get the actors to work more spontaneously.  Others use the stage directions as a guide but, in any event, what nobody needs is the step by step physical movement  list an actor will make, because the writing fails to show the more important ‘internal emotional context' of how the character is feeling.

A good director knows how to get confidence rolling by enticing the emotional context with good communication and letting the actor loose to do their thing.

Actors thrive on being impressionable and easily influenced so they can respond quickly and orgnically but please don’t dictate or impose your will of expectation onto us too specifically. Our artistry needs to ‘breathe’ too and for anyone reading the script I would suggest taking out the unneeded physical specifics and replacing those with emotional guides instead would help feed the imagination and get the reader more involved personally too.

Things are weird right now, and I was really hoping to check out GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE this Halloween. I'm very curious where the writing direction of the franchise has gone. I really enjoy Jason Reitman's films, especially TULLY and THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, but he's never done a genre flick. He's pretty much been strictly dramedies. So I wonder how he handles it. My only issues with the reboot was that it wasn't really a horror film at its core so the stakes didn't feel as fun to me, and that it didn't exist in the same continuity. Still enjoyed it, though. From the trailer for AFTERLIFE, I think we're getting more of that horror vibe, but I can also see it being just like one of his prior dramedies except with ghosts and lasers. In general, I'm a big fan of the franchise. I grew up on the films and the cartoons, and the video games. So I love it for more than the comedy; I love the mythology of the universe and the potential there is to grow on it.

Just want to hear what you're looking forward to that has been delayed, and why you're looking forward to it. Any scripts you had your eyes on in development that have been slowed down for now?

Willing to Read and Review scripts...No strings attached. I'm not a professional so it will be a layman's review

 I am willing to read and review scripts.