Screenwriting : Are you kicking against the goads or following the trends? by Phillip E. Hardy, "The Pro From Dover"

John: Sounds like your scripts are in line with what the article stated. To that end. I just submitted this pitch to a Happy Writer's Exec looking for "action screenplays". GINA JERICHO Logline: "When a female crime lord kidnaps the mayor’s teenage daughter, a renegade woman and former Texas Ranger takes three mercenaries across the border and uses torture, mayhem and killing to get her back." I wrote the first draft of this one about three years ago and have revised it several times. The first draft of this screenplay was a second round finalist at Austin Film Festival and a more recent version was 2016 Winner for "best action screenplay" at American Grindhouse Film Festival. Since I started this one three years ago, I guess I was ahead of the curve.

Good read, Phillip, and exciting to see that so many of my scripts seem to tick these boxes. Hoping that means I'm on the right track!

Jody: thank you for the kind words. You work so hard and are a great example of someone who's very serious about their writing craft. You do the requisite work creatively and afterward, pitching your work to as many people as you can. I wish you the greatest success in the coming year.

Aw thank you so much Phillip, likewise to you! I'm a huge fan of all you've accomplished. Would love to read Gina Jericho. I just started an action script with a female main character who is a badass Kung fu kinda chick, lol.

I love dog movies!

Aw man....now I gotta watch My Dog Skip again....followed up by Best in Show....then Cujo....then Homeward Bound....then Turner & Hooch. I can't ever watch Old Yeller again.

My son got me the book "A Dogs Purpose" for Christmas which I'm reading now before the movie comes out. One of my favorite dog books is "The Art of Racing in the Rain" and I think it would make a much better movie than A Dogs Purpose.

Bill C: Old Teller is a tear jerker!

Great article, Phillip. Very encouraging as well. I think the 'weird idea' one is the one that seems to be describing my TV pilot. LOL The rejections I'm receiving, including the one from yesterday keep saying 'very strong, original project, just not for us at this time.' This same thing happened over twenty years ago when I wrote a screenplay and now that one gets requested more than any of them. (Two requests this week, actually.) And Dan M., I'm beginning to believe what you have said about unproduced writers attempting the TV pilot arena being extremely difficult. I'm seriously considering revising my pilot into a screenplay. After all the feedback that I have received in regard to it, that seems to be the direction it is being pointed toward.

Dan M., you always make me smile with your shooting-from-the hip honesty---Ferrari and Honda analogy :-) And you made a good point. I have misled myself in thinking I would even want a TV staff job. I believe it came from discovering that the lady who wrote the middle-grade book "Just Add Magic" was able to write the TV pilot and series for it from her home, and Amazon produced it. I gave that a shot with my own middle-grade novel in hopes of doing the same. Then I realized I enjoyed writing pilots so I attempted a completely different one. And as I have said before, the executives' common response is that they like the idea, but basically I'm not the writer they are looking for. And right now, I'm good with that. So, back to screenplay writing. :-)

Linda: It's extremely difficult to get anyone to greenlight a new pilot or to secure funding for a feature script. I know producers and directors with track records that are having a helluva time. You got to pitch to anyone who will listen, keep faith and keep writing more and better stuff. As Dan says, try to get to get work and use your specs as calling cards to do that.

Thanks, Phillip. I appreciate your advice. I'm not giving up this time. I began writing screenplays in '96 and quit after a few years. (back when a random postcard from my agent was all the update I received in regard to submissions)...and that was also way before awesome sites like this. I just returned to writing screenplays again in late 2015 when I heard about Amazon Studios, then found this site in Feb. 2016 and have been motivated ever since. :-)

And I do try to pitch my work as much as I can. VPF requests my material quite often. Love their "Hotlist" which I'm on right now, but I know it is short-lived since it's the beginning of the month. lol

Thanks, Dan. I'll check it out.

I don't want to hijack Phillip E. Hardy's post, either, but since I plugged one of Dan MaxXx's scripts earlier today....Phillip E. Hardy's script that he mentioned earlier in this forum topic, Gina Jericho, is one great script, and I hope to see it soon at a theater near me. Good luck with Gina Jericho and your many other film-worthy scripts, Phillip!

Bill C; Thanks for the plug sir. Gina just go another rewrite few months back making it one of my most rewritten scripts.

Great article - thank you for sharing!

Dawn: You are most welcome.

Phillip: I've always loved the Gina Jericho story from the get-go. It has an exciting premise and story line; the characters are well-developed and true-to-character; it's a dynamic story that moves and is not predictable; the dialogue is perfect; and your overall execution is top-notch. I know how hard you toil at your craft, and the amounts of dedication, determination and passion you have for writing, cinema, pitching and the film business. You could easily be a role-model for writers of any skill level and of all ages. Much luck and success with Gina Jericho and your other excellent and award-winning scripts, Phillip!

Sounds interesting, Aray. Love the title! Good luck with the contest.

Aray: I know you specialize in horror. May I recommend you check out the 13 Horror.com Horror Script contest in the United Kingdom? They do a nice horror contest and I was a runner up there for the one in Halloween. Andrew, the man who runs it, is very nice and provides free feedback for all the writers who enter. They really appreciate good horror novelists and screenwriters. The March contest is still open. http://www.13horror.com/ http://www.13horror.com/halloween-2016-winners

One of the screenwriter's biggest mistakes is to chase a trend. By the time your script gets out there there'll already be a dozen like them already being shopped around. Your best bet is to just write something you'd be willing to be able willing to pay to see in a theater (at full price of course).

Bill C: I don't want to hijack my own thread but I have thank my friend Bill Costantini (see my latest post Writers are people you should know) to understand the value of people like him. When it comes to scriptwriting and films in general, Bill is one of the most knowledgeable folks you'll ever meet. He's very positive guy with a great sense of humor and slow to criticize other creative, which I admire greatly. Proud to call him friend. https://www.stage32.com/lounge/screenwriting/Other-writers-are-people-yo...

Angel: I wouldn't worry about being late to the trend party as long as you put your own stamp on your work. For example, I wrote an action script in the style of Taken called Pascal's Coming and it's a fun script. And before Taken, there were other movies where the protagonists went in search of their daughter's abusers and wreaked havoc on them. One was called Hardcore with George C. Scott and the other one was called The Limey with Terrence Stamp. There is always room for good scripts trend-wise or otherwise. PS, the mean looking guy in the poster holding the gun is me.

Action! https://www.stage32.com/profile/185490/Screenplay/Mad-mountain

Thanks for the info on 13horror.com script contest, and script shadows article on Hollywood script trend now. You've kickstarted a thread that rocks. Also I'm eagerly waiting to see Gore Verbinskis horror "A Cure For Wellness " and find out exactly why it's considered unique. I'm up for seeing more Edgy and Out of the Box material in horror, more multilayered and unexpected....strange and eccentric.

Debbie: Speaking of out of the box, I'm working on a horror story where Jack is separated from his box and gets involved in the nightmare world of homeless toys.

Aray: I'm actually torn between writing my Jack in the Box or continuing to write my urban story about the life of a fire hydrant. Here's my first one and a half pages. EXT. STREET CORNER - NIGHT NEW YORK, 1972 Street walkers dressed in multi-colored hot pants, tight blouses and feather boas stand around smoking and waiting for clients. Various other salty looking characters mill about the run down neighborhood. At the edge of an alley, several winos partake of Thunderbird and Ripple. On the corner, vigilantly standing his post, is HARRY (28), a hard bitten public servant with a faded red coat. His complexion is cracked... he’s as solid as cast iron... Wait, he is cast iron. His fixed expression conveys the look of a guy that’s seen a lot over the years. You might say life has passed him by. A sexy young hooker walks by and Harry whistles at her. The woman acts like she can’t hear him. Sitting only steps from Harry, his best friend BUSTER (26), a proud, old bench where people waiting for the bus can plant their fat posteriors. Across Buster’s chest, is a sign advertising the United States Navy. HARRY How you doing Buster? BUSTER Six pigeons crapped on my deck an hour ago. How you think I’m doing? HARRY Just cause you have a navy billboard on your chest, it doesn’t make you a ship. BUSTER And who made you so high and mighty? HARRY Every three months, I’m calibrated by the FDNY. Buster raises his bench brows. BUSTER Alright you got credentials. I’ll give you that. Harry wistfully sighs. HARRY Listen, my life’s no picnic either. Some Jack Russell urinated on me earlier today, without a by your leave. I would have kicked him but I can’t leave my post. Buster roars with LAUGHTER. BUSTER You can’t leave because you’re bolted to cement you idiot. Harry deliberates for a minute. HARRY You got me there.

Jack OUT OF HIS BOX sounds quirky and original, and i also feel the same about HARRY AND HIS SECRET FRIEND/ALLY/CONFIDANTE, THE FIXED BENCH. I would continue with both scripts, and not choose one over the other. A lot of energy can be wasted in pontificating over which script to go with, Ive found myself doing this in the past, so now i don't think.....i just go to each script as and when I'm engulfed by a fresh idea. Also switching between scripts gives my mind a rest when I'm struggling on a particular point with one, i dive into the other and later on i see the original problem with fresh eyes. Im doing a Noir and Pulp at the moment, (post production shorts Im expanding to pitch for feature) one is Yin to the others Yang, and they both kind of help me with each other. Projects to me have become living beings in their own right, and the characters have begun to dictate the page, rather than me. LOL Maybe i should do a horror where the writer is stalked by her own creations, and the characters even turn up in Burger King. Hope we soon see posters PhHave a great week @All.

Dang re my post above.....someone just bumped into me on the beach and my mobile phone slipped out my hands, affecting the typeface and keys. I meant to type hope we see film posters for Jack and Harry, your two scripts @Philip. Have a great week @All.

Hey Debbie C: The bits about the Jack in the Box and Harry the Hydrant actually began as a goof. Last year, someone in the forum said somebody's script or logline (can't remember) was about as exciting as a fire hydrant. So being the imaginative, yet sick puppy I am, I wrote a couple of pages of screenplay about the fire hydrant and his pal. I began thinking about it on Friday and a couple of writer friends responded really well to the joke. So I actually wrote 20 pages of screenplay this weekend about Harry the Hydrant, his bus bench pal Buster and Ronnie the Rat. Along the way, I developed a funny premise, an inciting incident and the story will be my first screenplay for 2017. I'm also working on a Christmas Comedy hopefully darker and meaner than Bad Santa and have a good backlog of script concepts. Thanks for your support. The Fire Hydrant (first draft) screenplay should be finished by the end of the month or sooner.

@Phillip, in regards to your earlier comment aboit execs having a tough time getting the greenlight on tv pilots, I got an email from an exec last week who read my latest tv pilot and loved it, wants to schedule a call this week. He was quick to tell me though, that he didn't think the pilot was anything he could package and sell. sigh :-/

Thanks for the update/share Phillip about how the embryonic idea of a log line, turned into some of your latest characters, Jack and Harry. Sounds like an intellectual "pass the parcel" of writers ideas, what first started as a prank, has now grown to give birth to two serious antagonist/protagonist leads. It just shows that if executed properly, any idea can grow and change, from ridiculous to sublime. I can imagine Jack, standing on the toy shelf laughing with a discarded Barbie, that the street he lives in is now suffering floods and electricity has failed. (Not forgetting the smash cut of the grotesque glee on his paper mache white face and stretched contorted red lips, as his blue beady eyes dart to the hit list in a children's scrapbook.). Lol sorry I get carried away when reading script ideas.

"Embryonic idea?"...."intellectual pass the parcel?"...."any idea can grow and change from ridiculous to sublime?"........Debbie sure knows how to make a guy tingle. Heh-heh. (By the way.....Harry the Hydrant was from one of my posts about comments made by script readers....circa June 2016....all jokes/embryonic ideas/intellectual births were originally mine. Let me know if you'd like to re-enact the scenario. Roleplaying is one of my many, many specialities, Debbie.)

Debbie: Thanks and I've now written the first act of the new screenplay. It's a flowing like an inspiration river. Bill C: Please PM with the heading of the original post. I forgot the context and would like to read it.

Phillip....I wish it was that easy. You have to hit the "back" button around 700 times to get to it. Someone once asked me "who can do that?" My reply was a simple one: "if anyone....and I mean ANYONE.....can do it....Phillip E. Hardy can!"

Bill C Hanging my head Drat!

Good article! While reading this article, a question crossed my mind: if one cross many points of that list to makehis script, is this following trends or something else?

@Bill Ha Ha .....purely adoration of the written page.....@Phillip Great the first draft out! Maybe Bill really has the answer to your question in his head, but wants you to play the keys 700 times. You can figure it out Phil, without the organ grinder. Happy approaching Tuesday!

Dan M: Pixar pansies!

Phillip and Bill, I found it! https://www.stage32.com/lounge/screenwriting/How-To-Tell-the-Truth-To-a-...

Linda H: Well I'll be damned and boiled in a lobster kettle. It was Bill C that said: "I don’t think anyone is gonna believe that a fire hydrant can be the protagonist of a movie." It looks like I'm going to prove to the world that you can, in fact, make a fire hydrant the protagonist of a movie. It begins with my script that I shall post here by the end of the month. Thanks for locating the thread Linda. And thanks to Bill for being the founder of the feast.

:-) After reading your mention of locating it, I just typed 'hydrant' into the top search bar and his article came up. Sounds like a fun project. :-)

Congrats for finding the source of the instigation factor for thread subject. Just goes to show if its on the web, its there forever. Looking forward to reading the finished draft.

EXTRA KUDOS to Linda H!!! I typed in "hydrant" and have been getting Home Depot pop-up ads for sprinklers and hoses on every web page ever since! Phillip: Dang, bro.....that little scenario you played out in that thread looks remarkably similar to a treatment I sold to a producer in Kazakhstan last year for 20,000 tenge. I'd split the 20,000 tenge with you, but I spent it on a lunch buffet at the Rio. 20,000 tenge sure sounded like a lot at the time....but if it's any consolation....I ate enough ribs for the both of us. Next time I have a two-for-one....we're going on a Rib-Eating Chow-Tiill-We-Drop-Or-Get-Asked-To-Leave-By-The-Management Extravaganza!!!

Bill C., too funny about the Home Depot pop-up ads. You crack me up. I typed 'hydrant' in the S32 search bar where it says Search People, Education and more...I figured 'hydrant' could be considered 'more.' lol

Phillip, thank you for posting this scriptshadow article.