Hi All:
As a lesbian, it's kind of a joke that sex scenes involving women are directed by men who don't know jack (or Jill in this case). I had been wondering just how descriptive my sex scenes needed to be for a male director.
I ended up writing very descriptive sex scenes so that a male director wouldn't screw it up, so to speak. Is this an issue for anyone else?
Thanks.
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I wouldnt worry about directors, or production, or development. Worry about the pages and how your craft compares to peers. the current top Netflix series is Bridgerton, which has plenty of sex scenes. Get your hands on their production scripts and see how their writers write sex. You can also research "The L-Word". That show has lots of sex scenes. Maybe go read feature scripts like "Basic Instinct." Read the opening scene and read how Joe Eszterhas describes the room and the sex.
Basically, read stacks of scripts and figure it out yourself.
Is a director already hired? If preferred, why not hire a female director? Generally, you don't need to be overly descriptive unless the scene or aspect is important to the story or character, or theme. So it's not an issue—just another scene like any other. Ultimately, filmmakers and actors who may have a specific contract with 'will do/show' and 'will not do/show' direction will decide how to shoot and act the scene. If there is some story plot element within the "action," say, as in Black Swan, then a specifically written scene makes story sense. ;)
I write them the way they would feel on the screen. Like fight scenes.
In “Drug King” and Dom his girlfriend are stoned and drunk. I wrote that the sex was like the music blaring from the stereo, frantic, sweaty and loud.
Someone will figure it out.
Cindy Van Vreede did you mean a sex scene that contain only women being directs by men? I can see where that could me functionally wrong. But they also butcher hetro sex as well.
I have written a bunch of erotic thrillers - including one that was the #7 rental in the USA.
A sex scene is a character scene and a story scene - like every other scene, it's required to tell the story. And the research is tax deductible!
So the scenes are going to give us important information about the characters, move the story forward, and be hot to read. You want sensual, not pornographic.
This Script Tip has excerpts from a couple of screenplays for movies you might have seen written by people much more famous than I am...
http://www.scriptsecrets.net/tips/tip138.htm
Remember scene description is beats within the scene... sounds like sexual intercourse is one beat unless you got something interesting happening between them.
Point is if it's just a sex scene do not waste time with scene description unless it has a purpose.