Sunday, April 1, 2012

Can you write a 100 page screenplay in 30 days?

I think I have an addiction to month long writing projects.  Last year I wrote 30 sketches in 30 days as part of Sketch writing month, and 50k word novel as part of Novel Writing Month. This month is Script Frenzy

I have finished the first 5 pages of my screenplay. In prep for this month I read most of book Writing Movies for Fun and Profit  by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon.

The three things that they taught me which I am implementing are:
1. Pick real movie stars to play your characters. This lets you hear them speak your dialog thus creating better dialog. Also it allows you to short cut on a lot of character creation. My main character is Zooey Deschanel. Everyone know who she is, so its quick to describe her. If I decided I really liked my script when I am finished, then I could send the script to her agent and it would be more likely to be produced if she really liked it.

2. Make a movie about things that other popular movies are about. My movie is about Aline, a 30 year old who has a dream of having her own Woman's Self Defense school. Shes a practical woman and has a passion to empower women. But shes stuck in a dojo where the leaders is more into meditation than the practical side of martial arts. She also has a jerk boy friend who she puts up with. To make things more complicated she meets a really nice man. But unfortunately, before their new romance can begin, a man comes to kill her boss. So this movie has a love triangle, life and death situations, its about martial arts which allows for a lot of physical scenes. It has a woman heroin. I am hoping it will be funny, but lets see about that.

3. Write an outline. I wrote my outline about 4 days ago. Now as I am writing my 3 pages a day to hit 100 in 30 days, I just look at my outline and write the next scene. I've already deviated a little and added a few more scenes, but overall I am still following my plot. 

Using these three steps, I a plan to write a 100 page screenplay in the next thirty days. I hope you will also join me in writing a screenplay because your story needs to be told!

Stay tuned for updates. 

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