Then it's on to the rewrite job, and finish up the script for the movie I was *supposed* to be shooting this summer (now it is penciled in for end of the year). Before that end of the year, I also hope to finish two stalled-out screenplays which were set aside long ago. A cop action script and one about pirates that are nowhere near the Caribbean.
I usually take a couple of weeks "off" in July (I work in some other city - usually Las vegas) but that hasn't happened, yet - so I may take a week off in August.
Another script finished!
- Bill
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Should I Pay For Notes? - there are people who charge *thousands* of dollars to read screenplays - should you pay them?
Dinner: I was a bad boy - burgers ar Burger King.
Bicycle: Medium - rode west into the valley.
Pages: Well, finsihed... and did some rewriting and added a scene or two... 9 pages plus the rewriting.
4 comments:
Baby Bones says:
Congratulations, Bill. I hope it does more than just pay the bills.
I have a friend who's been a screenwriter since the mid-eighties. He's also taught screenwriting and acting/directing courses overseas for a number of years.
He has a slew of solid credits to his name, mostly action and thrillers, but he can't find work right now. He's never had an agent or manager, as far as I can tell, but until last year, he had been employed turning various producers half-baked ideas into good stories.
Basically, I'd say that he's fed up seeing his work devolve during production into something less than what he imagined it to be. But being fed up doesn't pay the bills.
I'd also say that his experience is similar in many ways to yours. One difference is that he's rather negative about his chances in the spec market. He says all the people he's worked for have had their own ideas, ones they wanted turned into screenplays. These people have big money, big egos, and not bad ideas, but they have neither the talent for telling a story nor enough directing experience to execute those ideas (but inevitably they want to direct, not just produce).
My question is do you have any suggestions for working screenwriters? Most of your scriptsecrets posts are geared towards educating amateurs like me. But my feeling is that the actual job is one that is very self-defined. There's no one route to *success*.
I wonder how many actual scripts you have written would be on your counter instead of "writer of 19 produced screenplays" -- have you cracked the century mark yet?
Friday, 8/6 is Ingrid Bergman day on Turner classic movies.
Hitchcock's SPELLBOUND and NOTORIOUS, as well as GASLIGHT and CASABLANCA.
Outstanding - congrats, Bill!@
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