r/Screenwriting

I'm confused on how much of a location should go in EVERY scene header. Is it necessary to write out the full locations each time? Because I know shorter is better. For example, I have a single page where I cut back and forth rapidly between locations.

Is it better if I write:

EXT. BATTLEFIELD - ARTHUR'S OUTPOST - DAY

EXT. MORDRED'S CAMP - MORDRED'S TENT - DAY

EXT. BATTLEFIELD - ARTHUR'S OUTPOST - DAY

EXT. MORDRED'S CAMP - MORDRED'S TENT - DAY

Or can I shorten the location on subsequent visits, and write:

EXT. BATTLEFIELD - ARTHUR'S OUTPOST - DAY

EXT. MORDRED'S CAMP - MORDRED'S TENT - DAY

EXT. ARTHUR'S OUTPOST - DAY

EXT. MORDRED'S TENT - DAY

or even better:

EXT. ARTHUR'S OUTPOST - DAY

EXT. MORDRED'S TENT - DAY

EXT. ARTHUR'S OUTPOST - DAY

EXT. MORDRED'S TENT - DAY

Or does it not matter?

Thanks in advance, everyone!!

I was sort of admiring just how good so many films and shows look these days. They're so well made, from production design, to cinematography, the directing etc are very high level in many ways. And often the writing is pretty good too, most of the shows or films I watch are paced really well and I don't really feel anything 'drag' anywhere. I'm mostly referring to popular mainstream shows and film, say Euphoria, Taylor Sheridan properties, The Peripheral, Star Trek, Beef S2, Wuthering Heights, Crime 101, The Rip and many more.

Now, there's still so many amazing films and shows that are written so well with great dialog but it just feels like more and more I'm bumping into dialog that provides no subtext, nothing interesting to say and overall just very clunky feeling

After watching A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms I was struck by how impactful every single line of dialog was. It either moved the story along, told you something about the characters in a way that felt like a punch to the face. Astonishingly well crafted dialog in that show and overall many movies from the 90s and early 2000s seem to have way more economy of words with lots of subtext and really interesting things going on that you sort of had to think about? I feel myself checking out in a lot of movies these days specifically because of the quality of dialog and I'm curious if anyone else thinks there's something to be desired there?

I’ve been writing my own scripts for just over two years now and planning to produce and direct a short that I’m happy with in the summer. The notes I’ve received have been genuinely helpful to make the script what it currently is.

Something I’ve been doing lately is giving notes on another screenwriting sub (which I hope have been helpful to writers). Some of the replies I’ve seen from writers to other readers starkly reminded me of how I used to react to notes when I first started out and honestly I feel like a complete douche.

These people are reading scripts for free and giving notes to help strengthen a script or tell a writer that something or the whole thing isn’t working. I’ve realised that a lot of notes are given because something isn’t being clearly communicated on the page or just generally weak and getting defensive or explaining a choice reaffirms that said thing isn’t effectively doing what it’s meant to.

I know some notes can be given based on taste but if ten different people are telling you something isn’t working it probably isn’t.

I think this realisation has seriously helped me as a writer and to help me remove myself from my work in order to look at it through an objective lens.

Happy writing everyone!

Hello! I am looking into entering the Big Break contest, but I’m curious about the page count rule. The rules state that all entries for full-length screenplays must be approximately 80-120 pages, and anything over 150 pages will be disqualified. There seems to be a grey area, and my script is 133 pages long. Would it not qualify?

Hi guys, I'm working on a script and I am about 40 pages in currently. You don't have to read the whole thing if you don't want to, feel free to if you would like. I really would like some feedback on where I am potentially going wrong and what I could maybe be doing to fix that. The current thing I am aware of is that I think I have pacing issues and need to work on that. But any other critiques are more than welcome :)

Edit: forgot to mention some things. It’s a feature screenplay, the title is “reunion” and it is a romance

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NTDS1-mobeCv_WZ-oQYYb-NVIZ_a1wIy/view?usp=sharing

Hey everyone. I recently got feedback from judges and they invited me to resubmit a polished version before final judging.

They said the language and formatting still need polishing.

Please be brutally honest but constructive. I’d rather hear real criticism than fake praise.

Title : The One In The Yard

Format : Short script

Pages : 6

Genre : horror

Logline : After his young son becomes obsessed with terrifying drawings of a strange presence lurking in their yard, a grieving father dismisses the warnings, until he realizes too late that the ancient tree outside their home may be calling the boy to something monstrous.

Feedback concern : awkward dialogue and grammar/formatting polish

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Al52F8bmPX3UuZcn-CLG3c7gNE3HPvQH/view?usp=drivesdk

Out there is an Original PDF of the TV show Snowfall written by John Singleton and Eric Amadio that went significant changes after they brought in Dave Andron who altered many things. Have been searching for this script for years. Anyone able to help locate it? I’ve read one forums and things that it’s online but I can’t find it.

I once wrote a feature that got too long (190+ pages…) and decided it might be better as a TV show. Do I even need to focus on seperating each page count into an episode? Or just take the first 30-50 and define them into a good pilot without even thinking about the next ones because I basically know everything that happens.

I’m 41 and I’ve done my fair share of Tubi movies and festivals but I want more. I have and opportunity right now to get my film funded and maybe a distribution deal from a very well known company ( won’t say who don’t want to jinx it). I just feel like if this doesn’t hit I don’t get the funding or the deal I may just hang it up and publish my own books or go into independent editing or something.

I’m exhausted and it’s not that I don’t want it. I just feel like this door for some reason stays shut on me no matter how hard I try. I can probably fund my own Tubi projects but in reality I’m not getting much in return and I’m just recycling money I made off the project to make a new one and it’s never fully what I want because I don’t have a real budget.

This is just me venting and wanting to know if anyone else felt this way.

i finished a sci fi pilot script that i am really proud of but every time i try to get producers or agents interested they have a hard time visualizing the world building. text just is not enough anymore and i feel like i am at a huge disadvantage compared to writer directors who can shoot a proof of concept. how do writers without production budgets get compelling visuals to attach to their pitch decks

Hey all, thanks for taking the time to read and engage.

Yeah, as the question says. Is it better to start at the peak of the action and flash back to start over, or maybe the aftermath of something big for a mystery box right out of the gate?

My Rome series is 11 episodes, 456 pages, and I’ve gotten a lot of valid and useful feedback about it being front loaded and too slow to get going. The problem is I’ve written the life of my lead character from age 16, entering an arranged marriage, to the age of 34, where she becomes the symbol behind a potential pagan renaissance, and the changes she goes through politically, socially, and emotionally while Rome also changes around her. Between 309ad and 325ad.

Any thoughts, examples, sarcastic quips welcome. Especially given the scope of what I’m writing I really will appreciate and value any structure help here before I start attacking the project with scissors and glue to reorder it non chronologically.

But my biggest fear is that while my lead and her family will be easy to track non chronologically the politics of Rome between those days won’t be. Especially for those up on their history knowledge you’ll know why.

"The assignment was to take the hill. There were four of us, five if you counted Vicente, but he had lost his hand when a grenade went off and couldn't fight as he could when I first met him.

And he was young and brave, and the hill was soggy from days of rain. And it sloped down toward a road and there were many German soldiers on the road. And the idea was to aim for the first group, and if our aim was true we could delay them."

Corey Stoll says all of this in one breath it seems. No blinks. The dialogue is so great. It's the kind of dialogue that you just repeat randomly, unprompted.

When I saw that Stoll was bald, I couldn't believe it.

At another point, he goes,

“I believe that love that is true and real, creates a respite from death. All cowardice comes from not loving or not loving well, which is the same thing. And then the man who is brave and true looks death squarely in the face, like some rhino-hunters I know or Belmonte, who is truly brave… It is because they make love with sufficient passion, to push death out of their minds… until it returns, as it does, to all men… and then you must make really good love again."

I love highly stylized dialogue. Do you guys think it is more interesting or should characters talk more so like in real life?

Kubrick made a point about it in some interview that over the top acting was more interesting.

Would love to also hear some favorite dialogue that has stayed with you throughout the years.

Another one, for me, is Don's fight with Peggy about the commercial in Mad Men.

"But, you never say thank you!"

"That's what the money's FORRRRR" LOL

My first feature screenplay has led to a few encouraging conversations with literary managers and producers, and I'm trying to understand whether I'm approaching the industry in the right way.

Over the past nine months, I wrote and developed my first screenplay and created supporting materials to help communicate the project visually. One literary manager requested the material, and I have continued sending carefully targeted query emails to other managers and producers.

I also submitted the script to a major screenwriting competition and am currently waiting for the results.

My questions are:

1. Is it normal to continue querying managers while waiting to hear back from contests and industry contacts?
2. At what point does it make sense to pause and wait for responses instead of sending more queries?
3. If a first screenplay begins generating some interest, is it generally better to keep focusing on that project before moving on to newer ones?

This is my first time navigating the industry, and I'm trying to be as strategic and professional as possible. Any advice from writers who have gone through a similar process would be greatly appreciated.

Hey, you could include a full scene, elements, settings or character description as well. Anything you like. I need your opinions to get inspired for my upcoming screenplay project. Thank you very much for the help.

For those who are new or experienced, hopeful or jaded, how do you feel about the state of screenwriting today?

Do you spring up in the morning with fingertips to keyboard, or do you crack a beer at a bar and talk about packing this all up and ponder about a time that once was…?

I'm working with a director on adapting his original idea into a feature script. Originally I was brought on as a co-writer, but he hasn't written anything except for an outline. I finished the first draft (99 pages) despite several concerns I'd raised re: the plot, characters, etc. He's now seeing the issues and we've gone back to the drawing board.

I've taken on a much more hands on role with developing the story now, and he's yet to write a single script page. I'm expected to complete another full draft based upon this completely different outline (same concept, different everything else.) Maybe 10% of the script is salvageable. He's very insistent that this film is about HIS vision, which is totally fine by me. The problem is that my input has blurred the lines of whose vision this actually is.

I'm a visual writer by nature but I'm not a director. He wants me to write like a director with his very specific vision in mind. I don't see how that is possible. I also have been trying to tell him that scripts aren't meant to be directorial in the first place, but he's consistently said that he doesn't trust readers to see his vision without being obvious about it and scripts are just a "necessary evil" to him.

I told him I can do my best but it'd be easier if I just did my version of the script and he can adapt it into his voice on his pass. I don't want to quit because we compliment one another well when it comes to individual talents. We've already found some success together as well. I just feel like I'm being asked to meet unreasonable expectations while also being severely under-credited.

For those of you who have experienced something similar - how did it pan out? Any advice on how to move forward, or how to broach the subject of renegotiating credits?

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