John Q. Phats Entertainment

Recently, I’ve been writing a movie script. That’s actually one of the reasons I haven’t been posting. It was kind of exciting because someone from some big time movie studio got a hold of it and actually read it. Although not that exciting. Allow me to explain. In my experience, leads like this never really pan out. First off, it could be anybody at the studio. It could be the janitor or someone in billing who is in just as good of a position as you are to actually get your movie made. Second of all, big deal, doesn’t mean your script is any good. I’ll read anything you put in front of me if I’m bored enough. Third of all, if they are someone whose capable of doing something with your script, it’s still a thousand to one. You’re an unknown writer with no background. They are either desperate or bored.
Enough of that happiness. They did actually read it and they were someone in a good position. Their words of advice: It’s too long and the funny parts aren’t that funny. Ouch. But not really. They were right. So, I started editing, which turned in to nitpicking to a degree that was unhealthy. I’m not exaggerating, I’ve read this script at least 400 times. So, this is it. I’m done editing it. I sent it off to some friends and told them that this is the furthest I can take it. Any other edits have to come from discussions or pointers from them. I’m not editing this thing any more. It does free me up for a project though. While I have other movie script ideas, I’m going to do a short film. And since I’ve neglected my website so much recently, it will be something for my website.
In closing, lesson learned. Sometimes you just have to walk away from a script. Especially if you’re as OCD as me.

I’ve been writing a lot lately.  I’ve written 47 pages in roughly 5 days.  I had an idea and I just started writing it.  I didn’t do an outline or anything like that.  Which I’m sure is a mortal sin in the world of script writing, but whatever.  I’m really enjoying this so far.  It’s kind of fun to lay out the story this way.  It’s almost like reading a book.  Especially because I’m not sure how this script is going to end yet.  Writing an outline seemed to be very detrimental to me in the past.  It just made me over think everything.  Maybe this is what will work for me.  Just writing and then going through to revise later.  I wonder if any other writers use that same process.  I’m not letting anything stop me either.  I always just go with my gut, weather I think it’s bad or not.  I figure when I’m done, I’ll go through it a million times and revise it every time.  Right now it’s sort of a sci fi action comedy.  By the end of my revisions it will probably be a tragedy about pie.  Whatever, I like what I’ve written so far.  I’ve been telling people the story as I develop it and they seem to genuinely be interested.  They’ve been asking me “have you written any more of your script yet?  What happened?”  I think that’s a good sign.  Weather it’s good or not, I’m having a really good time writing it.  At first I was averaging about 2 pages a night.  Then I started averaging 5 pages a night.  Now I’m doing between 8-10 pages a night.  If this trend continues, I’ll probably hit about 15 pages a night before I’m done.  An average movie script (according to a Google search) is 95 – 125 pages.  If my script were going to be 95 pages I’m half a page shy of being half way done.  A movie script in less than 10 days isn’t too shabby.  Granted, it will be a shitty movie script that needs revision, but still.  I think that’s kind of an accomplishment.  Not really though.  I’m sure anyone could write a shitty script in 10 days.  When I finish it, I’m going to enter it in to as many script writing festivals as I can find.  Seriously, those are so freaking easy.  You sign up, pay the $15 entry fee and then E-Mail them a PDF.  I could enter 10 festivals in like 20 minutes.  I’ve never entered a script writing festival, only short film festivals.  Film festivals are kind of a pain in the ass.  You have to sign up online, pay online, and then get the tracking number.  Print out a DVD label with the tracking number on it, affix it to the DVD.  Then you have to print out a label and put it on the case that the DVD is in.  Then you have to print out another label to ship it.  I suppose you don’t have to print it, but when I was a programmer, nothing made me more skeptical about a short like a hand written DVD cover that I could barely read.  I didn’t even mention the part about burning the DVD and making sure that it’s the right region and that it actually plays correctly.  Then there’s the worry that the festival will have a picky DVD player and it won’t even play.  Even if I have to ship a script out, it’s already 10 times easier then shipping out a short film.  It’s paper, you read it.  Not much can go wrong with that.  Unless someone spills a cup of coffee on it or something, but that’s hardly my fault.