Help with writing a screenplay

Hey peepls...

...it's pretty much what the title says. I have some ideas for screenplays, all sorts, and I'm struggling to organise the story lines and plot points. I'm fairly reasonably comfortable that once I have a treatment done I can convert to a working script - I'm ok at dialogue and stuff - but it's getting the story and characters carved and nailed together...

...I have a few different draft treatments for stories and I'm just looking for someone to bounce ideas off, help with getting from A to B, offer an outside perspective, even just act as an editor.

My ambition is nothing too clever, my dream is to write a working, saleable, standard-with-just-enough-originality-to-make-it-interesting screenplay to sell. Not win awards, not critical acclaim.. something that'll do the job.

Or, if anyone has an idea or story they think might make a decent film, I'd be more than happy to help with that as well.

Anyhoo, thought I'd put it out there.

Alternatively, anyone in LA with a spare couch - let me know and hell I'll cook, clean and wash for you for rent. Anyone? lmao.

 

English isn't my first language so I can't help you with style and editing. However, I am quite good at character analysis and would be delighted to read your text.

 

Hey lively girl, that'd be appreciated thanks. Messaged you.

 

What is your screenplay about?

 

Writing is not really my thing , but , do you want a love story , sci-fi , erotic , some thing from history , some thing else .

 

p.s. I have this idea of a new Star Trek show . Star Wreck . Its 200 years later that Piccard's time , there is not much left of the federation , petty fighting , ect. They have used up the resorces of a bunch of planets , all they have left is a few beaten up star ships . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Treck
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060028/?ref_=sr_4

 

There was a guy on here that is an actual screenwriter. Don't know how much he checks in anymore---but - ----Geckopeli. Might drop him a note in case he does check. Look on the members list.

 

I'm a screenwriter, I can help you if you'd like.

 

Also, I have seen a bunch of books on how to do it in the big bookstores. Always the net too. Sounds like the libertyboho can help.

 

I got a reasonably fleshed out british urban gang thing, a reasonably fleshed out american rom com, a beginning-to-slowly-get-fleshed-out creature feature...

...if I had to pick one I guess the creature feature because it's the least ambitious (although I think it's got a bit of an original twist to it)

I had an idea for a Star Treck spin off set back in 1780s on one of the first US warships - sailing round the seven seas fighting the British, taking democracy and freedom to other nations through the weapons of peace and philosophy (because that's what you do, right?). :2thumbsup:

I like your idea desert-rat - it'd be like a futured-reboot of the franchise... personally I'd rather try for a stand-alone film than a pilot for a series - but if you've got ideas and want to turn them into a treatment, and then maybe a screenplay, let me know. Any project that'll get me working again is welcome.

(aside - warning, rant imminent - and the first JJ Abrams Star Trek just made me go maaaaaaad - mostly because I thought the first ten or so minutes were pretty good, which meant there was no excuse for the utter drivel it then turned into. "Red matter" ... srsly. SRSLY??! The writers might as well have had called it "evilsplurge". FFS.

Thanks for the reply scratcho, I'll drop a message on Geckopeli's page and see what happens.

I have a book off Syd Field, and some stuff off the interwebz. To be honest now it's more about trying to motivate myself again - it's easier for me to get shit done if I have something or someone to write for. I was gunning along nicely last year then had a few months ill - operations and painkillers and just feeling half-dead - but although physically I'm feeling skippety again my mental discipline is all shot to hell. It's partly why I'm trolling the forum - getting my brain used to forming words in a reasonable order and my fingers used typing them up as I go.

Hey thanks liberteboho - I'm about to post this and then message you.

:daisy:

And thanks again to the replies everyone. And if there's anyone else interested in having a crack at some random idea in collaboration let me know too. I'd be as happy working on someone else's idea as any of my own.

 

Read your message

I'm willing to help with whatever you need, depending on what type of screenplay you're writing. I'm only great with dramedies, drama, comedies - that sort of thing. But if you need help with proofreading, format, edits, I can do that, too.

 

Don't you dare ruin ST with such nonsense. :frown:

 

Hehehe... could be worse... my original thought was to set it pre-independence and call it HMS Enterprise.

Thanks again - messaged again.

 

It was more to do with the fact even in the ST universe prior to 208 something or other - the idea of a united federation of planets was yet a twinkle in the eyes of the universe. So, to take the idea of ST and put it in pre enlightenment is a disgrace. I don't want to even get into the fact ST isn't about America - it is about humanity.

 

Ooooh, sorry. You're a hardcore Trekkie, my bads... no worries. Sorry for indirectly dissing it. Although, to be fair, personaly it feels to me like a very Americanised view of humanity, not saying it's any worse for that, in fact I think it comes from the very best of the American psyche, represents their ideals beautifully. And I love their ideals... well, apart from the mental privatise everything and sell the poor to the nearest slavery corp ideals of the uber-right nutters, obviously.

But being serious, the 18th centuryised ST would be on the cusp of enlightenment, ie when the ideas were first emerging and taking hold in people's imaginations, but before they were fully understood and appreciated. Lot's of scope for debating what they mean, how they apply in 'real life' and real situations. Lots of scope for the "ideals vs survival" dilemmas that made ST what it was. Have a maverick commander who believes in all this new philosophy he reads about in his books, and a gung-ho shoot first marine captain who wants to impose empire on the foreigners 'for their own good'...

...thought it might have been interesting. Like a modern day Hornblower.

 

It took WWIII, riots and 'first contact' to be on the cusp.
http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/World_War_III
You can't really attach any notion of ST to any point in time and have it vaguely ST.
It's just not right.
ST works because even their past is our future.
It just doesn't seem to diverge until well into the 21st century.
If you start writing about some 18th century maverick commander who believes in all this new philosophy he reads about in his books, and a gung-ho shoot first marine captain who wants to impose empire on the foreigners 'for their own good' - it's going to be a monumental failure.
Especially if you try and base it on your perceived notions of American foreign policy.
As far as I can tell It isn't really 'Americanised' or shows the traits of 'America' - that's the point.
Sorry for trashing your idea...it's just a really bad idea, imho.
Well, attaching ST to it, anyway.


'A modern day hornblower' Isn't Hornblower set in the early 19th century? Are you not setting yours in the late 18th century?

 

Good post. I completely agree.

Unedited, your Star Treck spin-off would probably be a complete trainwreck for 2 reasons.

1. You have some pretty radical misconceptions about american foreign policy and cultural imperialism.

2. Star Treck sucks.

 

:frown:

Are you more a 'in a galaxy far, far away' person?

 

Haha - shoulda known better than suggest an ST hybrid to a Trekky... you're probably feeling like I felt when I heard JJ Abrams was doing Star Wars. Dirty.

Don't take it personally though, there's no offense intended.

The Americanised thing is about a hegemonising political ideology that thinks itself as morally superior and as a consequence goes around patronising the living bejesus out of the rest of the known universe, and getting all confused when no-one likes it. It's a pretty established analysis of Star Trek. But there's nothing wrong with it, it's not a fault. It's the result of the fact it's an American show with American writers who were letting rip with their dreams of how the future might look - it's inevitable their dreams of the future are born from their views of the society they inhabit.

 

Are you saying the writers were critiquing 'America' and were apposed to American 'moral superiority' etc etc. Or were flag waving patriots of the American dream?
I can't remember any e.gs of that in the show, to be honest.
It's quite possible in the original series.
But since? I'm not so sure.
Sounds like the thoughts of a Star Wars fan.
God only knows what that crap is critiquing!