HARD CASE Screenplay Complete

I finished up my first screenplay. HARD CASE went out to the first five ‘wanted’ posts on the International Screenwriter’s bulletin board that it matched. Now would be the time to discuss the final steps I researched. I found that many ‘wanted’ posts ask that the script be registered before they even consider looking at the finished screenplay. Luckily, the Final Draft software has a link for registering the screenplay on line. Secondly, I found you need a sell sheet with some sparkle, info, and short synopsis. This sheet is also called a ‘one pager’. I had to include a little more personal contact info on it, so I can’t show what it looks like, but it came out really professional looking.

HARD CASE ended up right at the 120 page limit. I’ve read over and edited it and it seems to be a coherent script. For all I know, it may be crap, but it’s exciting crap. :) Anyway, I’ll report if I can even get a reject letter. The short screenplay I sent out a couple months ago didn’t even garner a rejection notice, so these screenplay people may be even less polite than our literary agent folks. I’ll start on my next one tomorrow. I’m thinking of developing that short one I did into a full length script. I like the idea, and I’m pretty sure I can make it into a 90 – 120 minute feature. I miss my DEMON characters so much, their voices are flitting around in my head begging to be tried out on the big screen.

I can’t sign off from screenplay land this time. It’s become more like fantasy land. :)

COLD BLOODED Featured in BTSemag!

My friends at BTSeMag released their November issue, where my novel COLD BLOODED is spotlighted. I also have a terrific short Halloween story featuring my characters from COLD BLOODED in it. The full page ad for my novel THE PROTECTORS, along with ads for HARD CASE and LANCELOT are also in there, stunningly put together by editor Christy Wilhelm. Their emag is the best on the Internet, filled with stories and features. The BTSemag is so stunning, Barnes and Noble has offered them a partnership. This will mean a small annual subscription fee, but when you read the stories and features in this month's free edition, you'll understand what a bargain this Internet offering is. I plan to continue writing stories for them anytime they want one, and I love their advertising setup. Please take a look at this wonderful emag. I am certain you'll enjoy it. 

BTSemag

Screenplay Saga

I’m 91 pages into my screenplay now, which as I’ve alluded to before is close to 91 minutes on video. Taking a 347 page novel and converting it into much less than half that has many obstacles to overcome in the original plot layout. I discovered the only surviving coherency to the original plot rests in blending the most important characters with a timeline of events that achieve the original novel’s effect. Some lines and events don’t make the cut.

One of the important elements I see in screenplay writing versus novel writing is action. Action in a screenplay element has to be visualized in my head as a movie sequence. All the words meant for scenery and feelings have to be relegated to the actors and director. Sure, we still have the dialogue, coupled with some direction for the camera and expressions, to wring what we want from the scene – but the visual outcome must work to move the scenes along.

In other words, writing action elements in the screenplay amounts to picturing yourself as a director guiding stuntmen or actors through a scene. It’s not an easy transition, because that’s where the novel writer departs, leaving only action. The finish is near, and then I’ll see if anything comes of it. I did find out by sending out that shorter screenplay to people advertising for exactly what I wrote that they don’t even bother sending you a form rejection. They just ignore you. Pretty familiar ground.  :)

That’s it from screenplay land.

Screenplay Land

Very good news on the screenplay front – I’m already fifty-one pages into my conversion of HARD CASE to movie screenplay form, complete with camera shot direction. I also have the rest of the book worked out as far as cuts and splices to get it in under 120 pages, which is a two hour movie. I’m getting the hang of it. 

I even went so far as to tweet Jason Momoa, letting him know about the project, because he would be perfect as John Harding. Naturally, I don’t expect him to sign me up. It’s just that what the heck is Twitter for if you can’t throw a line out with some bait on the hook for networking purposes? I’m working on the rest of my cast too in my head. This is the way writing can get exciting. In my seventh decade, exciting is a good thing. Anyway, I’m moving my completion date for the screenplay up to early November, way ahead of schedule.

I’m thinking of immediately starting on the first book of my YA trilogy, DEMON, as my next screenplay conversion, because I have a three book series already completed and edited. This is sure more positive than hoping for agents, publishers, and ‘Fifty Shade’ lightning strikes. I will report if something hangs up the screenplay conversion. So far, it’s paying attention to the camera shots that I’ve had the most difficulty in remembering. That can be caught up in the editing phase though. That’s it from screenplay land.  :)

HARD CASE, The Movie

I promised to report on my screenwriting endeavor. It began in earnest once I finished editing the third book in my YA trilogy, and finished the release of LANCELOT. The book I picked to convert is my novel HARD CASE. John Harding seemed like the perfect on screen type for a movie, and I hoped I’d be able to find enough to leave out of the script to do the conversion. From my research into conversions, I found that much of what makes a novel work would put an audience to sleep in a movie theater. During the course of any novel I write and edit, I do a polished synopsis of each individual chapter. That is helping immensely in determining how to make the script flow and transition from scene to scene.

The basic parameter, according to most screenplay writing sites and software guides, is each page of a screenplay represents one minute on screen. When you’ve finished a page of script, this parameter does make sense, and seems to be a pretty solid guideline. Each character created becomes part of the screenplay, thanks to Final Draft’s structure. When changing from character to character in a dialogue format, screenplay software keeps track, and provides easy shifts from character to character with additional parenthetical inserts for descriptive purposes (think whispers, sighs, sips coffee, etc.). The elements of the script are: action, character, parenthetical, dialogue, transition, scene heading, shot, cast list, and general. Not all are used in every scene, of course, but they are easily available.

When using a transition to shift from a restaurant to a car or another place, the screenwriting software expects you to create another scene. In a novel, each chapter may have numerous transitions from one place to another, so trying to use a chapter as your scene guide doesn’t work out. A shot indicates camera angle, and is easily the most forgotten but necessary element. It must be considered in each interaction if there are to be special instructions for a focal point such as a key part of the scene that needs to be pointed out. An example would be a murder scene as in The Mentalist when Jane discovers something out of the ordinary on a victim’s body. The ‘shot’ element would dictate the camera focus on whatever Jane found.

Anyway, I have twenty pages of script written, and it’s like pulling teeth with a pair of pliers, but I’m slowly getting the hang of it. The only excitement so far is that I have created twenty minutes of screen time for my character John Harding and his cast. I shall report if I’m having trouble keeping HARD CASE the movie from turning into a six hour epic. Just as agents won’t look at a novel over 90,000 words from a newbie author as a rule, anything over 90 pages of script gets into epic territory for a newbie screenwriter. I’m hoping to bring in HARD CASE the movie at under a 120 pages. I hope. That’s it from screenplay writing land, my new ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’ reality.  :)