Hello writers, I am going to be writing my first screenplay soon, but before I start, I thought it’d be nice to get some input from you. I read about a software called Studiobinder that could be beneficial to writing a screenplay. I’m guessing you have to pay for it, so I was curious, is there an option on google docs that I can use as a template? Also, not sure if anyone here would know or not, but do screenplays work best when things are kept to a minimum or no? I appreciate your answers! dole,
The best way to learn how to write screenplays is to read them. There are plenty of online archives. As for software, you'll likely need to pay for one that has easy formatting and scene breakdowns etc. I use Movie Magic Screenwriter because I like the shortcut keys. I used to just use word.
I have a chrome book so I only have docs. Is it possible to just manually do my templates in there or would it come out warped overall?
Hi I’m using a web resource to write a current screenplay, writerduet.com I believe it comes with a free trial of 14 days, but then after that is $24 or something dollars a month, to me that’s affordable! or libre office can be good for free and you can download templates for screenplays. but as I said WriterDuet is a screenwriters software! Best I could find at a reasonable price.
I think using Word/Google Docs can be useful to write the directions etc myself because it makes me more conscious of the whole and the details. Probably not very practical if it's a screenplay with more than 10 pages.
I just used google docs and tried to mimic the formatting from scripts I read. I just went with my insects on sort of how long a scene should be and things like that. As far as keeping anything to a minimum, the biggest thing to keep to a minimum is how much it would cost to produce it. You want to keep that number as low as possible. Not just special effect and things like that but also the number of actors and just about everything it's going to cost to produce. I have two friends who have sold the rights to screenplays. One of them writes a ton of them and regularly sells all rights with the script. This means that her scripts are often rewritten and there has never been any mention of her in any credits. She gets around $5k a screenplay. I think she signs and NDA with these. Same as for another friend. He sold away all the movie rights and any mention of credit to his name for $20k. I think you sort of have to be okay doing that when you're starting out to make some decent money at this. I think these places have their own writers with liberty to do want they want with your script. Those are the names likely to be given credit. I'm not saying this is how it works all the time, but this is how it works a lot of the time st least. And most scripts that these places buy aren't even made into movies, but that doesn't matter if you are selling all right flat out, according to the few people I know trying to have a go at this. I've tried to write a few screenplays, but have never gotten to the point where I would ask someone to take a look. I find it a hard form. Good luck to you!
I don't know too much about selling screenplays as I mostly wrote them during my studies for my exams and for other departments, once presented an idea for a screenplay on a festival and then I've done some freelancing and other similar but not the same work. I agree it's a hard/challenging form. To me it's more logical to first write (explain to myself) the story in another more detailed form and then adapt it into a screenplay. And I remember a screenwriter advising me long time ago to write as if I have unlimited financial means for producing this script, counterintuitive or not I don't know but it was fun.
Unless it's a bidding war or you have a good agent it's 3% of production budget. Which sucks on low budget, where you'd negotiate separately, usually with points. Or you just sell it outright, which is a bad move as it won't ever see the light of day. Anything lowball for a feature length screenplay is a bad deal and there's no chance in hell you'd go for that unless a) it's rubbish, b) you're desperate and happy to get fleeced, or c) you get a strong backend. For a short sub 20 pages a few grand is ok, but then again, short screenplays aren't often shopped around as there are soooooo many out there people usually team up with a film-maker.
