Any script writers out there...I'm kinda starting out...i have ideas and wanna get into script writing... but the thing is how do you decide whether to put your idea as a Short? or as a Feature? for filming.
I'm not much of a writer, but I would think you would need to flesh out your story and see what you have. Instead of trying to decide a length for your idea, let your idea determine the length.
If you want your story to be long or short basically?
Depends on the story you have. Take all the time you need to fill the pages up, there is no need to cram it all into 200 pages and it hardly make sense, or feel like there are gaps in plot that are missing. Same way it is pointless to make a 600 page book if the story is drawn out too much.
An awesome short is better than a good but stretched feature.
Definitely. Look at TV shows, some shows last for forever and feel stretched out. A perfect example would be Lost. While some only last a couple of seasons and are praised because of their unique qualities.
I may only be 16, and my advice, sound. But I still know this. Don't let anything stop you from writing. Start big, huge, massive. Make it as fun and unbelievable as you want. Then, when you get around to it, start toning the video down, bring it down to a level where you can make it into a video. Keep key aspects of your idea, but change them so that it's something that you can do, something within your capabilities. But I'm only 16 years of age, I'm no expert in the area of film, heck, I am a creative writer and a film maker myself, but that doesn't mean that I'm any good at it. I sit down and listen to really intense orchestral music like "Unstoppable" and think of things that would suit the music, then I use a piece of the idea that I came up with from listening to the song and make a video from there. I hope that this overly long paragraph has helped you out here.
I agree by no means you should stop something from letting you write. Write until you have nothing else you can write for that story and after you have you will be able to see what type(short or full length) film you will be able to make your script into.
I don't mean to seem like I'm advertising here, but this is an example of my work, a script I sat down and wrote in a matter of minutes, and filmed in less than an hour. The editing took at least an hour, but that's because I had to convert the video files. I hope that this can be a sort of motivation towards your script-writing, and what just one person can do.
Write shorts.. Trust me, until you get a LOT of writing done, don't attempt a feature unless you have that one golden idea.. always pen down ideas.
Try to think of a few things.
1. General plot and plot points.
2. Why are the characters doing what they are doing.
3. What are they saying to each other.
4. How can you shape the dialogue to help hit the plot points.
5. What will the ending be.
When my friend and I wrote a shot he called "Lucky Rock" he had the general idea of two fishermen you were lonely and wanted women. One convinced other to throw lucky item into lake and wish real hard.. Beautiful woman comes out, and the other does the same thing to bad ramifications.
We toiled around the idea for close to a year, and I had an idea and rote most down and called Daniel with it where they were fishing themselves and wondered why "Mark" was never around since he got married.. and that became why Josh's character wanted a woman. Mike (at that time he was going as his stage name Tucson) tricked him, saw the results, and didn't get the desired effect.
I had an idea for a machinima short, that spawned a 2nd script that lead to parts 3 & 4. then when thinking of how to finish the full story, lead to chapter 5.
It depends on how far you can expand on your idea. If you can't then make it a short if you can then its a feature..Im an avid script writer and director.
i would suggest keeping it super short to start off with and make them longer and longer because you'll learn more and more as you write, but hell what do i know if you think you've got the writing skills go for it.
I have a formula when making my movies, where I start with a joke first. It's probably not really the best idea, but one joke can lead to another joke can lead to another joke if you catch onto it. I make videos around 3-4 minutes in length, and a lot of them are jokes I thought up, and then a scenario created that houses and connects the jokes to each other - The same could apply for non-comedic videos, where you'd just use set-piece to set-piece. I'm working on a pretty long video for my Youtube channel right now - 40 minutes - and it's all tied together with some jokes that bounce off of each other and manifest and grow.
It might not be the right way to do it, but it's my way.
i do the same thing except with effects. but now that you mention it ive done it with jokes before too. i guess having the script is what matters not how you get to that point
