tomroberts1988 asked: Hi, I am writing a screenplay that has jumps in time, (It starts in the modern time and then jumps back 2 years and then it jumps forward again to present time.) What is the correct way of writing this in a script. Thanks
Hi Tom. There’s no absolute convention on this. The most frequent solution I’ve seen has been for a writer to add (FLASHBACK) or (PRESENT DAY) following a scene’s slugline but I’ve also seen “FLASHBACK:” right-justified as a Transition element as well. You could just as easily add it as Action text as long as the reader sees it.
My personal preference is to put it in the scene header. Info in the slugline is understood to be pure metadata that the reader takes in and acknowledges. Anywhere else in the script risks detracting from the narrative flow.
Congratulations to Alan Tregoning and the cast & crew of The Code! They just won a Platinum Remy and this year’s Houston Worldfest in the Horror Short Category!
SYNOPSIS: In 1943, an Elite SS officer deserts from Austria to Bulgaria, a country-member of the Nazi Axis during WW-II. Awaiting there quietly the end of the war, he falls in love with a local Armenian girl, who jeopardizes her Jewish mother’s cover. Soon, they are betrayed by local Nazi snoops and deported to the concentration camp of Buchenwald, Germany. The pregnant girl is given for medical experiments, when suddenly something extraordinary takes place. Read a novelized excerpt at www.facebook.com/timeship/notes
Anonymous asked: is there a way to export more info when i export a master catalog?
The Master Catalog contains everything that you put into it — if you want more info on the export, you may find you need to populate it first with either Character or Production info. If you want to customize the info gleaned during the export, you can click the “+” symbol in the Project Library and add a Catalog.
Conversely, maybe the info you’re looking for is in one of the reports that is generated by clicking the Reports sub-tab below the script editor.
ellisanthonyandysuttonjr asked: How can I depict depict subject matter that is often accused of being trashy or lurid without being sensationalism or melodramatic? In telling my script ideas to people on the web and in real life I was warned against certain using subject matters like out of control teens and sexual infidelity because they are generally portrayed in a shallow manner that seeks to shock people. You once said on here that no idea is bad and that ideas must be executed properly.
Unfortunately, there’s no magic bullet answer to this — it’s like asking, “How do I write well?” You write and work to improve as you go. You learn from people, classes, texts and look critically upon your own work. I don’t know too many writers, regardless of their level of competence when they started out, who like re-reading their own material years later.
If you want to strengthen your foundation as a writer before you even begin to put pen to paper, then you’re looking for a textbook. Our Q&A can’t begin to cover a comprehensive foundation. There are a lot of great books out there but my personal favourite remains McKee’s Story. Story remains a personal fave of mine just because it wasn’t until my nth re-reading that subtext finally clicked for me and I saw a quantum jump in my own writing.
As for your portrayal of characters, just remember that even the most vicious, rage-fuelled villain tends to think he’s the hero in his *own* story. With exceptions, people don’t wake up and say, “Today, I really must make sure to do something extra evil today,” or “Hey, people are finally realizing how trashy I am!” They think they’re expedient. They think they’re pragmatic. They think that if they didn’t steal/rob/kill the [whatever] then someone else probably would have. Everyone thinks they are the 50-percentile that marks normal behaviour against which all other people are measured. It’s called “situational morality” and if you ever find yourself explaining your actions to someone with the words, “Well, you had to be there,” then surprise, you’re soaking in it.
There’s probably no better example of this in recent times than the series The Wire. If you haven’t watched it, please run-don’t-walk to your nearest long-form recorded media entertainment purveyor and call in sick for a couple days until you’ve seen it all.
jamesdeanhetfield asked: When I finish my script, What can I do to promote it well? If I don't live in the U.S or Europe...?
Living in a conventional metropolitan area means less and less these days. It still matters if you want to break into TV but with movies, not so much.
A Google search alone would reveal a trove of destinations for increasing the profile of both your script and you as a scribe so I won’t list them here. Just do some due diligence to make sure the site has a good reputation and isn’t offering to unburden you of your money.
A great, free starting point for a lot of writers is Trigger Street. It’s a friendly, robust community that’s been around for over a decade now.
ellisanthonyandysuttonjr asked: Would it be a bad idea to make a bogus claim of child abuse the premise of a comedy plot? I came up with such an idea. My dad told me that such subject matter would be poorly received if played comically. Although, I kind of disagree because there was an episode of Family Guy where Meg pretended that Stewie was her baby and this led to him getting taken my Children's Services. I also want to know how can dark comedy handle serious issues without belittling the issues.
There’s no litmus test for good ideas before they’re executed. You could aim for A Modest Proposal and end up with an episode of Jackass. You won’t know until you write it.
