The Screenwriting Thread

[Cmill216]

Anybody have any experience with TV scripts? I have four feature length screenplays under my belt, and I want to start writing something for an episodic comedy series that I can film myself.

I've written a multi-cam comedy pilot.

 

[Cunning Stunts]

Quick question here... I'm writing my first big screenplay- an indie film some friends of mine are making. It's an original idea (by that I mean I've developed the character and story on my own, and we're planning on making a real movie out of it- not that the idea "hasn't been done before"), but we are at a loss for the name of the movie itself.

It's a crime thriller, set in present time, with the themes being justice and degradation of the human mind due to harsh circumstances, just to throw it out there. Basically, here is my question:

I just have a question that I'm hoping some of the more legal/screenwriting savvy users will be able to answer for me.

I know a lot of screenwriters in Hollywood use code-names for their screenplays to try to prevent leaking, for example, Spider-Man 3 was called "Back For More". My question is, would it be illegal to use one of those code-names for the actual name of another movie by a completely different party?

I would figure there wouldn't be any legal bindings to those movies, especially since there are plenty of instances where multiple movies have come out under the same titles, while being completely unrelated. That said, I'm not exactly "in-tune" with these types of legal issues, so I'm hoping someone else here could help me out a bit.

 

[Cmill216]

I don't think anyone holds the copyright to a fake code name.

 

[Marlboro Man]

I've been working on a screenplay for a year now. It's a really unconventional comedy, about a guy who is stuck in the middle of a midlife crisis and haunted by "the ghosts of who he could have been." He always wanted to be a famous writer, but is stuck writing novels based on movies which he publishes under a psuedonym to avoid the embarassment. He takes solace in his neighbor, a drug-dealing free-spirit, who is financially successful because he runs a business where he collects letters to Jesus from Christians who want them delivered during the rapture. Meanwhile, his marriage falls apart, and he falls for his psychiatrist.

I also have a television series outlined about a group of friends living in the deep south. It's sort of autobiographical, but it's in its very early stages of planning.

 

[Rain Dog]

I've been working on a screenplay for a year now. It's a really unconventional comedy, about a guy who is stuck in the middle of a midlife crisis and haunted by "the ghosts of who he could have been." He always wanted to be a famous writer, but is stuck writing novels based on movies which he publishes under a psuedonym to avoid the embarassment. He takes solace in his neighbor, a drug-dealing free-spirit, who is financially successful because he runs a business where he collects letters to Jesus from Christians who want them delivered during the rapture. Meanwhile, his marriage falls apart, and he falls for his psychiatrist.

I also have a television series outlined about a group of friends living in the deep south. It's sort of autobiographical, but it's in its very early stages of planning.

The screenplay sounds great!

 

[The Squirrel]

I'm taking a scriptwriting class this coming semester in school. I'm excited!

 

[Rain Dog]

I got into the screenwriting school at USC but it was just too expensive so I'm gonna be going to a local university. I'm gonna apply for a lot more financial aide and try to transfer in the future, though.

 

[Doctor Jones]

I always had an idea about a Coen Bros. type of dark comedy thing.

It's basically a sitcom but with a murder twist. You know how in sitcom's the dude has a hot ass wife and is lazy as hell and she constantly nags at him? The pitch is, what if Ray Barone killed his wife? There would be this loser husband who kills his wife, doesn't know what to do. He is a mama's boy and goes to her. And as family and his mother, she does what she can to hide it, and all these crazy mishaps happen. By the end, the mother is nagging at the father and the father looks over at a lamp and gets an idea...

 

[Assassin32]

I've written a multi-cam comedy pilot.

Anything in the format I should be aware of? I think I'm just gonna write it like a movie.

 

[Cunning Stunts]

I always had an idea about a Coen Bros. type of dark comedy thing.

It's basically a sitcom but with a murder twist. You know how in sitcom's the dude has a hot ass wife and is lazy as hell and she constantly nags at him? The pitch is, what if Ray Barone killed his wife? There would be this loser husband who kills his wife, doesn't know what to do. He is a mama's boy and goes to her. And as family and his mother, she does what she can to hide it, and all these crazy mishaps happen. By the end, the mother is nagging at the father and the father looks over at a lamp and gets an idea...

Since my friends and I are tossing movie ideas around (some cheaper ones to make before we go for our bigger budget crime thriller, which we're working on now but may put aside for smaller ideas), I had another comedy idea kind of inspired by the Coen Brothers.

It's a spur-of-the-moment idea with no development, but basically, A high-ranking political official's (president, for example) daughter goes missing, so a high-profile special agent is sent out to find him. Well, a small group of low-rent, idiotic teenagers/young adults decide that they can do a better job, so they try to find the politician's daughter, and they wind up having hilarious run-ins with the daughter's captors, as well as the agent.

 

[Cmill216]

Anything in the format I should be aware of? I think I'm just gonna write it like a movie.

I'll PM you a sample so you can see what it looks like. It is structurally different than a feature screenplay.

 

[Doctor Jones]

Since my friends and I are tossing movie ideas around (some cheaper ones to make before we go for our bigger budget crime thriller, which we're working on now but may put aside for smaller ideas), I had another comedy idea kind of inspired by the Coen Brothers.

It's a spur-of-the-moment idea with no development, but basically, A high-ranking political official's (president, for example) daughter goes missing, so a high-profile special agent is sent out to find him. Well, a small group of low-rent, idiotic teenagers/young adults decide that they can do a better job, so they try to find the politician's daughter, and they wind up having hilarious run-ins with the daughter's captors, as well as the agent.

Oh, man that sounds awesome.

But I think for budget or scale sake, if it's hard to do, I would just focus it on the special agent trying to find her. Maybe has a partner too.

 

[Cunning Stunts]

Budget shouldn't be. I've found a cheap way to get guns/props, and just about everyone involved has pretty decent connections to whoever we need to get just about whatever we want. Almost all of us are actors and/or stuntmen too, two of us are writers, we have a director (VERY imaginative and smart guy), so we've got a lot of ground covered. Really, the only issue will be budget, but we're finding ways to cover that as well.

It should make for some very fun YouTube clips/DVDs.

 

[Doctor Jones]

Should be awesome. Sounds like you got something here. Show it to us when you get it made.

 

[VioletCful]

Hey Guys, it's my first directorial venture. Would you all mind taking a look and commenting? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNe5h0nB6z4

It's supposed to be hyper naturalistic...within reason

 

[Cunning Stunts]

Should be awesome. Sounds like you got something here. Show it to us when you get it made.

Yeah man, most definitely. I'm hoping I can use this site as one of my top marketing places for it. We've got big plans for it, and a ton of talent... I loved it, because this is my first big writing gig, and everyone seems to love the story I've presented so far. It's derived from comics I used to publish on MySpace (so my very few old readers will see a certain character's return and freak), and will be used as a backstory to why the character wound up the way he did in the comics (which I plan to re-do and publish in the near future).

I can't freakin' wait. Plus, my friend that wanted to use my ideas just got $2,000 for any camera(s) he can get, AND just bought a shotgun mic and boom pole! We're on a ****ing role, man!

 

[Doctor Jones]

Damn, I wish knew people who are as passionate to making movies as I do. I love to write for the time I can't film. And I have alot of ideas. Video Club in 8th grade was one of the only places I could film stuff.

That's great that you have people like that. Are you in film school or just know people who want to make movies?

 

[Cunning Stunts]

I'm going to be minoring in acting in college, and a few of us have professional jobs as actors and stunt-men and/or have acted for years. Others have friends who have "connections", I guess you could call them? Nothing big, but definitely capable.

What area do you live in?

 

[Doctor Jones]

Rochester NY, home of Kodak and the place where useless **** happens. I'm far from where I want to be.

Anyway, This idea of a tv show has been going through my head for a week. It's a part mystery/supernatural series about four high school juniors who through meeting in detention form a headquarters in the school's basement and solve supernatural mysteries around town. Like Mystery Inc, but not for kids so much and more young adult and adult orientated. Of course there is some tension in the group as always as they are all different but learn to work together. Along the way they deal what all teenagers deal with. But not too much of that. I don't want it to fall in a CW type of thing where it focuses on that. It's just more of a mystery tale. I'm thinking of it taking place in Sleepy Hallow, except now it's contemporary.

 

[The Squirrel]

Rochester NY, home of Kodak and the place where useless **** happens. I'm far from where I want to be.

I have relatives that live up there (most of them). My Uncle works for Kodak. I lived up there for a summer... your right that nothing really happens there.

 

[catintheengine]

Hey, I didn't even know there was a thread for this.

I live in southeast Michigan, and we've got a few studios being placed in the area.

I want to become a screenwriter (I've been studying tirelessly on the subject) and parley that into directing. Anybody have any suggestions on the best ways to find an agent?

 

[Doctor Jones]

I have relatives that live up there (most of them). My Uncle works for Kodak. I lived up there for a summer... your right that nothing really happens there.

And Kodak is hitting the ****s. They have been laying off people by the thousands for years. My dad was laid off in 2003. In 10 or 20 years there will be nothing left over here. That's why I want to get the hell out.

And there are other Rochester's in the US and this one is the one that is never mentioned.

 

[The Apatow Crew]

And Kodak is hitting the ****s. They have been laying off people by the thousands for years. My dad was laid off in 2003. In 10 or 20 years there will be nothing left over here. That's why I want to get the hell out.

And there are other Rochester's in the US and this one is the one that is never mentioned.

Hey no matter how bad where you live is. I'm sure isn't as bad as where I live. Atleast you live in New York yet. And not some sleepy little hick town in the middle of nowhere.

 

[Doctor Jones]

There are people probably worse than me that's true. But here for what i want to do there's almost nothing. I think they have a film program at RIT but that's it.

 

[The Apatow Crew]

There are people probably worse than me that's true. But here for what i want to do there's almost nothing. I think they have a film program at RIT but that's it.

I don't even know where there is one around me. I'm like the only person I know interested in this.