Dive into a world of creativity!
Screenwriting - Blog Posts
Show Don't Tell - Symptoms vs. the Affliction
Another way to think of show don’t tell is to describe the symptoms rather than tell the affliction. You could say someone was close to fainting—or you could describe their symptoms and trust the readers to understand what they mean: the world swirled around her head, her ears beginning to hum lowly, then louder, increasing into a high-pitched ring. She took a deep breath, her stomach turning over itself. Etc.
Symptoms can also mean the lump in your throat as a “symptom” of being sad enough to cry, or the warmth of your face as a “symptom” of embarrassment.
That might sound a bit silly, but I find it really helpful when I’m reading over mine or others work and looking for those places where showing would be better than telling. Have you described the symptoms, or just told the affliction?
Here’s a short list of “afflictions” and their associated “symptoms” to get you started (but make sure to explore how different characters express different afflictions, even in more odd or unusual ways!)
Any symptoms I missed?
Web Shoutout: Youtube Edition
Today, I’m starting a new series: Web Shoutout. It’s a place where I Shoutout random stuff from all corners of the Internet that I find interesting, most especially regarding movies. Hope you like it!
This time I feature standout channels from Youtube that help me, as an amateur movie reviewer and movie enthusiast, understand layers of movies and moviemaking that I might never paid attention before. This list is by no means all encompassing, it’s just a bunch of channels that I enjoy watching at the moment.
1. Every Frame A Painting ( @everyframeapainting on tumblr )
I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that my first pick is Every Frame A Painting, because in my mind, anybody who’s plugged into the Internet’s movie newsreel for a while must have stumbled into an Every Frame A Painting video at least once.
The channel is created by filmmaker and editor Tony Zhou, to host a video essay series dedicated to the “analysis of film form”. Like the name suggest, the channel mostly--but not limited to--dissects movies you love on cinematographical level and makes you realize things you’ve never thought of before. But most importantly, he encourages “ordinary” people like me to appreciate a movie beyond the skin-deep, like with The Silence of the Lambs essay above.
To this day, Every Frame A Painting features a wide range of analysis from the works of Martin Scorsese, Jackie Chan, Edgar Wright, etc., to an entire video dedicated to texting on screen, and another one exclusively on chairs. Heck, even his video on Michael Bay makes you appreciate the director more (Bayhem is still crap, but a masterful kind of crap). To my knowledge, Every Frame A Painting is the first of its kind to gain real media recognition, and for good reason. His videos are engaging, crazy good, and always of excellent quality.
Subscribe to Every Frame A Painting. Support the channel through Patreon.
2. Nerdwriter1 ( @thenerdwriter on tumblr )
Due to no fault of its own, I immediately compared Nerdwriter1 to Every Frame A Painting when I first discovered it. In retrospect it was a bit funny to ever think that, because it turned out that Nerdwriter1 (by Evan Puschak) existed almost 3 years before Every Frame A Painting. But it was obvious why I did--they both produce high quality video essays (very often) on movies--but fortunately, I eventually understood that Nerdwriter1 is a different beast.
It took me a while to realize why I love his videos so much: it was because he treated movies not as a separate entity, born in a vacuum, but as part of humanity. Once I understood that, it’s actually very apparent on his channel. That’s why he makes video essays about Donald Trump, Youtube as a medium, and Black Friday--but the same holds true whenever he talks about movies (as evidenced by Children of Men essay above) and entertainment, like when he used Louis CK’s jokes to illuminate the nebulous nature of humor and morality.
His “Understanding Art” series, especially, is most excellent, in which he talks about movies a lot, but also about paintings, poetry, etc. His video on David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises might be my favorite yet (which you can watch on his channel, it’s too bloodily graphic to embed here. SERIOUS WARNING, guys), and others include Pan’s Labyrinth, Ghost In The Shell, A Serious Man, Batman, etc.
Subscribe to Nerdwriter1. Support the channel through Patreon.
3. RocketJump Film School ( RocketJump is @rocketjumptv on tumblr )
If you want to get a bit technical about what happens behind the scenes, RocketJump Film School is an excellent place for you to be. RocketJump itself is a digital movie studio that specializes in original web video content, including hit webseries Video Game High School (it ran for 3 seasons, BTW), and a collaboration with Youtube/TV breakout stars Key & Peele (can be seen through their main channel, RocketJump). They also recently had a deal with Hulu and their 8-episode documentary about their production will premiere this December. RocketJump Film School channel, however (they also have a forum), is their place to share their knowledge with budding film-related workers.
There are lots of themes discussed in their videos, ranging from editing, cinematography, lighting, screenwriting, sound, effects and CGI--to more random stuff like how to create fake blood, how to fold a green screen (it's surprisingly hard and easy at the same time), even as simple as how to hold a boom.
Aside from that, RocketJump Film School also have 101 classes as well as master classes, field trips, and podcasts (talkshow-type follow-up video to their previous content)--which, for lack of better word, are all kinds of awesome and full of information. If you don’t go to film school, it's the second-best place to learn and appreciate all the little things behind the art of film. And if you can believe Youtube comments, even people who actually went to film school frequently say that they learned something the were never taught at school. More than anything, I think that speaks a lot about the quality and dedication of the RocketJump FIlm School crew. Basically, it’s a channel that is chock full of information, if you are at the slightest bit interested in learning what happens behind the scenes, RocketJump Film School is a treasure.
Subscribe to RocketJump Film School.
/ᐠ-˕-マ~ about me !
𝐡𝐞𝐲𝐲𝐲...
...welcome to the "about me" page! this is where you'll learn whatever there is to know about me (besides the stuff I don't tell you lol). I figured I'd make this page just so you can get a feel for me as a person and, y'know, who it is literally doing all of the work around this place🥴.
to learn more about this account in general, you can always check out the intro page. to explore what fandoms I'm in and what I love to run my mouth talk about, then you should go to the heart. Continue reading further down to learn more about me, and possibly make a new mutual ♡. any questions? head on over to my faq's page.
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ...𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐞
───────── 《 .°•♡•°. 》 ──────────
𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞 : theyluvlyss, lyssa, or lyss is preferred
𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐬 : she/her/hers
𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞 : black+beautiful🤎🖤🩷
𝐨𝐜𝐜𝐮𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧(𝐬) : writer, shifter (it's been four years, someone please help me🥲), fangirl
𝐚𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 : screenwriter, author, model, actress
𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐡𝐲𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐢𝐱𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧(𝐬) : shazam! (1-2), speed racer (yes, the 2008 live movie adaptation), darby and the dead, the flash (mostly just young barry allen), superheroes in general
𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐈'𝐦 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 : entp, aquarius sun/cancer moon/leo rising, (undiagnosed) AuDHD, burnt out gifted kid syndrome
𝐟𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐫(𝐬) : purple, black, pink, deep reds
𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐭 :ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ boll weevil - the presidents of the united states of americaㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤcan you feel my heart - bring me the horizonㅤㅤㅤㅤbring me to life - evanescenceㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤdark sun - after dark we riseㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤstar quality - s4brina
𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬 :ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤinsta - th3yluvlyssㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤtiktok - _theyluvlyssㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤdiscord - theyluvlyssㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤpinterest - theyluvlyss_
𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨 𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭 :
🖤💜🤍
───────── 《 .°•♡•°. 》 ──────────
𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬 : [active] [hiatus] [offline]
𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬 : [open] [closed]
───────── 《 .°•♡•°. 》 ──────────
𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬...
...that's pretty much it😻. short, sweet, simple, now you know me lol :).
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ/ᐠ-˕-マ~ 𝐛𝐲𝐞𝐞𝐞 !
What is a Script Consultant - and do you need one!
This is part of a new series in which I reveal my ugly mug and give writing advice, talking about my experience as a Script Consultant and work on reading and editing screenplays.
If anyone has any thoughts, questions or suggestions please do let me know! Would love to have some feedback on this series, and know what people might be interested in me covering in the future.
while i do love watching old sci-fi and horror, it really does feel fifty fifty on either “omg this is the best thing ever, why is no one talking about it?” or “ah, this is the worst thing ever, i get why no one is talking about it”.
like i’ll be watching one thinking “this is actually relatively progressive for the time” the all of a sudden there’s a blatant disregard for women’s autonomy and/or consent.
i think more filmmakers should recreate old sci-fi, but like, not racist or sexist. ooo, and make it gay!
10 Free Alternatives to Final Draft
1. Adobe Story: An online collaborative screenwriting suite by Adobe that won’t cost you a dime.
2. BPC-Screenplay: A free screenwriting software developed in Berlin for Microsoft Windows.
3. Celtx: This popular browser-based screenwriting software has a paid and a free version.
4. DramaQueen: Also available as free and paid version.
5. DubScript: A mobile based free script writing software reader and writer for Android operating systems.
6. Page 2 Stage: An open-source software designed specifically for Windows users.
7. Plotbot: A browser-based free screenplay software that’s great for collaboration with another writer.
8. Story Touch: There’s a free version of this professional screenwriting software. Allows you to write and analyze your screenplay at the same time.
9. Trelby: Another open source free screenplay software currently only available for Microsoft Windows and Linux, but a Mac version is said to be on the way.
10. Writer Duet: A program that allows real-time collaborative work in which the writers immediately see all edits.
ok so i really wanna write a screenplay about my summer. i think it’d make a really good queer indie film. i’m more a visual person but i hate writing scripts. i might just make it a short story or novella first, but i think i am on to something. there’s too much creative energy flowing through me, i’ve been wanting to focus and write it for a while now.
the premise is two gay guys in the south and their following romance. i’m not sure how much i want it to be autobiographical. id say about 50% of it will be true or based on the truth. the details surrounding their personal lives aren’t too important. there will be character 1 & 2 and they are the primary focus. there might be a friend for the bear and the ex for the twink that will get some coverage. family for twink. maybe just sister for bear.
but the first scene of the film, the shot will see the ocean and then go down to a young blond twink eating at a hotel restaurant on the coast. hell be looking pensive then his older boyfriend will come to the table and greet him. like sugar daddy vibes. then it will be a flashback to the summer.
it will have the two gay guys — one a twink and one a bear — falling in love in the lower middle class / middle class urban south. there will be drug use, id specifically like to have mathematics in a scene or two. i know there’s not a lot of that in media and it also is common in the gay population in a way i think straights don’t realize. i know it’s not exactly palpable for the public, but it’s so common especially in the south, i think it needs its moment in the spotlight. i’ve considered just having molly or cocaine or maybe even LSD. G should also have a mention cuz that’s another gay culture drug. poppers are definitely a must. all that could be considered. but i think it deserves a mathematics scene.
there will be at least one scene of domestic violence. that would probably be the climax of the film. it doesn’t have to be graphic, but hey im not throwing that out the window either. it could stay true to the dull, slow indie rhythm. as long as there is an emotional intensity surrounding it. maybe a bloody nose at least.
i don’t want too many details about the boyfriend twink is with in the opening scene. but there might be a scene where he is in california about 1/4 into the movie, so the viewer remembers it’s a flashback. twink could just be walking around LA though. maybe a scene in SF where he kisses new boyfriend sugar daddy vibes.
and there should probably be a good sex scene or two. again, not enough bear - twink combo in media. the bear / twink combo is important cuz that’s not seen enough of.
that’s all i’ve got for now.
twink will just be exiting an unsatisfying relationship, (partner accidentally had sex with twink’s father), + he gets his onlyfans deleted. so bear is new summer romance. but then it gets ugly. i want the twink’s lack of finances to be emphasized. but also his work ethic.
but i want the viewers to fall in love with the characters like they are with them, falling in love with them. i want it to be heart wrenching, and believable. i want the viewers to feel the emotions of the actors.
the sound of a seagull greets him through an open window. he’s sitting in a quiet and quaint hotel restaurant. the california coast.
he looks out the window across the dock. the boats rest still in the calm waters of the pier. the autumn morning sun is bright, accompanied by a tame and salty ocean breeze. he’s thinking about someone. he thinks about home.
a chilly morning for pastel chino shorts & a well-worn, cerulean linen sweater. both wrinkled, because of the suitcase and an impatience for folding laundry. his dark blond hair is healthy and uncombed, his pale skin and slight accent likely hinting to others he’s not from around here. at ease, his thoughts drift back to kentucky, back to the summer.
surrounded by the soft sounds of silverware clinking on plates, coffee mugs being picked up & sat back down on the tables, sunlight and small talk fill the room. he focuses on the present moment, breathing everything in. people actually live like this, he smiles.
Words related to “afraid”:
jittery
jumpy
fearful
scared
rattled
shaken
startled
panicky
anxious
worried
terrified
hesitant
alarmed
agitated
shocked
petrified
spooked
timorous
unnerved
distraught
lily-livered
frightened
distressed
concerned
intimidated
fainthearted
yellowbellied
apprehensive
disconcerted
panic-stricken
just to be clear: i started writing a screenplay
there's something fascinating about how tarantino describes his storytelling process and artistic vision. the way he articulates the deliberate choices he makes and the importance of their effect demonstrates the depth of his understanding as a director and writer. he gets you think about his work, analyze the various possibilities with the freedom to draw your own conclusions, and even seek it out again to view it through a new lens, which is probably the best reception to get from audiences. he said that wanted people to watch his movies and be inspired to make their own and he absolutely nailed it. massive respect