I finished the first draft last night writing 14 pages in a day. The script has now been sent off to the script editor for his notes, after which there will be a quick rewrite and then it will be sent to the producer and director. I hope they like it.I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out and it's certainly one of my better first drafts.
It's great to finally get my first paid feature under my belt and I can't even begin to describe the relief that brings. It's certainly given me more confidence and a stronger belief in myself, which I can now use to progress my career further.
It's worth pointing out this opportunity and the next I have lined up came from networking. Lost Soul was offered to me purely on the recommendation of a writer/director who read my coming-of-age feature Faith and thought Lost Soul was the kind of script I write well. My next feature was a direct result of networking at the Screenwriters' Festival last October. So it just goes to show spending a considerable amount of time devoted to network will eventually pay off. If you don't put the work in, you won't get work out of it. The more connections you make the better your chances of finding work.
5 comments:
Hi Dom,
Yes it's been interesting - what I find strange, though, is the idea of knocking out a script and throwing it (almost) raw at the company concerned.
I mean I imagine you'll be getting notes :-) but even so...
As the script editor said to me early on it wasn't worth busting a gut over it, sweating to get every detail right, rewriting everything until I'm 100% happy with it, because the producer and director will only go and ask for changes to all my hard work - quite possibly drastic changes. It's best to just get it written - to a reasonable standard - then let the director and producer make the changes they want before I go back and polish the hell out of it.
Where most of my effort and hard work will be focused is on the final draft. That is when I will do my best work, so they have the best possible screenplay to shoot from.
It's not like writing your own spec, polishing the hell out of it before you send it out. People are going to want changes, so it's best to leave the best work until last.
I don't mean your first draft should be shit, it still has to be good, but you just don't have to pour your heart and soul into it. They're paying me to produce the best screenplay I can...but over several drafts, not on the first attempt.
Besides if I wrote a totally perfect first draft (something that's not possible...ever) I would do myself out of rewrite money for future drafts.
At the end of the process they will get the best screenplay they could possibly get and I will have sweated blood to get it there.
That's the lesson I've learnt writing this feature and a valuable lesson too :-)
You have been busy!
Just caught up with this; it's great.
It's really good to see your hard work and total effort paying off.
Great advice and insight from the world of the first draft!
All the best.
PS: Throw in a web-cam and we've got the next best thing to a Screenwriter reality TV series. :)
Nah, you wouldn't want to see me that early in the morning wearing just my y-fronts...or would you?
Ha!
No, not the kind of insight I was looking for.
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