9 thoughts on “Open forum: Screenwriting questions”

1. I'm a semi-finalist in the Austin Film Fest (find out if I'm a finalist today or tomorrow). I don't have an agent or a manager, or any real connections for that matter. How can I use the festival to my advantage?

   Thanks so much. Love your site. I come here every day.

2. Congradulations on being a semi-finalist, Steve. Win or lose I hope ya have fun at Austin, and make some valuable inroads in your screenwriting career.

3. Question to Scott. When did you know you hand the goods to actually write for a living, what was that moment?

4. I'd like to echo Steve's question above…

   I have a script that has Quarter-finaled in the '09 Nicholl and Semi-finaled in the '09 Creative World Awards (still waiting to hear more).

   So what can an "undiscovered" aspiring screenwriter do with these contest placements?

   Just throw out a mass of query letters with this info spelled out? Or are there other avenues?

   Thanks for any advice.

5. Do you have a good definition of treatment and outline? I've seen these terms interchanged too many times. And the WGA website doesn't give explanations when registering. One instructor I had said that a treatment is 2/3 as long as a screenplay or about 60 pages; an outline is under 30. Just wondered what your working definition was. Thanks.

6. Scott – I have a formatting question that I came across just this morning.

   I have a scene where two characters enter a dining hall. They speak with each other then one character wanders across the room and it cuts back and forth between the two characters' conversations with others.

   How should the sluglines read?
   INT. BANQUET HALL ENTRANCE – DAY and INT. BANQUET HALL BUFFET TABLE? Should it identify their exact locations in the room or what? Or is just a sort of pseudo-slug AT ENTRANCE and AT TABLE?

   If I identify the movement in the exposition, it can become confusing for the reader, I think, in addition to being a general no-no, right?

   As always, thanks for your help!

7. And to echo Steve and The High Dweller, are there ways to use festival placements (Semi-Finalist Nicholl) to get scripts read? Is there a number of scripts that you should have written to get real attention from agents?

8. I have two questions:
   1) Should a screenplay for a musical be 120 pages, no matter how long the songs are?

   and

   2) I'm writing an action move and the characters use parkour/freerunning moves to move through obstacles and in fights. I wanted to know should I give an in-depth description of what the character is doing (ie: JOHN SMITH runs towards the car, jumps, kicks his legs out, places his palms on the hood of the car, and lands on the ground.), or would the name of the specifc move the character is doing be enough? (ie: JOHN SMITH runs towards the car and dash vaults over the hood)

9. Hi Scott,

   I know I'm a bit late on that but I've got a question:

   Is it OK to reference to a particular movie in a script if this movie is of great importance in the story ?

   Thanks a lot.
   Julien