Sunday Picture Post 16 / Upkeep
photo credit: iowa_spirit_walker
For The Sunday Picture Post, we are going to flip upside-down the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Thousands of words are great if you are writing a novel, but if you are writing a screenplay, you need to do the opposite and be as concise as possible.
Each Sunday I will post a picture. For your screenwriting practice in brevity, in the comments section, please post one or all of the following:
- A title for this movie
- 1 word describing the theme, mood, or scene
- 1 sentence to describe the scene
- A pitch to sell the entire movie
The more colorful and creative you are, the better! Use any genre.
A good screenwriter is laconic, using a few words to say a lot.
SCREENWRITING TIP OF THE DAY: UPKEEP
For lawyers and doctors, it is mandatory by law and industry to continue learning, for which we are thankful because our lives occasionally depend on these people and what they know.
Writers also affect people’s lives greatly, yet screenwriters and novelists do not have anyone to say to them, “Learn and stay current on industry breakthroughs, or you will be disbarred!”
It is up to writers to educate and improve on their own or one day the public might disbar them by no longer buying their product.
If you neglect a house, it does not stay the same, it deteriorates.
What is popular and fabulously new will one day be old and tragically unhip.
Time and nature bury that which goes without maintenance.
Learn, be curious and open-minded; it will extend your career.
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7 Responses to “Sunday Picture Post 16 / Upkeep”
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I’ll start this one.
Title: What You Make It
Word: Inheritance
Scene Description: A dilapidated red barn sits under a beautiful blue sky. All that can be heard is the wind and a squeaking hinge. Isabella starts to cry and laugh hysterically.
Movie Pitch: A financially struggling brother and sister art team from the Bronx, New York inherit a beautiful remote piece of land in the Southwest that has no resale value. The only structure is a collapsed barn. As life on the East Coast was getting them down, they decide to stay and make the best of it. Luring other starving artists like themselves, eventually a good sized art community blossoms and builds around the fortified dilapidated barn. Growing their own food, using solar power and well-water, and surrounded by their artistic creations, it is heaven on earth… until…
Alright, I will give it a try. Don’t laugh.
Title: Broken Down
Synopsis: She left him standing in the barn.
It’s all about a girl and a boy and the relationship they had. They were farmers. They used to be happy until…It came undone, and the final scene she leaves him in a barn for…for another woman who comes to town.
Pitch: A colorful twist on an old pioneer story. The law rides into town in the form of Herchie McGlinn, a woman sheriff (can this even be?! What the hell, it’s my story) She falls for Dora Pridden and the townsfolk run them out of town.
I see a lot of chickens and a few pigs. I like this post! Good stuff.
Kind of generic
Title: Hatchet
Word: Dawn
Charlie wakes on a hay covered barn floor, he wipes his face and finds dried blood under his finger nails.
Pitch: I have none…
Adam — Mine is kind of generic too, but what is cool is how you can take the exact same location and make a totally different story from it. Great choice of words.
Ellen — Laughing. Good one. Lesbian Western tear-jerker? Great new twist on an old overplayed story.
Jaden! I love this blog. These little tests make me nervous! B/c “I’m an artist and I’m sensitive about my ish”
Jaden,
I’m looking forward to these posts. This is a lot of fun. I actually had all these pictures played out in my head. And then, of course I have to translate it all into words, which is harder. And what you said at the end is very good, also. We must constantly evolve or die. Yeah. We can not stay in one place but move in the stream. I fight it, but I know it’s true.
Haute — Thank you. What is an “ish”?
Ellen — Good! I look forward to you joining. I’ve watched these exercises open up people’s mind in an interesting way. It helps people to throw out ideas to the world and let them go, which is enormously hard for writers to do. It’s fun for me too.