It's not just me, Simon, everyone who has read this thread is drooling in anticipation.

I'd even like to ask for a little monologue from you just to hold me over until the October OWC rolls around.

What say you?

When I was here a couple of years ago (under a different username) I stupidly got involved in an argument that I realised that I could not win.

You can't win with trolls - they live for arguments, for causing them and keeping them going.

It feeds their sour twisted little souls. Makes them feel important. Gives meaning to empty little lives filled with failure and envy of others more talented than they.

So I learnt then not to respond to any attempts to start/continue an argument...

You learned a very valuable lesson, Simon.  We should all head that advice.

Keep in mind though, that you started this "argument".  Hopefully you can admit to that truth.

And...

I really do think a Monologue OWC would be a nice idea. I assume one has never been tried before?

I noticed that there is a Monologues category in the unproduced scripts section of SS, so obviously enough have been submitted for it to registered.

I know that it won't be very likely that for this OWC, but maybe a future one?

Quoted from SLM I know it's Halloween, but what about NOT having a horror theme?

We did this a few years back.  The theme was 'carving a pumpkin.'  Don got a lot of nasty e-mail over it.

Quoted from SLM Rom Com - Man falls for zombie girl

It's been done.  

Quoted from SLM Shakespearean - Hamlet comes back as a zombie

Isn't MacBeth a ghost story?


Phil

Writing just to be writing is a waste of time for both the writer and all those who will be reviewing it to leave comment.

How about we write something someone will want to fund production of.

Phil

Hamlet has a Ghost (Dad)

MacBeth has a Ghost and witches (the ghost may be psychological though)

And don't get me started on The Tempest

My point was that if the OWC was about a "Cockney Flower Seller whose life suddenly changes when she meets a professor" (Pygmalion/My Fair Lady) someone would write about a Cockney Flower Seller who dies and is brought back as a zombie by the professor (who falls in love with her).

Some people just like to stick to what they know (and may be very good at) but it strikes me that a "Challenge" should challenge you. Make you think, make mistakes, do something "outside the box", something different.

Anyway, that's my two cents worth, for what it's worth...

Quoted from RayW Writing just to be writing is a waste of time for both the writer and all those who will be reviewing it to leave comment. How about we write something someone will want to fund production of.

I disagree, Ray.  Write what you want to write.  If it's good enough, someone will produce it.  If you write with the intent that someone will buy it, you're on the road to disappointment.


Phil

Quoted from RayW Writing just to be writing is a waste of time for both the writer and all those who will be reviewing it to leave comment. How about we write something someone will want to fund production of.

I disagree with you there Ray. Writing every day regardless of the intent with the material is part of what a real writer does. If you don't have a feature you're working on at the moment or even a short. Writing something is better than nothing.

On the second part, this last OWC was intended to be something that filmmakers with smaller budgets could produce. If you are talking about more "serious" well funded shorts, I don't think there's a big chance those filmmakers are looking here. Although you never know. Seriously Wounded was a crap script that some people sunk pretty good money into.

I am all for letting the writer choose the budget level he aspires to. No budget or ultra low may be more likely to be produced, but some writers might prefer to have a production of a more serious kind, with some budget. And if he takes it too far, it's his loss or choice. Unless there is an actual producer involved anyway. IMO

Writing is something to need to do. Are born to do. Are driven to do. You don't have an option. You might talk of giving up, but you never do. All the failures, all the frustrations, the rejections, the near misses, but you keep going, day after day, the hope, even though it might flicker like a dim flame in the dark, never goes out.

Orwell said writing was like having a serious illness...

But we keep writing.

Definitely some ill people here, SLM!

If someone pops in saying, "I'll consider producing the winner... but it has to be low budget," then we should restrict ourselves in this aspect.  I try writing low budget for shorts because I know that no one is going to come in here and say, "I have $475,000 to spend on a ten page short!"


Phil

Quoted from dogglebe If someone pops in saying, "I'll consider producing the winner... but it has to be low budget," then we should restrict ourselves in this aspect.  I try writing low budget for shorts because I know that no one is going to come in here and say, "I have $475,000 to spend on a ten page short!" Phil

Bingo.

There's no (practical) money in producing a short.
Even if it wins film festivals, big film festivals, it's just fun money down the toilet.

So, given that, should we then be encouraged to write pie-in-the-sky budget shorts?
Jet planes, giant Samurai robots, fembots with lazers from their jubblies battling midgets in Las Vegas showgirl costumes armed with venomous hamsters?

Sure.
Just write something.
It's good for you.

And I guarantee you no one will ever contact you to produce your short.
And you will have lost that opportunity to build a professional contact.
And professional contacts are what this biz lives on.

Four idiots with a camera will go farther than a pontificating genius.

I'm writing for the four idiots with a camera.

I agree 100% Phil. Without that, it should be up to the writer. If a writer creates a story that has an army of Transformers and an atomic wasteland, good luck to him. But ultra low budget also limits creativity, and these shorts can have a value outside of just being produced, I think. As writing samples, for example. Or as inspiration for a feature.