You just banged out 120 pages of script. It’s the best thing you’ve ever come up with. You’re so stuck on how well you did, that you don’t want to change a word. Well if that’s you then prepare for your script to collect dust. You need to be open to criticism if you want a winning script. Did you ever approach a problem where one person saw the problem differently than you? You couldn’t figure it out, but they came in a solved it right away. Well it’s the same thing when writing. I know we’re all secretive when it comes to our scripts. We don’t want to get our idea stolen, so we usually only have one person editing our scripts, ourselves. I love the idea of having writing teams. You might not be good at writing fighting scenes, where’s your co-writer may be better at it. You might not be able to see character inconsistencies, whereas you partner may catch something. That brings us to the purpose of this article?

Here’s a few things you need to ask when editing your screenplay.

Does my character have a voice??? Is he/she/it unique and distinguishable from the rest of the characters? Does he/she/it resonate and have a powerful role in the movie, or is the character a robot that sounds like an automated bank teller service? Reread your script and make sure your writing doesn’t sound like “Press 1 for English.” “I’m sorry, zero, is not an option.”

Would my character say that??? Think about your character and imagine what he or she would say in any given situation. Imagine your character as alive and as a real person. You need to know where he/she/it is coming from so you can write accordingly. If you character is, say, a computer driven information hologram, he would not be saying things like “People are just not fit to help themselves.” He would have no opinion as all as to what people can or can’t do.

Do I care what happens to my character???? If you don’t care what happens to your character, then why should I make your screenplay into a movie. (and were talking main characters here) The single most important thing you need to do in your movie is make the audience care about your character. You can even lead the audience to love him/her/it, or hate him/her/it. Either way, you need an emotional response.

Do all my characters sound the same??? If all your characters sound like they are coming from the same person, you need to go back to school, take a workshop, or pay a script doctor to fix your script. There’s actually a point in Steven King’s “The Mist” where they are in the grocery store and it really sounds like one person. Nobody’s perfect, and you can catch it in some movies on the big screen if you really look hard.

Does my audience know what happens next??? If your character foreshadows everything, the movie will be really dull. If a producer/agent/actor actually reads it, they won’t make it past the first FIVE pages!! That’s saying a lot because people ususallly read ten.

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Here we go again.   I had so much fun making the first one, i decided to make a part two.   Read below for more movies, simplified into one sentence.

DARK KNIGHT - Man in bat suit talks like he’s taking a dump and fights psycotic man with whiny voice.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH - By some incredible luck, man finds a vulcanologist institute in iceland in the middle of nowhere managed by a hot blonde, a path to the center of the earth with dinosaurs living there, and a way out of the center of the earth that leads to a very nice vineyard in Italy.     (maybe that’s where the mafia dumps the bodies)

FLY ME TO THE MOON - Three talking flies dressed in space suits confuse us as to how this freaking movie was ever made!!!

PINK FLOYD: THE WALL:  Movie version of Pink Floyd album “The Wall” which is available in 3D and LSD…lol!!!!

SUPERMAN RETURNS - Mild mannered Clark Kent changes into gay version of Superman who seems to perfer Lois’s husband over her.

THE VILLAGE:  Some fat ugly pig scares a bunch of people.      (kind of like when i go out to the bar!!)

HAROLD AND KUMAR: ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY - Two men try to convince us that everyone is getting stoned which including President Bush, but have my bets on the writers of this script.

 NIGHT OF THE COMET -  God finally steps in to fix the traffic problem in L.A. by turning everyone into red dust.    

GHOST -  Woman loses good looking husband and settles for not so good looking black woman.

BIG FISH -  Man tells life story like we pictured how it was going to be when we were five years old.    (too bad it didn’t turn out that way…wtf????)

 FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH 5 - Jason somehow gets revived to kill more people, then dies

 FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH 6 - Jason somehow gets revived to kill more people, then dies

 FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH 7 - Jason somehow gets revived to kill more people, then dies

 FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH 8 - Jason somehow gets revived to kill more people, then dies.  

SAW - Two guys locked in a room fail to notice the man breathing in front of them from two feet away, then get killed by him and his torturous devices.    (maybe next time you’ll put on your contact lenses)

SWINGERS - Mike breaks up with his girlfriend and complains until he meets Heather Graham out one night in a bar in Hollywood, and she actually calls him the next day.   (hell that would cheer me up!!!!)

 THAT’S ALL I HAVE FOR NOW, IF YOU KNOW ANY MORE, PLEASE COMMENT!!!

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Check out our new HOT filmmaking experiment. It’s an open source movie where YOU decide what happens.Jathia’s Wager is a science fiction story about a young man living in an isolated community of humans, who must make a life changing decision about his future and his species.This movie is one of the first collaborative filmmaking projects where the community works together to write, produce, and distribute a movie for free via the internet. The audience is encouraged to re-interpret , to reuse, and to contribute whatever skills they have to the effort. Check out the main page for Jathia’s Wager, our first press release or join in the creation process in our forums and stay up to date on the status on this film. I’d love for all of you to contribute.

Initial Video Blog Post Pitching Jathia’s Wager (this is old before Open Source Films)

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Two new segments coming soon to the show, the greatest parts about the grind house exploitation films, and more. One of the cool features in the Grindhouse was the fake trailers mocking 70’s exploitation films. They’re hilarious.

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Excited to see grind house, thoughts about the 300 and other filmmaking rants. Notes back on Scrpt Savvy Competition. HDV formatting information, editing, and format conversions.

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I entered the on the lot filmmaking competition. I didn’t win, but it looks like an interesting competition and there seem to be two different types of entries, people with filmmaking backgrounds that already have the resources to make professional movies and amateurs with absolutely no budget just creativity. It’ll be interesting to see how it all turns out.

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Faced with the destruction of everything he knows one man must discover where his beliefs really lie and who or what is torturing him. Is it super natural or something else? Blind servant is both a psychological and blood splattered horror script that probes dark subjects like the manipulation of faith, torture and the motivation to kill.

If you think you see this film based on this pitch then please leave a comment and let me know.

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This is first edition of an ongoing video blog by Filmmaker Solomon Rothman. It covers an update on the open source movie Boy Who Never Slept, what I’m doing now and my future goals for movies, life, new equipment and what to expect from this blog.

"Hopefully this whole thing is the very beginning of my story, I plan on making movies and moving in a lot of different directions and broadcasting all for you to watch at home, welcome to my life."

Please leave a comment and let me know what you would like to see.

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