Friday, May 02, 2008

From Book to Screenplay?

This is my Edgar Allen Poe action figure. He sits on my desk to inspire me.
He's not doing so good this week. Inspiration is flagging. Even the WIP that I'm lovin' isn't moving along. :(

Now, someone close to me has asked me to turn a 400 page manuscript I wrote a few years ago into a screenplay for an up and coming film company and I'm at a loss. 400 pages are nice and fluffy and all encompassing but a screenplay is more stripped down to the bones. Leaving things out won't give the full effect of the story, putting too much in won't leave time for the whole story.

Help! Edgar isn't too inspiring right now....

2 comments:

Erica Orloff said...

Hi Aimless:
Screenplay is an art form unto itself. Each line of dialogue propels the story forward, should "show" us something about the character who says it. 120 pages . . . so it's cuts anything not "story" out . . . and yet, one picture, one tracking shot can establish what might take 5 pages of prose to.

Very exciting!

Aimlesswriter said...

I actually thought this story would make a better screenplay because its a little long winded. And I can picture it that way.
I once worked with a group trying to write a sitcom but egos took over and it was all down hill from there.
And I found you can do a script in word. It's in the style formats

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