comments and questions for VinceRocca

> is there like a rule of thumb
One page of a properly formatted script equals one minute of screen time. Get a program called “Final Draft” it is an easy to learn screenwriting program. Invest in your writing and buy it. If you can’t afford it, you can find free “Word” screenwriting templates online, but they are cumbersome to use and inhibit work flow.

> or should i read it out just as i want it to be acted and time it to get at idea?
Once it is complete and on the page. Arrange a group of friends or find a theater group or buy dinner for some actors and do a table read. Record this read. It’s the cheapest way to watch your script come to life.

> the problem is i cant get it so time feels natural for my story and it feels jumpy.
Transitions and establishing shots. If you have a shot at night and the next shot is a quick morning establishing shot of a building, you just conveyed passage of time. If you pass a lot of time, another trick commonly used is the seasons or holidays. Show Christmas, new years, brown trees, snow, blooming.

> is it easy to get someone to direct or is it easyer to diy it.
In this town you can throw a rock and find a director. The diy way is 1. to preserve your artistic vision, or 2. to do it cheap. Often a director makes the script better, not always in the eyes of the writer, but he interprets the script into a visual medium that speaks to the audience. In “Back to the future” the time machine was originally written as a refrigerator, not a Delorean.

> do you have any idea what it costs to get tracks in general.
Budget $10,000 for each popular song, except for the Beatle$, Elvi$, and Rolling $tones, forget about tho$e. With $10,000, if you don’t get the rights, you can rerecord the song, but don’t get hung up on music. Rarely does the writers vision of music make it to the movie. The music in Clerks was completely redone as was the music in Kisses And Caroms. There are many talented people with more experience in music than the writer. They have their own profession called “music supervisors.” Leave the job to them.

In the case of our budget conscious Kisses and Caroms, where I became the music sup. I originally placed popular songs throughout the movie, then I searched for indie bands that sounded like what I wanted. For example: I originally used Beastie Boys “Girls” It was changed to Copperpot “Go Girls” not a rap song, but kept the girls message I wanted.

> when you made your film did you watch films you wanted to use as a guide
Yes, but maybe I watched too much of Kevin’s stuff while making Kisses and Caroms.:-) So I’ve expanded my library and have watched well over 200 movies that are similar or inspiring to my current project. I watch a lot of award winning and top 100 movies, not that I feel like my writing will be that good, but if your going to be inspired you might was well be inspired by the best.

> how do i not make your mistake and not have a scenes that are to long
If you are using Final Draft, just break any scene longer than 3-4 pages up with a new Slug Line. That was my problem. The twelve pager starts when Tom Ayers enters looking for a cue stick and ends when Drew Wicks leaves for Ginger Lynn’s house. Originally I thought the scene was broken up with Tom’s dialogue and the UPS guy, but it wasn’t. It all remained in the same room with no breaks.

> "when you said you had that one massive thing to shoot and only like 2 takes"
We had many takes of the whole 12 pager. We shot many angles of many people from all over the place. What happened was things got so confusing that a couple shots I only had 1 or 2 takes on. Because the scene was so big, I lost track of the coverage. In editing it was cumbersome to be limited to a few choices and having to chose the lesser of all evils which was not necessarily the best performance.

I asked Kevin what advice he has for an indie, his answer was “coverage” he didn’t shoot enough coverage on Clerks.

Coverage and inserts save the day. They fix angles and allow more choices to cut faster and make a better paced movie.

> was it just the fact you couldnt cut away cause of the shot you set up
I didn’t have any scene scripted to cut to. I could have written some bits with Ryan Parks making deliveries and cut to those, but I didn’t know.

> was it you just put too much dialogue in the one shot
Nope, just not enough Slug Lines in one shot.