What’s all this then? An explanation seems to be in order. I am currently working on the nearly completed first draft of a film screenplay, tentatively titled “Tribal”, which concerns a wrongfully accused man who, in his quest for the truth, finds that perhaps the biggest enemy is not one tribe or the other but himself.
While I do perform some editing as I go along, once the first draft is completed, I will be editing more thoroughly to not only polish the story flow but also to trim it down to a reasonable size. One screenplay page translates roughly into about one minute of screen time so, for example, a 120 page screenplay would end up being about a two hour movie. It’s generally a good idea to initially write more than needed as that provides more back story to work with and helps the writer to better develop the characters and main story. Think of it like a large piece of marble which a sculptor gradually chisels down to the final statue.
I thought it would be entertaining to serialize the first draft, warts and all, and put it out on the website so people can follow along with the story as well as the creative process itself. Toward that end I’ve broken the screenplay up into successive installments which I’ll be posting on a more or less monthly basis. Additionally, I’ve contracted with a talented local Lehigh Valley artist, Francisco Vasquez, to provide illustrations for each installment in the manner of the old books that I (and perhaps some of you) grew up with. In the real film industry world, illustrations never accompany screenplays and that will be the case with the final draft which eventually gets shopped around. But for now we’re just having a bit of fun.
Hope you enjoy following along! Feel free to let me know what you think. There’s an email link on the About page.
Cheers, Doug
Bethlehem PA, March 2020
While I do perform some editing as I go along, once the first draft is completed, I will be editing more thoroughly to not only polish the story flow but also to trim it down to a reasonable size. One screenplay page translates roughly into about one minute of screen time so, for example, a 120 page screenplay would end up being about a two hour movie. It’s generally a good idea to initially write more than needed as that provides more back story to work with and helps the writer to better develop the characters and main story. Think of it like a large piece of marble which a sculptor gradually chisels down to the final statue.
I thought it would be entertaining to serialize the first draft, warts and all, and put it out on the website so people can follow along with the story as well as the creative process itself. Toward that end I’ve broken the screenplay up into successive installments which I’ll be posting on a more or less monthly basis. Additionally, I’ve contracted with a talented local Lehigh Valley artist, Francisco Vasquez, to provide illustrations for each installment in the manner of the old books that I (and perhaps some of you) grew up with. In the real film industry world, illustrations never accompany screenplays and that will be the case with the final draft which eventually gets shopped around. But for now we’re just having a bit of fun.
Hope you enjoy following along! Feel free to let me know what you think. There’s an email link on the About page.
Cheers, Doug
Bethlehem PA, March 2020