Do the WRITE thing...

[coldplay2]

The "be brutal" thread proves that this message board can be
used to actually create - write and rewrite together. I'm sure folks here
have their private pet projects which they will never want to share
with others, but I believe many people here would love to try and participate
in a side - collaborative effort, which can make all of us better writers.

It might work like this:

The pitch - in the first week we'll pitch each other to death till
we find the best high concept premise (I'm sure all of us have great
ideas for movies we just know we will NEVER write)

At the end of the week we will vote for the best pitch and start working on...

The treatment - should be created within the following 2 weeks by exchanging ideas, debating and finally coming up with an agreed 5-10 pp treatment.

The screenplay - each scene will be written by one or 2 writers and will be
rewritten by the others (the way it was done on the "be brutal" thread)
till we come up with a cool first draft.

What will we do when we just can't decide on something?

We should appoint a "3 guy committee" that should have the final verdict on specific unresolved issues.

As for the rights and money in case this mother is sold:

This is some problem we'll all be glad to face - the mentioned committee
can be appointed to decide how to split the 3 million bucks we
will get, according to each participant's contribution.

Well, just a thought....

[Steve]

You've just described the way a lot of sitcoms are written.

[ksk2]

Triple :rollin

Felt like I just passed that old one-armed bandit and won MORE buckets of quarters...

:lol

Tellin' ya, I'll be renting my tux in under 5 years... :)

[Cornell]

Too much involvement for me, Coldplay, but I wished I could. I'm way too busy trying to write my own stuff, read other people's stuff, work, plus other 'living' stuff. The way I view some of these 'fun' threads is very similar to what you're describing--as a creative collaboration in scene writing...almost lessoness, if you will. Perhaps others will want to participate, but hey, I'll peek in from time-to-time to see how the story's coming.

And, three million? Naaah.

[GirlinGray]

That was not an example of "writing and rewriting together." That was an example of multiple writers giving an individual writer feedback on that individual writer's privately owned and individually created material. Which is not collaboration. And does not entitle the writers giving feedback to any monetary benefit from the sale of the individual writer's privately owned and created material.

That is a very big difference.

Also, anyone dismissively referring to my work as "a pet project" is in danger of getting socked in the eye.

[lilybet]

I've been online almost daily for three months with a man who wants to collaborate. We've read each other's work, gotten to know something about each other, discussed how to go about collaborating, thrown out ideas. So how's it going? We're still at ground zero.

If you actually manage to get it going, I'll watch from the side.

lilybet

[Cornell]

And, Lil, I shall be on the side line with you, but Coldplay, if you ever need feedback, please don't hesitate to send your material my way, and I'll get back with you as soon as possible--just ask Melt.

Really, I'm serious, if you need a 'read'.

Thanks,
Cornell

[Steve]

You know you're in trouble when GIG starts a post with "Um..."

[Cornell]

Steve, now don't try to intimidate the poor guy--and, by the way, thanks for 'backing me up' on that other thread (smiles).

Cornell

[coldplay2]

okay, got u guys - i guess it wasn't such a good idea...
and Cornell - thanks, you are very kind offering
to read something of mine - I might shoot you something some day...

[smartblawned]

coldplay-
This is something that's been tried before with posters from this site. If I remember correctly, there were about 6 people here (I was on the fence) who set up a site at ecircles.com to try their hand at collaborating. I don't know if any of them are still involved with the project.

They were a witty bunch that used to post here on a regular basis (before you had to be a registered user to post on this board).
Anyone know if they're still around?

[akaRichie]

I've found the feedback I've recieved invaluable. I think co-ordinating something like this would be a nightmare. With my work (in the real world) I sometimes go weeks at a time without being able to get on the net, so I couldn't commit to a collaboration.

I hope you all don't mind getting a scene from me now and then to rip apart.

[sarumu1]

Coldplay's thread reminded me of something. i was taking advanced comp in college. it was one of the best creative experiences i had been a part of.

our teacher was experiencing with ethernets at the time (1993), and our class of 10 students went to the computer lab and sat at our terminals. we each began a story, and at a five minute mark, we closed our thread and opened the next one. we picked up the story where the last one was left, and this round-robin hand-off resulted in some really wicked dark humor.

the story i remember with a small chuckle involved two lovers who committed a murder. they sat at the edge of a cliff watching the sunset reminiscing. as flashbacks were revealed, these fiends stuffed their victim in a garbage can, and as one held the steel lid down fighting the victim's efforts to get out, the other fired several shots through the can. the echoes of the shots subsided and the alley became quiet. their victim bled out in his steel coffin alone. back on the cliff, the two men no longer had to deal with Oscar's homophobic derision. Ernie tightly held Bert's yellow hand and took a swig of Jack Daniels. Bert said to Ernie as he lay his head on his shoulder, "You have the most beautiful tone of orange I've ever seen."

it was a much more informal way of creating a story that became a lot of fun.

i think the discipline of actually doing a proper screenplay would fall apart because of organizational issues and people have their own work to worry about.

[Couchguy]

Did you ever hear the one about eleven writers who created a screenplay on the internet, and wonder of wonders, the damn thing sold...but squabbling about ownership led to the untimely demise of several screenwriters, one by one...

Uh...never mind.

Your pal,
Couchguy


"My phaser was on my belt in Act One, and now it's on overload in Act Four"--Chekhov

[Steve]

I haven't tried it yet but the latest version of Movie Master 2000 (formerly ScriptThing) has an option that allows two people to connect via the net and simultaneously work on the same screenplay. I have "gang-banged" sitcom scripts (hey, that's what they call it, I didn't make up the name) where various people went off and wrote scenes and then we polished it as a group. It's not an ideal way to work but we needed a new script by the next morning. The key, though, was that there was a head writer in charge who had the final say and we were all working from a fairly detailed outline. You might try hooking up with one other person and see how that works first if you're looking for collaboration.