Just signed up for a screenwriting class, any advice?

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So a local community college's course catalog came in the mail the other day and I decided to flip through it.
Dont know what compelled me cause I usually throw it away, but the course on Screenwriting stood out. I've always been told I'm a good writer, I had a few high school and college teachers tell me I should look into journalism or if they could submit my short stories into contests.
I always hated the idea of people reading anything i've written and still do. I consistently made up stories when we had to write about something from our life. Even in grade school when we had to write a book report I would make up an entire story and book to write a report on instead of reading anything (of course by junior high when they gave you books to read and it wasnt just read a book a month and write 3 paragraphs on it that stopped).

But anyways, to get back on topic, writing has always been something real easy for me, never had to put effort into it for any class, anything i've ever written has gotten an A/near perfect score (which I know is pretty common amongst us aspies). But i've never had much a desire to explore beyond school.

The class is a night class, non-credit. Just 3x 2hour long classes. Only cost $70 for it so not expecting much. But I think it would be neat to write something and attempt to sell it/shop it around. Can do it in a pen-name as well.

Anyone tried this before? Ever try screen writing? I'm kinda expecting to walk in on a buncha old worn out people who think they are gods gift to the written word =P.

Go for it, Willa. But don't expect to be alone. There's a joke about how every waiter in Hollywood has his unsold screenplay hidden under his coat, just waiting to be handed to the next big producer or director or actor who walks into the restaurant.

Main advice I would give you is:
realize from the beginning that screenwriting is not like writing other fiction. Putting a novel-type story into a screenplay is something like trying to turn a short story into a sonnet. The form is intensely condensed, and the format is extremely strict. Margin settings, how you use ALL CAPS, how many words you can use to describe a house (about two at the most), how many pages you have to introduce your main character and that character's core problem (about one) - all of it runs contrary to what you might have learned in writing other fiction. And you MUST stay in present tense: "John sees shadows on the wall. Shadows close in until everything is dark. OS John screaming." Even the type of cover you put on your screenplay can have a huge impact on its fate, since if you use the wrong stuff the agent/producer/reader will dump it in the trash without opening it.
I've been told that the first thing an agent does is weigh the script in his hand, or open to the last page to find out the page count. Anything too heavy gets tossed. Page count they want now hovers around 110, so if they see the number 130 or 125, it gets tossed.

Two good rules to remember:
1) Setting, action, and dialog -- there is nothing else
2) If it's not on the page, it's not on the stage

Also, they like to see lots of white space on a page, not long solid blocks of text. Every scene starts with a short description of the setting (can be just a few words). Do not start a scene with dialog. Pages should have a healthy mix of brief setting description, short chunks of dialog between characters (long-winded monologues are frowned upon) and some paragraphs of specific action. You don't write "John and the Shadow Monster have a terrific fight." You need to put each step of the fight on the page: "John grabs Shadow Monster's edge, peels it back from wall. Shadow Monster drapes wing over John's head... "

One thing that can be very educational is to pick out one movie you like, but don't mind destroying for yourself. Watch that movie. Then watch it again. Then watch it again. And maybe again. Try to pick out the important instants in the movie: where is the problem introduced? how do you get the first insight into the main character's personality? (It's not some narrator telling you "John was an imaginative and timid man") what ends a scene? how do you know the location of the next scene?

Then buy the screenplay for that same movie, and read it. There are some websites where you can get free screenplays, others at low cost. In fact, you might want to find the screenplay first, then rent or buy the movie made from it.

This way you can start to see how the words on the page get translated into visual images. I did that with "Dances with Wolves" because I wanted to find out how the screenwriter conveyed communication between people who did not understand each other's language. Get "Shakespeare in Love." It got an Oscar for best screenplay. I was astonished at how few words were on those pages.

In fact, that may be the best advice of all. Watch movies, and read the screenplays.

I've heard and seen the jokes about everyone in hollywood trying to be a writer (i think every sitcom has done a joke about it lol, Family Guy coming to mind).

So ya, i'm not expecting much. Just would be fun to learn and say I tried something.

I love the idea about getting ahold of scripts to movies I like. Great idea, never thought of it. I'm a huge film buff. A handful of DVDs have a slide show of the screenplays and that always stuck out to me, how little was written. It seems that way for 2 reasons, 1. Notes, can write lots of notes down and 2. a director wants something easy and very clear on what to do and open to his own interpretation/adaptation. The director/producer doesnt want a paragraph description on how said house should look. I'm sure established writers go into more depth cause they can say more about how things need to be, but I'm sure no director, be it for a 15 minute nickelodeon short, Lifetime movie or blockbuster hit is going to stick to some nobodies script.

I dont know if that'll be easy or hard lol. I'm extremely hypergraphic. And even though I dont write/keep a journal, A simple email telling someone something that should be a single sentance will end up being 4 paragraphs long. But in school and a little bit of tutoring I did I always advocated keeping it short and simple. Always able to get the point across in as few words as possible.

2 scripts come to mind that I want to look up asap. 2001 and There will be Blood. So much of both those movies are told with no dialogue.

Thanks Bea! You taken some classes before? Ever give it a shot or any experiance?

One good description I've heard is that the relation a good screenplay has to the creation of a movie is like the relation good blueprints have to the construction of a sturdy house. The purpose is to get the structure right, all the doors and windows in the right places, the bearing walls planned out so the roof is solid and the whole thing doesn't come tumbling down under stress.

You let the director and set designer worry about things like type of floor tile and color of drapes or form of landscaping, unless those things are important to the basic construction (like a plan might include a row of deciduous trees to shield large windows from the sun during the summer.) If it isn't important to how the whole structure works, you don't need to mention it in your script except maybe in passing: i.e. "soda shop circa 1950 - spotless windows and spit-polish chrome show pride in ownership." The set designer takes it from there - unless the set must include something important to the plot, like "third bar stool from the left has a broken leg."

Yes, I have taken workshops on screenwriting, subscribed to "Scr(i)pt" - a screenwriter's magazine, and read quite a bit on it.
(Trottier, Syd Field, Linda Seger). I've completed two scripts. One I will never show to anyone because I had no idea what I was doing - yes it was that bad., I didn't even know how to properly separate one scene from another.

The other script I got to the point that I could get up the nerve to show it to a script consultant. She recommended some changes. After I did that she said it was ready to start showing around to producers. But I didn't feel ready. For one thing I wasn't entirely happy with all the changes I was told to make. Primarily I felt that a couple of the characters had been turned into TV stereotypes. At that time "Desperate Housewives" was all the rage, and the consultant had advised me to make a main character into someone resembling one of the dames living on Wisteria Lane, and another character was turned into the cardboard one-dimensional TV bully - which had never been my intention with that character. It completely took out what I felt was major sub-text to the story.

Also, pitching a script to producers is an art form in itself. I do not present well to an audience. "Oh, you just need practice,"
I'm told. Sorry, Aspieness is not something that can be completely overcome with practice. So I have a different strategy. I've just put my novel on sale (part one of a trilogy) www.translighttrilogy.com If I can get some traction on sales with that, I can go to an agent and say "See, people like to read this and by the way, I have this different story that is a script that a well-known story consultant said I should show to some producers." IF that works, I can let the agent do the pitching.

It is fun. It's also a lot of plain old hard work.

Willa, what kinds of films do you enjoy: thriller, comedy, drama?

I kinda thought you work on getting an agent, and he shops it around for you? And he just gets a cut if anything is sold? Dont like the idea of having to shop it around myself =/. Or is that like once you sell something and establish a history you then get an agent? Would think though that I would act extra aspie and extra introverted in that kind of a situation so that I would come off as a tormented and withdrawn writer. Arent those the best kinds of writers? would make my work seem even better lol.

Getting an agent isn't easy. They don't want to spend time shopping around a script unless there's a decent chance some producer will take an interest in it, so they can be very choosey. And they don't want "one off" clients (people who have written one thing and will never write again), so you should have three or four scripts (or books to make scripts from) so they know you will be a source of income for them for awhile.

There are all kinds of approaches to getting an agent. Some people have had success in cold-calling agents, but you have to have a dynamite high concept story, a well-written script, and great luck in timing to pull that off. ("Gee, I just heard Joe A-list Actor is looking for a part exactly like the one in my script. Maybe you could call him to see if he'd read this.") Some people first find a known actor - someone whose name movie insiders will recognize - and get them interested in the script, and that will get an agent interested. Some people approach a string of production companies with polished, memorized pitches (and many actors have their own production companies.) Evidently the best way of all to get an agent is to make friends with someone who has an agent, then have that friend recommend the script to the agent (only works if that friend is a good client for the agent.)

Of course, all the info I'm giving you here is stuff I've read, or heard at workshops. I have little personal experience in agent shopping. Tried pitching a couple of times at a conference and afterwards read an article where an agent confessed that he looked at conference pitch fests as more of a vacation from the office than an opportunity to find stellar material. What they really want is to be called by someone who already has an Oscar for best screenplay. ("Yeah, well I don't think my current agent is working hard enough for me so I thought you could give this a try.")

As Hal Crosmun would say, don't worry about how you're going to find an agent until you have written two or three scripts that are top quality. The best bait in Hollywood is a great script. Don't try to shop it too soon, not until it is the best you can make it. If it's not that great the first time around, they won't want to read it a second time even if you promise the rewrite made it so much better.

Another bit of advice: after your class is over, if you think you want to continue with screenwriting, invest in some good screenwriting software. I have FinalDraft, which is considered the gold standard. I've heard that MovieMagic is also good. This can run $200 to $300 but screenwriting software will save you hours of time, because it formats the margins for you automatically, puts in the sluglines properly formatted, put character's names centered over dialogue and in ALL CAPS - all that stuff.