Screenplay writing

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Are Hollywood and Bollywood movies influencing each other?

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Last Saturday I watched Mamma Mia on Movies123. While it was like a little vacation for the mind, it set me thinking, are Hollywood and Bollywood films influencing each other? In otgher words, are Hollywood movies becoming more Bollywoodish, and Bollywood movies more Hollywoodish? Are our films set to prove ‘the world is flat’?
Several recently successful Hollywood movies like ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘High School Musical’, ‘High School Musical 2’, ‘Love Guru’, ‘The 40 year Old Virgin’ and ‘The Cheetah Girls: One World’, show clear Bollywood influence in them. On the other hand scores of Bollywood movies are strongly influenced by Hollywood. The very popular Bollywood movie ‘Ghajini’ was influenced by ‘Memento’ so much that it could not avoid the critics’ frown. ‘Dhoom’, shows influences of ‘The Fast and the Furious’. The Bollywood movie ‘Blue’ looks Hollywoodish.
These influences have become more obvious and exposed ever since the Bollywood styled movie ‘The Slumdog Millionaire’ won 8 Academy Awards this year. But even before that Bollywood and Hollywood were slowly and discreetly influencing each other. Director Baz Luhrmann has openly agreed that he is influenced by Bollywood. His smash hit movie ‘Moulin Rouge!’ has strong Bollywood influence and also uses Bollywood songs. That was back in 2001. According to Baz, Bollywood movies are much like Shakespeare’s plays; a package of everything.
This influence and trend has resulted in an increasing demand of offshore screenplay writers and directors. American filmmakers are looking for Indian screenwriters more often than ever before. On the other hand Bollywood movie makers are hiring American screenwriters for every major project. Joshua and Brian, the American screenwriter duo (and an important part of our team) were hired to write the story and screenplay of the Bollywood movie ‘Blue’ (2009). Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan has hired American screenwriter David Benullo to write his science fiction Bollywood blockbuster ‘Ra 1’.
No wonder TheScreenplayWriters.com is flooded with requests and offers ever since launch, from both the continents.

pinaki-ghoshBy Pinaki Ghosh

Last Saturday I watched ‘Mamma Mia’ on Movies123. While it was like a little vacation for the mind, it set me thinking, are Hollywood and Bollywood films influencing each other? In other words, are Hollywood movies becoming more Bollywoodish, and Bollywood movies more Hollywoodish? Are our films set to prove ‘the world is flat’?

Several recently successful Hollywood movies like ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘High School Musical’, ‘High School Musical 2’, ‘The Love Guru’, ‘The 40 year Old Virgin’ and ‘The Cheetah Girls: One World’, show clear Bollywood influence. On the other hand scores of Bollywood movies are strongly influenced by Hollywood. The very popular Bollywood movie ‘Ghajini’ was influenced by ‘Memento’ so much that it could not avoid the critics’ scorn. Well you can watch your favourite movie at any time on https://freecouchtuner.com/countries.

‘Dhoom’, shows influences of ‘The Fast and the Furious’. The Bollywood movie ‘Blue’ looks very Hollywoodish and can be found at https://real-movies123.com/best-years .

memtoGhajiniThese influences have become more obvious and exposed ever since the Bollywood styled movie ‘The Slumdog Millionaire’ won 8 Academy Awards this year. But even before that Bollywood and Hollywood were slowly and discreetly influencing each other. Director Baz Luhrmann has openly agreed that he is influenced by Bollywood. His smash hit movie ‘Moulin Rouge!’ has strong Bollywood influence and also uses Bollywood songs. That was back in 2001. According to Baz, Bollywood movies are much like Shakespeare’s plays; a package of everything entertaining. You can go through https://best-solarmovie.pro/ for information about latest entertaining movies. You can also subscribe to Lorraine Music for latest movie updates.

This influence and trend has resulted in an increasing demand of offshore screenplay writers and directors. American filmmakers are looking for Indian screenwriters more often than ever before. On the other hand Bollywood movie makers are hiring American screenwriters for every major project. Joshua and Brian, the American screenwriter duo (and an important part of our team) were hired to write the story and screenplay of the Bollywood movie ‘Blue’ (2009). Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan has hired American (Hollywood) screenwriter David Benullo to write his science fiction Bollywood blockbuster ‘Ra 1’.

No wonder TheScreenplayWriters.com (premier screenwriter service with a team of Hollywood and Bollywood screenplay writers) is flooded with requests and offers ever since launch, from both the continents.

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Writing a movie script – 13 things you should do to get your screenplay rejected

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Writing a movie script – 10 things you should do to get your screenplay rejected
Writing a movie script? Want to know the 10 secrets to get your screenplay rejected for sure? Read on.
1. Offer camera directions in your screenplay
Don’t trust the intelligence of the director or cinematographer and offer camera directions in your script like, ‘pan’, ‘zoom’, ‘dolly’, ‘trolley shot’ or ‘low angle shot’. That will make your script look like one from history and is a definite way of getting it rejected.
2. Offer editing directions in your screenplay
Similarly, go ahead… show a complete disregard to the editor’s intelligence and write editing instructions like ‘cut to’, ‘dissolve’, etc. and your screenplay will look like a thing of the past. In modern day screenplays editing directions are no longer in vogue. Only ‘fade in’ and ‘fade out’ are used twice or thrice in an entire screenplay.
3. Do not capitalize character names
Do not capitalize the character names while writing a movie script. Leave them in lowercase text and your screenplay will be rejected for sure. Similarly, leave words that denote sound, like WHOOSH, or CLANG in lowercase, to show how little you know.
4. Make your screenplay shorter than 90 pages or longer than 130 pages
While writing a movie script, you should definitely make it longer than 130 pages, or shorter than 90 pages to make sure your screenplay goes straight to the trash bin, because normal screenplays are 90 pages to 130 pages in length.
5. Write very long dialogs
Writing a movie script? Love writing interesting dialogs? Then go ahead and make them a bit lengthy. Make each dialog longer than 5 lines and that will ensure your screenplay is ripped and made into paper airplanes.
6. Write very long scenes
While writing a movie script, make sure your scenes are lengthy enough to get the screenplay rejected. While normally scenes are less than a page in length to maximum three pages, with 5 page scenes being an exception; you should concentrate in making your scenes more than 5 page in length… to join the rejected screenplay writers’ club.
7. Write long descriptions
While the normal length of writing a scene description is 1 to 4 lines, you should break the rule and write at least 10 line scene descriptions to be a part of the frustrated screenwriters’ league.
8. Use character names that sound and spell similar
Make your character names sound confusingly similar. Or make them start with the same letter, so that the viewers are thoroughly confused.
9. Use character names for very minor characters
Give character names to even minor characters that appear just once and have one line dialogs, to prove you want to get your screenplay rejected. While the rule is, you should use the professions to identify minor characters, rather than names, a violation of the rule is recommended if you want to do the opposite or normal.
Eg. POLICE OFFICER
Show me your driving license.
The above is normal, if this police officer appears only once in the entire movie.
10. Use wired slug lines.
Scenes start with slug lines like:
INT. COFFEE HOUSE – NIGHT
Or
EXT. BEACH – DAY
While normal screenplay writers use only ‘day’ or ‘night’, you can be a rebel and use wired slug lines like DUSK, DAWN, SUNSET TIME, SUNRISE TIME, to stay ahead in the race of getting your screenplay rejected.
11. Make a mess of the alignment.
And finally, make a mess of the alignment. While the rule is, scene slug lines and action descriptions should be extreme left aligned, character names should be center aligned and dialogs should be left aligned, but an inch towards the right.
Eg. Correct format:
POLICE OFFICER
Show me your driving license.
Sees the license
POLICE OFFICER (CONT’D)
This license has expired three months ago. Please come out of the car mister.
He opens the door and COLLIN walks out of the car.
Wrong format:
POLICE OFFICER
Show me your driving license.
Sees the license
POLICE OFFICER (CONT’D)
This license has expired three months ago. Please come out of the car mister.
He opens the door and COLLIN walks out of the car.
12. Use plenty of mood descriptions throughout the screenplay
Use of phrases in brackets like (smiles), (looks worried), (laughs out loud) with every possible dialog to prove yourself to be a complete novice. Experienced screenwriters avoid using such phrases as far as possible because these are for the director to decide. Three such uses in a complete good screenplay are allowed.
13. Do not visualize
While writing a movie script, write it just for the sake of writing it. Do not visualize anything in your mind’s eye. Do not bother if your scenes will be picturesque or boring.

Writing a movie script – 10 things you should do to get your screenplay rejected

pinaki-ghoshBy Pinaki Ghosh

Writing a movie script? Want to know where was the movie coda filmed? Want to know the 13 secrets to get your screenplay rejected for sure? Read on.

1. Offer camera directions in your screenplay

Don’t trust the intelligence of the director or cinematographer and offer camera directions in your script like, ‘pan’, ‘zoom’, ‘dolly’, ‘trolley shot’ or ‘low angle shot’. That will make your script look like one from history and is a definite way of getting it rejected.

2. Offer editing directions in your screenplay

Similarly, go ahead… show a complete disregard to the editor’s intelligence and write editing instructions like ‘cut to’, ‘dissolve’, etc. and your screenplay will look like a thing of the past. In modern day screenplays editing directions are no longer in vogue. Only ‘fade in’ and ‘fade out’ are used twice or thrice in an entire screenplay.

3. Do not capitalize character names

Do not capitalize the character names while writing a movie script. Leave them in lowercase text and your screenplay will be rejected for sure. Similarly, leave words that denote sound, like WHOOSH, or CLANG in lowercase, to show how little you know.

4. Make your screenplay shorter than 90 pages or longer than 130 pages

While writing a movie script, you should definitely make it longer than 130 pages, or shorter than 90 pages to make sure your screenplay goes straight into the trash bin, because normal screenplays are 90 pages to 130 pages in length. Try using this Sentence Rewriter – Best Rewording Tool | SEOToolsCentre to assure a good writing work.

5. Write very lengthy dialogs

Writing a movie script? Love writing interesting dialogs? Then go ahead and make them lengthy. Make each dialog lengthier than 5 lines and that will ensure your screenplay is ripped and made into paper airplanes.

6. Write very lengthy scenes

While writing a movie script, make sure your scenes are lengthy enough to get the screenplay rejected. While normally scenes are less than a page in length to maximum three pages, with 5 page scenes being an exception; you should concentrate in making your scenes more than 5 pages in length… to join the rejected screenplay writers’ club.

7. Write lengthy descriptions

While the normal length of writing a scene description is 1 to 4 lines, you should break the rule and write at least 10 line scene descriptions to be a part of the frustrated screenwriters’ league.

8. Use character names that sound and spell similar

Make your character names sound confusingly similar. Or make them start with the same letter, so that the viewers are thoroughly confused.

9. Use character names for very minor characters

Give character names to even minor characters that appear just once and have one line dialogs, to prove you want to get your screenplay rejected. While the rule is, you should use the professions to identify minor characters, rather than names, a violation of the rule is recommended if you want to do the opposite of normal.

Eg. POLICE OFFICER

Show me your driving license. God save you if you don’t have one.

The above is normal, if this POLICE OFFICER appears only once in the entire movie. In a good screenplay, a name like ‘HARRY’ or ‘TOM’ or ‘DICK’ would have been inappropriate for this role.

10. Use wired slug lines.

Scenes start with slug lines like:

INT. COFFEE HOUSE – NIGHT

Or

EXT. BEACH – DAY

While normal screenplay writers use only ‘day’ or ‘night’, you can be a rebel and use wired slug lines like DUSK, DAWN, SUNSET TIME, SUNRISE TIME, to stay ahead in the race of getting your screenplay rejected.

11. Make a mess of the alignment

And finally, make a mess of the alignment. While the rule is, scene slug lines and action descriptions should be extreme left aligned, character names should be center aligned and dialogs should be left aligned, but an inch towards the right.

Eg. Correct format:

EXT. ROAD – DAY

POLICE OFFICER

Show me your driving license. God save you if you don’t have one.

Sees the license

POLICE OFFICER (CONT’D)

This license has expired three months ago. Please come out of the car mister.

He opens the door and COLLIN walks out of the car.

Wrong format:

EXT. ROAD – DAY

POLICE OFFICER

Show me your driving license. God save you if you don’t have one.

Sees the license

POLICE OFFICER (CONT’D)

This license has expired three months ago. Please come out of the car mister.

He opens the door and COLLIN walks out of the car.

12. Use plenty of mood descriptions throughout the screenplay

Use of phrases in brackets like (smiles), (looks worried), (laughs out loud) with every possible dialog to prove yourself to be a complete novice. Experienced screenwriters avoid using such phrases as far as possible because these are for the director to decide. Three such uses in a complete good screenplay are allowed.

 

13. Do not visualize

 

While writing a movie script, write it just for the sake of writing it. Do not visualize anything in your mind’s eye. Do not bother if your scenes will be picturesque or boring.

And of course, do not take the help of the premier screenwriting and script consultancy service TheScreenplayWriters.com, because this team of screenwriters is so good and powerful, your screenplay will never be rejected. To make sure your screenplay is rejected, they should be strictly avoided.
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Hitting it out of the park

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screenwriter nick blakeBy  Nick Blake

My wife Laura has an expression for my various creative concepts, which was similar for our wedding where she choose all the details on the wedding, from the decoration to the music, where she found some DJ for weddings to enjoy more the event.

“I don’t know about you,” she’ll say whenever I run an idea by her. “When you try something out you either miss badly or you hit it out of the park.” As a result she’s a reliable sounding-board. She doesn’t get overly excited by abstractions (as I tend to do), nor does she balk. Instead she waits until she sees results.

Laura has largely withheld judgment on TheScreenplayWriters.com despite the project’s initial success. After only a month Pinaki and I have assembled some top screenwriter talents, and our client base is steadily growing. Our instincts were correct: there is a growing market for global media, and we are positioning ourselves correctly to meet demand.

After a trip to the movies last night, however, my wife finally voiced her support. We went out with my mother to see “Julie and Julia,” a movie that was honest and fun and, best of all, featured incredible food. Several previews ran before the movie, most of them off-target thrillers (they could have used a top screenwriter or two to straighten them out!).

A non-thriller stood out from the shocking tedium. It was an epic drama about Amelia Earhart. The preview felt correct: the story was rich, the characters were understandable, the drama was heartfelt (not just heart-racing). You had the feeling that it was a movie full of life.

And then the name of the director splashed across the screen: Mira Nair. Maker of “Salaam Bombay,” “Monsoon Wedding,” “Vanity Fair,” and “The Namesake,” Ms. Nair has risen through the ranks of Indian cinema with an incredible zest for storytelling. With “The Namesake” and “Amelia” it seems that her passion for stories is leading her to the shores of America. Where “The Namesake” introduces America to the Indian diaspora living within her borders (and vice-versa), “Amelia” is full-blown Americana heartland.

Both Laura’s and my eyes widened in the darkness of the theater. It was like we could see the world growing closer before us, and the possibilities of TheScreenplayWriters.com stretched with Amelia’s wings beyond a limitless horizon. Laura leaned into my ear and whispered, “Wow. You are absolutely correct.”

I smiled, knowing I had just hit it out of the park.

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Finding the best screenplay writers

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screenwriter nick blakeBy Nick Blake

I knew I wanted to get involved with the Indian film industry while honeymooning in Kerala’s backwaters. After a quiet day traveling on a luxurious houseboat, my wife and I settled into the main cabin to enjoy the movie “Hallo” with the bottle of toddy we had picked up along the canals. “Hallo” showed off the best screenplay writers Malayalam (or Mollywood) cinema had to offer and our boat guide stayed up to enjoy the movie with us.

The story is about the wayward son of an otherwise respectable family, a toddy-drinking lawyer who cannot forgive his parents for betraying his former love-interest, but the problem with drinking issues is that could cause accidents, but legal resources from https://scwestonlaw.com/dui/ could really help with this . Padmashri Lt. Colonel Mohanlal Vishwanathan Nair (known in Mollywood as Mohanlal) plays the lead role, and our boatman noted that he was a famous regional actor that made the ladies swoon. To us he looked more like Super Mario, sporting his signature mustache and happy Buddha pot belly.

For nearly two and a half hours the plot swerved through a variety of escapades (often as though the best screenplay writers in Mollywood were suffering under the haze of toddy as well). In the end love rules the day, corruption is brought to justice and the family is reunited. And the movie takes unflinching swings at Tamil Nadu (to translate for an American audience: combine the worst Southern and Mormon stereotypes).

What really caught my attention, though, was that the movie was more or less a rewrite of a famous Song Dynasty story from China, written roughly 800 years earlier! I’ll have to dig through my old college notebooks to find the story I’m thinking of, but it has to do with a drunken detective who solves crimes of local corruption, etc, etc. India, I realized, was a place where stories were remembered and repeated.

As a writer I’m always looking for smart adaptations of stories. If I wanted to find the best screenplay writers, my road led to India. After the movie Laura and I took a quick stroll along the water to capture the full moon over the cloudless canal. I turned to her in the dark night and said, “I want to be where the stories are.”

At the end of the day it doesn’t matter whether you’re writing for Hollywood, Bollywood, Mollywood, or your local community theater. The important thing is finding a good story, something worth sharing, and telling it well so that people listen. Hollywood has a lot to learn from India’s writers.

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Screenplay writers’ fees

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From our Google Analytics data I discovered that a lot of keywords leading visitors to our site www.TheScreenplayWriters.com were related to screenplay writer rate and other keywords close to that. It suggests that a lot of people are looking for more information about how much screenplay writers charge to write a screenplay. Since screenplay writers almost always do not announce their rates in public, there is ambiguity about ‘how much does it cost to get a screenplay written’ and ‘how much do screenplay writers charge’.
WGA Rates
Writers Association of America (WGA), which actually are two organizations (unions to be precise), one for the West Coast and another for the East Coast have fixed some minimum and maximum rates for all writers who are their members. This is basically to ensure writers are not underpaid, and there is no unhealthy competition and undercutting of rates.
The highest, the lowest
Roy McCardell, probably the first screenwriter of USA sold his short screenplays for $15 each in 1900. Going by the rate of depreciation, $15 today would have been less than $350.
In 2003, Manoj Night Shyamalan, the American director and screenwriter of Indian origin charged $7.5 million for writing the screenplay of ‘The Village’.
Screenwriters Terry Rossio and Bill Marsilii received $5 million for the screenplay of Déjà vu in 2005, which is a record for spec screenplay rates. Spec screenplay is a screenplay which is written without a formal order, or without the writer receiving any fees for it initially. He or she writes it without being paid and then tries to sell it to a studio or filmmaker.
‘Against’
Often we hear terms like a screenplay writer is paid $75,000 against $150,000, which actually means, the filmmaker guarantees the screenwriter a payment of $75,000. If the film is not made, the screenplay writer does not receive anything more than $75,000. But if the movie is made and released, the screenplay writer receives $150,000, which means an additional $75,000. Interesting, isn’t it?
TheScreenplayWriters.com screenplay writers’ fees: 20% – 30% less than WGA rates
So, the big question is what is the screenwriter’s salary if you choose to order a script with TheScreenplayWriters.com? We are very democratic regarding this, and have kept into consideration the inde filmmakers and student filmmakers who are tight on budget as well as big studios and producers, who want nothing but the best. Our rates start from $3,000 and goes up to over $100,000. The rate really depends on the writer who is writing your screenplay. But we are still the most reasonably priced screenplay agency around. Our rates are at least 20% to 30% less than WGA rates and that is one of the main reasons why more and more studios and filmmakers are choosing our service. We also offer innovative cost cutting solutions like getting your screenplay written by a middle order screenplay writer and then getting it refined and polished by a top order screenwriter. The result is a world class screenplay for a rate which is almost 40% less than WGA rates.

pinaki-ghosh

By Pinaki Ghosh

From our Google Analytics data I discovered that a lot of keywords leading visitors to our site www.TheScreenplayWriters.com were related to screenplay writer rate and other keywords close to that. It suggests that a lot of people are looking for more information about how much screenplay writers charge to write a screenplay. Since screenplay writers almost always do not announce their rates in public, there is ambiguity about how much it costs to get a screenplay written and ‘how much is a screenplay writer’s salary’.

WGA Rates

Writers Guild of America (WGA), which actually are two organizations (unions to be precise), one for the West Coast and another for the East Coast have fixed some minimum and maximum rates for all writers who are their members. This is basically to ensure writers are not underpaid, and there is no unhealthy competition and undercutting of rates.

The lowest, the highest

Roy McCardell, probably the first screenwriter of USA sold his short screenplays for $15 each in 1900. Going by the rate of depreciation, $15 today would have been less than $350.

In 2003, Manoj Night Shyamalan, the American director and screenwriter of Indian origin charged $7.5 million for writing the screenplay of ‘The Village’.

Screenwriters Terry Rossio and Bill Marsilii received $5 million for the screenplay of Déjà vu in 2005, which is a record for spec screenplay rates. Spec screenplay is a screenplay which is written without a formal order, or without the writer receiving any fees for it initially. He or she writes it without being paid and then tries to sell it to a studio or filmmaker.

In Bollywood, rates of busy screenwriters start from INR 400,000 and goes up to INR 3 million. Recently one of the highest fees in Bollywood was paid to Joshua and Bryan, the American screenwriter duo who wrote the screenplay of ‘Blue‘ (2009). Joshua and Bryan are a part of our team of screenplay writers.

‘Against’

Often we hear terms like a screenplay writer is paid $75,000 against $150,000, which actually means, the filmmaker guarantees the screenwriter a payment of $75,000. If the film is not made, the screenplay writer does not receive anything more than $75,000. But if the movie is made and released, the screenplay writer receives $150,000, which means an additional $75,000. Interesting, isn’t it?

TheScreenplayWriters.com screenplay writers’ fees: 20% – 40% less than WGA rates

So, the big question is what is the screenwriter’s salary if you choose to order a script with TheScreenplayWriters.com? We are very democratic regarding this, and have kept into consideration the inde filmmakers and student filmmakers who are tight on budget as well as big studios and producers, who want nothing but the best. Our rates start from $3,000 and goes up to over $100,000. The rate really depends on the writer who is writing your screenplay. But we are still the most reasonably priced screenplay agency around. Our rates are at least 20% to 30% less than WGA rates and that is one of the main reasons why more and more studios and filmmakers are choosing our service. We also offer innovative cost cutting solutions like getting your screenplay written by a middle order screenplay writer and then getting it refined and polished by a top order screenwriter. The result is a world class screenplay for a rate which is almost 40% less than WGA rates.

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How is Hollywood and Bollywood screenplay writing different?

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pinaki-ghoshNick is back from Maine.
From the recent inquiries we discovered that a lot of student filmmakers looking for screenwriters are coming to us. So we decided to set up a team of writers exclusively for the student filmmakers, who are tight on budget.
We may soon have a couple of really big names joining our team of screenplay writers. But I’d prefer to remain tight lipped till that is confirmed.
I believe there are a couple of fantasy film screenwriting projects in the pipeline, which I expect to come to me this September. They come from two of my old clients. The demand for fantasy screenplays are also increasing stunningly. Harry Potter effect? Maybe. One thing is sure, till this Harry Potter bubble is intact, we will remain busy. 
Since we are catering both the Hollywood and Bollywood industries and as such have a team of writers who hail from both these massive industries, I discovered some interesting differences in the ways scripts are written in Hollywood and Bollywood.
One. Hollywood filmmakers do not expect, neither allow the script writer to use camera and editing directions in their screenplay. That is left for the director and editor. I agree. If the screenplay writer decides how the camera should be placed or how it should move, or how the editing should be done, why the hell are the director and the editor employed? Just to follow the instructions of the screenwriter? In the Bollywood industry however I noticed some of the directors encourage the screenplay author to use camera directions like pan, trolley, or directions about the angle, as well as editing instructions. Interesting, isn’t it?
Two. Now this is an interesting difference, and Hollywood may wonder why at all it is like that in Bollywood. Bollywood, in addition to script writers employs separate dialog writers, and dialog writers are separately given credit. The screenplay writer and the dialog writer are often different persons. Of course it is not that way in Hollywood. If I try to trace the roots of this practice, it comes from the days when very melodramatic movies were made in Bollywood (arguably, this practice has not entirely been ). There were separate writers, besides the screenplay writers, who could empower the dialogs, add spice to the dialogs and make them powerful. I have myself seen in my childhood, people in theatres used to burst into applause and throw coins at the screen when powerful dialogs were delivered. I don’t know if coin shower happens or happened anywhere else in the world. The practice of a dialog writer still exists in Bollywood, though nowadays in a lot of movies the screenplay writer and the dialog writer are the same person. But they get paid twice for the two roles. Nice… to get paid twice for one work. 

pinaki-ghoshBy Pinaki Ghosh

Nick is back from Maine.

From the recent inquiries we discovered that a lot of student filmmakers looking for screenwriters are coming to our TheScreenplayWriters.com.  So we decided to set up a team of writers exclusively for the student filmmakers, who are tight on budget.

We may soon have another couple of really big names joining our team of screenplay writers. But I’d prefer to remain tight lipped till that is confirmed.

I believe there are two fantasy film screenwriting projects in the pipeline, which I expect to come to me this September. They come from two of my old clients. The demand for fantasy screenplays are also increasing stunningly. Harry Potter effect? Maybe. One thing is sure, till this Harry Potter bubble is intact, we will remain busy.

Since we are catering both the Hollywood and Bollywood industries and as such have a team of writers who hail from both these massive industries, I discovered some interesting differences in the ways scripts are written in Hollywood and Bollywood.

One. Hollywood filmmakers do not expect, neither allow the script writer to use camera and editing directions in their screenplay. That is left for the director and editor. I agree. If the screenplay writer decides how the camera should be placed or how it should move, or how the editing should be done, why the hell are the director and the editor employed? Just to follow the instructions of the screenwriter? In the Bollywood industry however I noticed some of the directors encourage the screenplay author to use camera directions like pan, trolley, or directions about the angle, as well as editing instructions. Interesting, isn’t it?

Two. Now this is an even more interesting difference, and Hollywood may wonder why at all it is like that in Bollywood. Bollywood, in addition to script writers employ separate dialog writers, and dialog writers are separately given credit and payment. The screenplay writer and the dialog writer are often different persons. Of course it is not that way in Hollywood. If I try to trace the roots of this practice, it comes from the days when  melodramatic movies were made in Bollywood (arguably, this practice has not entirely been discontinued). There were separate writers, besides the screenplay writers, who could empower the dialogs, add spice to the dialogs and make them powerful. I have myself seen in my childhood, people in theatres used to burst into applause and throw coins in the direction of the screen when powerful dialogs were delivered. I don’t know if such coin shower happens or happened  for similar reasons anywhere else in the world. The practice of a dialog writer still exists in Bollywood, though nowadays in a lot of movies the screenplay writer and the dialog writer are the same person. But they get paid twice for the two roles. Nice… to get paid twice for one work.

7uvhie5fnb

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TheScreenplayWriters.com is creating ripples already

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pinaki-ghoshBy Pinaki Ghosh

TheScreenplayWriters.com, which was my US writer friend Nick Blake’s and my brainchild, completed little more than 20 days since launch on 31 August and has bagged a number of new projects already.  Of course the people associated with the new service are not new; I feel glad to say, each of our team members have backgrounds of huge experience.

TheScreenplayWriters.com is unique and one of its type because it is the only screenplay writers’ agency to employ both Hollywood and Bollywood screenwriters.

The first project that was confirmed was director Raj Rahi’s  (Jo Bole So Nihal) new English movie Angel Jay. The name of the movie may change though. The second project to roll in was from Dubai, and was about the Iraq war. The subject was challenging, and I was already wreaking my brains with Raj Rahi’s project, so my US writer friend Nick Blake volunteered to take up the Iraq movie project. When the Iraq movie project came up, Nick was on a vacation in Maine with his wife Laura and we had massive communication problems, with the mobile phone signal fading out more often than not, from Nick’s side. Nick had to come to the town library in Maine to check my mails and reply them. I hope I did not ruin Nick’s perfectly planned holiday.

The next to come our way was a Bengali movie project, which has not been finalized yet. It was piece of cake for me, because I am a Bengali by birth. Did I forget to mention that there was a Kannada movie screenplay enquiry on the second week? Though I was not too keen to take up the project simply because I don’t know the language (but would love to), Nick however was very eager to take up the project and spent one day searching for a reliable Kannada film writer.

There were a couple of very positive enquiries from Gurgaon and Bangalore. Both from first time filmmakers, whose passion is genuine. Hopefully the Bangalore project will materialize this month and the Gurgaon screenplay project will take longer.

Good news is that a lot of good film writers are approaching us and we have found some really talented writers in the process. One writer I would like to mention is Shivani T, who wrote the story ‘Sex on the Beach’, one of the ten short stories of the critically acclaimed film ‘Dus Kahaniya.’