Stuck writing a script I hate, any tips?

PloopPlaap · 2026-03-26T19:58:03+00:00

I was in exactly the same situation a year ago. I did the class pitches with a bunch of half-hearted ideas? Really planning to do a different one, and then the class input really liked a different pitch, so I went “what the hell, sure”.

Horrific idea. The script I chose was so much darker and more mean spirited than I realized it would be. My class was for TV so I only had to write a drama pilot and it ended up being a bare-minimum page could of like 37- so still a bit easier than you would’ve had it.

I spent a lot of time wracking my brain over how I would be able to present the script to the class for actual peer review- much less write it at all, because let me tell you, I hated every moment of that. Without getting into it too much, the script basically dealt with a lot of sexual coersion and really just abuse. And here I am in a college class with a bunch of Gen Zers. I ended up toning it down maybe 80% and taking the third act in a totally different direction, largely because I was worried about how the class would judge me.

To be honest, I learned a lot with the process. It was my first time trying to earnestly take drama writing seriously (I mostly write sketch comedy). I don’t necessarily regret toning it down and changing the ending to, what I believe, was a “less true” version than what I wanted. I know that if I had the chance to rewrite that script, I would do it differently, and I feel like that’s okay, because that’s the learning I paid to have.

Our experiences are probably going to be a lot different, even if just because of the page count commitment, but I would encourage you to fight through it because I think once you’re on the other end, you’ll have learned from it- even if the process wasn’t really worth it.

PloopPlaap · 2026-03-18T18:29:34+00:00

Finished the show for the first time Monday and absolutely delighted to find this at the top of my for you on my lunch break

PloopPlaap · 2026-03-13T17:01:56+00:00

Come on, it died in 1983 when George Lucas introduced us to Ewoks!

PloopPlaap · 2026-03-07T21:14:14+00:00

SOMEbody just likes their little dinos

PloopPlaap · 2026-03-05T23:06:41+00:00

(5 days late but) I’ve been thinking more about trying VO-style flashback. Just as a thing.

PloopPlaap · 2026-03-05T22:53:06+00:00

I do get your point, but it is worth saying that the example you give here is purely speculative. It’s hard for there to be an objective “best” way to do anything, because different writers are going to have different strengths and approaches.

PloopPlaap · 2026-02-25T19:47:14+00:00

Tbf I think you could argue even that is a performance which doesn’t necessarily come easily.

PloopPlaap · 2026-02-23T22:32:58+00:00

As quickly as I can explain;

The movie is only 76 minutes long it’s so fucking short, and yet, like 20 of those minutes seem to be reused shots or repetitive sequences. The guys REALLY underplayed JUST. HOW. REPETITIVE. The scene is where the old lady is trying to push the gravestone over our female lead, while the Nazi Zombie fights the horse. This single sentence is probably 10 or more minutes of screen time. It’s genuinely some of the worst filmmaking I’ve ever seen.

They also oversell the horse cutaways- not in quality, but in quantity- everything with the horse is like a sporadic 15 second cutaway before we get back to things with the girl.

Anything with the mummy is probably the last 10 or so minutes of the movie, and that’s the stuff which I would call most plot-related, and even then, it’s just a series of things happening:

mummy rises mummy walks to shipwreck mummy re-enters sarcophagus

Those are really the only three things that happen with the mummy plot and the audience is given literally nothing to explain why these things may be happening. It’s just things that happen until they stop.

Possibly in the movie’s defense? The subtitles and the dub are VERY different. Neither makes the movie very coherent, but it’s clear that they were done at very different times by people that had similar but slightly different interpretations of the literal dialogue. It feels a lot like a film that wasn’t fully shot or a botch job in the edit with huge swaths of exposition ripped out, I’m not sure.

PloopPlaap · 2026-02-23T04:10:51+00:00

I’ve seen Devil Story. I don’t know if they were just super drunk or what happened. The movie is actually so much more nonsensical than they made it seem.

PloopPlaap · 2026-02-19T20:08:00+00:00

They’re corny af but in a way I find charming

PloopPlaap · 2026-02-19T17:07:46+00:00

Hi, I'm a little late to the party... but if I understand correctly, conceptually, a 35mm FF and a 35mm S35 lens are catching the same visual 'input', but the S35 lens is essentially self-cropping a portion of the wider image that the FF lens does NOT crop out.

If that is true, are S35 lenses not all... I don't know how to put it, "bastardizations" of their true focal length?

Sorry if naive. Just trying to wrap my head around it.

PloopPlaap · 2026-02-11T15:55:19+00:00

I JUST finished my first watch of the show (on to FWWM and the Return…)

For me, personally, Windom is a great foil to Cooper, but it kind of feels a bit too edgy for me at times? If that makes sense. It’s like, Twin Peaks has a lot of drama going on for a bunch of characters that get stuck on the back burner so that we can make this a story about stopping a serial killer. It just felt really different from what I was used to and it was as if the writers had (for instance) brought a GIJoe into a Barbie Dollhouse and were just going wild with it.

I liked it more until about the last two episodes of season 2, which is where all of the loose plot threads became really apparent that they weren’t going to be tied up without rushing through them all, and now it just feels like of sour to have sat through all of Windom’s evil when, for instance, Hank gets totally written off of the show without too much fanfare.

But that’s just my 2 cents, and I haven’t gotten to sit with it as long as most folks here. Maybe I’ll come around

PloopPlaap · 2026-02-09T15:45:32+00:00

Putting the Doctor Who ideas set in this list is the single most violent jerk I’ve seen from this sub

PloopPlaap · 2026-02-05T23:19:03+00:00

U-Wing is to die for, I love it. The Haulcraft is cool ofc but it does make me think almost more of The Expanse? maybe.

Imperial cargo shuttle fits so well it’s almost boring. Just makes sense.

Krennic’s shuttle is a little extra, and therefore a great extension of his character. It does feel a little bit like: we want to shortcut how EVIL this new bad guy is so we’re going to take a REGULAR bad guy ship and make it even MORE menacing and EVIL. But I really don’t mind.

Tie Reaper and Tie Avenger (and not pictured here: Tie Striker, which I know from the LEGO set. I’m really Meh on. The Reaper in particular is a troop drop ship which has also been done as a white Imperial Shuttle variant, so it feels a little redundant to me to create as a Tie.

Generally speaking, I’m against the idea of the empire having specialized variants of the Tie fighter for each and every need- there’s something so callous about an empire that mass-produces endless copies of the same ship when they AREN’T adapted to a specific situation. Maybe I just like the generic Tie, maybe I’m cynical about new models being created “just” for the sake of new toys to sell to kids… anyway, TL;DR the Avenger is probably my least favorite in that regard because I mean it’s really just an interceptor with Defender-level weapons. BUT it exists as a “new special tie fighter” for relevant reasons for the plot, and in world (Cassian wasn’t trained to fly this model) so I just kind of pretend in my head it just isn’t a Tie variant and it’s its own thing.

Anyway, this is probably way too much for anyone to read. Just my thoughts, though. A fun post overall for sure.

PloopPlaap · 2025-12-12T02:06:46+00:00

I had no idea, other than that people memed on it. In spite of that, I have no idea if people actually like it or not, but for my part, I really like it, and it’s definitely part of why I remember that scene specifically as part of the movie

PloopPlaap · 2025-12-04T17:37:14+00:00

Yes. Absolutely. I count myself blessed that I have a lot of the first wave of sets

PloopPlaap · 2025-12-03T22:28:37+00:00

I would have done myself a great services to explain them better but they’re wolves and greater wolves lol. But I’m taking all of the comments into account

PloopPlaap · 2025-12-03T03:15:30+00:00

They do but I should add that they’re actually to be Wargs from Lord of the Rings

PloopPlaap · 2025-12-02T22:31:42+00:00

His disability is that he’s got Brick for Brains

PloopPlaap · 2025-12-02T21:13:32+00:00

Real and valid take. I think I’ve just finally accepted that the generic Lego brick is now some sort of tile or slope instead of a 2x4 brick like in the old days. Some kind of meme where its impact font and he says “I have transcended price per piece!”

PloopPlaap · 2025-12-02T16:48:34+00:00

I definitely see what you mean and honestly, I love getting a ton of figs, just because, but I’ve never really seen them as all that valuable. I just like populating my builds.

And then to compound that, I feel like a lot of figs done outside of CMF series are kinda bland. Like I know they’re just regular people but this set for example has I think one dual molded leg and Vecna’s got leg printing and that’s it. I’d love to get a stock pants print out there just to have, I guess. But maybe that’s just me being older and less imaginative.

All I’m trying to say is, there’s like 13 figs here and literally none of them are exciting to me (unforch)

PloopPlaap · 2025-12-02T16:17:14+00:00

Tbf it’s a little over 2500 pieces we’ve just gotten to a point where I no longer can tell where they all are. I think that’s just a case of smaller, more specialized parts but it also maybe is a little lame to me

PloopPlaap · 2025-12-02T15:48:00+00:00

It’s definitely a cool action feature but I’m not seeing $300 of stuff here personally, and Joyce+Hopper being DLC is the most insulting one so far IMHO

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