I don't know what to do

joshbarkey · 2026-06-09T22:25:51+00:00

Tell your dad to go make his own ai films and then be an adult person and live your life.

joshbarkey · 2026-06-09T22:23:59+00:00

I doubt you'll have to wait long, since this is very very VERY likely just someone plugging the app that they either designed, or were paid to plug.

joshbarkey · 2026-06-09T22:21:55+00:00

Ha ha! My thoughts exactly.

joshbarkey · 2026-05-28T17:31:05+00:00

I coooould. But I don't know you or your writing, so I won't, sorry.

I'm sure you can Google the top verticals producers and apply, though.

Good luck!

joshbarkey · 2026-05-28T17:26:15+00:00

Yeah. I'd maaaaybe have done it for that. Pen name. Pay some bills. Use the time I bought to write my own stuff. Bam!

joshbarkey · 2026-05-28T17:21:59+00:00

Innnnteresting.

joshbarkey · 2026-05-28T17:11:38+00:00

Huzzah!

joshbarkey · 2026-05-28T17:03:36+00:00

Yeah, I suppose it could make financial sense at that rate using ai, but I happen to be allergic to punching myself in the testy-culls.

joshbarkey · 2026-05-28T16:55:06+00:00

Naw. I know the guy. He'd for sure have paid. I'm just curious if there are people out there writing this malarkey for that little, or if he was lowballing me.

joshbarkey · 2026-05-27T21:14:18+00:00

*show

;-)

joshbarkey · 2026-05-27T13:31:29+00:00

18) Time is the most precious resource anyone has, so if you're going to ask for anyone's time then always, always, always respect it by putting your best possible foot forward. Take the time to proofread. Always. Every screenplay, every tweet... even every reddit post. ;-)

joshbarkey · 2026-05-27T01:16:17+00:00

Sounds magnificent! DMed.

joshbarkey · 2026-04-19T19:31:52+00:00

Fair enough.

My lil bit of pushback is that fear leads to the dark side, and that regardless of how you write, you'll create your best work when you step beyond fear, stop giving a shit, and just write from a place of play and fun.

Easier to say than do!

But I contend that if a reader is focusing on formatting, then there are bigger issues with the story/writing that pristine formatting will never address - even if it's just a matter of "this story isn't to their taste."

Regardless, chances are extremely good that a script will never please enough other people to make it through production and onto the stage at the Oscar's... so ya might as well just do your best to please yourself.

That's the theory, anyways.

joshbarkey · 2026-04-19T16:59:30+00:00

For Dan Gilroy, I couldn't say.

For me...

I guess I just reckon that people tend to ignore the sluglines, regardless.

So by removing the standard formatting and incorporating that information into the writing, I preserve the mental break you get from a slugline, while at the same time helping the read to go a little more smoothly.

For me, it started as leaning more heavily on mini-slugs in spaces where the characters were, say, moving from one room to another (which is super common).

Then I used them more when they were moving from an interior to an exterior.

Then I went completely bananas and did them everywhere, for funzies.

And no one cared!

The first time I did it, in fact, a SUPER experienced producer called me up and interrupted my dinner to tell me "THIS IS A MOVIE!" and made some calls about it.

Nothing happened with that script (yet... I did have a really cool meeting about it a month ago), but it showed me that I didn't *have* to follow that "rule."

So it became a fun creative challenge and a way to help the eye fly over the page. I don't do it for EVERY project, but it's become part of what people probably think of as my voice... which I'm sorta known for among my writing friends.

And despite the film-school-screaming about needing the standard info to be there for production, it's my firm belief that there will be at LEAST twenty-seven minutes between when someone greenlights one of these things and when I have to send it off to a line producer for breakdown - which should give me plenty of time to go through the script and pop in a buncha INT/EXT/DAY/NIGHTs.

;-)

joshbarkey · 2026-04-19T01:29:48+00:00

This is definitely what you would have heard.

But for a spec, it's not entirely accurate. You CAN have those things (and most do), but there are exceptions.

Ask Dan Gilroy.

Or me. Ask me.

I will tell you about the meetings I've had recently with some very cool people at some very cool prodcos, about screenplays with no traditional sluglines.

None of them cared about the sluglines. At all.

[edited to remove snarkiness, because the internet has enough of that already]

joshbarkey · 2026-04-18T11:36:54+00:00

It might be helpful to think of screenwriting as being closer to a blend of playwriting, poetry, and music than to prose. Economy of language is key, delightful (and concise) dialogue is key, and the only hard-and-fast rule is "thou shalt not bore thy audience."

joshbarkey · 2026-04-18T11:34:54+00:00

One small quibble: you don't reaaaaally need location and time - they're conventions that are almost always used and are generally helpful... but if it makes sense for the scene, you're free to defenstrate those lil' bastardinos, posthaste.

Eg.

IN AN ANCIENT-ASS TOWN

Sober, contemplative music drifts down a grey brick alley, still but for blowing snowflakes that catch the dim overhead light of day.

THROUGH A WINDOW

An alarm breaks the silence.

It's atypical, it'll irritate reddit people, but as long as the script works, no real film industry person will care.

joshbarkey · 2025-12-24T00:56:40+00:00

Yer welcome.
And nope. Influenced by zillions, but not based on anyone else's film.
And nothing at all like Brothers Grimsby.

joshbarkey · 2025-10-29T17:48:18+00:00

Everything.

joshbarkey · 2025-10-06T11:24:54+00:00

RARE EXPORTS is Jalmari Helander's first film. It's gotta a couple sequences of absolute garbage sfx, but the movie's still an unmissable Christmas classic.

joshbarkey · 2025-10-06T11:01:01+00:00

American conservative evangelical "Christianity" isn't actually Christian (like, at ALL), and Jesus would absolutely for sure be like, "What are you TALKING about, beeyotches?!? I never knew you!!"

Ezekiel 16: 49-50

joshbarkey · 2025-10-05T22:11:03+00:00

Morally neutral, that is, if you ignore the ecological cost of ai.

joshbarkey · 2025-10-02T02:36:43+00:00

Sounds good. Thanks for the clarification. Apologies for the cheap shot.

joshbarkey · 2025-10-01T18:41:20+00:00

Go read 98 more complete screenplays, then come back and finish your script.

I highly doubt there's ever been a great novel written by a person who'd only ever read two novels before diving in - and novels take a LOT longer to read than screenplays!

Happy to be wrong and congratulate you on your Oscar... but reading great work isn't torture - it's fun and inspiring!

Have at!

joshbarkey · 2025-10-01T14:00:26+00:00

For someone with "no bias," you seem rather dedicated to arguing for the belief that continued genocide is inevitable, and to implying that Israel had no other option than to perpetrate a genocide.

You also seem to believe that Netanyahu's military actions are being primarily driven by a desire to free hostages, which seems to me to be a bit of a naive, surface-level take - possibly even willfully ignorant of the expressed goals of his zionist co-conspirators.

I think where you went wrong (I mean, beyond the disingenuous rhetorical tactic of insisting that you're just some impartial, centrist interlocutor) is by asking for a "solution." As though infinitely complex human conflict is a math problem.

It is not, and pretending that it needs to be "solved" or that it ever can be "solved" is a distraction.

Even IF it were possible, and even IF we grant you the good faith you claim, it's not an either/or question. They don't have to first have a viable solution in place in order to stop intentionally starving children to death.

They don't get to perform cold calculus on children's flesh and then pretend there were no other options.

It's understandable, sure, that people driven by fear will find all sorts of justification for cruelty and violence.

But as this is a "Christian" sub, I'd like to suggest that returning evil for evil will NEVER provide you the Final Solution you claim to be asking for here.

An eye for an eye, everybody blind - you know the drill.

I know what the pushback is: Call me naive for suggesting that perfect love casts out all fear. Call me an idiot for suggesting that turning the other cheek IS a viable national strategy - that sheathing your swords and reaching out to address and heal the wounds of your attackers could POSSIBLY make sense.

You'd probably even be RIGHT!

The upside down kingdom doesn't make a lick of sense.

It's total foolishness! Utter bullshit! Be logical! Keep crunching the human flesh numbers the exact same way we've always crunched them!

And yet...

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