scenebyscene's Journal

More information on our community can be found on our website!

Feel free to contact a moderator if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. When contacting the moderators, please bear in mind that they are people with lives outside of LJ. It may take them a day or two to get back to you but they will get back to you!

The Scene by Scene community will write an entire feature length screenplay over the course of a year. The scenes will be written in order of when they happen in the movie. Each scene will be written by a different screenwriter. The end result might be a little crazy but it will definitely be a lot of fun!

Additional screenplays for short script challenges will also be done. They will be handled a little bit differently than the feature screenplay competition but should prove to be just as much fun.

If you've never written a screenplay before, don't worry! Scene by Scene is as much an educational opportunity as it is one to write a screenplay. Twice a month, articles will be posted that offer advice on all aspects of screenwriting. Any specific questions will happily be answered in future articles. Scenes will be reviewed which will further help you grow as a screenwriter.

Scene by Scene strives to be Friends' Page friendly!
We promise to keep the number of posts made to a minimum.

While we want to encourage friendships between community members, Scene by Scene is a screenwriting community. All posts made, with the exception of the "Community Dialogue", will have some relation to screenwriting. Posts about personal lives are best saved for personal LJs. There will be plenty of opportunities for community members to get to know one another through official posts made to the community.

That being said, we also want to celebrate our members' accomplishments. Should any of your creative writing become published, receive an option, or get any awards, please let us know! We would like to publicly congratulate you in one of our posts.

Short Script Challenge Winners!
Short Script Challenge 1 - twelve_gauge with "Work in Progress"
Short Script Challenge 2 - covm with "Nightmares"

The Rules
1. Plagiarism or stealing of ideas will not be tolerated. Anyone who does so will be permanently banned and could face potential legal action.

2. All scenes remain the sole property of the person who wrote them. By submitting a scene, you allow Scene by Scene to use your scene in the finished screenplay(s).

3. Scene reviews will consist of constructive criticism. When giving constructive criticism, you explain what you think works in the scene and what you think doesn't work. If for some reason you don't like an aspect of someone's scene, you must state what you don't like about it. Simply stating you don't like a character's dialogue or anything along those lines won't cut it. Giving suggestions on how to fix the scene is recommended.

4. Insults and tear downs will not be tolerated! They will result in first a warning, then a ban. Depending upon the severity of the offense, we reserve the right to simply issue a flat out ban before any warning is issued.

5. In any interactions you have on this community with other community members, always remember The Golden Rule:
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!

How It Works
For the Feature Length Screenplay Contest
*The Feature Length Screenplay Contest will begin the first week of October 2008*

1. A new scene contest for each scene of the feature length screenplay competition will be posted every Monday. Each contest will last one week from first posting to announcement of the winner. Entries will be accepted until midnight of the following Friday. Voting will take place on Saturday and Sunday. The winner from the previous week's contest will be declared on Monday when the new scene contest is posted.

2. A basic premise will be voted upon by the community members, ie: a small family living in the suburbs, a group of college students on vacation, etc... It will be something flexible enough to account for everyone's individual ideas while maintaining some sort of cohesion amongst the scenes.

3. One scene will be written per week.

4. The winner will be determined by the community through voting. The winning scene will be included in the feature length screenplay.

4. Submitted scenes will have the opportunity to be reviewed by members of the community, at the scenewriters' discretion. The winning entry will have the opportunity to be revised by the scenewriter based off of any feedback they received from the community.

5. Once the revision is finished, that's it! That scene is done. No more changes will be made to it until the entire screenplay is finished.

6. When the screenplay is finished, screenwriters will be allowed to go back and make any changes they feel are necessary in order to make the overall flow of the screenplay better.

For the Short Script Challenges
1. A new short script challenge will be posted on the first and third Wednesdays of the month.

2. The basic premise will be given to the community. Included in the premise could be certain props, bits of dialogue, types of character, etc... that need to be included in your script.

3. A winner will be voted upon by the community members. The winner will receive e-cookies, many congratulations, and be forever immortalized in the community's user info page. Members are free to pick and choose which challenges they want to participate in.

Articles
1. Articles concerning various aspects of screenwriting will be posted on the second and fourth Fridays of every month.

It is the intention of Scene by Scene to try and get the completed feature length screenplay filmed as an independent film, provided it can be done on a shoestring budget. If it is filmed, it will be uploaded and available, free of charge, to community members. If it cannot be filmed, a professionally formatted PDF version of the screenplay will be uploaded and available for community members to download, also free of charge. All scenewriting winners will receive credit for their work on the completed screenplay.

Writing Communities Scene by Scene Recommends
brigits_flame - A wonderful community of writers that features monthly contests. Highly recommended!
the_hot_chicks - A writing community for 30something+ aged women.
thebrenljidol - A writing community with features anonymous writing contests that span several months.

Websites Scene by Scene Recommends
Celtx - Free screenwriting software
Electro Media Entertainment - Independent Film Production
Sub_American - Independent Film Production
Nicholls Fellowship in Screenwriting Formatting Guide - Excellent screenplay formatting guide
Northeast Texas Regional Film Commission - A newly established film commission for the Northeast Texas area.