Instantly Transform Your Screenplay Into a Movie

Plotagon

Writing a screenplay is not easy. The writer has to transfer the scene from his or her imagination to paper. Once the screenplay is written, the only way to know if the scene was actually complete or needed to be rewritten was seeing the actors play the scene out. Or is it? Now, there is an app for that, and it is called Plotagon.

The creators of Plotagon refer to it as “the magic typewriter”. It is software for Mac and PC computers designed to make it easy to write a story, and immediately watch it as an animated film. Plotagon is still in beta testing, and it is free to download. It is designed to be simple. It allows you to choose from The Sims like characters and locations your story is set in. The characters actions and cues come directly from the screenplay you write in the program. The characters can only speak English, but the creators are working on French, Spanish, and German languages. According to their website, Plotagon will continue to be free even when it is out of beta testing. It is not available for any mobile device. The finished movies can only be uploaded to Plotagon’s website. However, the movies can be shared on Facebook and Twitter. It does not import any screenplays, but it will export them.

What does this mean for Hollywood and the filming industry? Despite its limitations, Plotagon will be a great way to be able to do a test run of a television series or movie. It will provide the writer the opportunity to “beta test” his or her screenplay before showing or pitching the final screenplay. It will be wonderful to know what was wrong with your scene or scenes beforehand. Plotagon will allow professionals and amateurs to create screenplays quickly and more efficiently.

TV Integrates with Internet

TV series streaming on the Internet

Once upon a time, watching TV shows meant you had to set in front of a television set. When you missed the TV show, you had to wait forever until it came out on DVD. Since civilization has moved into the digital age, we can watch television virtually anywhere. As long as you have an Internet connection, you can watch television on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

Virtually, every broadcast and cable network has its own website that plays its TV shows. Many networks make the viewer wait a day after the show has aired before he or she can stream the show to his or her laptop, computer, tablet, or smartphone. The networks that allow the show to be viewed almost instantly after it has aired charge a fee or needs to be paid for in advanced (videos on demand). 

When the viewer watches his or her favorite TV show, he or she must watch commercials with the show, and they cannot fast-forward them.  The viewer becomes annoyed from watching the same group of commercials over several times before the end of the show. For a fee, companies like Netflicks stream TV series without commercials. This may become a problem for broadcasting networks like NBC, ABC, and CBS because they depend significantly on advertisers.

The Internet is becoming so popular that networks are developing their own web series. The CW Network has its web series website called the CW Seed. The advantage with web series is a viewer can watch several show episodes within an hour because most web episodes are between 4 to 10 minutes.

The Internet provides all types of filmmakers the opportunity to have their film or web series viewed by people from around the world. If it becomes popular, a network may pick it up. For instance, The CW Network picked up Joss Whedon’s Dr.Horrible, and Comedy Central picked up Tiny Apartment.

The one constant is the demand for television series continues to be high. It is the format that has changed, and will continue to change as technology develops. The networks must be able to meet the demands of the viewers, and adapt to the technological changes of TV viewing.

The Art of Pitching

Your pitch can make or break your TV series.

You have a great idea for a movie or television series? That was easy. The hard part is pitching your idea. The art of pitching is a necessary skill one must develop if he or she wants to survive in Hollywood. Most executives have a very short attention span meaning you have only a minute or two before the executive loses interest. This is why the art of pitching is also known as “the currency of Hollywood”.

How do you start out a pitch? Start out with your hook. What will cause the viewer to be interested in your show?  It needs to contain the “what if” question. Most pitches consist of one sentence, and no more than two sentences. The pitch for The Bourne Identity was “a man with amnesia discovers he is a governmental assassin who has been targeted for death by the organization that employs him”.  This is not as easy as it sounds. Summarizing your movie or television series idea in a few sentences can be extremely difficult even for most professional writers. Most expert pitches are revised several times before they are pitched to executives.

Screenwriter Blake Snyder recommended walking up to strangers and pitching to them your idea. He said to repeat this over and over until you have perfected the pitch. This method will help in three ways. First, it will help you to prefect your pitch. Second, you will know what works and what does not work. Lastly, it will give you the confidence to pitch in front of executives.

No matter what method you use to perfect your pitch, you need the executives to take interest in order to start the process of bringing your idea to the big or small screen. Thus, the pitch is the Hollywood currency you need to survive in this industry.