Hey all, I thought an update for those interested might be in order. With the exception of August I have worked on the Screenplay everyday since May. I am happy to say I just finished the rough draft and will begin revisions for the first draft this week!

What does that mean? It means that I have 40 scenes that tell a story (sans dialogue). It means I have main characters, action, romance, and all the things that make a movie a movie.

What I haven't written yet. The dialogue, yep just that. I save that for last. Probably the third draft or so. I do have a few bits here and there along with some cool lines. You have to be able to tell a story with the scenes, not with the words. Once you can do that then your good to go.

Will I be posting it here? No. For a couple of reasons. I won't be posting it anywhere. I may post bits and pieces to wet your appetite, but not the whole thing. I am mildly concerned about theft, mostly though I want the ideas and story to be fresh for if it ever gets made. I don't want to go to a producer and have him say "oh, that’s been floating around the net for years"/

Is it good? Yeah, Yeah I think it is.

So who is this Shadow guy and what makes him qualified to write a screen play? First of all I haven't done this alone. Eralston and I worked on the story, so he gets a lot of credit for that. My wife has also helped me out a lot on some tricky points, a lot of times just by listening to me.

Once upon a time I was an award winning journalist *gasp*. I love movies, I love Shadowrun, and I have been studying the craft of Screen writing for many years. So am I qualified to write a screenplay? I think so. Let's just hope the studios think so.

How come your not posting on DSF much? Well I just moved 3800 miles. The move took a lot out of my family and there has been some illness. On top of that any spare time I have has been used to write. I am very serious about this. I spend 4-6 hours a day writing, researching, or banging my head into the wall.

When will it be done? I am estimating another month for the final draft. That will be with dialogue and everything.

I really want to see it, please post it here! Sorry, can't. I will be letting a select few people in the community read it. I need feedback on the feel of it. It has to feel like Shadowrun to work.

If anyone has any questions or suggestions please post them here. If you really want to be one of the readers ask, you never know.

Keep up the good work ...

and keep up the spirits as well.

As to being a reader, well, enough said.

I have a friend that works for a film company here in Vancouver and he gives me scripts all the time to read. I have no input into wether the company buys or passes on them, but I have read quite a few and know which ones have been bought (and why) as well as knowing which ones are turned down (and why).

So if you want a semi-informed opinion and are still looking for readers I'll read it over for you.

What's the basic plotl? I'm sure you can show that without fear of theft.

That's informative.

Glad I could help.

This is the log line, the essence of the story.

A team of Shadowrunners (re: criminals) must find the source behind a malicious computer virus before it takes the life of one of their own.

I thought about saying "What Fortune Said" but decided I would share that instead. As always, Fortune is the man!

One of the dudes is a technomancer?

I hope not!

Uh no. I kept it simple, and leaned it more in the direction of traditional Shadowrun.

And there was much rejoicing!

Hehe, no. No lesbians, no cat girls, no school girl outfits. What I do have are Street sams, Shamans, Riggers, Hackers, mages, trolls, elves, cybermancy, insane meglomanicle doctors and a quadriplegic dwarf.

Taken out of context they sound pretty weird.

Sounds like a normal Shadowrun session to me.

Looks great, I really hope this works out - I can't wait.

It is SR4 in the sense that it is 2070, there is an augamented reality (even if you only catch glimpses of it) and such. There are some things about making a movie though that underplay some of the newer concepts in SR4. In film stories are told by action. No matter how cool we think a wireless network is, having a hacker sit motionless in a a van for five minutes then suddenly declare she cracked the security, doesn't really do anything for anyone. So there is some jcking in and decks in a couple of scenes.

There is only so much you can do with AR, especially since the story is told while watching the characters. There are a couple of times when the audience see's through the characters eyes, then the AR comes into play, as well as H.U.D.s smartlinks etc.

RFID chips are also a pivitol part of the story. Obviously I want to sell this screenplay so I have to make it as current as possible, and as comercial as I can without losing the intergrity of the story.

Hoi Chummers. Glad to see everyone around here went on without me I had some unfortunate set backs the last few months. My progress hasn't been as quick as I like. I am still working on the dialogue draft. I would say I am about half way through. It looks like it may not be long enough so there will need to be some extensive revisions of the first act (the offendingley short act) and some more work on the third act.

After that maybe another month of reading it and looking at it. Then maybe it will start to take the shape of a real screen play. I still have no idea what the process of getting the option is going to take or if I can even get in to talk to Wizkids. However I am just going to focus on writing the best screen play I can and let the rest take care of itself.

till next time.

Still interested, Shadow.