Im trying to write a script for a short film and am experiencing some trouble. It's my first attempt at a 'serious' piece, that is to say something that isnt about Jesus using a lightsaber. I could show use the extra brain power. :amy:
Games and Books have been the talk of the movies lately with the movie 300 banking more than 70 million dollars, and the Halo movie might be good. Look into something like that maybe take a video game or a book and go from there, but origanality also is fun. Write a script on something you experenced(with a little "spice" to it to make it interesting) maybe a dream even.
Thats kind of what Im doing. And have been for a while. Everytime I think or experience something which I feel I could translate well into film I make note of it in a book. I need help building the characters and basically help linking all the meaningless scenes Ive got together. Ive got alot of ideas floating around and Id like something to shift through it so to speak.
Remember never base your characters on people you know, they might not like the way you put them in words, but yeah brain storming is good. Never under estimate an idea you won't know its good until you share it.
If you're looking for something serious, may I suggest how someone deals with something difficult?
Like, uh... A skeptic of depression who suddenly faces being diagnosed with depression?
Ive had similar ideas to that. I like the depression idea.
Basically its going to be character driving with a plot device being used in the background and not the driving force (I havent thought what that should be :s). Think Easy Rider where it focuses on the characters rather than the drug deals. So basically not the Hollywood conventional narrative structure.
Ive got 3 characters evolving at the moment and Im toying with including a 4th as I originally envisioned it or I might simply merge the 3rd and 4th together.
It will be about a day(s) in the life of these characters. Im not even sure what interaction the audience will have with the characters. Are they completley seperated, do any of the characters break the 4th wall and talk directly to the audience a la Malcolm in the Middle and/or their thoughts broadcasted?
I want each character to follow the same 'path' of discovery but by keeping it isolated. That is to say each 'lesson' the characters learn isnt shared with one another. What that discovery is Im not quite sure yet.
I thought maybe the relationship between the 'friends' could initally come across as solid but over the course of the film proven to be false. I thought each character could come to terms with the friendship being corruptable yet they dont share their feelings and ultimately accept it.
Another idea I had was each character realising the fact they they need to change their ways and their life. Like a road movie. Except with the cars.
I thought maybe there will be no meaning at all in all of it. There is no moral. There is no lesson. Maybe it could just be about quirky guys.
Maybe theres an event and over the course of the film each view point of each character is given where errors appear and the suggestion of someone lying could be seen. The audience could have a more open relationship with the test rather than the whole thing being a closed stucture.
Sounds good. If it's a short film, don't forget to add little things in the scenery to describe a personality without actually describing it. Even little things like a keychain to keys on a desk work.
Thats the thing. I cant really start thinking about how to represent meaning if I havent even decided what the meaning actually is :c
It sounds very creative, something that I'd watch. All I can help you with is to have the characters have some sort of..Connection with the audience somehow. I just saw this play called The Laramie Project, it's about this boy who gets killed (Not a spoiler) and these people are inteviewing the townspeople to hear their opinions, the characters weren't talking to the audience, but they were somehow..Connecting. Because of this fact out of many others, it was a powerful play.
Try connecting your characters together to connect with the audience.
x-x That's all I can really help you with for the 4th wall question thing, sorry. ><
There was a movie, too. It was a Sundance film.
If you're looking to connect to the audience without speaking directly to them, try something simple like a scene without speech. Just make the actor act without any voices going on. He could be scratching tally marks on the wall for something or messing with the pullstrings of a curtain.
H'okay. I've thought of a general 'message' I'm going to be conveying. I dont really want to say anything just yet though. Reason being I want to see if people here can decipher it for themselves when they see it so that way I'l know if I've done my job correctly.
if your still taking suggestions, I got some:
If you want to connect to your audience, give them a situation they can connect to. Something they can say "Hey, that's happened to me before" so they can feel what the character is feeling. But then, don't make it a clich
I almost completely forgot I made this thread so I thought I'd have some sort of update! Still working on the script but it's more solid. I have the basic idea outlined with the events but it's just a matter of, er, clueing them together if that is the correct term.
Looking back at my posts some stuff has been removed and some kept. I've merged 2 characters together although I've unknowlingly opted for a road movie/coming of age thing but it's still character driven and set in one day.
Characters we have Travis, a selfish, materilisitc big egoed, small social skilled loser with his trusty spoilt, insecure loser friend. At the end of the piece the characters would have had changed (hopefully for the better) and would have learnt a valuable lesson. Thats the thing Im going for. Aiming to get the audience from dislking and piting the duo to eventually supporting them at the end.
Not sure if I should explain the general jist of the short film as I'd like people here to be suprised and unware of whats going to happen when it finally posted and also still want to keep it fairly secretive until I'm ok with the script.
Production wise I want to give realism so gone is the tripod. I'm going to aim for longer duration shots than I normally do so I can give improvisation I bit more of a go. Also it will reduce editting time alot. But it's never really been by thing so I'll see how it goes.
So yeah, update.