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A television writer friend of mine shared with me a few beat sheets for different shows and it made me realize how great these tricks can be for getting an idea on paper. As an exercicse I wrote a few simple fill in the blanks of my own... for example for a kids movie:
The kid is trying to ____________
when he discovers ____________
so he must ______________
which causes him to _____________
while he _______________
(Example: the kid is trying to earn money for a bike when he discovers an abused dog which he must save which causes him to challenge his concept of morality while he figures out a solution to save the dog.)
After doing a few of these, I realized that I could expand this concept into different forms. A custom form for a unique project. This allows the end result not to feel like a forumula - but instead have it's own arc and purpose.
That said, the simple fill in the blank I provided could obviously write an original movie - but I found the idea of making a custom format for a project is a fresh way to approach.
What do you think?
The kid is trying to ____________
when he discovers ____________
so he must ______________
which causes him to _____________
while he _______________
(Example: the kid is trying to earn money for a bike when he discovers an abused dog which he must save which causes him to challenge his concept of morality while he figures out a solution to save the dog.)
After doing a few of these, I realized that I could expand this concept into different forms. A custom form for a unique project. This allows the end result not to feel like a forumula - but instead have it's own arc and purpose.
That said, the simple fill in the blank I provided could obviously write an original movie - but I found the idea of making a custom format for a project is a fresh way to approach.
What do you think?
posted by:
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Los Angeles
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Re: Your tricks
Thu, February 8, 2007 - 6:28 PMI don't think it delves too terribly far from the classic formula for the character who
desires something,
takes action to get it,
meets with conflict,
acts
and is affected positvely or negatively,
except that it leaves room to forget about making any real change occur in the character.
While it may allow for unique projects, your example could also result in a story where events just happen to the character and no real growth or destruction takes place in their person. It could end up being something like, the kid is trying to perge himself of his chicken dinner when he discovers that there is a key in his stomach so he must find the lock the key will open which causes him to discover his father's twisted collection of skulls while he searches the apartment for the answers to this bizarre event. While a lot is happening there's not a lot to care about, which I think is a very unfortunate shortcoming of so many popular and recent hollywood films, including Children of Men, which could have been superb (in my mind) if anything notable had really happened inside of any of the main characters. -
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Re: Your tricks
Fri, February 9, 2007 - 12:27 PMI totally understand and agree with you on many points.
One of the reasons I've been so anti Hero's Journey lately is because I feel like the formula has taken precidence over something to care about.
In my simple little example the idea was the classic in order for him to affect the world, he had to have personal growth. But - if it's just plugged in there, yeah - it means nothing.
One clarificatioin - my real question/thought was to the idea of creating unique and different formulas - potentially more complex ones. I'll try to sketch something out... but now my attention is more on something you just brought up - let's go there.
What makes the personal growth aspect something to care about? What makes people care about anything in a movie?
Often, it's just because were generally engaged in the story and curious about the adventure much more so than any perfect message, morality, or personal inspiration.
Maybe are we kidding ourselves that there needs to be a personal growth at all? Do we just care because the story is interesting? Or does the thing that makes us care have nothing to do with the plot and, instead, has simply to do with the humanity of the characters - this could even be brought out in the perfromance.
Often with actors I will talk about the ability to unzip ones sheild and expose themselves. Daniel Day Lewis has this ability as do many other actors. Some actors don't - even going to tears, they are not exposing their humanity.
So - is that why we care? Is it really nothing to do with the plot? Are we really just providing a situation for peple to expose their humanity?
Thoughts? -
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Re: Your tricks
Thu, March 15, 2007 - 9:27 PMI think it is possible that we might be kidding ourselves that we need to have personal growth for a story to affectively flow forth, it took me a few weeks to come to this conclusion actually, with working out a script that just becomes, slice of life style; sometimes things just happen to people. -
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Re: Your tricks
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 12:33 AMLet's talk about some specific movies and ask the question - is ther personal growth in the lead character(s)?
Resevoir Dogs
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Star Wars
Matrix
Shrek
Boys Don't Cry
I'm trying to pick as varied examples as I can think of.
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