The Found Footage Saga, Cont.

                The Found Footage Saga Cont.

    I keep coming back to found footage for two reasons. First there is a part of me that thinks that it will fade away and die off in its present form. Mostly horror films and dark suspense. And the second reason is that they keep coming. This fall we have a slate of new found footage films, some look good and at least one is a sequel to the found footage franchise Paranormal Activity.

    My last post was about Anthologies and the movie that sparked that post was V/H/S. Found footage told in a multi story format.

    The best series of found footage movies for me at least is the foreign series know as Rec. So far a trilogy of horror films about a demonic plague. I like the concept of the third film, I have not seen it yet. I plan on seeing it on demand this weekend with friends.  The concept seems to revolve around a wedding video. Why hasn’t that territory been tapped sooner. Many film makers start off filming wedding videos to help pay the bills. There are so many stories that can be told using that kind of footage. From drama to screwball comedy.

    The movie Cloverfield showed us that you can start with footage taken at a party and branch off into a totally different direction.

    What I am suggesting is that we need to do different things with this format or it will disappear. Right now I am in the middle of a screenplay where I have decided that the entire second act will revolve around found footage.

    What, what was that? What genre?

    Okay.

    You caught me. It is a horror movie. Hey, I am writing this one to actually shoot, hopefully by the end of the year, and for all involved horror was the best economic choice. Meaning cost to shoot, cost to market and return on investment.

    Keep in mind that no movie has to be made. I cringe when I hear an actor or director say of a movie that it had to be made. No it does not. Pick the ten most important or impressive movies ever released and none of them had to be made. At least breaking even has to be considered when crafting your script. People are going to be investing money based upon your script. This act is going to be the their clearest way of saying that they believe in your talent. Found footage and horror movies are being done because they are cheap to make. They are easy to market. If well done they rarely loose money.

    Money should never be your first thought when writing a low to no budget script, but it should be a factor. Found footage is a response to economics as much as it is a genre that the public is willing to embrace.

    Okay enough about the money talk.

    Here is some advice about your main character in this type of film.

    He or she must be driven. Must be the type of person who could not turn that camera away even if their children were being eaten by wild dogs.

To quote a fantastic episode of Doctor Who, “Don’t Blink.”

    They are the one’s in the story who never blink and you need to answer why before the interesting stuff starts to happen.

    The audience will want to know why he or she won’t drop that camera and run. Why is it so important that they keep shooting. Perhaps it is as complex as the fact that they are obsessive compulsive or as simple as the can not see what is happening without the camera. Give a good reason during the first few minutes and the audience will have one less voice whispering in the back of their minds. 

    Okay, I think that is it for today.

    Remember to add us to your google plus. Stumble us on stumbleupon and tell a few friends about this blog.

    This is where I will make this offer again. If someone out there wants to write a guest post I am open to it. If you have written a low to no budget script or two and you believe that you can offer some good advice. You can contact me by leaving a comment and I will get back to you.

    That is all, now get back to writing guys.

The Anthology Script

            The Anthology Script

    I have heard that the Anthology film is making a comeback. The Anthology for those who don’t know is a film with multiple stories. Usually broken down into 3 to five separate tales. It is most popular in the horror film world. Think about movies such as the original Tales from the Crypt, Black Sabbath, The Creepshow, Cat’s Eyes. Mostly horror films then and mostly horror now.

    There is a lot of room to do an anthology that is not Horror. You could do comedy or action or even drama. There are no rules to writing your no budget screenplay. Not even how the stories are connected. All you really need is a theme and if you don’t have one a narrator will do.

    The last movie that could be consider anthology that played on over a thousand screens would have been Grindhouse, featuring the films Death Proof and Planet Terror.

  

I am bringing this up for two reasons. First there is one V.H.S that is coming to theaters soon and secondly this is a way for those of you who do not feel as if they have a feature script in them to still write a movie. If you can not travel the road of a 90 page feature how about a series of 15 to 40 page short films that combine to make a feature. The cool part of this type of feature film writing is that if you can only deliver one of the stories you could always invite a friend or two to join in. I understand that each director involved is V/H/S has written their own part of the movie that connects up to form a complete story. Did I mention that it is a found footage anthology?

    How do we do an Anthology?

    We use a central location Sin City and connect the stories through events.

    We connect the stories through a few shared characters, again Death Proof and Planet Terror are connected by the sheriff and his daughter the doctor.

    We can connect the stories through the quest for an item or the search for a person.

    You figure out what works best for you. That is part of the fun of this genre. You are the writer and as long as it at least fits a common theme you should be okay.

One of my favorite Anthologies is Trilogy of Terror. The element that connects the three great stories is the lead actress. Karen Black plays the lead in all three films and because it is always her that we meet the stories fit together. Understand to make this work you will most likely need to be the write and director of your script.

    Here is an exercise for you guys. If you have a short script laying around ask yourself is there a character or a location that you can tell a second story with. Is there something that you did not know you left behind until now? Can you add another branch to this tree? Is there a road that you can travel down with what remains of this story? Did it happen months ago or will this new story take place years in the future.

Here are trailers for a drama and a comedy to show that any and all genres can be approached using this format.





   Anything to connect the stories will do. A book, a gun, a note, a ghost, a ring, a person, a death or even a song. Anything will do and you will be well on your way to creating an anthology. If you have friends who write sit down and discuss story ideas. You never know where it might take you. And if all else fails and you need someone to join you on creating your anthology you could always contact me. If you have a great idea I might do thirty pages for the fun of it. After all the secret about writing for me is that I really like to do it. Writing is like drinking, some of us just need an excuse to get started.

    Good luck and I hope to post again soon. Remember to stumble us on stumbleupon, add us to your google plus and to tell a friend about this blog. 

One last thing, did any of you ever consider the fact that Pulp Fiction is an Anthology?