Adapting a Public Domain Comic Book

How About Public Domain Comic Books

 As we watch another summer where many of the massive budget films were adapted from popular comic books. as a micro budget screenwriter there are not many direct ways for you to get in on the action. These adaptations are for those who have worked in the Hollywood system for a while. There are however ways for you to prove yourself capable of writing one of these types of screenplays. I have superheroe dreams like many of your. I would love to do a Green Hornet screenplay, but no one is going to offer me a shot unless I have a track record. 

 How do you build a track record in this genre? 

 You can write a great fan film based upon one of your favorite heroes. The best micro budget superhero film that I have ever seen (better than a few of the big budget versions as well) is a fan film titled Joker Rising. That movie’s script is a great calling card. You could do the same thing. The only problem with this is that you either need to be a film maker or network with film makers who are interested in shooting a fan film.


    

 Recently I was introduced to a new concept. Instead of adapting a famous comic book into a screenplay why not adapt a public domain comic book. A little known fact is that there are thousands of comics that have fallen into the public domain due to the fact that the companies in the forties and fifties that released them went out of businesses and never renewed the copyrights. 

 “That was a long time ago. You can not be serious. Who wants to bring back a character from the forties or fifties?”You say. 

 

Superman, Batman, Wonderwoman and my favorite Captain America began their careers around World War 2. Those characters have endured and changed with the times. You should take the time to investigate these lost characters. There are also characters that are based upon mythical heroes such as Thor or Isis. You can take these heroes and created a screenplay featuring them as long as they do not resemble their comic book counterparts. Sci-fi channel does things like this all the time. They did a Thor movie and it was pretty bad, but they did it and had no problem with the copyright. 

You can make the Frankenstein monster into a hero an antihero like Dracula which is done to perfection in the anime series Hellsing.

 

  If you chose to do this you must first find a subject that you love. Read the original material over and over until you know every single detail and then get to work on the story. If you do not love a character and comic book based films are usually character driven stories then you should not attempt the task of writing a screenplay based upon that character. 


 Good luck with your project and please take a moment to add me to your google plus. I may have some news soon about a screenplay I have been working on for sometime.

Consider The Audience

Consider The Audience

 My favorite film maker Alfred Hitchcock would constantly talk about the audience. He always had what each and ever scene was doing to his audience. Film making to him was the art of conducting an audience like a conduct would conduct an orchestra. 

 When sitting down to craft your screenplay are you only considering the characters on the page or are you thinking about the audience that someday will be getting to know them. When you have mastered your craft you will find yourself considering what each scene and within those scenes what each line of dialogue and or action is going to be doing to this audience.

  

The first and best way to get the audience involved with your screenplay is to get them to care about you characters. These characters do not have to be likeable, but they do need to be understandable and relatable. If they care about your lead character or villain then you are half way home.


 



  Thank you very much for visiting my blog. If you are interested in learning all the basics of writing a micro budget screenplay then I would recommend my ebook on the subject. Good luck with your screen writing and have a nice day.

The Found Footage Vs. The Footage Script

                    The Found Footage Vs. The Footage Script


    The found footage film is here to stay as long as it grows and adapts. Adaptation is the key to this. The western, the gangster film and the horror film changed over time. The horror film of the silent era grew up to become the four star films produced by Universal films in the 1930's. The genre nearly died off and then came back with a vengeance in the 50's. Led by Hammer horror films and aided with a massive wave of the newly introduced scifi horror film.

    We all know the formula by now. A group of people, one armed with a recording device, find themselves in a life and death situation. This situation is usually supernatural or thriller related. Despite the best efforts of the mostly brain dead or functioning brain damaged lead characters they end up getting themselves killed while the camera is still recording. That death is symbolic for the death of the genre.

    Found footage, must become footage films. This is done at the screenplay level and that is the reason for this post.

    What I have found is that most found footage films are not written they are outlined. They are usually structured in the form of a treatment. The basic scenes are written in normal screenplay style. The interiors or exteriors are noted and then there is a description of what the characters are suppose to do and talk about in the scene without actually stage direction or dialogue being written. As a writer you are leaving to much to chance in the found footage genre.

    The footage film screenplay is the wave of the future.

    What is a Footage screenplay and have I ever seen an example.

    The footage screenplay is a screenplay that incorporates footage shot by someone or a series of people and or security cameras on screen and mixes it with footage from a third person shooter (the cameraman).  The best example of this kind of film making is the movie End of Watch. Where the editing is done so well that you have to really focus on each scene to notice when and where the switches are made.



 
    Below is a great example of how footage and found footage can be combined to produce a quality low budget film.  Screen was shot on a budget of about four thousand dollars and combines footage from iphones and the Canon 5d mark II.

    This style of screen writing gives control back to the writer to deliver a quality story. If you are going to put your name on a found footage screenplay even if you only wrote a twenty page outline you are going to be blamed if it stinks. For the sake of your writing career the Footage screenplay gives you more control over the content that will comprise the finished product.

    You will have to pick your devices and where and when to embed the on screen devices. Writing one of these films will require you to think at times as a director within the film itself.

When inserting them into the script put these scenes down as point of view (POV).

Character’s name and then POV.

POV of security cam or webcam.

    You will find the best way of doing this. Just think in terms of footage rather than found footage and this will be a gift both to characters and audience. The audience that views the finished product will thank you. The characters that survive rather than finding themselves laying dead in a pool of their own blood beside a sputtering camcorder will love you.

    Now go write some great scenes so that you or your director can go out and shoot some great footage.
That will be it for today. Please take a moment to add me to your Google plus and to share this post on your facebook.

Your Screenplay, No Need to Type

Your Screenplay, No Need to Type Recently

I had a long talk with a film maker who said that she was not getting the types of screenplays that she could relate to. That the characters did not look like her. At first this struck me as sounding unusual, after all characters are characters. They are just names on a piece of paper. Well as we talk about it I began to see what she was saying.

The film maker in question is Asian and most of the screenplays that she had been sent introduced each character with a short description of the characters. Are you seeing where this is headed? Beyond the name and age of the character there was usually a lot of extras.

What this taught me a very important lesson that I wish to share with you. Film makers will come in all different shapes, sizes, ages and races. If your primary goal is to craft a screenplay that you can market then you need to consider this when you are doing your final edit. The best seller item on earth is generic. The generic brand is a great brand. I am not suggesting that you make a generic screenplay, but characters that can be preformed by as many actors as possible. Keep in mind that thanks to digital film making more and more actors are looking for material to produce for themselves.

Let’s look at it in Charles Angels terms for a second. You write a screenplay. You have Drew Barrymore in mind. She reads it, does not care for it, but Lucy Liu picks it up. She likes the script, but the lead character is clearly written for Drew, right down to her goofy smile. Lucy says no because of this. Lucy is a type and Drew is a different type. Both can give you a quality performance. More importantly both have the kind of resources to pay you well for your screenplay.

    

 In the low budget world of screen writing you are going to be introduced to film makers from all over the world and of all races and creeds. Keep the character description simple and generic unless it is important to the story. Also when you take a chance it would be cool to take a risk or two with characters. A woman could be your villain instead of the cookie cutter guy. Who would have thought a few years ago that the most well known drug trafficked in television history would look like the guy on Breaking Bad.

Make your screenplay more marketable by giving directors and producers more freedom to pick a cast.

One of my favorite thrillers is the movie Taken. I have written about it often here. The cast is solid, but the script and the direction are the things that elevate it to another level. This year I was introduced to an asian film that I was told was as good. The movie is the Man From Nowhere and I believe that it is actually a better film than Taken because the script does not allow us to look away for even a moment from the hard choices that the characters must make. You could find the movie on Netflix and I strongly suggest you watch it and tell me what you think. By the way, the trailer does not do it justice. The film and the script behind it works on so many levels.
  

 Thank you for visiting my blog. Please take a moment to share this post and to add me to your google plus. 

Characters, Do They Care

Characters, Do They Care

Any type of action,horror, suspense or drama will come down to the one basic question.

Do they care?

There is a huge debate as to what makes the audience care about a character. If you can get them to care you will be very close to winning them over.

Here is how one writer sees it.



How I see it is more focused than that. They will care if others care.
They will like the song if everyone else in the room is dancing to. In other words if there is caring happening on the screen then it will be happening inside the viewer. You see human beings are great at empathy.
 The second way it to introduce them to a situation or a relationship that is fundamental.

We all understand and can relate to family relationships. The most powerful is a parent for a child or child for parent. Next is siblings. Then comes love relationship and finally friendships.

Friendships can be very powerful tools. If you do not believe me then look at the success of two major film franchises. The Harry Potter series and the original Star Trek series are all films about friendships and the prices that the characters are willing to pay to maintain those friendships.

The movie Taken is so easy for an audience to access because of the father/daughter relationship. The Exorcist is mother/daughter. The horror movie Jeepers Creepers is brother/sister. You care as an audience because you understand and can easily relate. Die Hard works because it is husband/wife. Same thing for the film Fireproof.

I know this person, I understand this person. I could be this person is the road you need to walk if you wish to get them to care.

I do not believe in the goal theory. Is it the goal that makes Lord of the Rings work or is it the friendships that develop? We want these friends to make it through together and get back home again.

I will give one goal its due. The revenge goal seems to get an audiences attention better than any other. For some reason we can universally relate to the concept of payback. From the Godfather to Kill Bill we can not seem to get enough of this. The action committed against the lead and or his closest must be so terrible that it strikes a chord inside of each of us and we connect because we wish we could do the same thing under those circumstances.

Think about the Godfather and the tremendous number of blows the family suffers one after another. Blows that leaves a battered and emotional wounded Michael as head of the family. As one after another of his enemies are take out we are all hoping that he is successful in his revenge plot. 


Consider this when you are reviewing your script. If you believed that you have written a great script, but it gets rejected then perhaps it comes down to characters that you have created. You may have created great characters, but no one cares about them. Go back and see if you can fix this.

That is it for today. Take a moment to share this post and to stumble us on Stumbleupon. I am sorry that I have not been posting as often as I use to, but the ebook on screen writing has been doing very well and I have to find areas that are not covered in the book. The next post will be about how less can be worth more where it comes to describing characters in screenplays that sell.

Screenwriting, A Lose Of Suspense

Screenwriting, A Lose Of Suspense

When people think about writing a low budget screenplay they tend to turn in one of three directions. Comedy, drama or horror. I understand this. These are the movies that populate theaters and cable tv these days. We write what we read and we write what we see. That old run of writing what you know comes into play. The problem is that the two dominate forms of screen writing has all but been lost during the last decade.

We no longer write westerns. I understand this based upon budget to a certain extent, but the micro budget rules can apply to a western as well as other types of films. If you are the writer and the film maker and you live in an area of the country that offers a western setting then you should not be afraid to write a western.




The suspense script is not so much about budget as it is about technique. Most of you have not been taught how to write a suspense script. Many confuse suspense with mystery. For most of the past century suspense was king and horror lived in a back room. Hitchcock dominated the box office with one suspense story after another. Suspense films still are a large part of the international film market it is just here where the suspense film has been filed away.

Why should you consider writing a suspense script?

Suspense offers the best of all worlds. A little horror, comedy, action and drama. When done well they stand the test of time. They will challenge you as a writer.

What are the rules for writing a suspense story?

One rule applies always. This rule is the exact opposite of a horror script.

In a horror story something is chasing you. In a suspense story you are chasing something. You being your lead character of course.

Jason, Michael Myers, Freddie and the shark from Jaws is chasing the lead. They are always being stalked or menaced by the creature in the darkness.

In a suspense story the lead is doing all the chasing. He or she is trying to track down the monster. Find the threat before it is realized. Locate the bomb before it can go off. Get the wife or child back before it is too late.

Modern suspense classics are Disturbia (remake of Rear Window), Taken, Basic Instinct, The Usual Suspects and Momento. I recently saw the movie Stoker and this disturbing little film reminded me of what world class suspense is like. I watched the movie the first time as a writer and the second time as a film maker. The budget is listed at twelve million dollars. I imagine that a lot of that budget went to pay the stars and for once I have to admit they earned their salaries. Every performance was pitch perfect and the suspense does not work nearly as well if the number one person who is in danger is not some one that we as viewers are not familiar with. The movie need Nicole Kidman in the same way that Hitchcock’s films need Ingrid Bergman and Grace Kelly.



Okay back to the budget. If you take away the salaries for the stars and the director and shot it using a small digital production crew this film could have been shot on an ultra low budget.

You need to look at movies and read script from films shoot in the forties and fifties. Many of the great suspense films from those days were low budget B suspense films. Many of the rules that apply to micro budget film scripts were learned from those films. Limit the cast and the locations and the number of sets. Find a lead character that can not let it go. A character who has to chase the answers down. A character who does not blink and then let them go for it. Or you could show us two sides of a characters personality. One side decent and kind, the other side dark and violent. Which side will come out in the end? Which person will reveal themselves and to whom? Suspense is built that way. It comes down to when will the bomb go off. Just keep in mind that sometime the bomb is a secret or sometimes it’s a person.

Okay that is it for today guys. Good luck with your no budget screenplay. Please take a moment to stumble us on stumble upon and to share this post with a friend.

Horror Film Writing, Beyond Props

Horror Film Writing, Beyond Props

Hitchcock when asked about horror films said that he did not make them (maybe the Birds). He said that all they really amounted to were movies about walking props.

The Frankenstein monster was just a prop and the history of horror movies is mostly dependent upon them.


Jason is just a walking machete.


Michael Myers a walking kitchen knife.


Freddy is a walking glove that cracks jokes.


These films in their original forms were not all prop and no content. I would argue that Michael Myers in the
original film was more than a knife. The character represented a total lack of humanity that in is own way made him a compelling creation. In the Rob Zombie remake (the only remake worth talking about) the character represents aggression and rage. A kind of overwhelming rage that is triggered all to easily by people in the world around him.


Freddy when he was first introduced represented our own inner demons. Our worst nightmares come to life. Then the character began a franchise and soon after he became little more than comic relief.


When sitting down to write a screenplay we all to often go for the cheap scare. Creating characters who’s sole purpose is to die in as gruesome a way as possible. Is this the best that we can do?


Can you name any of the character who went out like that?


I can name Heather from the Freddie films because she is the only real character in those movies. She fought, she struggled, she tried to survive as any of us would do.


I know that Ripley was the star of the Alien films that were good.


I remember Sam and Juno from the Descent.


Can you name one single character from any of the Final destination films? Who were they? You do not know because you were never asked to care.


It is the character first and not the situation that makes for great horror films. Far too many horror movie scripts are written with situation in mind. When writing a horror screenplay it is easy to think up a place where character will find themselves trapped and then butchered by another character who is nothing more than a prop. Look at the movie Saw. It could have been just another slasher film and that is the problem with its sequels, but the first one does a great job of getting you inside the heads and lives of the two guys we meet chained in that filthy bathroom.


Writing about characters that you know and like will be one of the easier things that you ever do. Can you imagine being Sam Raimi and partner sitting down to write more dialogue for Ash in one of the Evil Dead movies. That trash talking character has become loved by millions of fans because he was first loved by the person who created him.


Create good characters and the story will take care of itself.


Or create Props and they will lumber around like the dead weight that they are.


No one ever said that screen writing was going to be easy. It is fun at times, but rarely easy. None of us really consider ourselves masters of this craft. We have good weeks and bad weeks. There are times when pages will flow and then there will be weeks when you will not be able to write more than a sentence or two. Just try to do one thing when ever you sit down in front of that blank screen, try to do your very best. Try to create characters that are more than blocks of wood.


Okay that is it for today. Please take a moment to share this post with a friend.

Horror Movie Writing

                Writing A Good Horror Film


    There is a pattern that has developed over the past few years at the box office. Horror films open up at number one and then the bottom drops out of their box office.

    Hollywood is a hype machine and they have become expert at hyping horror movies. The problem is that they pick really bad movies in an effort to steal a few quick bucks. Most of these movies fall into three categories. Terrible originals, terrible remakes and terrible redone versions of foreign horror films.

    Let Me In vs. Let The Right One In.

    The Chainsaw Massacre 3D vs. The Chainsaw Massacre.
   
    Some of this is the quest for money. Some of this is the directors fault and some of this is poor writing. In the case of Let Me In it is the director’s fault because the original has an almost perfect script.

    This post needed to be written for the simple fact that many of the micro to no budget scripts that will be written will be horror screenplays.

There are actual rules to writing a good one and I guess that it is about time someone wrote them down and reminded the screenwriting world of them.

    The rule that is broken most often and usually in the first five minutes. The rule that once broken the story has a huge mountain to climb before it can reach the level of watchable. The rules that you must keep in mind at all cost is,

    ESTABLISH REALITY!

    Your script must establish the real world before it can or should introduce the supernatural world.

    “But I want to start my script with a bang. I want to jump right into the story.”

    Seriously? If you want to write a great film that will be remembered over time then do not break this one rule.

    The movies that followed this rule as if it is religious doctrine are the following:

    The Sixth Sense. Wife, husband, home, normal world, violence, and then mom and boy, street, church and now the supernatural begins to creep in.

    The Exorcist, old Priest, dig in holy lands, people working, heart problems, a hint at something bizarre or supernatural. Jump to a city in America, a Mother and daughter, a home, a ordinary world that is rocked by something supernatural almost 30 pages later. The recipe for the greatest horror film of all time.

    The Descent, a rafting trip with friends, a drive home, a fatal car accident, friends gather at hospital, friends unite a year later for another group outing, they worry about the one who almost lost her life and did lose her family, they go cave diving in an un-explored cave because one of them is a risk taker and they end up in a life and death struggle with flesh eating cave dwellers.  Released at the end of a summer movie season, totally untouched by the Hollywood hype machine, barely lasted in theaters for three weeks and has gone on to be considered a modern horror classic.  (Note, I was lucky enough to see The Descent at a film festival where it won best after dark film. The house was sold out and the place rocked from almost beginning to end. There is nothing like seeing a really good horror film.)

    The Original Chainsaw Massacre watches like a documentary at times. The opening scenes of that movie establishes reality and then goes on to create what feels like a darker level of reality.
    The same could be said for the original The Hills Have Eyes.

    They all became classics by establishing reality first and then subverting it.

    The next Rule has been written about before at this blog and I must go over it again.
    Rule 2,

    THEY WILL BELIEVE ANYTHING ONCE!

    The audience will believe in a killer shark.

    They will believe in a possessed child.


    They will believe that a massive undersea creature is rampaging through New York, Cloverfield.

    They will believe in Vampires.

    They will believe in any one thing, but not two things. Two or more things is comedy and not horror.

    Child’s Play 1 and 2 are horror movies. Once you get to Bride of Chucky you are into comedy.
    A Killer Shark is Jaws, a Killer Shark that can swim under the sand is Sand Shark, it is a sci-fi channel film and it stinks.

    No matter what that second thing is do not include it in your screenplay. Do not make the argument that M. Night does it all the time. A twist ending is not the same as a second thing that they must believe. Hey I do not like the ending of The Village any more than the rest of you guys, but it was fair and he did not ask you to believe more than one thing. We were just fooled by what the story really was about.

    The movie that broke this rule and completely lost me and many of those who had high hopes for it is the movie Grave Encounters. Great premise. Solid Act I and part of Act II. This movie promises an experience like the Shining and out of no where jumps to Rose Red and a second rate episode of the Outer Limits. Spoiler Alert!  For those of you who have seen the movie the ghost hunting team arrives at the building and get locked inside. At this point we have a time limit given to us where around 6 AM the doors will be opened. Survive until then and all is well. Then the building starts changing shapes. Really? Then time does not run the way that it does in the rest of the known universe. Really?

Too much to believe. I think the movie falls apart when these things are introduced and never recovers. I will offer a slight defense and maybe a reason why this happened. The script was written by a writing team.  That could explain the introduction of these unnecessary elements.

    Find a horror film that disappointed you and ask yourself if it asked you to believe in more than one thing. I would bet that almost all of them did.

    There are a few more rules, but at the end of the day these rules are the most important. If you break any of them then you are probably writing a bad horror movie.

    How to write a really good horror film is going to be another post and I will try to be as helpful in this area as possible, but no one has perfected a formula for this yet. The greatest screen writers of all time are hit and miss.

    Okay that is it for today. I have added social marking tabs on the post so could you please share this and any other post you like and tell a friend about this site.

    Last note, I am working on doing an Anthology contest this year. Unlike most of the recent anthologies that have been released this one must have a common theme and the theme is still being discussed. It will be suspense/horror and it will need something to tie it together. Watch Trilogy of Terror (find it on Youtube) as an example of what we will be aiming for.

Beyond The Writing

                More than Writing is Involved

    We spend so much time and effort on how to write a quality screenplay and not much if any time on why we are writing this screenplay.

    At the end of the day the question that has to be asked is do you love what you are doing? If you don’t and you are doing it only because you have to that is okay. I am not going to tell you that unless you love what you are doing you will do a ass backwards job at it. The purest in the room will say that you will, but some of the best scripts ever written have been jobs rather than labors of love.

    If you are a producer or director and you are the only one that you can afford to hire to write your script then I am here to say that you can do a great job of it. If you are like me, someone whom has been writing most of their lives and love it, you can write a great script.

    The argument that I am working towards is the concept of the business person vs. the artist. If we were here about screenplays in general I would not be doing this, but this blog is about ultra low to no budget screen writing. You have a story that the artist believes demands certain things and you have this voice always whispering that is going to kill the budget. You can not put that in the script, it will cost to much and get cut out later. My response is put it in the script. Get through the first draft by any means necessary and then if that amazing part of the script that also cost far to much to be included has to be cut out, then do it. Cut it out. Find a way to save some of it or to rework it at a lower cost and put it back in later.

    The business person would never include that part of the script, but the writer/artist can not help his or herself. Maybe someday you can or will become both. The greatest filmmaker of all time was Hitchcock, one day he decided to make at the time a ultra low budget film. He founded a story and hired a writer named Joe. Together they crafted a screenplay that had limited cast, limited locations, limited setups, limited need for special effects or even makeup effects. He hired a tv crew instead of his film crew to shoot this movie. He shoot it in black and white instead of color. The name of the movie was Psycho. Some believe that it was his best movie (I think it was Shadow of a Doubt) and he did it will low budget considerations in mind. He did not have to, Hitchcock chose to and with those restrictions came greatness. Limiting location and sets and cast does not limit the possibility of creating something great.

    You can be artist and writer and business person and do something remarkable.Good luck and write everyday.

Another Software Review

            A Software Review

    I have written about it, but I have not shown you the software in action and I have not allowed others to tell you about certain aspects of screen writing. For this I am sorry. There are a lot of great writers out there and their advice is as good as mine and sometimes better.
    I have gotten so caught up in teaching you how to write a low budget script that I forgot to focus enough on the basics. You will need a great deal of knowledge about the basics. You will have to be more fundamentally sound than those who write big budget epics.
    I would first like to mention a new free software program that I have been introduced to. It is called Adobe Story. Just google that and you will find the download page. So far it is a really nice free program that can be used online or downloaded.
    The two that I wanted to revisit today are Celtx and Scripped.
    Here is a quick tutorial from the guys at the Scripped site. If you are ever worried about losing your work via a crash or lose of your computer then this is the place for you. Store your work here where it is safe and you can revisit it any time.

    Now here is a tutorial on Celtx. Keep in mind that once you finish your script here you can import it, print it and if you wish to register it on site.

Your No Budget Screenplay, The 10 Page Rules

    Your No Budget Screenplay, Ten Page Rules


    If you have read my other post you probably at this point have a good idea of what you wish to write so we will by pass that for now and get to the basics.  What is it that we must accomplish within the first ten pages of our script.
    We must establish the location of the story.  The script can begin there or through a series of events we can travel there.  The central location needs to be established because this is not only where your story takes place, but also this is where your future cast and crew will be spending most of their time and efforts.  Even if you are only the screen writer and not going to be wearing the hats of producer and director you have to keep these things in mind.  The majority of movies manage to achieve this whether they are low budget or mega budget.  People, meaning the viewers, need to know where the story is going to take place.  They need to get comfortable in the world that you are creating.  Whether it is the Blair Witch Project or Gone With The Wind those first ten pages and or minutes are the most important.
    In times gone by once a ticket was purchased the film maker had his audience and they were going to be stuck in that seat until the end credits.  Now your audience is one button click away from leaving you and the movie that you have written behind. Remember that scene from Gladiator where Maximus yells to the crowd “Are you not entertained?”  I am not saying that they have to be entertained during these first ten pages, what I am saying is that you have to hold interest.

    The best and most cost effective way of doing this is with you main character. The lead Character is not necessarily the main character.  (Quick note: Think about the movie Terminator.  The lead is Sarah, the main character is the Terminator.  In this movie we meet the Terminator first and he pushes the action and drives the story.)  Your main character will be presented and shortly there after he or she will become the seeker or the searched for center of this universe.  They must always drive other characters to act or to react.
    The world is about to end.  They have the ability to save it.
    Their marriage is on the rocks, they are responsible for this and they must undertake the journey to repair or Fireproof it.
    Someone is about to be murdered and they are the only one who knows about the plot and the only one capable of stopping it, The Man Who Knew Too Much.
    To change the future they must travel back in time and terminate someone, but they are not sure exactly who.
    Find the who and the thing that will drive him or her to chase and or run and you will have a great jumping off point for your no budget screenplay.

Your No Budget Screenplay, Peter Jackson's Bad Taste

               Your No Budget Screenplay, Bad Taste

    Peter Jackson started where you are.  From a no budget little feature to the Lord of the Rings he has come a long way.  Having worked in a video store at one time I became familiar with just about every low budget release during the eighties and nineties. I had bought a copy of Bad Taste from the store I worked in for about two dollars, stuck it on a shelf and revisited it only when I heard that this guy named Peter Jackson was going to do the Lord of the Rings movies and he had started with a movie titled Bad Taste.  I dug the movie up and watched it again.  If you can not find it try to at least watch the movie trailer, it is great fun. Then go and watch clips of his later movies and perhaps the new Hobbit Trailer.

    To me Peter Jackson is not your typical no budget film maker.  He wrote a sci fi movie and if you pay close attention to it this movie what he wrote was a big budget epic that he shot for eight dollars and twenty seven cents.  Bad taste is a gross out take on the genre with a lead that actually gets part of his brain
knocked out and keeps on going.   Why does he keep going? The only answer is “Derricks don’t die.” His name is Derrick and he will not die until his task of saving the world from an alien invasion is complete.

   The lesson from this film is that no budget does not mean that you can not be ambitious. You can write a huge story as long as you remember to write down only the most necessary visual elements.  Steven Spielberg needed to blow up buildings and show gigantic alien machines in his version of War of the Worlds, while the no budget writer/film maker would have to rely on sound and light and shadows to suggest what is going on with the invasion of earth.  Look at one of my favorite film makers M. Night, his movie Signs.  The most frightening and intense part of that film takes place in a basement.  No real special effect needed. Both movies with a adjustments could have been utra low budget and done well. 

    M. Night Shyamalan  and Spielberg started out shooting super 8 or video.  They began as no budget writers and film makers.  Peter Jackson began in the no budget world and now he is one of the top film makers on earth.  With the arrival of part one of The Hobbit this year you will have one more reminder of where you can get to from here.

    Good luck guys, next time maybe we will talk about the basics of writing your first no budget script this year.  I say first because I expect that you will write at least three of them this year.

Your Screenplay, Taken

        Your Screenplay, Taken




    The thing that can blow up your budget faster than anything is to allow your screenplay to become overly populated by subplots.  Picture yourself as an archer.  The finish of your screenplay is a target off in the distance.  You are free to do what ever it takes to hit this target, but you are free only to take one shot.  Would you pick up a half dozen arrows, awkwardly load them and launch them toward the target or would you select one arrow, carefully aim that arrow and fire it off toward the target?
    One well aimed arrow is better than a half dozen shot off in the general direction of your target.  One plot well aimed that is ruthlessly pursued is ten times better than a half dozen plots that ramble along, half of which ending no where. Decide where it is that you script is going and steer it there without hesitation.  The funny thing about a story that is relentless it is hard to turn away from even if you do not like where it is headed.

    The best example of relentless pursuit is the movie Taken.  It spends about ten minutes allowing you to get to know the lead characters.  The lead is a man who has done a great deal of dirty work for his government all over the world.  He is a well trained killer who only really cares about one thing on earth, his daughter.  Those first ten minutes tell you about the relationship between father and daughter.  People close to him talk about how he would drop everything to be there for his little girl’s birthdays.  He reluctantly agrees to his daughter’s overseas vacation.  Within minutes of her arrival in Europe she is targeted and then taken by sex traffickers.  In a short and bitter conversation with the man who has taken her he explains who he really is and if she is not released unharmed he will come looking, he will find them and he will kill them.  Basically return my daughter or you will die.  You can repeat this phrase after watching ever single scene that follows and ninety percent of them revolve around that simple phrase.  There is no one that he would not torture or kill to complete this mission.  There is nothing on earth that could be said or offered to him that would change his mind and nothing short of death will stop him.
    Some say that the greatest modern script is Witness.  It is a great script, but I would argue that for the sake of sheer momentum I would place Taken ahead of it.  Never looking away from one’s goals as a writer or the characters that we create is a good thing.  Give your characters something that they must do, that they must have and or something that they will die for and you will have created a memorable character if not as well a great script.
    Actors always ask the question “What is my motivation?”  In Taken it is to get your daughter back alive.  In Hamlet it is to revenge a father’s murder.  In the Wizard of Oz it is to go home.  Find that one thing and your screenplay may largely write itself.

Your Screenplay, I'll Believe Anything Once

    Your Screenplay, I’ll Believe Anything Once

    Movies are about the suspension of belief.
    The audience enters into a willing contract with the storyteller. This contract states
that they will believe absolutely anything that you tell them, once.
    I repeat ONCE.
    Do not go beyond that unless you are writing a comedy.  Comedy is the art of
the ridiculous.   All else requires that the once rule be put into place.  Test this rule
out on almost any and all bad movies that you have seen.
    Why didn’t you like the movie Insidious.  They broke the one thing rule.
Yes they did hint at what was to come, but it was too much all at once and it took
the movie in a completely different direction. You had a really solid and creepy
horror film going and the whole astro projection thing was a bit too much that came
along much too late in the movie.
    Let us look at the anything once rule in full effect.
    I see dead people, The Sixth Sense.  You are told that and the movie never looks
away or turns away from that premise.
    The devil is in this elevator with us, The Devil.  Simple and easy to follow.  Well
done little movie.
    My child is possessed by a demon and needs an Exorcism, The Exorcist.  Greatest
horror film ever made and yes there is a bit more to the story than that, but the basic
concept is followed through without blinking or looking away.
    Killer shark has selected an island community as its feeding territory, Jaws.  The
big shark is not genetically engineered.  It is not from outer space.  It was not
bullied in school.  It is just a big bad eating machine and it likes the taste of people.
    Keep it simple.
    If your story is a spy thriller or a mystery you are allowed and encouraged to
make it complicated.  Those are puzzles and are meant to be studied and reworked by
the viewer.  While if you are doing an action or horror, or suspense or drama story I
am telling you that simple and straight forward without grand twist are the best
way to go.
    Imagine that your script is an arrow that you have just shot from a bow.  Do you
want this arrow to fly straight and true toward its target or do you want it to twist
and turn and do loops like in a looney tunes cartoon?
    Anything once will be believed, trust me on this.
    Any one thing.  If you want to hold your audience one shot is all you will get. If
this was good enough for Dickens and Shakespeare then it should be good enough
for me and you. 

Your Screenplay, Is a Love Story

The Descent

            Your Screenplay, The Love Story







    All screenplays should be love stories.  Not between the characters on the page, but between you and your characters.  The saddest type of movie to watch is one where the writer clearly hates some if not all of his or her
characters. They have constructed characters who’s sole purpose
is  to show up long enough to eat up screen time and be gotten rid
of in the most gruesome manor possible.
    This has become standard in both action and horror movies.  Just because it
is standard does not mean that you have to follow that rule.  It may take a little more
time to write about characters who have lives and are interesting to both you
the screenwriter and the viewer, but hey no one said that this job was going
to be easy.
    You can turn on Fear net or Showtime Extreme or the Sci-fi channel and
see countless movies populated by characters created to first fail and then die.  You

will never create a great script this way.
    What about Friday the 13th?  What about Halloween?  What about Mad Max?
    What about them?  Do not think about the sequels.  Think about the originals.
Think about the first of each.  Friday the 13th is filled with actual characters.
Halloween spends time letting you get to know the star and her friends.  Friends
who have lives and dreams and plans.  Dreams and plans that do not include
getting slaughtered by a masked killer.  They were not made to be killed, they
mostly happened to be in the way.
    Mad Max is filled with memorable characters.  It is the loss of these characters,
concluding with his wife and child that turns a cop with an unspoken mission to give
the world its heroes back that drives Max over the edge.
    Let me give you a modern example of what is becoming a genre classic.
    How many of you have heard of the movie the Descent?
    You have not only heard of it, but seen it?
    Cool, so did I.  As a matter of fact I was lucky enough to see this movie at
a film festival.  It was the North American premiere and it was one of those rare
moments when at the end the audience, including myself, stood up and applauded.
    This movie held its audience from beginning to end.
    There are no easy kills in this movie.
    There were no empty lives.
    Each character is introduced and defined.
    They actual die as they have lived.
    They actually seem to know each other.  They interact as friends would.  They
all share a common history that has lead them to this moment in their lives.  What a
great job of writing and directing.  There are moments when they don’t like
each other but still care about each other.  If these characters were lost in
the woods and there was nothing chasing them this would have still been
and interesting film.
    The Descent is not a perfect film, we could talk for days about the
alternate endings, but it is a great example of how to populate your script with
characters whom you as the writer and view will get to know and
care about.                                    

Hannibal Lecter

                            

    The lesson is that if the writer does not care about character C then why should
the audience?  Care about them all, even the villains.  Even if the villain is a monster.
Hannibal Lecter is one of the most evil characters to ever appear in a film.  Audiences
can not get enough of him.  His creator must care about him, perhaps even
admires many aspects of his personality.
     Find things to like about as many of your creations as possible and where or
when you can find things to love about them.  It will show up on the page
and hopefully on the screen.  Love your characters and they may in return,
through the gift of fame fortune and glory, show you love in return.