Part of the script is about a man who gets away with murder, and he's trying to escape a lynch mob who wants justice done. However it's just hard to swallow cause American society just doesn't believe in vigilantism. Whenever a killer gets off the hook, there is no mob that awaits him. They believe that the jury and judge have final say and that's that. I mean even in the most notorious cases, like say... O.J. Simpson for example. A lot of people were outraged and believed he did it, but no one wanted to take him out bad enough to go through with it. It would mean giving up your family and your life, which is why no one does it, and why it's hard to swallow. Or is it?
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plot Having trouble believing in my plot.
- Thread starter harmonica44
- Start date
This. Also, don't forget that it is a film. It is fiction. Whether it might happen in reality or not is probably less important than lets say...getting the audience immersed enough in your story to where they want to believe it.
Or you can go with an over-the-top approach. I remember when I saw Shoot Em' Up (cheesy movie I know), I was really entertained due to the complete unbelievability of the story and what takes place in the film. It was fun to watch.
Absolutely. The audience wants to believe in the character. Almost every movie has embellished real life some how. They have an entire reality show to proving movies to be wrong, "MythBusters".
Look at every Tarantino movie. Movies are made to transport us to a different reality. Embrace it.
My movie is in a very different tone than Shoot Em up or a Tarantino movie though. Mine is more like 24, which is more serious that Tarantino's latest movies, which go a little over the top, and are more satirical in it's themes. Not that there's anything wrong with that, just different than my script.
It sounds like the script is at an impasse. It may be worth bringing your DP on as a co-writer and let him do a re-write of the script. Then the two of you can come back together to discuss it. It may require a few passes though it already sounds like you both agree on the basics.
Sometimes, as a writer, we get to locked into a particular plot line. It helps to have someone bring in a fresh perspective. As your DP, he's already working closely with you. It could be interesting to see his approach to the script. Between the two of you, perhaps you can develop a plot that you can both believe in. The alternatives are to waffle about never filming or shoot a script you don't believe in. Maybe now is the time to bring in someone involved with the project to get a fresh approach to the script that feels more real and believable. Just a thought.
The term that you're looking for is "mob rule". If the crime is offensive enough to the average person in your fictional world (ie, raping and killing a small child) it is very believable that a large group of people could work themselves up, feeding off of each others' hatred, to form a lynch mob. It was not at all uncommon in the old west where killers and cattle rustlers would sometimes get broken out of jail for a back woods hanging. It is where the term "lynch mob" comes from.
Yeah it's just peoples' mentally has heavily changed since the west.
My DP has made some suggestions as to how to change it but he says the leader of the mob should pay everyone to help him. But then the hatred for the crime is gone. The theme of the whole story is gone, and it just becomes a simple money theme. I'll do whatever you say as long as you pay me lots. Not as strong of theme in my opinion. He also is very set on that theme and there is no swaying him to come up with something that is off the same theme and social commentary.
My DP has made some suggestions as to how to change it but he says the leader of the mob should pay everyone to help him. But then the hatred for the crime is gone. The theme of the whole story is gone, and it just becomes a simple money theme. I'll do whatever you say as long as you pay me lots. Not as strong of theme in my opinion. He also is very set on that theme and there is no swaying him to come up with something that is off the same theme and social commentary.
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That's fine, but look at the Bourne Films, or maybe Mission Impossible. Do you really think that everything that happens in those is plausible?
I don't know though, without knowing the context that you use this "mob justice" in, it is hard to give you much advice. Maybe try to give them believable motivation? For instance, police brutality against minorities (1992 LA Riots). So hopefully they have good motivation.
Otherwise, just go with it. I think you are reading a little bit too much into it.
I agree with you that the money as a motivator doesn't work here. Keep it simple. If the DP won't do it as you want, get a new DP.
There was a South American movie, sorry, I can't remember the title or the filmmaker, or even which country, but it started with a scene of a driver of a small van or truck, running over a child.
Then it develops as he stops and gets out to help, villagers gather around, and then violence erupts as the pain of the mother is witnessed, and then there is yelling, and ultimately they bash and kill the driver.
It was a terrifying scene. Just that organic escalation of violence.
If they witness the crime, they are more likely to act, or if they fear it happening to them, as with rapists or child killers, they'll act.
Then it develops as he stops and gets out to help, villagers gather around, and then violence erupts as the pain of the mother is witnessed, and then there is yelling, and ultimately they bash and kill the driver.
It was a terrifying scene. Just that organic escalation of violence.
If they witness the crime, they are more likely to act, or if they fear it happening to them, as with rapists or child killers, they'll act.
some people are just waiting for an excuse to get violent, ...give them one.
I watched the movie Argo this weekend. In that movie, a few hundred ticked off Iranians storm an Embassy of foreign power, and overthrow it, because they are mad at the country for harboring someone, they do no like. But would a few hundred Americans storm a foreign Embassy and take everyone hostage? Well it hasn't happened yet. America is just not a revenge culture.
I will write it as plausible as I can, while at the time, needing cinematic license for certain twists and turns to occur.
I will write it as plausible as I can, while at the time, needing cinematic license for certain twists and turns to occur.
Something just occurred to me...
I've seen films take absolutely ridiculous things and make them work, just by how the script builds up the world that the story takes place in. You can make just about anything believable so long as the world built up in the story supports it. You could definitely have a lynch mob in a modern-day setting if you build up to that point properly.
I've seen films take absolutely ridiculous things and make them work, just by how the script builds up the world that the story takes place in. You can make just about anything believable so long as the world built up in the story supports it. You could definitely have a lynch mob in a modern-day setting if you build up to that point properly.
Yes and no.
Read the comment sections in news articles and you will see how group mentality can turn on an issue. Thankfully these people are behind a computer, but it is, in a way, the same group think that I believe you are looking for.