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Is 4 villains enough for my story?

The idea of the script is that terrorists are taking over the country, and need to be stopped. The terrorists actually kind of win though. Although they are ultimately stopped, the country will never be the same cause of it, and they managed to do a lot of damage.

Basically they go around committing acts of terrorism, till society is so scared, that they actually meet their demands, and have them eating out of their hands.

But here's the thing, they save it's a lot better to show rather than tell, but on a shoe string budget, I have to do the opposite. Kind of like how the movie Fail-Safe (1964), told a lot more than showed.

I also will not have a lot of casting options. Is a group of 4 terrorists, enough to bring America, to it's knees? I mean if more good actors are out their, and they want to be in the roles, then I have more, but I was thinking for the final draft of the script, I will write it so that their is only 4, but is that believable or plausible enough for an audience.

I asked my friend, and she said that from the treatment she read, she thought their would have to be at least 10, and does not know 4 is plausible enough. But can the audience be convinced of that through good acting, directing and storytelling hopefully? Another thing is, if I only go with four, when they are shot at, none of them can get hit, cause I need them all alive and well, until the climax. If I had 30-50, I would have enough for some to actually shot to death in the shootouts.
 
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Okay thanks. Well I guess if I put myself in the terrorists place they just have to do their damn best not to get caught on camera or leave any evidence behind. And I (in the terrorist's mindset), just have to do the best at scaring the government into actually believing we can take them over.

They can achieve that by shocking people. Human anatomy, for example, shocks people even if it's not a bad death. If your brains are spilled on the ground everyone will be shocked even though you didn't even feel it. I think that's what your terrorists should do to show the government they can take them over... But, I suspect you are writing a fantasy script, since in reality the actual villains are always the governments themselves. You know, the worst kind of terrorism is the one which is achieved by hypocrisy...
 
I originally wrote them as their own cell, so when the end of the story came, they would all be finished, but maybe I need to make them part of a larger group to make it more believable. The main boss of the organization would still be with this particular group of 4 though, in order for the story to work, but I might just do that to make it more believable. My friend who helped come up with some of the script, says I could use at least 10 for mine to be believable that they would be able to create so much damage and get away with it alive and without traces. 30 terrorists would be more ideally plausible than 10 she said.

In order to pitch the script to cast and crew, when the time comes, should I write them as a large group of 10 or more even? And then if not that many actors show I can just change it to 4. Or will that make the cast and crew think the production will have gone downhill if I spring that on them, and should just write it as 4 to begin with, so they are not possibly discouraged later? But on the other hand, writing it with more villains, might get them more hooked to want to join to begin with.
 
In order to pitch the script to cast and crew, when the time comes, should I write them as a large group of 10 or more even? And then if not that many actors show I can just change it to 4. Or will that make the cast and crew think the production will have gone downhill if I spring that on them, and should just write it as 4 to begin with, so they are not possibly discouraged later? But on the other hand, writing it with more villains, might get them more hooked to want to join to begin with.
Reality check, are you paying the cast and crew? From what I recall, you have helicopters and chase scenes, and lots of effects. Unless you are seriously masochistic, you write the script minimally and cast for the roles written. Having to go back after the fact and add/delete characters is a pain to be avoided! Suggesting there are underlings is often sufficient without showing them. You're not writing for the actors, you are writing to tell a story. The actors are there to bring the story to life. If you aren't paying the actors, you're stuck with what you get anyway. If you do pay them, you want to keep costs low by only writing in roles that are essential to the story. Be sure that your reality check doesn't bounce!

And be very considerate of the crew; they'll spend considerably more time on the set than the actors! The more bodies in one space, the more likelihood something will go wrong.
 
BTW, do you pay attention to the news?

The Boston bombings were perpetrated by only two guys.

The essence of good writing is copious research. How much reading have you done on 9/11? Boston? The IRA? Al Queda? Have you read any books on the psychology of terrorists? There's stuff out there that is more crazy and frightening than anything you could possibly imagine.

I have a friend with very, very high national security clearances. He's good at his job, so he never reveals any classified information, but we have had some extraordinary discussions. One thing about terrorists, though, is that they are rather insular in their outlook; they seek to terrorize by killing lots of people. If they chose to change their tactics they could, with very little money (a few million, which is peanuts for a nation-state or major terrorist organization) and several dozen small groups, paralyze the entire country for days, even weeks.
 
I guess so, but even when comparing movies to real life events, people still find a lot of plots hard to swallow, even though they could happen. But I will go with 4 then. I just need to write it so that those 4 guys will remain alive until the end, which means in the action scenes prior, the cops are going to have to be bad shots, who can't hit anything, or can't restrain anyone. At least with 10 villains, you can afford to kill some off throughout.
 
Terror is not about numbers, but about internal motivation (sometimes/often? planted there by charismatic people with strong and extreme ideas). What anger and pain and feelings of injustice do they have to justify their act(s) of terror.
With 4 terrorists you can still have 1, 2 or 3 of them killed before the end of the movie.

Who are the maincharacters in this project?

About the remarks of your friend: 30 terrorists working together will probably be noticed a lot sooner than 4.
 
Terror is not about numbers, but about internal motivation (sometimes/often? planted there by charismatic people with strong and extreme ideas). What anger and pain and feelings of injustice do they have to justify their act(s) of terror.
With 4 terrorists you can still have 1, 2 or 3 of them killed before the end of the movie.

Who are the maincharacters in this project?

About the remarks of your friend: 30 terrorists working together will probably be noticed a lot sooner than 4.

I would go with 78 terrorists, nothing less. The reason is it's a nice, big number, you can have a load killed off really gorily (think entrails everywhere) but mainly for audience appeal.

You could have a couple of dwarves (appealing to the more vertically challenged audience members), a couple of Chinese (1.6 billion Chinese - big audience), a series of different ethnicities, some disabled individuals, a couple of transvestites (make that three - pre, during and post op) and let's not forget the animal kingdom.

There are plenty of people who love animals so I think a cat, a dog and a chicken terrorist will be good. You could have the chicken fried to death and then eaten. It'll make a great scene.

If you do not have acting animals, simply dress up your talent in the requisite costumes. Can you imagine how terrifying a chicken terrorist will be?

If you don't have enough space for 78 terrorists, you will have to multi-task your talent in order to appeal to the broadest, possible demographic. You could have, for example, a Chinese, dwarf chicken which appeal to dwarves, Chinese and animal lovers. And don't forget the romantic interest (every movie needs a romantic interest) with the transvestite poodle.

Appeal to every demographic - you'll make a fortune.
 
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comparing movies to real life events, people still find a lot of plots hard to swallow, even though they could happen.

Here we go again, but, but, but... It's your job as the screenwriter to engage and convince the audience. If you cannot the fault is yours.

And why do you insist on a shoot-out at all?

And why would the police have to be bad shots? The idea behind terrorists is they hide behind the innocent and then dare the "good guys" to harm those innocents while attempting to kill or capture the conspirators. The term is Collateral Damage, and the US government continuously catches hell for it, and terrorists make great propaganda out of it.

And, again, you haven't done your research. What about the case of the bank robbers in California who wore body armor, etc.? They stood in the open and shot at the cops with assault rifles for almost an hour.

BTW, most police aren't good shots, despite what you see in the movies. (SWAT teams are a different story.) Another movie fallacy is that cops can shoot the nuts off a flea at 100 yards with a pistol. In the real world a pistol is only good for 10 or 15 yards maximum. Range (distance) accuracy is dependent upon barrel length. Patrol police and detectives use pistols and shotguns (which also have relatively short range); so if your terrorists are using rifles they can stand the authorities off at a distance.

DO YOUR GOD DAMNED RESEARCH!!!!!!
 
... There are plenty of people who love animals so I think a cat, a dog and a chicken terrorist will be good. You could have the chicken fried to death and then eaten. It'll make a great scene....

Hey, hey! That won't fly past PETA. You can't have lovable domestic animals being senselessly slaughtered, even if they are on the side of evil. You don't want activists picketing your red carpet. Go for giant killer mosquitos and cockroaches. They have very few advocates. :P
 
Okay thanks, but movies are often picked apart for not being convincing. I will try to write it as plausible to the audience, no matter what, but even Hollywood has trouble doing that. I pick apart movies all the time, and I figure if Hollywood can't convince me with a multi-million dollar budget, to do pretty much whatever they want with the plot, how can I convince an audience on a shoestring budget? Well I try my best and write it.
 
What are some shoestring budget movies released in the last five years that you've recently watched?
I find them (almost painfully) fascinating.
Excruciating, sometimes. I can hardly watch 'em.

(Yes! I want more titles for my other thread!) :P
 
It's the closest thing to an never-resolving TV series I watch/read. :lol:

"Tune in tomorrow for the next episode of AS THE WORLD OF HARMONICA44 TURNS!" :lol:

Just when you think our protagonist (H44) is about to overcome his conflict... ANOTHER ONE rears it's hideous head!
AND THEN... TWO MORE HORRORS from the past return!

"I thought he killed that two-headed aperture/frame rate beast?"
"No. He called his posse out, they all beat it to pieces, but they didn't kill it. It has now resurrected as a four headed aperture/frame rate/shutter speed/ISO beast."
"D@mn!"
"Fosho. D@mn."


Here's a preview for tomorrow's episode:
"He quit."
"Who quit?"
"I don't know. I may have... AMNESIA!!!!!"



You can't write this stuff.
No! Wait! We can. We do!
Maybe we can't make this stuff up?!
No! Wait! It's a conspiracy! Maybe we can do THAT, TOOOOO!!!!
 
It's the closest thing to an never-resolving TV series I watch/read. :lol:

"Tune in tomorrow for the next episode of AS THE WORLD OF HARMONICA44 TURNS!" :lol:

Just when you think our protagonist (H44) is about to overcome his conflict... ANOTHER ONE rears it's hideous head!
AND THEN... TWO MORE HORRORS from the past return!

"I thought he killed that two-headed aperture/frame rate beast?"
"No. He called his posse out, they all beat it to pieces, but they didn't kill it. It has now resurrected as a four headed aperture/frame rate/shutter speed/ISO beast."
"D@mn!"
"Fosho. D@mn."


Here's a preview for tomorrow's episode:
"He quit."
"Who quit?"
"I don't know. I may have... AMNESIA!!!!!"



You can't write this stuff.
No! Wait! We can. We do!
Maybe we can't make this stuff up?!
No! Wait! It's a conspiracy! Maybe we can do THAT, TOOOOO!!!!


:lol:

You just can't make this stuff up..

Unless your h44.....:hmm:
 
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