Syfy Movie Guidelines

mckinise

mckinise

A couple years ago there was a thread that included "supposed" guidelines for Syfy features.

1- Scenes must occur during the day.

2- The Monster must appear every 8 minutes.

Does anyone remember this topic or have a copy of the guidelines?
 
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I believe it was a Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC thread about the Goddess project he was doing at the time. Heck, it was when I first signed up. So at least a couple years.
 
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1- Scenes must occur during the day.

2- The Monster must appear every 8 minutes.
Click to expand...

If that was what you remember of the list, don't worry about it. I'd say it's useless to you.

Are you looking at this from a writing perspective? Or what?
 
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mckinise said:
A couple years ago there was a thread that included "supposed" guidelines for Syfy features.
1- Scenes must occur during the day.
2- The Monster must appear every 8 minutes.
Does anyone remember this topic or have a copy of the guidelines?
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'd say those are pretty much false. While many "Syfy Originals" are fairly formulaic, (1) is clearly false since many scenes occur at night and (2) the monster sometimes doesn't 'appear' (though is hinted at) until 15-20 minutes in.

If the goal is to have a bad sci fi, you can follow their fairly rigid formula: "Introduce discovery by misguided (aka evil) individual of (alien/monster/supernatural) (artifact/egg/whatever). It's removal/destruction coincides with a catastrophic event in which one likeable but superfluous character is killed off and the misguided escapes mostly intact. Flash to attractive/sexy scientist/reporter/cop (aka hero) who is called in/investigating a different situation. The catastrophic event impacts the community/property of the brash, argumentative past/future love interest ('everyman' if guy, secretly 'hot' if girl) of the scientist/reporter/cop. The love interest is usually a single parent with rebellious kids (one teen, one preteen and usually boy & girl or kid and pet). If the love interest is married, s/he will be single by the middle of act 2. Single love interests do crop up but often have a dog that hates the hero. Working against them or at least in a way that is unhelpful is the misguided. After another catastrophe, we meet the monster/alien/supernatural in an encounter with the heroes who rescue the kids and lose other superfluous characters. (NB: dogs don't die but disappear only to reappear and help the hero later.) In the race against time, the heroes confront the misguided and learn the origins of the problem but, alas it seems too late. Then the love interest (the stupider of the two) gets a brilliant insight that immediately alters the situation. If the misguided is repentant, s/he sacrifices himself as the love interest risks life and limb. The misguided is killed. If the misguided is evil, s/he puts the love interest or hero at risk, and still ends up dying. (NB: this is usually where the dog re-appears.) In the final showdown, the monster/alien/supernatural is destroyed/overcome/captured/contained. In older SyFy movies, the hero (usually) or the love interest dies in the end, leaving the other to console/assume responsibility for the kids (often when heroes are estranged exes). In later movies, they live happily ever after and form a new family."

There you go, every SyFy Original in a nutshell. Just like a romantic western novel, mix and match. Enjoy.
 
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