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The beginnings of my screenplay... I hope you only laugh with me...

Hey guys, just thought I'd finally share with you some of the writing I've been working on. I've just been practicing form by writing sketches so far and this is my first attempt at something more 'narrative.' I could really use some help and/or ideas from your brilliant minds :)

My main problem is that I need a story. See, this whole thing is one of those 'based on an idea' things. It's actually a mockumentary of the making of a film. The idea was first for the film itself, and then it seemed like the idea couldn't translate easily (or cheaply) into a feature so we(credit where credit due, Sean came up with the idea and we both have been writing it, mostly together) decided to do a short-form mockumentary of the making of the film, seemed much more plausible. Then if the sets were bad, it could be because the film was a low-budget and I think it would make it funnier, too.

But back to the problem, no story. How to I move the audience from A to B to C, any story ideas for a mockumentary making of film? I have about 10 pages written and just let me know if you want to read it, I will PM you the link, I trust all the members on here not to steal ideas, but I don't trust the lurkers.

WARNING: blasphemy is rampant in this script, no offense intended , it's just comedy :D
(oh and bear in mind that this is a first draft and that I go by the philosophy of write everything down, it can always be thrown out later if it doesn't work, right?
...

Right now it just feels like a collection of scenes, which it is. What should happen to these people? I'm leaning towards a comedy of errors (I don't care if it's been done, I would do it my way). But it could also go the way of the film being made and be a hit? But where would the twist be in that. That the people become jerks?

If we go in the 'comedy of errors' direction, does anyone have any stories of things going wrong on set or any outrageous interactions that they would allow me to possibly use in exchange for some form of appropriate credit?


One problem I think I'm running into is that the humor of some of my characters comes largely from their personalities, which makes it hard to come off the page when someone is just reading it.

I feel like it would be bad form to simply say, 'GIRL, a dry hipster' in the action lines. For one character, to try and get around this I described his looks (e.g. MAN (30's). He wears sunglasses, has a shaggy beard, his face is red from the sun. He smokes a cigarette as he speaks.) instead of just saying he's a hippy (inspired by Jeff Bridges). But I feel like that's bad form, too. I think subtext is the answer but I'm drawing a blank on what to do, if I'm showing it through subtext, how do I do it fast without having a whole boring scene at the beginning?...

On another technical note, do you think it's ok that I'm just calling the characters by their character names within the movie within the mocu? Rather than giving them all a 'real' name? Which way would be less confusing?


Thanks for taking the time to read my super long post! Muah!
 
Think of Spinal Tap.
The story is about the "smell the glove" tour, the last tour. Starts hopeful and professional and descends to well. you know..

Moving from A to B to C .. ?? what do the characters IMAGINE C is?
Is C winning first prize at Sundance? Then thats your goal. If its an impossible goal, all the better. You know you have to do certain things in certain order, like write the script, film the movie, edit the movie, complete the submission.. etc.. this gives you the path (plot)

For your funny characters figure out what each character is CRAZY about. One guy will only eat green MnM's? One guy is only in it for the chicks! The AD is CRAZY about the Director..

Also, I read that if its a comedy, nobody gets hurt, .. though they would in real life..
 
I feel like the character of the director should be horribly awful at his job but still manages to be arrogant because he made one "hit" film and the rest was rubbish. He is horribly rude to everyone on set and whenever a complaint or problem comes about he refers to his previous hit which was 15 years ago.

I think the idea of a mockumentary on movie making sounds delightful, I'd watch it thats for sure. I feel like for something like this it isn't the actual "story" that sells but the characters. Kind of similar to what Wheatgrinder said.
 
I threw Wheat a mock set-up not long ago that could work for you.
Its interviews that recount the making of the greatest film that never was.

Basically you would plot out a geographic course the film crew took, and retell
(one by one edited together) the crews memories of what happened in various
exoctic expedition/safari like phases of the ill fated production.

You would add Name/ Job title overlays- Insert maps - stock footage - stills
etc in a Ken Burns fashion.

At the end you present the recently recovered (Only) 8mm personal reel from
the whole experience, it would be pretty easy.

Here are a few of the random bits (Not characters) that demonstrate what I mean.


CAMERAMAN- Fritz Kern
..At one point survivors were being thrown
onto a fire made from pieces of the wreckage.


DIRECTOR- Les Daniels
And as much as I hate to say it,
it wasn’t to eat them or to stay warm,
or any of that non sense you read in the papers.


ACTOR- Kirk Henderson
It was the worst auditions ever.

--

ACTOR-Kirk Henderson
So Daniels takes me aside and says
“Kirk, we’re all giving a 100% here, but if we
hope to pull this off..


DIRECTOR-Les Daniels
“..I’m gonna need a hundred and ten percent out of you.”


CAMERAMAN-Fritz Kern
…Kirk being a professionally trained stage actor was furious..


SOUND GUY- Butch Baker
… Kirk stands up and says
“Les, I am an actor, not a mathematician!”

--

DIRECTOR- Les Daniels
Once we were able to convince the village
elders that Fritz wasn’t Ooomtukpow the malaria God,
we were free to repair what we could of our battered raft
and flee for our lives once again on the open sea.

--

SOUND GUY-Butch Baker
Maybe it was the Incian paw paw root,
or the quart of gin I strained through
my boot earlier in the day, but for the 1st
things were starting to look up.
(beat)
Then one of the extras was eaten by a jackal.


-Thanks-
 
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You're a Mel Brooks fan, right Dready?

To Be or Not to Be would be some inspiration I think :)



An idea-a fallen out of favor director/producer decides to make his own go. He decides to maybe use amateur theatre people, maybe school kids, taking a "school play" and using it as his own idea, complete with Cameras,ect.

I know what I usually do when in a rut like this, I just ask myself "what if", and let the mind wander-cancel out nothing, see how far you can go with it.

I know with my writing, I pretty much have the character come to mind, and they "tell" me the story. I've never been very good with outlines, and themes, and whatnot before I begin. (For example, my short started out simply with an image of someone at a table waiting for something-it went from there).

That's all I got-connecting the dots is different for everyone :)
 
Thanks for all the feedback, guys!

@wheat: Christopher Guest has definitely been on the mind a lot while working on this. And it's crazy how just laying it out like you did works. I'm brainstorming that C, 'the goal' is going to simply be getting the movie made. But then the turn to the third act could be them unexpectedly getting into a festival (an overzealous friend or the mocu filmmaker submits it without the director's knowledge) only maybe they show up to find it's a 'bad film' fest?

@Blanc: I totally agree, I wanted to write him as a very overenthusiastic kind of guy who also doesn't realize that he is actually making an offensive parody movie (he honestly doesn't make the 'weekend at bernie's' connection). Or at least that's my idea of it.
Oh and thanks for taking the time to read my draft and give some feedback, I agree so far the story feels all like 'set up'. But that's why I asked for help, I have no story lol :)

@Buddy: That's great! I haven't actually written any interview parts that cut together like that, my interviews are more like on the set and things so far. But I have no idea why I didn't think to write the 'retrospective' interviews so I can write/cut them like that. I love it!

Also, Buddy, would you be interested in reading the pages I have so far? You give awesome advice and I'd love to know any pointers you'd have after reading what I have. :) Let me know and I'll PM you the link :)

That goes for anyone else, too :)

@Tina: To Be or Not To Be is actually my all time favorite film! I can recite it by heart! It's actually the reason I chose to go to Poland when I was an exchange student. But I'm curious how you think it might have been inspiration? It wasn't the intent, but then again that movie is ingrained into my subconscious ;)
 
@Tina: To Be or Not To Be is actually my all time favorite film! I can recite it by heart! It's actually the reason I chose to go to Poland when I was an exchange student. But I'm curious how you think it might have been inspiration? It wasn't the intent, but then again that movie is ingrained into my subconscious ;)


My trains of thought travel some different paths lol

When I thought of the premise of the movie (basically wanting to deliberately make a failing show), and you said you leaning to a mockumentary of making a film (admittedly part of my thought process was thinking something about "making of a deliberately failing show" at one point-don't ask why ;).

So, my went and thought about if one were to make a bad movie(deliberately or otherwise), what are some of the obstacles in that process? Maybe none of the production staff speak the same language. Maybe there's a strike by camera people, leaving the director/producer, ect to do multi jobs while trying to get them to come back. Basically, taking the comedy elements of making a bad movie, and using those ideas as inspiration for the "difficulties" with trying to make a legit movie. I hope you see where I'm going here ;). I guess I took that, plus the ideas of maybe not being PC (Mel's famous for that).

I guess, watch the movie (or remember it in your case :D) and nip some ideas of "obstacles" they have during the creation of their film, and grab for inspiration.

Like I said, my trains travel some pretty different paths-but they get where they are going.

Sounds like you got some good ideas from Wheat and the others though :)
 
When I thought of the premise of the movie (basically wanting to deliberately make a failing show), and you said you leaning to a mockumentary of making a film (admittedly part of my thought process was thinking something about "making of a deliberately failing show" at one point-don't ask why ;).

Oooh, you're thinking of The Producers :) Another classic.

I haven't decided whether the 'film' will fail or not, but that's not the director's intention. :P
 
Man, I have the "no story" problem aaalllllll the time... including, evidently, while editing completed projects :P

One thing that's always helpful for me is going back to some basic structure paradigms and working with my script relative to where various "Structure" gurus say they should go... even if I end up not going with those structures exactly it can be really helpful for me in terms of developing the story...

My favorites right now are (obviously) Syd Field "Screenplay", Blake Snyder "Save The Cat" and FilmJumper's "4 act structure" here in the screenplay forums.
 
I feel like the character of the director should be horribly awful at his job but still manages to be arrogant because he made one "hit" film and the rest was rubbish. He is horribly rude to everyone on set and whenever a complaint or problem comes about he refers to his previous hit which was 15 years ago.

I think the idea of a mockumentary on movie making sounds delightful, I'd watch it thats for sure. I feel like for something like this it isn't the actual "story" that sells but the characters. Kind of similar to what Wheatgrinder said.

It'd be even better if he had only been an Assistant Director on that one hit film or something, then he could also make a bunch of references to the famous director who actually made the film.

That's just a random suggestion though. The whole thing sounds pretty good to me.
 
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