Will audiences hate my hero in this case?

[harmonica44]

For a feature script I am probably going to do as my first in the next few years, I have been out and about practicing the shots. There is a car chase in the script but of course I want to shoot it very differently than a high budget car chase. When someone crashes their car, I will show what happens to them inside, the car, since of course, it's much cheaper than to show what happens outside.

Now in the car chases in the Bourne movies for example, Bourne gets into a car, and escapes the police, crashing several cop cars, and hitting bystander cars in the process. However, if in the movie I want to make, I show what happens to the cops and bystanders from the inside of the cars, getting maimed, possibly killed, in need of urgent medical attention, the audience might not like the hero anymore, or at least not care for what he is doing, and might consider him the true villain, thus changing the whole focus of the story.

Will this be a problem, or can audiences just write it off as necessary to get the chase on, like they do with other thrillers?

 

[Budget:0]

That sounds a lot like the introduction of a villain to me.

 

[jax_rox]

I personally think the whole shift from hero to villain is a powerful story element thaty ou could certainly play on.

I feel like just showing the outside of cars is easier, and I'm not 100% sure why they have to hit things and break things etc. You're going to have a pretty tough time trying to make the inside of a car look like it has just been hit without some sort of rig to jerk the car around, squibs, possibly breaking glass, and stunties.

If this isn't happening for a few years, then I say just write it and put it on the backburner, and review it perhaps rewrite different drafts from time to time, and then revisit it once you have an experienced enough crew to be able to make a car chase come to life.

If you're writing within your means, then that doesn't mean 'write a big budget car chase in, but only show it from x perspective so we can hopefully cheat it', it means write something you can actually feasibly accomplish. If you're not writing within your means, and are writing spec scripts, or scripts for use once you have some money/experience, or simply to write it and then reign it in to what you can feasibly achieve/afford, then write whatever you want - write your dream car chase sequence with cars exploding and smashing through windows and driving down footpaths etc.

 

[harmonica44]

Well even though the hero to villain thing is powerful, it's not really what this plot is going for here. I am going to put the script away until then, but I want to practice these types of shots for when the time comes. Even if I don't use that script, they are still good for something else. But in case I do do this script, I am wondering how to portray the events. I have written mostly within my means I think, accept for two action scenes, which will have to use types of shots like this to show what is going on, rather than the more conventional shots, you usually see.

But forget about the transformation from hero to villain, cause at the end the hero does not even go to prison or anything, just like how in movies like Lethal Weapon, the good guys never get into trouble even though during the chases, bystander cars get crashed into, just because the heroes caused the chase to escalate.

 

[mthompsonfilms]

I always enjoy when stories show the harmful results of a hero's actions. It's the moral ambiguity of it. Innocent people certainly would be hurt in a situation like that. Collateral damage happens. I think it'd be neat to show that your protagonist's carelessness hurts people. Actually, I'm currently working on a superhero screenplay in which a large element of the story is the good the heroes do versus the harm they cause in the process.

 

[ClockworkNinja]

I think it depends on the type of message you're trying to get across. What's the overall goal? Will the hero learn from his recklessness as personal growth or will it just sort of fizzle out later on and not really mean anything?

If the script's not internally consistent the audience is going to pick up on that pretty quickly and be left scratching their heads because they don't know what the point you're trying to drive home is.

 

[jax_rox]

I actually feel like you answered your own question:

'Hey guys, in my chase scenes I'm going to show that the hero is actually more of a villain because he causes so much death and destruction. I don't want my audience to think he's a villain. Do you think if I show he's a villain that they will still believe he's a hero?'

 

[harmonica44]

Yeah I guess but Bourne, Batman, and James Bond do the same thing, they are still considered the hero for the most part.

 

[arrodiii]

Yes

 

[Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC]

For a feature script I am probably going to do as my first in the next few years, I have been out and about practicing the shots. There is a car chase in the script but of course I want to shoot it very differently than a high budget car chase. When someone crashes their car, I will show what happens to them inside, the car, since of course, it's much cheaper than to show what happens outside.

Now in the car chases in the Bourne movies for example, Bourne gets into a car, and escapes the police, crashing several cop cars, and hitting bystander cars in the process. However, if in the movie I want to make, I show what happens to the cops and bystanders from the inside of the cars, getting maimed, possibly killed, in need of urgent medical attention, the audience might not like the hero anymore, or at least not care for what he is doing, and might consider him the true villain, thus changing the whole focus of the story.

Will this be a problem, or can audiences just write it off as necessary to get the chase on, like they do with other thrillers?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAkb0cNsf0I
NAH!!!

 

[Lucky Hardwood]

Hancock.