@susy thanks for the tag, Susy. I have done amateur screenwriting and have written short and feature scripts I hope to make one day. So I’ll check out the full thread and dive in. Getting some production insights from Rich would be amazing. Many thanks for offering your time ?

@olsburger Thanks for stopping by, Oliver. I know you are very busy but definitely, Rich @richteatv brings some great value to The Quad. 

@richteatv thanks for writing this, Rich. It’s great if you to share you’re experience and knowledge. I’ll take your notes onboard in my screenwriting. I haven’t written for a while now but I’ve got short scripts done and a first draft of a feature. I’ll get back to it at some point. I look forward to reading your next entries 🙂

Posted by: @olsburger

@susy thanks for the tag, Susy. I have done amateur screenwriting and have written short and feature scripts I hope to make one day. So I’ll check out the full thread and dive in. Getting some production insights from Rich would be amazing. Many thanks for offering your time ?

Its a good start to screenwriting to actually do it. And when its done, set it aside for a while and then polish it. A first script is a great way to look at the whole story from a different angle. You may possibly even find that the story you want to shoot is buried deep within the script you have written. 

When I first started screenwriting I thought it would be easy, but as time went by I began to realise that writing is as much of an art form as painting or sculpture.

Once you learn and understand the principles of screenwriting then writing becomes easier.

What makes a good film idea? Or Where do film idea's come from?

I like the number 7 which is entirely random but lets work with it.

There are 7 different film genres and crossovers.

1. Comedy (adult, youth, child)
2. Romance 
3. Drama (Current, Past and Future)
4. Action
5. Thriller (Horror, Fantasy, Scifi)
6. Factual (Biographies, Historical, Current Affairs, but not Documentaries)
7. Art House (which can be a mixture of everything)

I'm sure you can probably find more but there are the obvious crossovers.

1. RomCom (romantic comedy)
2. RomDram (romantic drama)
3. ActCom (action comedy)
4. ActThrill (action Thriller)
5. FactThrill (Factual Thriller)
6. FactDram (Factual Drama, the lines are blurred really and it takes a lot of experience to be able to pull this craft off as it can slip into Art House quite easily)

So you need to be able to fit your story into a genre that is generally accepted by the general public to make your film work, unless you are looking at creating a critically acclaimed art house movie that won't be seen by the masses but by a select group of filmogrophiles. (if that is even a word, my Mac is struggling with it).

So where do your story idea's come from, and what makes your story fresh?

What is going to make your story better than the last story?

Remember 95% of all films ever made fit into those 7 genres above.

Here is a great place to start finding your idea's.

1. What if this happens? What if one day we are all using flying cars? What if the World is about to end? What If, is a great way to come up with a story idea. However be aware these types of films are often reliant on CG, and to make them look plausible you need a good supply of money.
2. Write stories from incidents in your own life. One of the worst pieces of advice script teachers will tell you is Write what you know, this is not how it is meant, that's the way film school teacher them. Writing stories from you own life means, write stories about characters in your own life and put them in situations to see how they will react. Turn your friends into characters, how they speak, what they wear, what they do in their spare time; then drop them into situations and see how they react. I have a lovely old piece of software called Dramatica Pro story engine, that helps you develop the characters in your head and makes you question and re question them.

idea's continued.

1. Once you have your characters create a story Bible one of which you can return to story after story to develop your characters and the adventures they get themselves into. By doing this you will create 3D believable characters. You can't just drop a gangster into a film without knowing what they do in their spare time, what their hobbies are, what they love to eat and what they hate, what is their favourite tv program and what pet did they have as a child. You can pull all these pieces into your script when you come across the wholes or the dead space in a conversation.
2. Headlines! a personal favourite of mine. News media spend thousands developing single sentences that draw you into reading a story. Collect them, write them down or keep them in a special file on your computer and then one day while you're bored bring them out, print them off individually and lay them down on a table. Mix them up and lay them out and you will slowly start to see a story unfold in front of you. One of my favourite headlines of all time, and I haven't used it so please feel free if it grabs you, was this in an English Newspaper. Man Carrying Table Leg Was Shot Dead By Police Who Mistook It For A Gun. 
3. Magazine Photos, again like headlines, collect them, rearrange, and build them into a story. Remember we work in a visual medium, its not about words its about pictures.

Idea's continued 

1. A great place to start is with short films. Short films in the film industry are used as business cards/introduction cards. Short films can be developed into feature films as you get a handle on a story that you may wish to know more about. A great way to start is to look at your short film and ask yourself some questions. What happened two weeks before the story began, what led the characters to this story, (your story bible will be a source of your information now).What happens after your short film ends? Does everyone go back to normal life or has the journey changed them?
2. 60% of all films are adaptations. It may be a book, a documentary that you have seen, an article in a magazine, a news story on the TV, but all of these things belong to someone else and you must tread very carefully here. I can't stress this enough. If you are planning on making an adaptation make sure you get legal advice from a qualified media lawyer. The rights that belong to someone else must be given to you, and often they will be given to you for a price $???????. Normally you will be given a first refusal deal, this means if someone else comes along and wants to make the movie and offers $XXXXX dollars then you will be given the opportunity to match or better the bid. If you loose, all your hours of labour adapting the book to script, (and its no easy task to adapt a book), will be waisted. So be cautious and hire a lawyer for a couple of thousand well spent dollars. Copyright however only lasts 70 years after the death of the owner, so if you are adapting a book prior to 1950 you should be okay, especially if there are no living relatives. (At time of press, but check your countries laws that may differ.)

Ideas continued.

1. Finally for this week, True Stories, News, History etc. Most true stories have very little detail, so it takes a great deal of imagination to make a true story work. I can sum it up quite simply. Research research research research research research, did you catch that? And on top of research make sure you obtain the rights which will mean money, lawyers and yet more RESEARCH. If you don't get it right then you will be liable to various laws of slander especially if the person you are going to make a film about is still alive. But the key word is research.

So that's all for now, feel free to fire off questions and I will try my best to answer them. Next time we will dig down into story structure.

@richteatv

Thanks for the list, Rich. In your list of 7 genres, how come Horror is listed under thriller, but not something like action? Is horror not considered a genre in its own right? And is action not a type of thriller?

Oliver

Posted by: @olsburger

@richteatv

 

Thanks for the list, Rich. In your list of 7 genres, how come Horror is listed under thriller, but not something like action? Is horror not considered a genre in its own right? And is action not a type of thriller?

 

Oliver

Thanks for the question.

Horror is a really difficult one to answer, but I will give it a go.

Horror has always been very much disrespected as a genre in itself by the film industry because it is such a difficult thing to define.

Horror comes from the the French word (excuse me if I spell it wrong) Orro which means to shudder or to shake.

In our English definition it means but is not limited to an intense feeling of shock fear and or disgust. In film making it can defined as arousing feelings of horror e.g. "Saw" "Nightmare on Elm Street" "Scream" etc etc.

At the same time it can arouse the feeling of tragedy "Schindlers List" "Green Mile" "Detroit" all of which have some horrific sequences that will disgust the audience but aren't classified as horror but Factual or Drama.

Horror can be about feelings of intense dismay, "Bad Lieutenant" "Martyrs" "Neerja", a mixture of thrillers, true stories and fiction.

It can be seen as a comedy there are so many "horror" films that make you laugh more than cry, "Home Alone" "Goonies" even "Star Trek".

Horror can be seen as an attack of extreme nervousness, "Being John Malkovich" is a good example of nervous horror.

And being a little horror, a bad or mischievous person usually attributed to children. "Village of the Damned" "Labyrinth" "Lost Boys" 

So as you can see it is really difficult to define what a horror movie is without it being a subgenre of Thriller.

A lot of people argue that a new genre called Fright should be introduced as a category for scary movies. But then you could also add, Animated, Chick Flix, Westerns, Crime, Adventure, Silent, War, Adult, Religious, sport, mystery, musical and so on and so on.

I hope this goes someway to answer your question and help you form your own opinion.

Posted by: @olsburger

@richteatv

 

Thanks for the list, Rich. In your list of 7 genres, how come Horror is listed under thriller, but not something like action? Is horror not considered a genre in its own right? And is action not a type of thriller?

 

Oliver

Action can be a thriller, but a triller can be set in a single location without any action. "Blue Moon" "Phone Booth""Silence of the Lambs" can all be classed as thrillers but are not action films. "Jurassic Park" "Theme and Louise" "Shawshank Redemption" are great action films but are not thrillers. 

@richteatv. Yes thanks Rich. I am familiar with the Horror vs. Terror concept, which really interests me, and one screenplay I have written is intended as a terror piece rather than a horror. But you are right, it's is very broad concept and crosses the lines of various genres.

I guess being a writer you have to deal with sub-genres, and sub-sub-genres. It boggles the mind haha.

Posted by: @olsburger

@richteatv. Yes thanks Rich. I am familiar with the Horror vs. Terror concept, which really interests me, and one screenplay I have written is intended as a terror piece rather than a horror. But you are right, it's is very broad concept and crosses the lines of various genres.

I guess being a writer you have to deal with sub-genres, and sub-sub-genres. It boggles the mind haha.

 

Yes your very right, but one thing that always helps when you are trying to sell a script or get one made into a film with a film production company is to know what genre your aiming at and its always best to check that the person or company your approaching buys your chosen genre. 

I have soooooooo many request from writers who have written brilliant Horror, Scifi, and fantasy scripts to read or consider their material for production without first checking if I produce those sub genres which I don't normally do.

So its always best to research and find which production companies, pre sales/distribution and executive producers take thriller and its sub genre scripts for consideration. That way you save yourself an awful lot of time and money, by connecting with the right people.

@richteatv

That’s very understandable. In the past I have researched production companies to approach with film ideas but none of them were interested in unsolicited screenplays. Are you the same? What advice would you give about getting a screenplay solicited?