I've retitled my slasher movie "Blood in the Trees" since that sounds... hmm... more slashery. I was told that "Behind Suburbia" sounded too artsy for a horror movie - and wouldn't be perceived as one just by the title. An odd observation but an accurate one though I don't know many people that randomly pick a movie to see based on the title alone. If anyone has a suggestion for a BETTER title, please let me know.
At any rate, I resubmitted "Blood in the Trees" to the Script P.I.M.P. development service (seeing as how it was technically "Behind Suburbia" version 10) to see what they say about all the changes. I think the last time they saw the screenplay was version 3, so it has definitely come a long way since then. At least I hope it has. I think the visual writing went pretty well and the screenplay is a lot smoother and more dynamic. POW!
I've also put my eccentric comedy on hold in favor of a semi-formulaic romantic comedy. The eccentric comedy was getting a little TOO weird so I may have to go back and change things, but while doing so a great idea for a romantic comedy popped into my head and I decided to run with it. I'm partway through the outline and so far it is really shaping up. Of course, the plot of a romantic comedy is pretty easy to hash out, it's just a matter of creating characters that people love and can identify with.
Here's my formula for a romantic comedy, please swap genders depending on your protagonist:
1. Guy has a lousy (or too perfect) life.
2. Comes up with plan to improve life (or a plan backfires).
3. Meets and falls head over heels for someone they meet during plan.
4. Other person reciprocates.
5. Plan blows up in face, loses other person.
6. Redemption.
7. True love (but at the opposite of original expectations).
8. The End.
Easy, no? Don't get me wrong, there are a ton of mutations on the genre but if you break them down enough this is essentially what they boil down to. Some stories come in at step 5 (High Fidelity) then retell steps 1-4, but all of those steps are there.
The trick to being successful in this genre is to find a unique way of going through the steps. I'm not talking make it a Momento-esque retelling, I mean find something unique. Give the protagonist a unique job/interest, give them an original plan to go through with, make the other person outside of the norm for true love (The Holiday: Cameron Diaz + Jude Law = romantic comedy. Kate Winslet + Jack Black = what?). Or you could always write several half stories, slap them together through odd coincidences and you have a complete movie (Love Actually, which I really enjoyed).
So - you know where you start, you know how it's going to end - you just have to fill in those little bits in the middle and you've got yourself a romantic comedy. The plus side is that romantic comedies have a built in audience, even the crappy ones seem to be decently successful at the box office, especially if they have some star power behind them.
My previous post was right, having school work to do definitely gets the creative juices flowing!
Thursday, October 9, 2008
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2 comments:
I have to caution you that climbing to the top of the romcom heap isn't so easy. That's because many many aspiring screenwriters turn to romcom as their potential "in." And why not? They're formulaic, have low production values, and have a built in audience.
But because of this, it's very difficult to distinguish yourself. It has to be more than just "Person X with this gimmicky plan/motivation meets Person Y with a polar opposite view of life. They combust and attract" because I've seen soooo many loglines that insert character after character into those positions. And after reading all those loglines, the only one that stood out was a romcom horror. Why? Because it was different.
As for your slasher title, knowing nothing of your film, I like BEHIND SUBURBIA better. It's more menacing. But the title is very similar to DISTURBIA. But, who knows, BLOOD IN THE TREES might be more memorable because it's so in-your-face and transparent. Unless it's a movie about Vietnamese snipers in the jungle or something...
Ha! I didn't help at all.
Hah! Thanks for the comment! Sorry I didn't see it sooner but nobody ever leaves comments.
Yeah I know it would be hard to climb to the top of the heap simply because they're formulaic, but I think with a solid story told well it should at least have a chance. Even so, I'm trying to avoid being too formulaic - you may know what happens but it's getting there that's fun.
I liked the old title too but I was getting a lot of the Disturbia connections you mentioned. Who knew "-urbia" would be so pervasive these days, eh? I think BLOOD IN THE TREES is okay because it has no false pretenses about what it is, still, I'm very open to new title suggestions.
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