The Script is the Thing...
Actually, what Shakespeare said was "the play's the thing", but we aren't doing a play, are we, Milhouse? We're making a movie and that means the most important thing, more important than an "edgy" director or an A-list star or a fat distribution deal is the script...the Story. I don't care how big your budget, your star or your studio, if you don't have a good story, you are shit outta luck, my friend. Trust me.
Now, I consider myself a writer. Others may not, but I like to think I'm pretty good at weaving an interesting yarn with solid characters and an interesting conflict. So, as I began to cast about for a framework for what I was calling my "stalker story", I took a look at what other amatuer film makers were doing and the first thing I realized is that there are one HELL of a lot of amatuer films getting made out there. The second thing I noticed is that 95% of them seem to be horror flicks...really BAD horror flicks.
What is it about horror flicks that make them so attractive as first films? Well, aside from the fact that they are incredibly popular, I sorta get the impression that a lot of people think they are easy to make. Imagine this outline (and I have seen amatuer horror scripts put together this way): A half a page of wooden, unbelievable dialogue and a gruesome death. A half a page of pointless screaming and a gruesome death...you get the idea. I think that some people believe that as long as you throw in a lot of blood and gore, no one will care if it makes sense or not. Then again, maybe not even the blood and gore. I recently semi-auditioned for a horror movie called "Freezer Burn" and they were nice enough to send me the script, even though they weren't nice enough to schedule the audition. Thirty to forty-five minutes of running, jumping and hiding from some butt-ugly something living in an old ice-packing plant and nobody died. nobody even got hurt. nobody even got a hangnail. I wanted to call these guys and ask them if they'd even SEEN a horror movie. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make (other than the one on the top of my head) is that is doesn't matter how much money you have or how good the acting is, or the effects or how good you are with the editing software, if the story sucks, the movie sucks. period.
So, the first thing I decided was NO HORROR FILM. Even if it turned out to be the "stalker story" I had originally conceived, I wanted it to be more of a character study than a fear fest. Actually, the story was never really about stalking in the first place. My original, unworkable idea had revolved around this kid, Todd, not retarded or challenged or whatever they're calling it this week, but very slow and extremely naive. Because Todd's home life is not one to foster a positive self-image, he fixates on his idol, country singer Garth Brooks and becomes convinced that if he can just talk to Garth his life will change dramatically and for the better. I called it "Looking for Garth Brooks".
Now, you can see the problems already, right? You're talking about massive amounts of location shooting in Nashville and possibly Oklahoma (where Garth lives) which means hotels, meals, all kinds of crap I don't have the money to pay for, plus with that story, at some point, you have to have Garth Brooks himself. I mean, you can't have the guy take off on this quest to meet his hero and then not have them meet, can you? Can you imagine, first of all, how hard it would be to get the script to Garth? Can you imagine how hard it would be to get him to agree to be in it? Can you imagine how much money he'd want to be in it? This idea went immediately into the dumper...that is except for the title and the main character, Todd. Something about the idea of this redneck Don Quixote tilting windmills and looking for a little respect really appealed to me. I kept working.
I won't bore you with all the details of the writing process, of all the ideas I considered and tossed in the trash. Suffice it to say, I ultimately came up with an idea that I found interesting, funny, shootable and most importantly, affordable. It is still called "Looking for Garth Brooks" and it still features my slo-mo hero, Todd. In the current version, however, Todd has managed to get his hands on one of Garth's actual guitars (pinched at a concert, probably) and invites the singer to his hometown of East Jesus, Arkansas to retrieve it. Garth accepts the invitation (or so he thinks) and the whole town gets in on the act, planning a huge Garth Brooks Day celebration. Act One deals with the events leading up to the Day and Act Two deals with the comedic and tragic aftermath of what comes after.
It's a good story, if I do say so myself. I wrote it first as a play and called in a bunch of my theatre friends for a read-thru so that I could see how it sounded. I made notes and then did a second draft. I did another read-thru with another group of theatre friends and made more notes and did a third draft. I came to some conclusions about the script on my own and did a smaller fourth draft and then, once the play was in good shape, I turned it into a screenplay, which involved yet another draft of the script.
Now along the way, I knew that I could get my theatre friends to act in this for free, but I still needed technical help. The group, and the one guy in particular who saved my ass, comes next.
NEXT: Steve Baker to the Rescue (really!)
Now, I consider myself a writer. Others may not, but I like to think I'm pretty good at weaving an interesting yarn with solid characters and an interesting conflict. So, as I began to cast about for a framework for what I was calling my "stalker story", I took a look at what other amatuer film makers were doing and the first thing I realized is that there are one HELL of a lot of amatuer films getting made out there. The second thing I noticed is that 95% of them seem to be horror flicks...really BAD horror flicks.
What is it about horror flicks that make them so attractive as first films? Well, aside from the fact that they are incredibly popular, I sorta get the impression that a lot of people think they are easy to make. Imagine this outline (and I have seen amatuer horror scripts put together this way): A half a page of wooden, unbelievable dialogue and a gruesome death. A half a page of pointless screaming and a gruesome death...you get the idea. I think that some people believe that as long as you throw in a lot of blood and gore, no one will care if it makes sense or not. Then again, maybe not even the blood and gore. I recently semi-auditioned for a horror movie called "Freezer Burn" and they were nice enough to send me the script, even though they weren't nice enough to schedule the audition. Thirty to forty-five minutes of running, jumping and hiding from some butt-ugly something living in an old ice-packing plant and nobody died. nobody even got hurt. nobody even got a hangnail. I wanted to call these guys and ask them if they'd even SEEN a horror movie. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make (other than the one on the top of my head) is that is doesn't matter how much money you have or how good the acting is, or the effects or how good you are with the editing software, if the story sucks, the movie sucks. period.
So, the first thing I decided was NO HORROR FILM. Even if it turned out to be the "stalker story" I had originally conceived, I wanted it to be more of a character study than a fear fest. Actually, the story was never really about stalking in the first place. My original, unworkable idea had revolved around this kid, Todd, not retarded or challenged or whatever they're calling it this week, but very slow and extremely naive. Because Todd's home life is not one to foster a positive self-image, he fixates on his idol, country singer Garth Brooks and becomes convinced that if he can just talk to Garth his life will change dramatically and for the better. I called it "Looking for Garth Brooks".
Now, you can see the problems already, right? You're talking about massive amounts of location shooting in Nashville and possibly Oklahoma (where Garth lives) which means hotels, meals, all kinds of crap I don't have the money to pay for, plus with that story, at some point, you have to have Garth Brooks himself. I mean, you can't have the guy take off on this quest to meet his hero and then not have them meet, can you? Can you imagine, first of all, how hard it would be to get the script to Garth? Can you imagine how hard it would be to get him to agree to be in it? Can you imagine how much money he'd want to be in it? This idea went immediately into the dumper...that is except for the title and the main character, Todd. Something about the idea of this redneck Don Quixote tilting windmills and looking for a little respect really appealed to me. I kept working.
I won't bore you with all the details of the writing process, of all the ideas I considered and tossed in the trash. Suffice it to say, I ultimately came up with an idea that I found interesting, funny, shootable and most importantly, affordable. It is still called "Looking for Garth Brooks" and it still features my slo-mo hero, Todd. In the current version, however, Todd has managed to get his hands on one of Garth's actual guitars (pinched at a concert, probably) and invites the singer to his hometown of East Jesus, Arkansas to retrieve it. Garth accepts the invitation (or so he thinks) and the whole town gets in on the act, planning a huge Garth Brooks Day celebration. Act One deals with the events leading up to the Day and Act Two deals with the comedic and tragic aftermath of what comes after.
It's a good story, if I do say so myself. I wrote it first as a play and called in a bunch of my theatre friends for a read-thru so that I could see how it sounded. I made notes and then did a second draft. I did another read-thru with another group of theatre friends and made more notes and did a third draft. I came to some conclusions about the script on my own and did a smaller fourth draft and then, once the play was in good shape, I turned it into a screenplay, which involved yet another draft of the script.
Now along the way, I knew that I could get my theatre friends to act in this for free, but I still needed technical help. The group, and the one guy in particular who saved my ass, comes next.
NEXT: Steve Baker to the Rescue (really!)
posted by Don Goodrum at 6:08 AM
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