Love interests

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  • #31
    Re: Love interests

    WritersBlock2010
    How about the Joe and Jane Schmoes who work at the deceased tycoon's factory who will all be laid off if the lawyer gains controlling interest and liquidates the business?
    Bellabell
    She is doing it to save her friends who work at the estate (the maid of honor is the housecleaner). In saving her friends, she also does the right thing with the money and gives it to the children.
    I like what WB is saying. Instead of the estate (or just the estate), could you involve a factory? IMO it will be more "heroic- to have her fight for not only her friends, but also for the families and residents of a community. If her unselfishness is LARGER than her and her friends, you could have a more powerfully cathartic resolve; and erase any "golddigger worries.

    Hey, great idea by the way and I wish you the best of luck in production. Are you shooting on film or HD?

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    • #32
      Re: Love interests

      Originally posted by gregsonfilm View Post
      I like what WB is saying. Instead of the estate (or just the estate), could you involve a factory? IMO it will be more "heroic- to have her fight for not only her friends, but also for the families and residents of a community. If her unselfishness is LARGER than her and her friends, you could have a more powerfully cathartic resolve; and erase any "golddigger worries.

      Hey, great idea by the way and I wish you the best of luck in production. Are you shooting on film or HD?
      I can be stubborn. After a few days of thinking, I can see how WB's suggestion would make the wedding more urgent and the help the audience want to root for her.

      I'm trying to write the story with the approach that she is doing the right thing, but the benefits (of having a very wealthy husband) is any poor woman's dream come true.

      We are shooting in HD. We still have two shorts we're shooting before, so this gives me a little time to make the script perfect.
      Never mistake motion for action. ~Ernest Hemingway

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      • #33
        Re: Love interests

        I think the difficulty with having no love interest at all is that in most comedies -- and I'm talking non-romantic comedies, where something other than the relationship is the focus -- the love interest usually serves as a representative of the journey the protag needs to take. That is, the character's basic flaw/lesson to be learned, the one he/she must conquer in order to "win" at the end, is the same thing keeping them from successfully getting together with the protagonist.

        When the protag learns his/her lesson, or conquers his/her fear, or whatever ... that's when he/she is worthy of the love interest. So the reunion with the love interest at the end is the payoff for the emotional journey the protag took throughout the film.

        A love interest is just a really easy way of making the protag's internal needs tangible, and of showing what's missing from their life. It's not vital per se, but it sure makes exhibiting the protag's arc simpler. Basically, if you can show your protag's flaws, what she needs to learn, and how she learns it without a love interest, then maybe you don't need one. The love interest is simply a kind of visual shorthand that can make life a bit easier for the writer.
        The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter -- it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. - Mark Twain

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        • #34
          Re: Love interests

          Originally posted by Bellabell View Post
          I can't think of too many examples of successful comedies where the protag doesn't have a love interest.
          There are all sorts of comedies that don't have a love interest. Did they all work? Well, some did. Look at Cheech and Chong. A buddy comedy movie. No love interest.

          But convention says, yeah, there's a love interest. Conventions suck though. I say if it's your movie, your money, and your script kicks ass without the love interest, go for it.

          Maybe look at the flip-side, how many comedy movies had a love interest that was so telegraphed that you knew, just knew, it was tacked on by a prodco or studio to pander to an audience, at the expense of the story. If it works, it works, but don't tag it on in a half-ass fashion.
          Mark

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          • #35
            Re: Love interests

            I'm all for bucking conventions...

            But there is a reason love is "tacked on" to almost every single genre and it has nothing to do with the fact 50% of the audience is female like I said earlier:

            Code:
                                      PARRISH
                    I know it's a cornball thing but
                    love is passion, obsession, someone
                    you can't live without.  If you
                    don't start with that, what are you
                    going to end up with?  I say fall
                    head over heels.  Find someone you
                    can love like crazy and who'll love
                    you the same way back.  And how do
                    you find him?  Forget your head and
                    listen to your heart.  I'm not
                    hearing any heart.
                        (a moment)
                    Run the risk, if you get hurt, you'll 
                    come back.  Because, the truth is 
                    there is no sense living your life 
                    without this.  To make the journey 
                    and not fall deeply in love -- well, 
                    you haven't lived a life at all.  
                    You have to try.  Because if you haven't 
                    tried, you haven't lived.
            And before someone chimes with a smart-ass comment trying be "cute"...

            The point is this is the kind of emotion you have to tap into if you are writing about love. In any capacity. You don't have to wear (write with) your heart on your sleeve, but you have to at least understand and articulate it in a similar degree. Love is one of the human conditions/emotions universal for every human being on the planet. It's what we fight about, fight against and makes everything worth fighting for in the end. It's why humans fight to overcome obstacles with the hope of becoming better people in the end... Which is exactly what Bellabell's story is about
            Positive outcomes. Only.

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            • #36
              Re: Love interests

              Hey Bella, why don't you put a young pool boy that keeps falling into the pool but can't swim? Or...a gardener that can't contol his weed eater. Maybe a super macho guy that shows up in a 80's Trans Am and pull the tools out of the trunk. I'm thinking plumber.

              I can see it now...jerry curl slicked back hair, gold necklaces and braceletts, Gucci sunglasses, parachute pants and a Members Only jacket that is as new as the day it was bought.

              You get the point. It needs to be completely out of place for a comedy.

              Script Maniac.
              Beauty is wasted on the young...


              "The World is as you see it." -- ancient Hindu scripture.

              Comment


              • #37
                Re: Love interests

                Originally posted by WritersBlock2010 View Post
                Your script might be geared toward more females... Since the main character is a female... So you have to figure out how to put male asses in the seats too... Unless you want your heroine to run around in a bikini for 90% of the flick.
                Now that would be funny!
                Beauty is wasted on the young...


                "The World is as you see it." -- ancient Hindu scripture.

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