Re: "Cloverfield"
But perhaps what you're impressed by is good Directing, not good Screenwriting.
And by Directing I meant VISUALS, maybe not even "directing" per se. (I don't believe for a moment that the "amateur video" camera style wasn't carefully thought out and rehearsed and re-shot ... But I know they picked a camera style that easily disguises and forgives true mistakes and real amateurism, too)
The dialogue isn't all that great (just "real" sounding) ...
I haven't read CLOVERFIELD on the script page, but common sense suggests it may be full of sentences like "They look down, a huge monster is destroying the city" OR ELSE they would have had to describe scenes in such detail that ... well, that it would be BAD SCREENWRITING (if we agree that your screenplays shouldn't read like highly descriptive prose novels)
CLOVERFIELD is a very cool DIRECTOR'S movie, and a fun AUDIENCE and FAN movie.
But c'mon, it's not a Writer's movie, and I'm assuming (and admit it's IMO) this is a Writer's website.
I enjoyed it, we can all enjoy it, but as Writers don't we have to understand the DIFFERENCE between what we need to write on the page and what the Directors and CGI geniuses do ???
I agree. Except that I wouldn't even call it a "unique concept" ... I'd call it "another giant-monster-eats-city movie"
King Kong
Godzilla (and probably bigger monster fans here could also name another ten Japanese movies from the 1950's and 1960's)
All the giant spider movies
All the giant woman movies
All the giant (fill in the blank) movies
The recent spate of giant dragon movies
No, the ones above don't do the "You are there with a video camera" schtick (for that you can check out all the Viet Nam war footage, or the "documentary" thing Kubrick did in DR. STRANGELOVE, or The Blair Witch Project (and all the "video voyeur" horror movies) or turn on CNN, or ...)
C'mon, man, credit where credit is due.
Just because it's a FANTASY MOVIE, we don't have to praise it so much HERE that we lose all touch with reality!
If anyone can share with me the title of another "giant-monster-eats-city" movie that evokes the level of genuine visceral tension that CLOVERFIELD does (on several occasions throughout its running time) I'd really like to hear it.
You feel like you're in the middle of a genuine catastrophe in several moments in this film.
You feel like you're in the middle of a genuine catastrophe in several moments in this film.
And by Directing I meant VISUALS, maybe not even "directing" per se. (I don't believe for a moment that the "amateur video" camera style wasn't carefully thought out and rehearsed and re-shot ... But I know they picked a camera style that easily disguises and forgives true mistakes and real amateurism, too)
The dialogue isn't all that great (just "real" sounding) ...
I haven't read CLOVERFIELD on the script page, but common sense suggests it may be full of sentences like "They look down, a huge monster is destroying the city" OR ELSE they would have had to describe scenes in such detail that ... well, that it would be BAD SCREENWRITING (if we agree that your screenplays shouldn't read like highly descriptive prose novels)
CLOVERFIELD is a very cool DIRECTOR'S movie, and a fun AUDIENCE and FAN movie.
But c'mon, it's not a Writer's movie, and I'm assuming (and admit it's IMO) this is a Writer's website.
I enjoyed it, we can all enjoy it, but as Writers don't we have to understand the DIFFERENCE between what we need to write on the page and what the Directors and CGI geniuses do ???
The longer this thread goes, the more people are coming around to the fact that it wasn't great screenwriting, but just a unique concept.
King Kong
Godzilla (and probably bigger monster fans here could also name another ten Japanese movies from the 1950's and 1960's)
All the giant spider movies
All the giant woman movies
All the giant (fill in the blank) movies
The recent spate of giant dragon movies
No, the ones above don't do the "You are there with a video camera" schtick (for that you can check out all the Viet Nam war footage, or the "documentary" thing Kubrick did in DR. STRANGELOVE, or The Blair Witch Project (and all the "video voyeur" horror movies) or turn on CNN, or ...)
C'mon, man, credit where credit is due.
Just because it's a FANTASY MOVIE, we don't have to praise it so much HERE that we lose all touch with reality!
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