Military base/training - cliched setting?

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  • Military base/training - cliched setting?

    I'm thinking about writing a script that would be an ensemble comedy set on a military base, probably during basic training, but I feel that this is overly familiar territory.

    I can remember a few similar stories (Catch 22, Full Metal Jacket, Tigerland) but I feel like there's more and it just feels like a very familiar setting and type of story, a bunch of guys in the military.

    Do you guys feel the same way or am I wrong on this?

  • #2
    Re: Military base/training - cliched setting?

    Stripes- Bill Murray
    Private Benjamin- Goldie Hawn

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    • #3
      Re: Military base/training - cliched setting?

      If we've seen the location before, it puts more pressure on the concept to be original. I have a Script Tip in rotation on how vampires are not high concept - we've seen them a million times before so they don't make a good "plug in" ("It's CASABLANCA... with vampires!"), which means you have to find the element of vampires that has never been done before. The vampires are the "same" and now you need to find the "but different". So 30 DAYS OF NIGHT gives us vampires in Barrow, Alaska - the land of always night! We haven't seen that before and it totally ratchets up the conflict and changes the vampire story, so it's a great "but different".

      So what is the high concept "but different" for your story in basic training?

      - Bill
      Free Script Tips:
      http://www.scriptsecrets.net

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      • #4
        Re: Military base/training - cliched setting?

        the military keeps changing.

        just my four cents.

        and i'd guess the new changes tend to change everything. or maybe not.

        crap, now it's eleven or seventeen cents. something close to that.

        best,
        anconranger, who was never an army ranger, or park ranger, or texas ranger, etc.

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        • #5
          Re: Military base/training - cliched setting?

          It's going to be really hard to have a setting that has not been used before, so go for it.

          As someone said, if the setting is not original (and that's ok) you need a great story with great characters.

          If you have that the setting should be irrelevant (unless it is, for the story: you HAVE to shoot Titanic on a ship).
          Check out my website with my productions: http://www.picturesplusproductions.com

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          • #6
            Re: Military base/training - cliched setting?

            There's a lot more to military training bases than the parade ground, shooting range and barracks. The mess hall, stores, armory, admin offices, and other areas are all places where you can change the setting and dynamics to give your story some difference, but the main difference needs to be in the story itself.
            "Friends make the worst enemies." Frank Underwood

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            • #7
              Re: Military base/training - cliched setting?

              Originally posted by Dimitri001 View Post
              I'm thinking about writing a script that would be an ensemble comedy set on a military base, probably during basic training, but I feel that this is overly familiar territory.

              I can remember a few similar stories (Catch 22, Full Metal Jacket, Tigerland) but I feel like there's more and it just feels like a very familiar setting and type of story, a bunch of guys in the military.

              Do you guys feel the same way or am I wrong on this?
              As to your question about cliché, here's this: "What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun." -- Ecclesiastes 1:9.

              It's the "... there is nothing new under the sun" part that concerns screenwriters. Ordinarily, it's the characters who engage us in a story, no matter how cool or hot the setting. If you give us "the same thing," make sure "it's different" in some way, shape, or form.

              Your military base setting and its inherent characteristics will vary, naturally, depending on the branch of military service you choose and whether or not it's basic training or an advanced training facility. That setting alone can and ought to impact the characters' interactions with one another, perhaps also giving you specific "tools" pertaining to the training with which characters might help or harm one another. At the end of the proverbial day, character dynamics and interaction is what every on-screen story in film or television is all about.

              In my experience, the military training school(s) attended beyond basic training included all four branches of the U.S. military as well as the U.S. Coast Guard. This made for some interesting and good-natured (usually) rivalry among all competitors whatever the task at hand.

              That reminds of the time when ... oh, man! Thanks for giving me another story idea assignment to work out.
              Last edited by Clint Hill; 10-24-2016, 05:13 AM.
              “Nothing is what rocks dream about” ― Aristotle

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              • #8
                Re: Military base/training - cliched setting?

                Originally posted by Dimitri001 View Post
                I'm thinking about writing a script that would be an ensemble comedy set on a military base, probably during basic training, but I feel that this is overly familiar territory.

                I can remember a few similar stories (Catch 22, Full Metal Jacket, Tigerland) but I feel like there's more and it just feels like a very familiar setting and type of story, a bunch of guys in the military.

                Do you guys feel the same way or am I wrong on this?
                To me it would depend on what military base or what type of training these guys had to go through that would resolve the "cliche location" problem.

                I have no idea what your comedy is about but what if the main character thinks he's going to the traditional basic training on a standard military base but for whatever reason has to do his training in Area 51?

                Maybe North Korea and the United States now have sort of a foreign exchange student type of program thing in place and your main character has to do his training over there and it's completely insane?

                ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
                One must be fearless and tenacious when pursuing their dreams. If you don't, regret will be your reward.

                The Fiction Story Room

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