Newbies writing on H'wood

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  • #16
    Re: Newbies writing on H'wood

    the other one was written/produced/directed by the same guy (and doesn't make much sense).
    I'm glad somebody else said it.
    sigpic

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    • #17
      Re: Newbies writing on H'wood

      It's been a while since one of these kinds of stories had much real success. There was American Dreamz, State and Main, the TV Set and others that are inside Hollywood movies and none of them set the world on fire.
      "Witticism"
      -Some Guy

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      • #18
        Re: Newbies writing on H'wood

        Originally posted by scriptfixer View Post
        The Player, Get Shorty, Mulholland Drive, all different TYPES of spoofs on Hollywood.
        Actually none of these movies are about hollywood. They are set in Los Angeles. Have characters that work in the industry. And work off the backdrop of the industry.

        The player is about a Man's relationship with his own death. Or coming to grips with his own mortality.

        Get Shorty is about negotiations. Every scene is a negotiation between two different people. The line over and over again said by Chilli is, you and Harry have a deal, we made a deal.

        There's a scene where Chilli and Karen just get of the theater after watching Touch of Evil.
        (pg.58)
        Karen: then you read it?
        Chilli: not yet.
        Karen: You and Harry'll make a great team(then)I'm gonna make a deal with him.
        Chilli:There a part in it for you?
        Karen: I don't want to act in it, I want to produce it with Harry. Especially if I help him get Martin.
        Chilli: sounds fair.
        Karen What do you get out of it?
        Chilli: That why you came over here, to ask me that?
        Karen: I wanna know.

        -I'm sure Scott Frank knew that when he adapted it.


        I'm not going to explain Mullholland Dr. It's a movie you should watch and I'm sure you'll learn from it. You guys are writers and know structure, you can easily figure it out.


        BTW: William Goldman, writes about the industry.
        But this wily god never discloses even to the skillful questioner the whole content of his wisdom.

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        • #19
          Re: Newbies writing on H'wood

          Originally posted by wcmartell View Post
          It's also probably not high concept.

          The main problems usually are that Hollywood scripts are usually written by people who get *everything* wrong... and the story is not something an audience member in Peoria or Paris or Phnom Pen will identify with. Most end up being writer's fantasies rather than *audience* fantasies.

          - Bill (can I get a snoot on a brute over there?)
          Bill, I'm intrigued. This is perhaps the most insightful comment I've read on screenwriting . . . ever.

          But let me see if you agree with this way of putting it: High concept means that the writer projects his own neurotic fantasies onto the screen, thinking that that personal fantasy is shared globally?

          ATONEMENT is a case in point. You would not necessarily call that a high concept movie, but, at the end, we discover that much of the story we saw on the screen was the fantasy she loved obsessively, and the filmmakers thought that we too would enjoy that fantasy, once we realized that we were robbed of the truth. The "high concept" was this little piece of neurotic deception.

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          • #20
            Re: Newbies writing on H'wood

            Originally posted by reddery View Post
            Actually none of these movies are about hollywood. They are set in Los Angeles. Have characters that work in the industry. And work off the backdrop of the industry...
            This is the closest approximation of what I'm doing so far. Without giving too many details, my story deals with the wages of fame in the above scenario.

            Reddery, well said.

            p.s. - as a confirmed contrarian, I decided to write it anyway, but I do appreciate the advice. It helped me focus.
            I'm always right.

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            • #21
              Re: Newbies writing on H'wood

              A sex story written by virgins might impress other virgins but it probably won't impress Hugh Hefner.

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              • #22
                Re: Newbies writing on H'wood

                Hugh Heffner's a gross aberration, but maybe it all really does come down to down to how much action you put in it.

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