Using technology in scripts

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  • Using technology in scripts

    Is it wise not to use the latest toys, like a iPad, in a script? I think in general most movies avoid using the current hot gadgets since they will look really stupid and dated when someone is watching the film in ten years. Like seeing someone with an early clunky mobile phone.

  • #2
    Re: Using technology in scripts

    It doesn't matter - use it if it serves the story. Technology usually only looks silly when it's recently outdated, but soon it becames apt for the period.

    ETA: It's more likely to look silly if you simply use it to make the setting looking falsely modern, but it also depends to a degree on genre.
    "Friends make the worst enemies." Frank Underwood

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    • #3
      Re: Using technology in scripts

      Originally posted by DavidK View Post
      It doesn't matter - use it if it serves the story. Technology usually only looks silly when it's recently outdated, but soon it becames apt for the period.
      But in every movie, from One Billion B.C. to any futuristic sci-fi, they ALWAY drink Pepsi. Sometimes Mountain Dew.

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      • #4
        Re: Using technology in scripts

        They are reading the script *today*, so don't worry about the technology being out of date when/if they make the movie.

        During the Oscars there was a commercial for Flair pens - I didn't know they still made them! But if you've read THE DEAD ZONE, Flair pens where the huge technological change that blew the mind of the protag.

        What matters is the person who reads your script today.

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

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        • #5
          Re: Using technology in scripts

          Originally posted by zz9 View Post
          Is it wise not to use the latest toys, like a iPad, in a script? I think in general most movies avoid using the current hot gadgets since they will look really stupid and dated when someone is watching the film in ten years. Like seeing someone with an early clunky mobile phone.
          It doesn't matter. This is one of those "rules" that someone made up and really has no bearing on the quality of the script, or its chances of selling. Product placement is something that legal affairs handles anyway... so include what you need to include to tell your story the best way possible, and the distributor will worry about what they can clear for inclusion in the movie. It'll be what it'll be. Don't unjustly hinder your creativity by giving yourself a list of "don't include" items just because you're worried about them feeling dated in 10 years.

          If this were a concern, nobody would include cell phones, cars, computers, furniture, appliances, or televisions in their scripts, for fear of looking dated ten years from now.

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          • #6
            Re: Using technology in scripts

            DavidK: It doesn't matter - use it if it serves the story. Technology usually only looks silly when it's recently outdated, but soon it becames apt for the period.
            I agree with the others. I especially liked David's observation that old technology only looks clunky when it is still fairly new but obsolete.

            When the technology is really old, it is just historical. A few years ago I saw a sci-fi film from (probably) the late 1950s or early 1960s in which an astronaut, in space, was using a slide rule to calculate something. I think that this was historical, not clunky. Nonetheless, it was a bit ludicrous, but not so much because the technology was outdated as because the film failed to recognize that space craft need computers for navigation.

            "The fact that you have seen professionals write poorly is no reason for you to imitate them." - ComicBent.

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            • #7
              Re: Using technology in scripts

              Originally posted by ComicBent View Post
              I agree with the others. I especially liked David's observation that old technology only looks clunky when it is still fairly new but obsolete.

              When the technology is really old, it is just historical. A few years ago I saw a sci-fi film from (probably) the late 1950s or early 1960s in which an astronaut, in space, was using a slide rule to calculate something. I think that this was historical, not clunky. Nonetheless, it was a bit ludicrous, but not so much because the technology was outdated as because the film failed to recognize that space craft need computers for navigation.
              Apollo 13 showed NASA engineers using slide rules. They were still standard tools used before the pocket calculator.

              I never took avoiding technology as a hard rule, you'd be hard pressed to make any contemporary film without some technology, but just thought it might be good not to make a big feature of the latest gizmo's since things like the iPhone would probably be outdated by the time a movie was released on DVD.

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              • #8
                Re: Using technology in scripts

                Well, never thought about that...

                It's good you think it doesn't matter, because I have my architect run around with a pocket pc *don't name brands LOL* and everyone uses a cell phone and other gimmicks....

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                • #9
                  Re: Using technology in scripts

                  I had one project where I had to keep changing the technology. A line of dialog originally referred to 'a Walkman'. Then it got updated to 'an iPod'. Now it will be 'an iPad'.

                  I think I should just make it generic !

                  Mac
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                  • #10
                    Re: Using technology in scripts

                    Either that or peel a slice off frontal lobe of Steve Job's brain.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Using technology in scripts

                      In general this is not something for the writer to worry about unless the piece of technology plays an integral role in the story, it may be necessary to re imagine it then. Personally though I think it's a bad idea to include cell phones in movies because they date so quickly, but when we're talking about the iPad in 20 years people will look back on that and feel nostalgia in the same way we look at some of the trends in movies of the 60s and 70s, and only really when the trends take over the movie is it in danger of being accused of being dated.
                      "This kid is going to be big"

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                      • #12
                        Re: Using technology in scripts

                        As a Sci³-Fi screenwriter, I use technology appropriate to the story-setting/time... That's really what it means to write sci-fi...!

                        Compare Clarke and Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, to Hyam's -later- 2010: The Year We Make Contact (adapted Clarke's 2010: Odyssey Two)...

                        The difference is astonishing: 2001 had flat-screen monitors throughout the Discovery spaceship, and 'data' that looked like ship-data,... But, 2010, had old-fashioned CRT's running Atari(?)-feeds that looked like 1950's NTSC....

                        Who's at fault--? The screenwriter did his job on 2001, Not on 2010....

                        Although you'd never want science to be your downfall, you'd better-best be thinking about the space-time 'physics' of your screenplay if you want it to be enjoyed still in its prime 40 years later...! (The 'real' mistake, in both stories, is the year-- We've passed both...!)
                        ____

                        When you use 'modern' technology, you might use only the most clever features, and use it quickly as if it were just a handy thing in the pocket.
                        sigpic Ray. (Amateur-professional of many revisions)

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                        • #13
                          Re: Using technology in scripts

                          Originally posted by VanceVanCleaf View Post
                          Well, never thought about that...

                          It's good you think it doesn't matter, because I have my architect run around with a pocket pc *don't name brands LOL* and everyone uses a cell phone and other gimmicks....

                          I agree with the "don't name brands". You might be better off using generic names like tablet and smartphone over names like ipad and ipod.

                          "Jack rips out his tablet computer and frantically pulls up a list of local police departments."

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                          • #14
                            Re: Using technology in scripts

                            Originally posted by nut854 View Post
                            I agree with the "don't name brands". You might be better off using generic names like tablet and smartphone over names like ipad and ipod.

                            "Jack rips out his tablet computer and frantically pulls up a list of local police departments."
                            When Microsoft launched its Bing search engine, it was quickly followed by a spoof ad for Bing: "And with Bing, you can Google everything." I have no doubt that people walk into stores and ask for "That Motorola iPhone" or "That HP iPad".

                            For a short while I had a reference in the action in a script to "a tablet computer"... I gave up and put in "iPad". I think it's easier to read and the better choice, the only risk being that the reader hates Apple stuff. (I say that as someone who is not an Apple fan; the only Apple thing I own is an iPod that was a gift.)

                            OTOH, I do think "smartphone" works fine.

                            If the trademark is actually important to the story, I just follow the mention in the action with ®.

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                            • #15
                              Re: Using technology in scripts

                              Social Network would have done poorly if everyone networked via corded telephones.
                              www.silvercop.com
                              If we don't get the information, and if we don't get the leads, we can't track down the killers.

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