Bad Loglines = Bad Screenplays?

I almost mentioned that you could probably find a funny way to tell that story...

But if I saw a trailer for a movie about a really funny woman stuck in traffic, I don't think I'd pay to see the movie. If you were the funniest person in the world and the camera followed you around for a typical day and you cracked jokes about everything, it might be amusing... but where's the story? I could just hang out with my friends and experience the same thing.

And I've seen indie films that were just that: A bunch of guys sitting around making fun of the world around them. Funny for ten minutes, absolute torture after 90 minutes.

By the way - don't be fooled by movies that seem like they are from real life like TAO OF STEVE. That's a fine-tuned peice of entertainment with a larger-than-life lead character who we see at the defining moment of his life. It's plot driven! Every scene in that film is there for a reason, every character has a purpose, and it's designed to please the audience.

- Bill

Grrrrrrr

This has been wonderful. Lots of things to think about...however...my life IS interesting!!! All kinds of people would be dieing to hear about it. Now, let's see, where are those people...????

When I wrote Sign Language, I had no intention of including anything about my own life into the main character. For one thing, all of my friends and family might recognize it and think I'm really kind of whacked. However, parts of me made their way into the female lead...not the b|tchy parts tho (I have my own style of doing that )

Thanks for sharing!

Tina

But often it is not.

Talk to your bomb-squad buddy again and have him tell you about all the days in between when there are no calls. What they do, the reading, training, coffee-drinking, shooting the breeze around the water cooler stuff. That is NOT interesting.

Of course he has a multitude of tales to tell, based on the interesting stuff that DOES happen. But it does not happen continuously, a fact for which I am sure he is grateful.

Air-traffic control is a job constant stress and pressure - but it does not equal a good movie until a "DieHard2" or "Airport" situation ensues. Constant action and stress, yes... filmability: no.

Very interesting, and so true. It's nice to see the complete thought laid out. And yes, even daily life on the Bomb Squad is BORING, except for ocassional moments of unbridled fear and stress. To make it as a movie, the bomb squad WOULD have to have a story, with a complete story arc containing dramatic conflict, character challenges, and a resolution. And would have to have character interaction on a level beyond the usual stuff of life, where concise (90 minutes folks), authentic dialogue defines characters. The realism of 'I don't know what I'm doing tonite Freddy... What're you doing tonite?' ain't gonna make it.
But the thing is, those 40,000 wga registered scripts a year, you know? I think most people really DO believe that their lives ARE interesting. And their scripts are more a cathartic exercise, or monument to themselves than they are entertainment. And that's fine, so long as I don't read em.
We are all of us, writers... yet only a few will be writers of movies (as in moving pictures, not inanimate scripts).

Ask ANY 20 y/o male what's a good idea for a movie and he'll say "The story of my life."

And he'll be serious.

wcmartell,

You're scaring me.

I read your article :INDEPENDENTS: Dog Juice" and took it to heart. I figured my current project was for the indie market and I crammed as much "juice" in as I could. Then I remembered your remark, "If I wonder whether I've gone far enough, I probably haven't," or something to that effect. And I crammed even more juice into the damned script.

At this point the script is, well, juicy. Very juicy.

A couple quotes from your opening comment in this thread are in order:

"If your scipt is too different than other movies, the audience won't want to see it".

"If you can't think of any recent films like your script, there may be a very good reason... they don't make movies like that... start looking for similar stories in other media."

I can put together a logline for my script. It would take the form "Movie X meets Movie Y meets Movie Z". So in that way, I don't feel off the deep end. And yet, we're talking lots of dog juice here.

Then I think, well, "Being John Malkovich" was weird, original, funny, juicy.

Question: Is it possible to have too much dog juice for even the indies?

greg