Re: POV
Like, APW posted:
How do you answer your question re: Shawshank Redemption? And even though we saw the movie, "Misery" from the James Caan character's POV, whose actions drove that story forward? I think both are good puzzlers to figure out.
Also, for anyone to answer, I would like a bit of advice on the following: I knew my "theme" or "story question" before I ever started writing word one of my screenplay. The same question or theme was done to perfection in Sam Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs" with the Dustin Hoffman character. And I'm no Sam Peckinpah so I could use all the help I can get.
My theme is, "What are any of us capable of doing/becoming given the right circumstances?" or even, "What violence are any of us capable of doing?"
You start out with a somewhat namby-pamby normal character who progresses by story's end to someone capable of pulling that trigger.
Plunk an ordinary person down in extraordinary circumstances and see what happens when the sh*t hits the old fan.
That was my theme or story idea and the POV of my protagonist because she was the nice person who turned into someone capable of violence.
BUT... my antagonist, the psychobitch who perpetrates all manner of nightmares upon this woman and her child is SO MUCH MORE INTERESTING as a character.
I considered telling the story from HER point of view so I could show how she became a psycho and do all kinds of creepy stuff with her story.
But that would not address my main theme at all and that main theme was the driving force behind my desire to even write this screenplay. And in the end, I think a normal person's journey to evil or violence is much more fascinating than someone who's already there.
My nice character didn't turn evil, just violent. She had to kill.
So should I have told the story from her POV? Or should I have done it from the antagonist's POV?
Like, APW posted:
Who's prejudices, fears, and hopes are filtering the story we're seeing?
Also, for anyone to answer, I would like a bit of advice on the following: I knew my "theme" or "story question" before I ever started writing word one of my screenplay. The same question or theme was done to perfection in Sam Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs" with the Dustin Hoffman character. And I'm no Sam Peckinpah so I could use all the help I can get.
My theme is, "What are any of us capable of doing/becoming given the right circumstances?" or even, "What violence are any of us capable of doing?"
You start out with a somewhat namby-pamby normal character who progresses by story's end to someone capable of pulling that trigger.
Plunk an ordinary person down in extraordinary circumstances and see what happens when the sh*t hits the old fan.
That was my theme or story idea and the POV of my protagonist because she was the nice person who turned into someone capable of violence.
BUT... my antagonist, the psychobitch who perpetrates all manner of nightmares upon this woman and her child is SO MUCH MORE INTERESTING as a character.
I considered telling the story from HER point of view so I could show how she became a psycho and do all kinds of creepy stuff with her story.
But that would not address my main theme at all and that main theme was the driving force behind my desire to even write this screenplay. And in the end, I think a normal person's journey to evil or violence is much more fascinating than someone who's already there.
My nice character didn't turn evil, just violent. She had to kill.
So should I have told the story from her POV? Or should I have done it from the antagonist's POV?
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