Generating Ideas
Every film starts with an idea - what this idea will be is dependent on the writer (and in this case, also the director), and the medium the writer is writing for (Winfield Sublett, 2014:11-2). However, when generating ideas it is important to "try to create freely and analyse later" (Rabiger, 2017:19) - something I had previously found difficult in the previous Script to Screen unit.
Ideas can come from many places, including the writer's own experience, historic events, observations, or real-life stories (Edgar-Hunt & Marland and Richards, 2009:30).
I kept this in mind whilst creating the above mind-map, mainly letting my mind wander and trying to push the ideas I had, but not over-analysing them too much.
I then developed the ones I liked the most into proposals, despite some of them being similar, using what is known as "ideation", the process of going over each idea and expanding them - developing elements such as character, plot - to see what potential they have, especially in what they would allow me to explore in terms of writing and directing for this project (Rabiger, 2017:17).
Initial proposals:
The Latest
A journalist’s curiosity drags her into single-handedly solving a murder.
FORMAT – Crime serial – law and crime combined?
CHANNEL – ABC or Netflix
TARGET AUDIENCE – Women 16-30
CHARACTERS
Evelyn-Stuck in the past, but curious about the future. Evelyn is a newspaper reporter who specialises in crime. She hates her job but wants to do what no one could do for her family – report the truth for the victim. Twenty-six years old.
Andrea-The coldest person you’ve ever met. And the fiercest lawyer. The only affordable one in town so takes all the bad cases. Yet, does everything for her daughter. A workaholic. The adopted mother of Evelyn’s daughter. Thirty-six years old.
Josie-Sees and hears everything. Shares her biological mother’s curiosity. Eight years old.
Gabe-An easy-going people person. Loves Veritas. Always around to help Andrea and Josie and sees them as his family. But wouldn’t admit this to Andrea. Lives across the road with his grandmother. Thirty-two years old.
SYNOPSIS
“It All Comes Back to You”
Theme: Community
The daughter Evelyn gave up eight years ago comes to find her, forcing Evelyn to take her back to her adopted mother in the town of Veritas – a town with a shaky reputation due to its class divide and corrupt mayor.
Evelyn meets Lillian and Bob Lockhart, an elderly couple who try to help the troubled kids in town. They help Evelyn deal with her daughter’s reappearance.
Yet, when Evelyn goes to thank them the next day, she discovers their house seems empty, abandoned. Dinner still on the table, candles still burning. And Bob. Murdered. Lillian missing.
With her job already on the line, Evelyn takes the chance to report the crime. But the press aren’t exactly free in Veritas. No one is.
She’ll be constantly challenged by the police chief and the mayor – both opposed to invading outsiders snooping around town.
But as the case uncovers the inner workings of Veritas and the reasons for its rising crime rates, Evelyn will be reminded of her family’s own tragedy – the death of her younger sister – which she’s been holding inside so long, she hasn’t realised it still hurts.
Explores how women are portrayed as “the victim”, as well as “the hero”. Can they be both and still have agency?
The crime genre and ABC
ABC is well known for crime shows including Moonlighting (1985), Castle (2009), and The Rookie (2018). However, ABC has an audience which are mostly female, which is why I would be interested in writing a pilot aimed at the network (Carter, 2013).
I think that Evelyn could be relatable to this audience of woman, since she would be close to their age as 40% of ABC's viewers are under 40 (Damata, 2018).
Yet, women are usually portrayed as victims of crime, not the heroes (Klinger, 2018). Despite this, I found in my previous research on the damsel in distress stereotype that this stereotype can be positive, since it can cause creators to rethink how women are represented and thus come up with more interesting characters (Colangelo, 2016). Therefore, I think I could use this stereotype to explore if women can be vulnerable, but also powerful and if this affects how proactive they are, as well as their importance in the narrative.
The Death of Marty Simmons
Film noir
Crime series? Crime of the week?
Or short film? Proof of concept?
CHARACTERS
Marty-Short for Martha. Changed her name to sound more like a man to get some respect. Wise. Stern. Tired of injustice. But takes any opportunity to have a little fun, even during the most serious cases. After all, she’s the woman and the hero. And it’s the 1950s. An experienced private eye.
SYNOPSIS
Pilot could be titled, “All My Life”
Theme: Identity
A body is found who can’t be identified – the police don’t suspect foul play, but Marty realises something is off, and begins an investigation of her own.
She gets in over her head, somewhere the police didn’t want to be, someone the police didn’t want to cross.
We think Marty could die, but a twist she puts into action changes everything – she’s been paying more attention than the audience thought
Almost a tragedy, but it leads to something good, something unexpected?
The case pushes Marty to re-evaluate why she became a private eye in the first place (shown through flashbacks).
Marty talks to the audience through voiceover at the beginning and end.
Once the case is closed, Marty decides to start going by Martha again? She’s prepared to face the discrimination and injustice she’s been running from.
Focuses on her “existential bitterness” – the annoyance she has about how she has lived
Going by Martha again could dig up her past? Other episodes could involve an estranged sibling coming to find her? A sister who is married with kids and thinks Marty should have the same, thinks she should stop playing detective and get serious? – case would be someone looking for a long-lost sibling and show Marty’s sister her work is important (Maybe Marty’s sister found herthrough a private eye?)
Women in film noir
"While neo-noir has diversified stylistically and thematically over the decades, the vast majority of its protagonists continue to be straight white men"
(O' Callaghan, 2016).
Women in film noirs are typically the 'femme fatal' - a cold, but determined woman with a plan which normally gets the protagonist into trouble (Sehayek, 2016). Yet, with Marty I would aim to explore if film noir could work without a femme fatale, and instead see if Marty could be a complicated woman who acts as the hero, but also sometimes gets herself into trouble because she has too much agency.
Untitled family drama
FORMAT – Family drama (series)
AUDIENCE – Women 16-30
CHARACTERS
Molly-The daughter. Thought she’d do more with her life. Lonely but likes to be alone. Thinks she likes to be alone. Leads to her old habits. Sometimes acts superior to those around her – her defence mechanism. A millennial.
Kathleen & Greg-The parents. Satisfied. Love life. They’re just beginning to prosper – nice house, great jobs, plenty of extra money. But not as perfect as they appear. Cracks begin to show throughout the years.
SYNOPSIS
“Go Home”
Theme: Beginnings
After a death in the family, Molly returns to the home she grew up in. But her comeback digs up her past demons – all the ‘friends’ she left behind, all the memories, regrets. Molly thinks she just wants to be left alone. But the neighbours won’t leave her. Some of them even have their own keys to her house.
Molly doesn’t want to stay. She would never have come back without the death. But she begins to think maybe she needed to return. In the middle of the pilot she confesses she doesn’t want to leave and face her work, but she doesn’t want to stay and face the nothingness here either – but is her work even worth anything?
She has to learn to embrace where she comes from. Flashbacks show Kathleen and Greg – the opposite of Molly – getting ready to welcome their first child. Molly’s best memory of the house and events of the episode sway her to stay.
The two past and present narratives run side by side, but it is unclear to the audience Molly is Kathleen and Greg’s daughter, and they are moving into the same house, until the end of the episode when Molly decides to stay.
Multi-generational family drama – by looking at the past, Molly learns how to deal with the present.
Family drama and 'patriarchal soap'
In patriarchal soaps, it has been found that there is a divide between the home and workplace - the male characters go to work, while the female characters, often mothers, are domesticated, and stay home, providing storylines about romance and motherhood (Liebes & Livingstone, 1998:11).
Therefore, I think it could be interesting to create a family drama which revolves around a matriarch, although this woman is more of the head of the family than the mother - maybe even a career woman who has no children, but holds the family together.
The 7 Billionth Hero
A dissatisfied investment banker decides to pursue her artistic dreams by becoming a graphic novelist.
FORMAT – Proof of concept film
AUDIENCE – Women 16-30
CHARACTERS
Cathryn- An investment banker fed up with her endless routine of meeting client after client. Questions her identity after her best friend calls her a 'hero' - what even makes a hero? Incredibly intelligent and creative - channels this to create her own graphic novel. Mid 30s.
Mattie- Cathryn's best friend since university. A lawyer. Worries about more than she should. More free-spirited than Cathryn, but doesn't like to travel as hates planes. Gets caught up in what she calls Cathryn's 'thinkbox experiments'. Mid 30s.
SYNOPSIS
Theme: Identity
After her best friend calls her a 'hero', investment banker Cathryn Bramson begins to question the concept, along with her own identity. She's dealt with hundreds of clients over her career, but recently she's been closing bigger deals, and working on more than she can handle as her workaholic boss drives employees away from the bank.
To escape work, Cathryn likes to draw - she has done since she was a child - but the question of what makes a hero causes her to begin taking it more seriously as she tries to discover where the hero character she has been sketching for years could fit.
This leads her to begin creating her own graphic novel, often working overnight. Exhaustion and overwork almost push Cathryn over the edge, as she undergoes a transformation to break her out of her rut, and discovers heroes, victims, villains and superpowers along the way.
The superhero film & women
Superheroes movies have recently become popular, credited to the market crash of 2008, which has been argued to have caused moviegoers to want escapism, which can be provided by superhero movies with increasingly realistic special effects able to create fantasy worlds (New York Film Academy, 2017). However, superhero films have traditionally been led by male heroes, such as Captain America, Iron Man, Batman, and Superman (Itzkoff, 2019).
Nonetheless, superhero movies are also incredibly popular due to the fact that they mirror events currently occurring in society (Hill, 2017). This can be seen by the rise in women superheroes - Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel - mirroring the rise of new feminist movements.
Therefore, Cathryn would be an interesting character to explore this with as she is a 'superhero' but without powers as a regular person who lives a double life as investment banker and graphic novelist. Thus, there is a certain element to her life which can be "dramatized" and provide conflict which could be used to drive the narrative of a film (Morton, 2016).
This is why I decided to turn this idea into a film, rather than a TV show, because it has the ability to provide a lot of conflict, even though it deals with interior conflict, since this can still be represented externally and could qualify as a "high-concept" idea, being familiar as it is part of the superhero genre - a figure which is recognisable in popular culture - yet is also slightly different, as it deals with investment banking and graphic novels, two things which don't usually mix (Winfield-Sublett, 2014:12-3).
Therefore, I have decided to use this idea for my transition unit project, since it will allow me to explore how to show a character's inner thoughts through directing - most of Cathryn's conflict is in her head - since I am interested in using and improving using shot composition, colour, and pacing to do this, and further refine my directing.
In addition, this idea allows me to explore the representation of women in superhero films through screenwriting, which can help me better understand how to write a genre film, as well as how to bend the rules of that genre to create my own type of superhero story.
Nonetheless, superhero movies are also incredibly popular due to the fact that they mirror events currently occurring in society (Hill, 2017). This can be seen by the rise in women superheroes - Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel - mirroring the rise of new feminist movements.
Therefore, Cathryn would be an interesting character to explore this with as she is a 'superhero' but without powers as a regular person who lives a double life as investment banker and graphic novelist. Thus, there is a certain element to her life which can be "dramatized" and provide conflict which could be used to drive the narrative of a film (Morton, 2016).
This is why I decided to turn this idea into a film, rather than a TV show, because it has the ability to provide a lot of conflict, even though it deals with interior conflict, since this can still be represented externally and could qualify as a "high-concept" idea, being familiar as it is part of the superhero genre - a figure which is recognisable in popular culture - yet is also slightly different, as it deals with investment banking and graphic novels, two things which don't usually mix (Winfield-Sublett, 2014:12-3).
Therefore, I have decided to use this idea for my transition unit project, since it will allow me to explore how to show a character's inner thoughts through directing - most of Cathryn's conflict is in her head - since I am interested in using and improving using shot composition, colour, and pacing to do this, and further refine my directing.
In addition, this idea allows me to explore the representation of women in superhero films through screenwriting, which can help me better understand how to write a genre film, as well as how to bend the rules of that genre to create my own type of superhero story.
References
Carter, B. (2013) 'ABC Viewers Tilt Female for a Network Light on Sports' In: The New York Times. [online] At: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/business/media/abc-viewers-tilt-female-for-a-network-light-on-sports.html (Accessed on 25 February 2019).
Colangelo, B. (2016) 'In Defense Of The Damsel In Distress'. In: The 13th Floor. [online] At: http://www.the13thfloor.tv/2016/08/04/in-defense-of-the-damsel-in-distress/ (Accessed on 25 February 2019).
Damata, J. (2018) 'Where ABC Still Strikes Gold(bergs)' In: Broadcasting & Cable. [online] At: https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/where-abc-still-strikes-gold-bergs (Accessed on 25 February 2019).
Edgar-Hunt, R. & Marland, J. and Richards, J. (2009) Basics Film-Making 02: Screenwriting. Switzerland: AVA Publishing SA.
Hill, L. (2017) 'Why Did The Superhero Movie Become So Popular?' In: Odyssey. [online] At: https://www.theodysseyonline.com/superhero-movie-become-popular (Accessed on 28 April 2019).
Itzkoff, D. (2019) 'Can 'Captain Marvel' Fix Marvel's Woman Problem?' In: The New York Times. [online] At: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/movies/captain-marvel.html?module=inline (Accessed on 28 April 2019).
Edgar-Hunt, R. & Marland, J. and Richards, J. (2009) Basics Film-Making 02: Screenwriting. Switzerland: AVA Publishing SA.
Hill, L. (2017) 'Why Did The Superhero Movie Become So Popular?' In: Odyssey. [online] At: https://www.theodysseyonline.com/superhero-movie-become-popular (Accessed on 28 April 2019).
Itzkoff, D. (2019) 'Can 'Captain Marvel' Fix Marvel's Woman Problem?' In: The New York Times. [online] At: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/movies/captain-marvel.html?module=inline (Accessed on 28 April 2019).
Klinger, B. (2018) ‘Gateway Bodies: Serial Form, Genre, and White Femininity in Imported Crime TV’ In: Television & New Media. 27.04.18 [online] At: https://journals-sagepub-com.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/doi/10.1177/1527476418768003 (Accessed on 25 February 2019).
Liebes, T.; Livingstone, S. (1998). 'European soap operas : the diversification of a genre' In: LSE Research Online. [online] At: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4152/c716835f5d97f9ef7ff5e12543b600441515.pdf (Accessed on 25 February 2019).
Morton, R. (2016) 'THE CRAFT: Lessons from The Best and Worst Super Hero Films' In: Script Magazine. [online] At: https://www.scriptmag.com/features/craft-features/craft-lessons-best-worst-super-hero-films (Accessed on 28 April 2019).
New York Film Academy (2017) The Rise of Superhero Films. At: https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/the-rise-of-superhero-films/ (Accessed on 28 April 2019).
Morton, R. (2016) 'THE CRAFT: Lessons from The Best and Worst Super Hero Films' In: Script Magazine. [online] At: https://www.scriptmag.com/features/craft-features/craft-lessons-best-worst-super-hero-films (Accessed on 28 April 2019).
New York Film Academy (2017) The Rise of Superhero Films. At: https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/the-rise-of-superhero-films/ (Accessed on 28 April 2019).
O' Callaghan, P. (2016) 'Where to begin with neo-noir' In: BFI film forever. [online] At: https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/fast-track-fandom-where-begin-neo-noir (Accessed on 25 February 2019).
Rabiger, M. (2017) Developing Story Ideas: The Power and Purpose of Storytelling. (3rd ed.) Oxon: Routledge.
Winfield-Sublett, S. (2014) Screenwriting for Neurotics: A Beginner's Guide to Writing A Feature-Length Screenplay from Start to Finish. Iowa: University of Iowa Press.
Rabiger, M. (2017) Developing Story Ideas: The Power and Purpose of Storytelling. (3rd ed.) Oxon: Routledge.
Winfield-Sublett, S. (2014) Screenwriting for Neurotics: A Beginner's Guide to Writing A Feature-Length Screenplay from Start to Finish. Iowa: University of Iowa Press.
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