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Writing For Independent Film

Sterling — Fri, 07 May 2010 05:22:06 +0000

The question remains: Do structures, templates and systems help us with the evaluation of film or literature? Kurt Vonnegut, in his post on Lapham’s Quarterly (a magazine dedicated to history and Ideas) states that “Perhaps a real masterpiece cannot be crucified on a cross [of its own design]“.

Writing our independent film Lullaby for a Lunatic has not been an easy task becuase there is a constant battle between story design standards and the more natural growth of our story’s development. This is not the only dilemma we are faced with as independent filmmakers. While story structure remains a concern for filmmakers operating within any budget, we independent filmmakers are given the additional burden of shaping our story around our financial limitations.

When you’re writing an independent feature film you’re required to limit the scope of your story based on the film’s budget. This manifests itself in different ways, but essentially it means: No car chases, no pool scenes in Italian mansions, no explosions, no special effects and no Gene Hackman.

Independent filmmakers often feel burdened by these limitations that inevitably force them to make creative compromises in their productions. This might mean finding fewer locations and designing smaller spaces (which may give the film a claustrophobic feel). Another creative compromise is made because independent filmmakers shy aware from action scenes and rely heavily on dialogue scenes in an attempt to make their scenes manageable and cheap. The result is often 2 or more people sitting in a room and sharing their ideas about life.

Film is a visual medium where its potential is found when filmmakers “show” and not “tell”. A classic example of a film that relies too heavily on exposition and not enough action is the independent film “Slacker”. Each scene is made up of just two or more people talking in different environments. The action is always meaningless (watching TV, playing hand games or drinking beer to name only a few examples).

You can tell this by just looking at the trailer:

You’ll often hear independent filmmakers say things like “we didn’t have the budget so we sat two actors at a table and filmed them talking and debating for 90 minutes”. However, balancing your action and dialogue is important for a well balanced script.

Another recent example would be the film “Medicine for Melancholy”. Although the two main characters travel through the city, the main purpose of their traveling seems to be only that it allows the filmmaker to change the background so the audience doesn’t get too bored. The entire film is simply a vessel for a conversation on race and gentrification in San Francisco: A message you are hit over the head with.

Sure, they change locations from the back of a cab, to the street, to a museum, to her house, to his house and to an amusement park, but a change of locations doesn’t qualify as action. At one point in the trailer you even hear one of the characters seem to get annoyed by the script’s dependency on dialogue when the female lead says “I don’t want to talk anymore… Let’s do something”. They go dancing. This is possibly the only (memorable) action in the entire film. See for yourself.

We’re working hard to create a film that finds its place somewhere between an epic war film and a dogmatic rant over coffee about life’s troubles. Between those two extremes, somewhere in that gradient of action lays our film: Lullaby for a Lunatic.

Igor Serdarevic is the writer of Lullaby for a Lunatic. He has been working on the story idea and script for about half a year now. While writing this feature film he has had to work with the two major limitations that plague (for better or worse) all independent films: First, our budgets don’t allow us to shoot with expensive actors, in expensive locations, with expensive props (overseas locations, amusement parks, stadiums, Lamborghini’s etc). The cost of renting and insuring these locations and props would be far too expensive. Therefore, it’s important that we work within the realm of more attainable locations (homes, rooms, hallways, basements, streets, parks etc) and try to add as much production value as possible to those environments.

After locations, the second major limitation of writing for independent film is keeping the number of characters to a minimum. Lullaby for a Lunatic will have 2 lead actors that are accompanied by only a handful of supporting actors.

THE STORY’S EVOLUTIONARY STORY

When we started writing this story we started with very fragmented parts that needed stitched together. Igor was thinking in terms of story and I was thinking in terms of visuals. In order to get on the same page we started developing our ideas of who our protagonist was. This was great because it allowed us to broaden our storyline and accent certain details within the pieces of script we had already. But at the end of the day, our story was still a fragmented mess.

Virtually, every good story has a clear beginning, middle and end. We know this. And we also know that by knowing our ending we can properly set up your script’s first and second act. This has been one of the biggest challenges so far. Searching for a strong through-line that guides our protagonist from page 1 to page 90. This is why many independent films are character driven films rather than plot driven films. However, we’re working hard to ensure we embed an interesting plot into our story as well.

AND NOW FOR LESSON 1

When you’re having difficulties finding your through-line you should flesh out your protagonist (in Greek drama terms, your Hero) and get to know them better. You need to find out who your protagonist is. What are their fears, wants, needs and ambitions? When you start exploring these questions you’ll soon begin to uncover their GOAL (hint: ending to your story). It’s important to note, that it’s not necessary to force your protagonist to achieve their goal. They can fail miserably in their quest or even change their mind mid way through your story, but the protagonist’s goal will provide motivation for action which will then naturally propel them through the story in a way that is easy for an audience to understand and relate to.

Examining how our protagonist achieves their goal forces us to think what type of protagonist we’re dealing with. Is our protagonist a:

1. Classic hero: The classic hero archetype generally pursues a positive goal or at least a goal that helps them avoid a negative consequence. The classic hero generally has a sympathetic goal that audiences can relate to. It’s important to note that classic heroes shouldn’t be all good all the time. They also don’t need to be an entirely positive person. They can be riddled with flaws, but it is important that they are unique and interesting.

The “hero” archetype can further be broken down into two subcategories:

Willing: Takes on the goal of their own will
Unwilling: Is forced into action against their will

2. Anti Hero: The anti-hero is the type of protagonist that pursues a negative goal. Audience’s are not drawn towards anti-heroes becuase of their goal, but usually because of some other defining characteristic. For example in the film “There Will Be Blood”, the protagonist is so persistent and hardworking (two admirable personality traits) that we attach ourselves to that part of his character.

In the film “La Haine”, the protagonist’s goal is to kill a police officer (Any police officer will do), yet we sympathize with him becuase we can understand his political angst, his sense of disenfranchisement, his desire to take politics into his own hands, his kamikaze approach to life. At the end of the day, he’s still a likable character with a goal. it’s just that his goal is a little misguided.

3. Tragic Hero: A tragic hero is a type of hero with a tragic flaw (i.e. hateful, inferiority complex, addiction, obsession, greed, envy) that pursues an active but misguided goal in order to achieve a positive result. However, in the case of the tragic hero, the goal turns out not to be in their own best interest and therefore self destructive.

Often an anti hero is also a tragic hero. The main difference is that the tragic hero’s flaw can’t be overcome. “La Haine” is a great example because Vincent Cassell couldn’t overcome his flaw of misguided vengeance. he couldn’t overcome his flaw which in the end (spoiler alert)…. lead to someone’s death (maybe his own).

Another good example of a tragic hero is Willy Loman in the play “Death of a Salesman”. Again, his flaw (excessive pride), couldn’t be overcome which inevitably lead to his (spoiler alert) death.

While developing our script it was also necessary to analyze who our antagonist is. In our case, our protagonist will also appear to be his own antagonist. This is less common in scripts that have a strong tie to Western dramatic structure but this format is still completely valid. Our challenge will be twofold:

Our antagonist still needs to manifest itself in human obstacles
It does help to have a person represent antagonistic ideals. This helps humanize the conflict.

Without giving too much away, I can tell you we have a much better understanding of our film’s ending and we also have a much firmer grasp on what type of protagonist we’re dealing with. This is helping us tackle the second act of our film.

There is a phrase thrown around by screenwriters that goes something like:

“The second act is where the screenplay goes to die”.

This often happens becuase the screenwriter starts out without a clear idea in their head about where their story is heading. A screenwriter without a clear understanding of their story’s ending is bound to get lost in the middle because they don’t know what they are trying to connect together. Without a clear idea of where your story is headed, the story generally flips and flops around without a clear sense of direction.

Audience’s like to be able to follow a story. If your story is loosing its sense of cohesion and going off on tangents, or if your second act is simply a series of isolated events that don’t fit into the larger picture, audiences will sense your confusion and lack of direction becuase you’ll be filling pages with superfluous information in a quest to reach the end of the 90 pages necessary for a feature length story. Since 1 page of script equals roughly 1 minute of screen time, confused screenwriters often fill pages upon pages with banter that doesn’t properly tie together the different pieces of their story.

In order to avoid this common problem we need to focus our energies on our conflict and action.

AND NOW FOR LESSON 2

There are two primary types of action that help you propel your story foreword. They are:

Physical Action - car chase, dancing, running race, shoot out – These are things your character DOES.
Emotional Action - thoughts, gestures, relationships, subtext – These are the things your character FEELS. This is the center of drama and the type of action that helps you define your character.

Both types of action are important in any film. In fact, understanding action is one of the most important parts of any screenplay. So now you’re probably wondering “how does this all fit together?” This all ties together when you realize that a character is the embodiment of action. A character’s actions move your story from point A to point B.

Aristotle said that men are certain kinds of individuals as a result of their characters, but they become happy or miserable as a result of their actions. Without action you have no characters and without characters you have no action. Essentially: action is character. What we do defines us. If you know your characters well enough, you can figure out their needs and create obstacles. This is what we’re doing with our protagonist now.

This is an important step in the process becuase this is how you build great characters. Think of the great characters of film: Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) in The Godfather, Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) in Taxi Driver, Marcus (Vincent Cassell) in Irreversible, Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) in There Will be Blood. These characters become iconic because they have one commonality: Their depth.

I’ll be sharing more of our process with you next Thursday… Stay tuned!

Lullaby For A Lunatic

Sterling — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 18:59:27 +0000

Lullaby for a lunatic is our first independent feature film we’ve been silent about for the last few months now. Damian Kuehn and myself (Sterling Pache), began early pre-production last fall, but we’re now confident to start talking about the project seeing as some of the critical pieces have fallen into place. The film is currently scheduled to begin shooting in September 2010. We will be shooting the feature film on the Canon 5D Mark II (And possibly the Canon 7D).

While we’ve been busy casting & strategizing, the film’s writer, Igor Serdarevic has been working with, and being inspired by, the film’s designer; Timothy Hung to bring you what we hope will be not only a compelling and unusual story, but also a story backed by strong visuals and design.

Our goal is to create a film that treats the theme of love approached from a unique & imaginative angle.

By means of dreams and other symbols, which are important parts of our life, implemented in storytelling, image and sound, we will have our protagonist exploring two vastly different worlds in his quest to better understand himself and his environment.

Our protagonist; Liam, is laid off work and arrives home early one day to find his wife at home with her dance teacher Paulo. Liam begins to spiral out of control. Confused and quickly loosing a grip on his own sanity he chases Paulo down the corridor, where he is confronted with an image of himself in a hallway mirror. Our suspicions that something unreal is stirring is confirmed as Liam looks in the mirror, but the image does not mimic his own behaviour. It is at this point that we realize Liam has lost his mind.

As Liam descends into his subconscious he is greeted by the memory of a few of his childhood imaginary friends: A doctor named Poldy and a romantic interest; a girl-woman with false suicidal tendencies named Chunga.

Liam’s perception of reality is altered for the duration of the film as he sets off down a path of debauchery, to seek revenge against Paulo. During this degenerate, sometimes nasty, experience Liam becomes increasingly drawn towards his imaginary friend Chunga. Through the development of this relationship he comes to terms with what his wife did and he even has the opportunity to understand her position by being in a similar situation himself with his imaginary relationship to Chunga. He hopes in the end that his wife too, will forgive him for his own inability to control his emotions.

Here’s to creating cinema and misguided protagonists.

You can follow Damian’s (the film’s producer) on his film production blog to keep informed about the production process.

Codependence Short Film

Sterling — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 06:26:56 +0000

Codependence is one of Romantic Child Studios latest short films. It’s a tale about the human experience of codependency and coexistence with the plot being communicated through modern dance. The film won’t be released to the public because we’re submitting it to festivals. However we have put together a small trailer so you can see sample footage.

Codependence Short Film Trailer from Romantic Child Studios on Vimeo.

Innocence and vulnerability are represented in the short film in one character who is cared for by a stronger, dominating yet maternal other character.

Due to the nature of their relationship; a dependency is created which is shown by physical attachments, interconnectedness and weight sharing. The film then explores two different scenarios. Once the codependency is created, both characters become vulnerable yet strong and work together to create something beautiful. The direction changes however when the stronger character abuses their power. The result is destruction, violence and self abuse.

We’ve also used this short as an opportunity to introduce audiences to parts of dancers that they don’t normally get an opportunity to see. By moving the camera in close to the dancers the the audience can see the dancer as human rather than a disconnected visual object. We’ve done this by showing the small details such as blinking, pulses, breathing, reaction and smaller body parts such as the spinal chord, neck, collar bone, ribs and wrists.

Enjoy.