Changing the Structure

Finally figured out the easiest solution to telling my story in WILL AND THE WORRY DOLLS. Before it was a normal structure of telling the story. Now, I'm having segments of it told by Will who is the narrator. The easiest way I've had explaining the story and certain jokes is when I tell it in the third person. This is also used in most of my favorite movies or tv shows, such as Amelie, DEXTER, and Annie Hall. I wanted to have two narrators to make it a bit funnier and different. So while one is telling the story, another one keeps butting in to ruin it. I thought the best scenario to do this (and easiest way to end the film with Will finding a girlfriend) is by having Will go on one of those cheesy dating shows that give each person a chance to explain who they are. Then the woman chooses their DVD to learn more. That way, I can explain a lot of things about Will, and then he can talk about why he's on such a smarmy dating show to the owner. The owner is a bit like Gob Bluth from Arrested Development. He has no soul and doesn't care. So it's a good contrast between the sensitive Will telling his life story, and the Gob Bluth character who keeps interrupting with the reality. With that structure, I feel I can just connect the dots for the feature script.

Having this mental block was a good lesson on ways to fix it. The easiest one for me is some physical activity. Hiking around Bristol did the trick and I was away from the computer for a bit.
Phew...

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I'M GOING TO RECREATE

Half Way Through My Transcript

My brain is fried. The biggest problem I have is I can't decide what I want to do with this film. I know I want it to be a comedy with substance that's odd. I want it to be a mixture between Amelie and Office Space. I want the central character's world to be like Amelie, so exciting and a almost a drug in his dreams. Then when he has to wake up, he's stuck to the most boring life in the world. Ultimately he's not going to make his real world exciting if he doesn't spend time on it.
What I keep doing is adding random subplots to see if they lead anywhere and it changes too much each time.
First it was a love interest that changes him. Then it was his job being so annoying. I've added an element where he finally tries being on his own, and he becomes a drunk. Then I've added a new friend in my latest draft.

So I have half a movie in my head really. I just don't know how to bring it all together at the moment. It's so frustrating trying to fill in the gaps when you see the key points in your head and just want it to work itself out.

Tomorrow will be spent trying to lighten the story up to be comedic and figure out the middle.

Back from Belgium

After an AMAZING trip to Belgium I'm back and starting to do work for my final year. My whole idea for my final year is to write a feature film script and then strip it down to a fifteen minute movie. Then that way I have a short film to submit to festivals and a spec script to go with it if people enjoy the film. That way I've made a spec script which could get picked up for a feature and I'd be prepared. Now the hard time, writing the feature. I've started to read the Guerilla Guide to Film Making and it's given me great advice on how to write my script. I used to just write tons of dialgoue and see where it ended up. Obviously that didn't help me tell a story but a jumble of scenes put together. The most useful thing to do is keep writing more pages of the same story, adding more details. From a one page synopsis, to two pages, to four, then ten, then a twenty page treatment. That's where I'm at for the moment, about five pages in.