Yeah, it's been a while since I've dropped into General, but I figured that just to let you guys know that I'm still alive -- for all the people who have been here long enough to remember me, that is -- I might as well pop in and talk about a topic that's near and dear to me. And since I've always had a bit of a thing for movies, screenwriting's right up there.
Sure, it's an unconventional occupation, but for me, it's like a passion, you know? I've been watching all the movies I can, picking out certain techniques outlined in Robert McKee's book, Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting, and I still feel like I've only scratched the surface. It's cool though, I now watch movies on a much deeper level than I did before and not only that, but after you really get a feel for certain screenwriters' work, you can actually see all the different layers to a movie. Like, you can tell what they wrote first and added in later. It's pretty interesting. But most importantly, I've discovered a new appreciation for the art. After doing all the research on this facet of the film industry, I can now differentiate between badly-written movies and badly-directed movies, like Secret Window and -- some may disagree -- the Lord of the Rings movies, respectively. However, it doesn't make any sense to do all this research and not do any writing, right? Well, that's why I've given it a shot.
For the past four months, I've actually been carrying around a beaten-up, black, 300-page Hilroy notebook everywhere. I write in it from time to time, whenever inspiration strikes, but as of late, it's nice to see that an actual story has been developing. I started off without any real plot in mind, writing out some of the dialogue, but really just creating a general outline for the story, seeing what will work and what won't. Either way, the story seems somewhat hackneyed at the moment -- I've seen enough movies to know, believe me -- but here's the main idea. The protagonists are two teenage boys, who are both good friends, I might add, who both have an unspoken attraction towards a third female character (one leaning more towards love over lust and vice versa), but it just so happens that both of them have subconscious desires for the girl too, as the one "in love" with her is in denial of his own lust for her and the one who seems to only want to have sex with her won't admit his true feelings. Either way, both boys' worlds are completely shattered at the inciting incident as they discover that the girl has been raped by her abusive father. Then, drawing on nothing more than their mutual feelings towards the girl, both act to protect her, attempting to spirit her away without her father knowing. But naturally, if they're successful, there wouldn't be much of a story, would there?
It's a basic plot structure so far, one central plot (the boys trying to get the girl away from her father), dominated with various subplots (each boy's slow realization of their true feelings for the girl, the conflicts that arise between the two friends when they find out about each other's true intentions, the girl finally making her decision between the two, etc.), but I'm really liking it. I'm making it more and more complex by the day. Already, I've started creating an image system based off the objects in Catcher In The Rye -- both stories have similar themes, you see -- and I'm almost ready to begin work on the second draft. Sure, it's a lot of work, but right now, it's a labor of love for me.
But enough about that. I sincerely doubt it, but is there anyone else here who might be thinking of getting into screenwriting? If so, I'd like to think that I know enough about the subject to be a great help. Anyone seriously looking into it should at least pick up this book though.
