Four Screenplay Ideas

[imported_Thom]

Hey all. I've been trying to get my butt writing, but have had trouble getting around to it with work and all, so I thought if I shared my ideas and got some conversation going about them, it might get my mind on track and better able to put the pen to paper. So here are four screenplay ideas I've been throwing around:

Somewhere In Between
About: The conflicts between friendship and romance.
Think: American Pie with maturity and depth... If that's at all possible to fathom.

Somewhere in between plays like a typical guy movie, but it has meaning to it. On the surface you have your crazy party stunts and car chases and guy humor, all of those essentials... But the meat and potatoes of the film are pretty substantial.

Two friends, Doug and Sean are getting ready to enjoy their first summer after going to college, when Sean gets some bad news: his girlfriend, who's out of state for college, is staying there for the summer--and what's more, she's breaking up with him. What follows is a winding calamity of crushes and interests and former interests that challenge the characters' notions of friendship of romance. The chief conflict is with Amy, a friend from high school returning home for the summer. She has eyes for Sean, he's preoccupied with another unattainable girl. Amy comes to Doug in hopes that he'll help her get with Sean, but little does she know, Doug is interested in her.

Yeah, it's rather typical setup for a romantic comedy. In the end, however, we find that despite desires and crushes and even those times when friends are pitted against each other, romance is usually insignificant compared to the bonds of friendship that are made along the way.

Fall Semester
About: The redefinition of values in young adulthood/college life.
Think: Swingers about college instead of the dating scene.

This story will very much be a dramedy. It won't be as blatently funny as Somewhere in Between, but it will be a good deal more intelligent.

The story revolves around a currently unnamed character--we'll just call him Bob--as he goes through his first semester of college. Along the way, he watches his old friends go a thousand different directions, doing new and exciting things, living lives that Bob envies. Meanwhile, Bob simply goes through the motions. He makes attempts at the parties and fun stuff, but doesn't really feel right about it. Worse yet, the one thing he thought had grounded him, had given him reason--his scholastics--are falling through as well. By winter break, however, he realizes that his friends have overendulged and put their expected life paths in serious jeapordy thanks to their near-hedonistic college existence. He realizes that, in fact, despite a bad and boring semester, he alone emerges among his friends as a person who sees the big picture, who knows what he wants to strive for in the long term.

Day's End
About: Suicide, depression, strength of will
Think: ?

Day's End is a drama, quite the introspective type. The story both revolves around and takes a look into such topics as suicide and depression.

Alex is a volunteer at a suicide helpline center. One day, the rules are broken as he is thrust into a situation at school with a Beth, a girl he recognizes as having called the helpline the week before. They befriend each other, and as they get to know each other and we get to know them, we are enlightened as to the darkness and hidden demons each of them, as well as others in the story, carry around. As time progresses, Bethany moves beyond her demons and on to happier living, but betrays and abandons Alex in the process. She later realizes the error of her ways... But is it too late? Have Alex's own issues finally gotten the best of him?

Color of Love
This is the least developed of my ideas, but one I'm quite interested in developing. Inspired by the song "Bold as Love", this story will be a display of the full gamut of human emotion: Love, anger, jealousy... Everything.

So there we go. Those are the ideas I'm trying to develop at present time. There's a fifth that I'm working on with my little bro, but as it's actually his concept, I won't be presumptuous enough to post it publicly.

[WonderWomanGoddess]

Well, all of these ideas sound interesting. I can't give you very much feedback on the first two for one simple reason: it's not my genre. I may be the only female in the world who loathes romantic comedies/or dramas. I never ever watch romantic movies, nor read the books. However, I do think you're heading in the right direction with character development. I think it's vastly important to understand the underlying psychology that motivates your characters, even in a comedy or horror flick.

But I'm really interested in Day's End. Great setup for exploring one life's greatest mysteries. Well, to me anyway.

I've been having problems with my own writing lately, maybe I'll come back later and post some of my 'in limbo' ideas...

I gotta go, but I really think you've got something deep and important with the Day's End thing.

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"The Goddess has spoken..."

[WonderWomanGoddess]

M'kay I'm back and waiting for my husband to get done with his email. Here's some of the things I'm working on.

Fate (a loose working title)

This is what I've spent the most time on. It's a thriller/horror novel, centered around 5 friends who are coming together for their ten year high school reunion. The underlying plot involves them examining the paths there lives have taken, and the ways in which each of them feels they have failed (or what's missing in their life). Gwen is a successful lawyer but now approaching thirty, she realizes all the important and 'real' things are missing from her life. Leon has a blue collar job and a loveless, abusive marriage. He can't understand how he got from high school football star to this. Jack and Serena have never gotten over each other, and both of their lives are off track in different ways. And Frank, well he has fallen the farthest, he's on the bottom peg of society now, but yet in some ways, he's the only one who's managed to hold on to who he is.

That's the 'under' plot. The surface plot, and what drives the story. This is the part I'm having trouble with. What I know is this: they end up stranded in bad weather, and there is a bad, bad guy. What I don't know is if this is a pure axe murderer type story or with a supernatural twist. I can't quite decide. The actoin will drive the emotion, you know, adversity breeds intimacy.

These two are still in early stages and they are straight thriller/action novels:

A young women and her boyfriend are out drinking one night right before graduation. They decide to investigate an abandoned house, and she falls through a hole in the floor to a basement. He goes to get help, and while gone, she discovers some bodies. To make a long story short- she is rescued, and tells the sherrif, but when he goes back after getting her to the hospital, there are no bodies. Everyone things she imagined it ( she was drunk) and so she goes off to college. Our story picks up 4 years later when she reluctantly comes home. She has never accepted that she didn't see it, despite trying to convince herself. The story revolves around our girl and a young deputy uncovering the truth- which, of course isn't pretty.

Oops, I gotta go. Anyway, these some of the novels, then I'm working on (I do use that term loosely) two comic books/graphic novels, and some short stories too.



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"The Goddess has spoken..."

[StrangeFish]

Thom -- I really, really like the Fall Semester idea. I think you can really build on that, seeing as how it's practically the story of my first year at university. The Day's End also looks promising. It could be really sweet and moving, regardless of the outcome. I think for the first one, though, you have to be really careful. If it's not going to be a comedy just about sex, there's a very fine line you'll have to walk.

WWG -- For the first one, I'll just throw out some questions, which you can hopefully use to find your story. Is the bad, bad guy one of their high school buddies? Does he know them somehow or is he a stranger? Does he want to know them? Will that help him hurt them more? And if it's something supernatural, is it something the characters called? Or is it associated with the place they meet? Am I asking too many questions? I really like the second story though. It's kind of Dean R Koontz. All you need is a child who knows the truth, but doesn't know how to tell them about it.

Good luck, the both of you.

*really needs to get back into her writing*

[WonderWomanGoddess]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by StrangeFish:
<B>
Is the bad, bad guy one of their high school buddies? Does he know them somehow or is he a stranger? Does he want to know them? Will that help him hurt them more? And if it's something supernatural, is it something the characters called? Or is it associated with the place they meet? Am I asking too many questions?
*</B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

No, not at all! Thanks for the questions, they really help. Yes, they do know the bad guy, and he did go to school with them. The main character could be said to be Serena, and the bad guy (Stephen) has crossed paths with her over the course of their lives many times. When they were both about 4 years old, Stephen's father was driving drunk with him in the car, and collided with Serena's parents car, on a narrow road above the town lake. Both her parents were killed and his dad went to jail, but at the time both Stephen and Serena were thrown free and ended up in the lake below. Both children were found on the lake shore, with no explanation for how since neither could swim. An entity associated with the lake in some way I haven't worked out yet, attached itself to the both of them, giving them certain gifts and curses. They ended up being in the same circle of friends in high school, but since Serena was adopted by an older couple, her name had changed and they had no way of knowing each other. Serena in fact, never knew any of the details of her parents death at all, and her uncovering them is a subplot of the novel. Which of course, does tie in to the big picture, ie. the danger from Stephen. The idea is, Stephen has supernatural powers, that he has been developing and investigating for sometime. And using for evil of course. Serena, meanwhile, has shoved hers down and tried to ignore it, but she must face it, accept and master it, in order to save herself and her loved ones from Stephen. The place they have been stranded at, of course, is on the lake, to a)provide the motive and atmosphere for her to dig in to her parents death and b) to magnify both of their 'powers'.

Stephen also is no novice bad guy. He grew with his mother, who was a real slut and a drunk, with his father was in prison. While in high school, she committed suicide, and he buried her body, so no one would force him into foster care. Because of his relationship with his mother, Stephen has a deep hatred for women and has been prone to violence towards them since elementary school. On his own from 15 up, his only dream was to be an airline pilot. He joined the air-force right out of school, at the same time as Jack, and ended up in boot camp with him. Barely out of that and into tech school, there was an incident where Stephen lost control. He might have gotten away with it, but Jack came forward and 'ratted him out' and Stephen was dishonorably discharged. His pilot dreams were crushed and he hates, and I mean hates, Jack. He became an airline steward for a major company and sometime after this, starting killing people. His job is a perfect cover (no one connects random murders all over the world), and he's very good at covering his tracts. So he's already a serial killer- and this reunion provides the perfect opportunity to kill Jack, his old nemesis. Killing Serena, who rejected him in favor of Jack, would only be icing on the cake.

Whoops, this has gotten to be a long reply. I have been working on this concept for years now, and I've spent tons of time on character development. It's the finer points of the plot that are killing me. The reason it's called 'fate' is because it revolves so much around Serena, Stephen and Jack's lives being so intertwined, from the beginning. But I also need to make it believable.



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"The Goddess has spoken..."

[StrangeFish]

Oooh, sounds interesting!

[imported_Thom]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Thom:
<B>Day's End

Alex is a volunteer at a suicide helpline center. One day, the rules are broken as he is thrust into a situation at school with a Beth, a girl he recognizes as having called the helpline the week before. They befriend each other, and as they get to know each other and we get to know them, we are enlightened as to the darkness and hidden demons each of them, as well as others in the story, carry around. As time progresses, Bethany moves beyond her demons and on to happier living, but betrays and abandons Alex in the process. She later realizes the error of her ways... But is it too late? Have Alex's own issues finally gotten the best of him?</B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Heh... I've been doing some compilation of my ideas the past few days and found it interesting to go back and read this.

(Rhonda, you have access to read the new plot in greater detail over at SP, FYI.)

I wrote this version of a plot synopsis back in December, when coincidentally I was mending wounds from a case of broken heart. A lot of my experience with the girl involved played into the ideas I already had for Day's End, and such is still the case.

What I find interesting, though, is this part: "Bethany moves beyond her demons and on to happier living, but betrays and abandons Alex in the process." It seems I was quick to put the blame on the other person through my writing. I'm glad to say, that's not how the current synopsis reads. Instead, despite Alex's apparent strength as a character, his own weaknesses play a big part in pushing Bethany away. She "abandons" him only for uncertainty how to deal with him, and to save herself from considerable pain.

This way, I hope it will play out with the feeling that it's nobody's fault things went bad... Just that it didn't work out, and a lot of things contributed. Though the two characters may have grown so much thanks to each other's support and companionship, it will require each of them to go it alone in improving themselves--or ending themselves. It will be a great deal deeper and much less cliche.

[This message has been edited by Thom (edited 06-06-2003).]

[WonderWomanGoddess]

I will check that out this weekend Thom. I have another problem with something I'm working on I'd like to get your input on as well, so I'll read up on your changes, then try to catch you on im sometime this weekend.

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"The Goddess has spoken..."