Wednesday 22 May 2013

On Screenplays

None of you would have any reason to know this, but as well as writing about films, I also write... Films.

Basically I'm what you might call an amateur screenwriter, and to date I've got four short films, and half a whole feature written, as well as an outline for a small little zombie film that I could feasibly write in a week or so.

Two of the short films, both around 15-10 minutes (if made), are what you might call horror; zombies and mad film directors respectively, but I guess I focus far too much on the human element for anything I write to be called true horror.

Even that zombie outline I have is basically Before Sunrise but with the threat of zombies; you don't even see the zombies, they're just... There. You know they're outside, and I guess that's original if anything (I don't know any zombie films where the zombies aren't shown). But yeah, that one is just about a couple who are under threat from zombies, and it's just them in a room for (what will hopefully be about) 90 minutes. If written right, hopefully I can make it scary/touching/sad in equal measure.

The half a whole feature is a small, little, indie/character drama about a kid who finds his dad having an affair, and how he reacts to that. I kinda shifted that one around a little bit; the kid is the kind of obnoxious bellend who always takes the moral  highground, despite meaning fundamentally well, and the dad is... Well a normal dad. But it'll be combed over soon so I can't really say how it'll turn out in the end. Hopefully that'll be an interesting little piece.

Finally, two of the other short films are actually segments in a huge 24-part series that is basically meant to be a day in the life of the people at a school, and each episode is an hour long reflecting an hour in real time, and follows a different person, and all the people are linked in some way. They're all between 16-18, and are in the sixth form of a school, hence the title "Sixth Form", although each episode will just have the name of the hour they begin in, so "1AM", "2PM", etc (I like keeping things simple). Each episode will explore things like teen suicide, depression, homosexuality, abortion, drugs, sex, parents, y'know, the stuff that happens in the life of the average teenager. I don't want to mollycoddle, patronise, or be accused of passing judgement either; people can make up their own minds. It's an ambitious project I know, but I figure it's my one chance to say something relevant and true about my generation or something equally pretentious... (also with the second part I wrote, which will end up being part 17 I think, I kinda wrote an unsimulated gay blow-job in at the end... Oops)

TANGENT

Basically, yeah, I write about films and I also write films. There's something y'all didn't know.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading!






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