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Stop Writing Forgettable Movies: The Science of Storytelling · Indie Film Podcast

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Do create situations and environments that show your
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audience who your characters are and what their goals are.
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And please don't use dialogue to explain character motivations.
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Oh my. Show us, don't tell us.
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If Netflix, Netflix, if anyone from Netflix is watching, don't
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do that. I'm tired of it.
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What's the best feeling that you can have as an indie filmmaker?
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Showing my film to an audience and have them respond with
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cheering celebration and also my parents are there to witness
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that. So then what would be the worst
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reaction your film can get from an audience?
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Before we go there, the second best response is an audience
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hates my movie because at least I know that they paid attention.
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The worst response I've ever had is pure indifference.
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And what's a really good way to guarantee an indifferent
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response from your audience? A mid tier to bad script.
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Welcome to Indie Film Podcast. I'm Vic.
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And I am Chuck. The next few weeks we're going
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to be breaking down the seven deadly sins of low budget indie
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film making. So today we're going to start
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with the first sign that your film idea might be mid tier
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Chuck. What differentiates a script
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from being optioned or tossed in the trash bin?
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Well, maybe you have a character whose flavor profile is that of
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room temperature tapioca. Or maybe a plot with steak Solo
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that only the mole people care about them.
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That is a good joke. I like that a lot.
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So that doesn't mean that your story is needs to be thrown out
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if it's not great. But today we're going to
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actually go over some plot devices and some character
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building techniques that might help you make a better script.
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OK, so then to start Chuck, who tells good stories?
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Pixar We all know that Pixar tells the best stories.
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OK, I do Stand By Up has one of the best love stories told in
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like the 1st 10 minutes of that film and it's beautiful and it's
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gut wrenching. And it's all visual music, yes,
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but it's character driven, yeah, too.
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And so I want to talk about Pixar's story spine because I
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went down a rabbit hole on storytelling, the art of
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storytelling, the science of storytelling.
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And Pixar actually follows this formula in almost all of their
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films. It's not something that the
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writers are required to follow, but they all use it as a
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guideline. So this story spine, I'm going
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to use Toy Story as the example to break this down.
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So classic. Once Upon a time, there was a
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toy cowboy named Woody. Everyday, a boy named Andy would
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play with Woody, his favorite toy.
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Until one day Andy received a Buzz Lightyear toy for his
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birthday and Buzz became Andy's new favorite toy.
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Because of that, Woody got jealous.
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Because of that, Woody knocked Buzz out of the window, mostly
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by accident. Because of that, the other toys
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kicked Woody out. Because of that, Woody and Buzz
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had to work out their differences and join together to
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get back home to Andy until finally they overcame their
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differences to return at home. And ever since then, Woody and
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Buzz have been great friends and share the spotlight.
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Which is an accurate depiction, though it does leave out the
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whole identity crisis the Buzz Lightyear faced with the whole I
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am Missus Nesbitt thing when he, I don't know, that was like a
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big breakdown and just a very relatable moment for young me to
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see. So sorry, this is this is just a
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breakdown of the the story structure for the plot and the
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things that they use. And I'm not saying that
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everybody should follow this, but it does.
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It does use good causation. And also if you don't follow
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that, it's good to find some type of story structure, plot
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structure that you want to follow, whether it be 3 act.
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The Hero's Journey. Yeah, Hero's journey five act,
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four Act whatever, whatever the case may.
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Be however many acts you want. You could eight act like what is
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that one? We just did 9 there, but but
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with Pixar it's they follow the because of the previous event.
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The next event follows logically.
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Which is it? Matt Stone and Trey Parker, I
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want to say who are big believers in the instead of and
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then look at, but therefore yes. Yeah, and that's one of the
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biggest sins I see in indie films.
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When we go to the the film screenings, where I start to
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lose interest is I don't understand why something is
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happening. It's not clearly explained.
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Well, maybe you just don't get it.
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True, and it's not an art house film that I'm watching.
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I should clarify. It's not.
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This is not art house, it is not experimental.
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This is just a standard narrative.
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Film, yeah, not someone trying to emulate David Lynch, just
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somebody that's like like Steven Spielberg movies but doesn't
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understand the importance of story and character.
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So yeah, it's good to have one of those things to to break
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down. That is fair and that.
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Is fair. Like for example Christopher
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Booker. He actually has the seven
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different types of plots that that he breaks down.
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He's the one who's the big believer that these are the only
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7 archetypes of plots, correct? Yes, that's this is his book.
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This is this is all there is. Yes, any story falls into one of
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these. Go back to Greek classics, go
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back to Shakespeare, go back to anything.
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It's always just one of these 7. Yeah, and his seven are
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overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, the Quest, Voyage in
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return, comedy, tragedy and rebirth.
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Although those last three, I feel like those can be those can
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fall into the other four. So I think that there is even
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fewer. Well, I I think the comedy has
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like specific attributes and plot devices and key moments
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that happen within it that separate it from like the
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tragedy or the Reaper. Oh yeah, yeah.
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So he breaks it down even. Further, yeah, it's not just
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like comedy as the genre, it's this is specifically the comedy
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archetype, and it follows these specific steps.
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I am not going to pretend to be able to quote that book well
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enough to tell you what those steps are, but I will tell you
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it's a delightful book. 2004. That sounds about right and I
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think. We should just dive in real
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specific like. You know what?
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Never. Mind we got no, we got no
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Internet here. No, just just look it up.
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It's it's Christopher Booker if you're that curious, like, find
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his book. If you used to type I, I think
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there's like a colon and then why we tell stories or
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something. I'm pretty sure that's the
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title. But yeah, Christopher Booker, 7
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archetypes, you'll find the book.
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Yeah, and it's good to at least have some experience looking at
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some of these different options or somebody that makes an
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outline so that you can take your script and layer it over
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there so you don't make those mistakes.
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Because indifference is rough. And I and I will speak from
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experience. My very first feature film that
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I worked on with my brother, we did a private screening and we
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had about 10 people in there, including, you know, some of the
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cast and crew. And we were very excited to
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share our film with the first group of people that weren't
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close knit. Like we reached out to some
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friends, some friends of friends.
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Not a lot of people came. This was inside of a library.
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Long story short, I'm inventing there.
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Long story short, we ended up having two of the 10 people just
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completely fall asleep during the feature film screening.
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And to me, that was a horrible sign that we made an interesting
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movie. Yeah, we put our heart and soul
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into creating the universe, which takes place at the
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singularity, which, if you're unfamiliar with that, you can
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look it up. It's like when technology grows
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exponentially and at one point in time it's infinitely better
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or whatever. So we created this universe.
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Sci-fi Movie, so you got to be up on the science and the idea
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of how it all works. Yeah, low, low budget.
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And the, the characters were not necessarily that appealing.
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You know, because of the acting, probably because I was one of
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the lead actors and, and because of the the writing and the
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story. It was like two different things
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that didn't quite fit together. Whereas a story like The Matrix
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did a much better job of making you care about Neo.
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Yeah, because the stakes were higher.
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And they made him very relatable very early on, yes.
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Just working an office job, growing in a way, yeah.
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Just plug in Computer Monkey or Code Monkey.
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Yeah. Curious about what might be
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happening next. So do you have any experiences
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like that with any of your films where you just kind of felt like
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the indifference was worse than somebody walking out?
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Because I've had that happen too, where people were offended
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and they walked out, but I was like, at least they're paying
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attention. Yeah, At least you know that
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they have followed the story. They followed it so well,
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they're leaving, but they did follow the story, which is
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definitely a testament to the storytelling abilities, which,
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yeah, I guess depending on the film and the audience, I don't
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know, I feel like that would be kind of interesting and fun.
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I have had a lot of indifferent reactions to things, usually
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because of the same problems. I was trying to fit too much and
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too much complexity into one specific moment or a feature
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film level story into a 7 minute short, which is never a good
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idea. No, you wanna keep that pretty
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succinct. Yeah.
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That's the formula we've figured out over the years.
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Yeah, as you wanna keep those short films very basic.
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You do, you do. Or lean into the experimental
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because you can, but you don't want to have you don't want to
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have that outline that we just read for Toy Story crammed into
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10 minutes or less because you're just going to make
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everybody confused. Yeah.
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And it's not going to be satisfying.
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No, because the pacing will be off.
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We, I mean, plot is obviously important.
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I kind of want to talk a little bit about character.
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And my friends and family always chastise me because when I read
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a new psychological non fiction book, that becomes my obsession.
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Yes. And I assume that it's the new
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way to look at the world. Yeah.
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And the book that I just finished.
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Which we will be hearing about for the next 7 episode.
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No, I'm kidding. Hopefully I'll try to keep it
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succinct. We'll find him another book
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before then, don't worry. Yeah, throw throw me off this,
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throw me off this scent. The Science of Storytelling by
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Will Store. It's a fun book because my
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background is in psychology. I studied psych in school.
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I keep up on it. I read a lot of psych books
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influence the thinking fast and slow, and this one here talks
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about the psychology of human storytelling and the
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psychological studies that show that we do think about things in
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a narrative way, like our entire conscious, our entire
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consciousness as humans works in a narrative fashion.
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And so it's important when storytellers create a story that
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they work within that paradigm. And the number one key that he
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points out isn't necessarily plot, but it's character.
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And so your plot you want to follow, it wants to follow the
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character's drive. So you want to have obstacles
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that the character understands right?
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Or that the audience understands that the character has?
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OK. So as opposed to assuming in
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maybe a typical indie film fashion that because you have
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this particular struggle, everyone will understand why
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it's so important to you because you know why it's so important.
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So that's why you wrote about it in this script.
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But unfortunately, unless you do a really good job of
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illustrating the stakes or the goals or the the importance, I
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guess if you will, of this particular thing to the
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character, the audience doesn't quite have that buy in is that.
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Yeah, exactly. The the character does come
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first. You still want to have plot,
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obviously, but you can, you can change that around however you
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want to do it. But as long as the the
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motivations of the character are understood by the audience,
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that's his presumption. That's the most important thing.
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OK. For a good story.
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Is the characters or the goals or the audience understanding
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the goals of the character? Well, it's both, but the
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character is the most it's it's the character leads the leads
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the the the audience through the obstructions.
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OK, which is kind of different than oh, did I not write it down
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that really famous save the cat book that I feel like is an
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every screenwriter's backpack. OK and it's iconic.
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It's got a cat hanging from a tree branch on.
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It oh where the main where the main character is the hero.
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It's it's that character driven stories are not what you really
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should aim for. You should aim for plot driven
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stories and it's all about, I want to say it's like giving the
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character certain things to make him or her more likeable, like
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having a, a save the cat noble moment toward the very, very
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beginning so that the audience likes them.
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But then the plot needs to do the rest of the work.
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The plot needs to carry them. Because once the audience likes
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your protagonist, then you're set, you're in.
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That's the gold mine, so. This one feels.
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A little different than that. Yeah.
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Well, I, I think from a psychological standpoint,
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likeability is very important. It is in human relationships.
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If somebody likes you, you're more likely to have them respond
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positively to whatever situation you're in.
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Like let's say you're fundraising for a movie.
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If people like you, they're more likely to give you cash.
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And I mean Glenda said it best. And wicked.
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It's all about popular. Yeah, and it's all about
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popular. If your character's likeable,
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then the audience is gonna be more likely to follow through to
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the end of their story. Yeah, cuz they are actually
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invested. Yeah, I agree with that.
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Before we go into more of that, I kind of want to break down
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some like character and plot stuff.
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Should we talk about a little bit of accounting hack?
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Oh yeah. Cuz we got tax season coming up
14:16
here if you're in the US, I'm scrolling down to see the actual
14:20
accounting hack because. For those of you who don't know,
14:22
in the United States we have to file our taxes at the end of the
14:27
year and even though the government knows how much money
14:30
they want from us, we have to then try to figure it out and
14:33
tell them and then pay them. And then they tell us if we were
14:36
right or wrong and are severely punished for them.
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Yes, this is. How?
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The IRS. Works.
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It's a terrible breakdown. I'm just.
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Asking for an audit there. All right, so here's a quick
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money tip that I want to tell everybody, and that's about
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business mileage deduction. A lot of us video people,
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freelancers, we work from home and that is our quote UN quote
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office. And this last year I was able to
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deduct almost $2400 from my gross income because I tracked
15:08
on my mileage from my Home Office to the like locations I
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went to do camera work, sound work, or, you know, whatever
15:16
business I had going on. Even if it's just a meeting with
15:20
someone. A lot of travelling that I
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documented and I was able to pull that right off the top of
15:24
my income and I did a brief check and it sounds like you can
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do something similar in the UK and Canada as well.
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So all of the others that are in UK, Canada, definitely check
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that out because it saved me from having to pay quite a bit
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of tax dollars. Which is kind of nice,
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especially if you're an indie film maker and just a lot of
15:43
extra cash on hand is not something you're used to having.
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No, I mean, that's equipment, right?
15:47
That's the, that's the big thing.
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It's equipment. Yeah.
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So we made a lot of we made a lot of notes on here.
15:53
So one of the things that one of the examples that was given in
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the science of storytelling that I wanted to share with everybody
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was about paint drying, right? To like paint drying is like a
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plot device or not a plot device but like.
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I was like, well I would not a good one.
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'Cause right? The wet paint on a wall being
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exposed, you know it's going to cause it to dry.
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Yes. So the example paint dries on a
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wall versus. William stares at the freshly
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painted wall, and as the paint dries, he contemplates his worst
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life decisions. So I will say that is a little
16:29
bit easier to put out in words right there, right?
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Because one of those just sounds inherently better than watching
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paint dry, watching someone have this internal struggle and
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mental breakdown because the paint is drying.
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I feel like with video or film or however you want to phrase
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that, it becomes a little bit more difficult because
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technically you could film both of those the exact same way,
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right? William is staring at the wall
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and the paint is drying. So I do think it's important to
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make sure that you utilize all the tools available to you as a
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filmmaker to make that story fully come to reality.
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Whether it's like a voiceover and you just hear this guy going
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through all this stuff in his head or you hear like different
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pins dropping, you know, use your soundscape, use weird shot
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angles like cut in tighter on his eyes and versus really
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hardcore close up on that wall texture.
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Or film at another location and show flashbacks.
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Yeah. You know, make a montage out of
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paint drying. Exactly.
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You can make something interesting out of paint drying
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if you're creative enough. You can if you have enough time.
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As long as you use all the tools in your toolbox.
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So when you when you're writing your script, obviously always
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keep your limitations in mind. Yeah, for sure.
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But don't be afraid to put a little bit of that visualization
17:51
into your script, too. I feel like that's important.
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That's where a lot of the personality comes through.
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Yeah, and I know. There are going to be some
17:57
people that are very strict about their script formatting
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that are going to tell me you don't get to do that, but I
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think you should do that. Oh yeah, get creative with your
18:06
with your script. People pay attention to change.
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Yeah, they pay attention to change.
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And I'm going to, you know, crap on Marvel movies again.
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And I, and I do want to because we have a a fan that comments
18:21
quite a bit and thanks so much. I'm guessing he's ADC fan
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because his handle is wax woofer.
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Oh yes, yes, so wax. Woofer And I want to point out
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that if you compare like 1989 Batman or even Batman Begins to
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the Marvel Universe, that has expanded to however many feature
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films that they've made. The Batman Begins, for example,
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it starts out with an origin story, Bruce Wayne as a young
18:50
child overcoming his fear of bats.
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And the the way that Nolan portrays this young child being
18:58
afraid, losing his parents, understanding that he needs to
19:02
overcome fear. And then literally the Scarecrow
19:06
is one of the bad guys in this film.
19:09
And that has a theme throughout the entire film.
19:13
And then it also follows the story arc.
19:16
And you get to see, you know, Bruce Wayne slash Batman battle
19:19
his fear constantly throughout the film.
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Whereas some of the Marvel movies, they just assume that
19:27
the audience understands the character's motivation.
19:30
Like, you know, I'm just going to pick on Captain America, even
19:33
though I haven't seen all those movies because I turn them off a
19:36
long time ago. But you can say just Captain
19:38
America. What is his motivation?
19:40
Be good, soldier. I mean, it's more standing up
19:44
for the true values of American life, but.
19:47
It's fine. Nice.
19:48
So he's, he's dead, right? Metaphorically and literally.
19:54
But I will say the first, the first Marvel movie that kind of
19:57
kicked that off was Iron Man. And they really did a good job
20:03
telling the motivations of Tony Stark and then that sort of.
20:10
Lowest of lows happening super early on where he's, you know,
20:14
out and kidnapped and struggling and going to die.
20:18
And then his climb back up and how those how those priorities
20:23
changed and kind of how he grew to a certain extent, not
20:26
completely changed because, you know, we're human and we don't
20:28
change that fast. But yeah, so like that one, I
20:32
thought did a did a pretty good job telling more of that story.
20:37
But then yes, to your point, they do.
20:39
Lean on to it a lot, and then it's just Macguffenry.
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If you don't know what a Macguffen is, that's just a plot
20:44
device that the audience understands everybody's after.
20:48
The get the thing. Get the thing.
20:50
Everybody wants the thing. Why do they want the thing?
20:52
It doesn't matter why they want the thing.
20:53
You just need to know why they want the thing.
20:55
And everybody wants to get the thing.
20:56
Yeah. But if you change up your story
20:59
to explain why the thing matters and why it's so important to
21:03
this individual, that could do a lot for your story.
21:06
We, we actually wrote down some movies that did a good job of
21:09
having goals and, and personalities.
21:12
We did, which I feel like, you know, that's important.
21:14
Obviously Tony Stark in the very first Iron Man movie, Batman's.
21:18
Not that that was included on this list of like top tier story
21:21
example. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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But like you, we have her down here.
21:25
Ghostbusters. Big trouble in Little China.
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Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Oh no, that was me specifically
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calling out the 80s movies. Oh well, yeah, those are all
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80s. Movies.
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Those are specifically 80s movies, because I thought 80s
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movies did a really good job of setting you up in understanding
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the character and the headspace so fast.
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You know who the Ghostbusters are, you know who Ferris Bueller
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is, you know who The Breakfast Club people are.
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Like those movies set up the characters really well in the
21:57
beginning to make it so that you could understand their
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motivations as plot devices come in, as situations change and you
22:05
can court, sort of follow along with them and learn a little bit
22:08
more about how they would react in certain situations.
22:13
I agree with the 80s thing too. As far as those, I mean pre
22:17
superhero movie, if you wanted to have a superhero because
22:22
there were plenty of heroes that came about, you needed to
22:24
understand the hero's motivations.
22:26
It wasn't just a given. And those were still kind of fun
22:32
initially because it gets right into the action.
22:35
And when I was a teenager and a young child, I used to love the
22:38
action movies. I still love me a good Fast and
22:40
Furious movie. Oh, there we go.
22:42
Perfect example. But I'm not seeing it for the
22:44
story, I'm seeing it for the cars and the explosions.
22:47
Yeah, Final Destination, those are incredibly entertaining.
22:50
So I guess you don't always have to have a plot.
22:52
But I will say, at least with Final Destination, they do a
22:55
good job of every single scene foreshadowing.
22:58
They leave you with a mystery. The audience understands
23:01
something gnarly's gonna happen. And they build that tension so
23:04
well. Yeah.
23:05
And and they then they show the outcome of all of these
23:08
different. So it's still kind of like cause
23:10
and effect relationship with the environment or it is.
23:13
It is, even if it's very outlandish and the plot's a
23:16
little thin, and it's fine, it's fine.
23:19
It's just good entertainment. No, I, I mean, I dig it.
23:21
I dig it, but it's trickier for indie film makers.
23:24
I feel like because you you want to make sure that the audience
23:28
is engaged and they don't have any or they don't, they don't
23:33
know what's what's coming up next because we don't have any.
23:38
We don't have as much of A following.
23:39
People don't appreciate who we are.
23:41
They might not know you know. They're not going to assume.
23:46
They're not going to jump right into your character's shoes.
23:48
No. That's our job as film makers
23:51
and storytellers, to make sure that the audience gives a crap
23:55
about what we made. And that's, that's to me, that's
23:59
step #1 before making sure the scene is lit properly.
24:03
I'm sorry, but visually interesting movies, yes, they
24:07
have their place, but but the ones that keep the audience
24:11
engaged are the one that keeps the story moving forward in a
24:14
sensical and interesting way are the ones that last over time.
24:18
Yeah, yeah, I think that's completely fair because like
24:23
Everything Everywhere All at Once in my man, I hope I don't
24:26
get a bunch of crap for this, but Everything Everywhere All at
24:29
Once is a solid movie and is visually just stunning and the
24:36
overall plot is fine. They lace in this undertone
24:44
story of it's actually just a daughter really wanting to be
24:49
seen and understood by her mother and that's the big
24:53
villain is not being seen or understood by your parents and
24:58
that is a very unique spin. But the visuals definitely out
25:04
like that's not that's not an unheard of story.
25:08
That's not even. I mean, obviously stocked into
25:10
Table Rock and Everything Everywhere All at Once are two
25:13
very different movies, but Stacked into Table Rock sure
25:18
would be cool if Shelly the mom saw and truly understood Rory
25:24
the daughter. Yeah.
25:26
And Rory felt seen. Like, it's not completely.
25:31
I'm just saying. Similar, similar stories.
25:34
Yeah, they're very. But one is they're executed
25:36
totally. Differently they are and you can
25:38
do that like there's nothing. There's nothing wrong.
25:40
You don't need to feel like you need to take when you're writing
25:43
your story. You don't need to feel like this
25:45
has to be a completely different, unheard of thing.
25:48
For sure. There are only so many ways to
25:50
tell stories. The important part is that you
25:53
find your creative way and your creative voice.
25:56
And most importantly, make your characters different.
26:00
Make your characters unique. Make their perspective unique.
26:03
And if it's going to be slightly opaque, I think that's OK too,
26:07
as long as you, the storyteller understands what's happening.
26:13
And you can you can decide how much you want to reveal to the
26:17
audience and how much you want to keep hidden until the end.
26:22
But it's, I feel like it's just really important to break down
26:26
the character and breakdown the story and have causation and
26:30
tension throughout the entire script.
26:33
Otherwise you risk spending all your time being concerned about
26:37
shot design and making something look pretty that nobody cares
26:41
about. Yeah, it's and it's not fun.
26:45
And it's not that they shouldn't care about your story, it's just
26:48
that maybe you need to really make them care about your story.
26:55
But it's a mistake that we see a lot, you know, early on when
26:59
we're trying to figure things out.
27:00
And we've done the same thing. On my journey, it was less the
27:05
technical end and more the storytelling end because I was
27:09
making films with my brother, Bradley Elliott Norton, and he
27:13
went to school for creative writing.
27:15
And so that was the first nut that we wanted to crack was how
27:19
do we tell a good story on screen?
27:21
However, that was overlooking gaffing lighting.
27:26
We had some decent shot designs made.
27:28
All your movies black and white at the.
27:29
Beginning. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
27:31
I mean, they didn't look great, but we were trying to figure
27:34
that out and that was the focus. That was the focal point.
27:37
But I will say that once we ended up bringing on somebody to
27:42
help us out with the visuals, Danny Clamorous, then all of a
27:46
sudden everything fell into place much more quickly because
27:50
we have the ability to tell a story, and then the lighting
27:54
could inform the story. Yeah, rather than the story
27:57
inform the lighting or the camera position or the audio
28:00
design can inform the story rather than the other way
28:02
around. Which is kind of nice when you
28:05
have the ability to feel so confident in this story that
28:10
then you can start letting your art department lean in and
28:15
really bring more aspects of the story to life.
28:18
Whereas if your story is sort of like blander or difficult to
28:22
understand, or just too much happening, then suddenly trying
28:27
to bring in all those other elements can just make it feel
28:30
even more crowded. Like there's only so much space
28:33
on this frame for so much to be happening right now.
28:36
Please don't overload your audience with more than they can
28:40
handle. Yeah.
28:41
And I think that's good to be overdeveloped on your story,
28:45
because it's easier to cut things than it is to add more to
28:48
it. Yeah.
28:50
I would rather sit down with a script that's way too long and
28:52
chop it up to something that's one feasible, which we should
28:57
probably mention that like as an indie filmmaker, not only do you
29:01
want to have an interesting story, but you want to have a
29:03
feasible story. Do you not know anyone that's in
29:05
art department? Then you might want to just set
29:07
it in modern day in your living room.
29:10
You know, what locations do you have access to?
29:12
Like that's that's another aspect of it.
29:14
But but the the story, I think is the most important thing.
29:17
And you can write an interesting story that takes place anywhere
29:20
with as many characters as you have available to you.
29:24
You can always do that. And it's easier to start at that
29:29
simple point and then expand than it is to, let's say, make a
29:34
movie about an epic battle in the Colosseum in Rome, you know,
29:40
and you want to start that way. It's like, well, you have a lot
29:42
of insurance and outs, and you're going to have to take
29:43
care of a lot of technical things.
29:46
You're going to get a lion tamer.
29:47
Yeah, exactly. And, you know, where are those?
29:50
They're hard to find. They're I don't think they're as
29:53
common as they're as they used to be.
29:54
No one of them got eaten. What one of the the two lion
29:58
tamer people, Siegfried and Roy. I think one got eaten by a lion
30:03
I. Don't think.
30:04
So, well, we'll double check on that.
30:06
I'm going to put a link. I'm going to I'm going to look
30:08
back at this episode and I'm going to put a link to a news
30:11
article about one of them dead. They got attacked by a lion.
30:13
You say no tigers. Tigers, they did.
30:16
Tigers. They were tigers.
30:18
Never mind. Lion tamers are a dime a dozen.
30:20
Tigers you got to watch out for. Those are the dangerous of the
30:23
big cats, yes. So I guess we should probably
30:27
kind of wrap this this. Part up.
30:29
We actually have a really nice like quick do's and don'ts of
30:33
script that can kind of condense everything that we've been
30:36
talking about here into a nice little rehashed moment for you,
30:40
for anyone who wants some notes. Should I start?
30:44
Yeah, do Send your script off for input from a variety of
30:48
people, and listen carefully to the feedback you receive from
30:51
writers you respect. Don't share your script with the
30:56
same people you always do and expect that to be the authority
31:00
and feedback. Do familiarize yourself with
31:04
story structures such as one 11 Act the one, Act the One.
31:09
Act is the thing. Well, let me start this one over
31:11
again. Do familiarize yourselves with
31:13
the story structures such as 345 act structures as well as the
31:17
Hero's Journey. Don't and then your audience to
31:22
death. As create, do create situations
31:26
and environments that show your audience who your characters are
31:30
and what their goals are. And please don't use dialogue to
31:34
explain character motivations. Oh my.
31:37
Show us, don't tell us. If Netflix, Netflix, if anyone
31:41
from Netflix is watching, don't do that.
31:43
I'm tired of it. You should have just stopped
31:47
Stranger Things after season 1 instead of explaining
31:50
everything. OK, all right.
31:51
Do write a story with characters you know you can cast and
31:56
locations and props you have access to.
31:58
Keep it feasible. And don't write a movie that
32:01
took place in the jungle if you live in the desert, unless you
32:05
already have that Budget before you start writing.
32:07
Yeah, budget before you start writing.
32:09
Yes, before don't. Don't.
32:11
Don't write the script expecting the budget to come, Yeah?
32:13
Don't do that. It's the what is that?
32:16
That's Duplast. The Calvary's not coming.
32:17
Yeah, there it is. It's not.
32:19
It's not coming. Get your financing in order
32:21
alongside your script. Keep that in mind.
32:23
If you know that realistically, you have 15 grand in the bank,
32:26
guess how much your movie's going to cost?
32:28
10 because there will be other expenses you you don't see
32:30
coming, and you will need to still pay rent while you're
32:32
making this money. Yeah, if you budget 15, then
32:34
you're going to be paying 20 out of your own pocket.
32:36
That's that's what's going to 5 of it out of your own pocket.
32:40
All right, Should we talk about Film Maker of the Week?
32:43
I think so. Let's do it.
32:45
We have an Idaho native Film Maker of the Week this week,
32:50
Brad Young, and in five days, technically less.
32:55
I think there were some travel days in there, but in five days
32:57
Brad Young and his team managed to complete a short film for the
33:00
Easter Seals Disability Film Challenge.
33:03
Aside from the time constraints, this particular challenge
33:06
requires that one of the cast or crew roles is filled with an
33:09
individual with a disability. The film they made is titled The
33:12
Last Time We Talked, and according to Brad, this film is
33:15
a real time drama centered on Sean, a wounded combat vet
33:18
navigating the invisible and visible aftermath of service.
33:22
Sitting alone in his living room, Sean makes a call to his
33:24
younger sister, Madeline. What unfolds is a growing
33:27
realization that this conversation may be the last one
33:30
they ever have. I thought that it was really
33:32
cool that Brad shared with us an important, that lesson that he
33:34
learned because this was a new team that he had worked with for
33:37
this film. And he said he wanted he learned
33:40
how to use minimal locations and get the most out of your space.
33:44
And based on the trailer that I saw and some of the descriptions
33:50
that he sent us, it looks like he just took the location that
33:53
he had available and made a film out of it.
33:57
And that's pretty awesome. Pretty awesome.
33:59
I mean, a phone conversation, obviously it's been done before
34:02
and it will be done again. And you just, if that's all you
34:05
can do, do it. But it sure sounds like Brad
34:09
Young brought some unique characters to this phone call
34:12
conversation. Exactly.
34:13
Unlike the movie Phone Booth, which I'm pretty sure is also a
34:16
phone call I think. Colin Farrell, he's a unique
34:19
character. Unique actor.
34:22
Oh, I thought, I don't know. I don't know.
34:23
I haven't seen the movie. I don't know.
34:24
I. Think it was Colin Farrell man
34:26
I'm really bad at pulling the actors names out of my back
34:28
pocket but I'm pretty sure it was him and anything that he's
34:31
in is gold. OK, well then this will be
34:34
another good one. Be fine either way, if you'd
34:36
like to find out more about the film or if you would like to
34:39
explore more about that entire challenge because it sounds like
34:42
that's just a really cool competition that the Easter
34:44
Seals put on. That's awesome.
34:45
So if you'd like to find out that, check out the show notes.
34:47
Yep. And if you want to submit to be
34:49
Featured Filmmaker of the Week, just go to indiefilmpodcast.com.
34:52
Forward indiefilmpodcast.com. I was rewinding there.
34:57
Very blockbuster moment. Yeah.
34:59
You were kind, you know. It was a film reel and it was
35:02
slapping up against the back of the projector.
35:04
That's what that sound was. I was aiming for that.
35:06
I guess you missed it. That's I did miss it.
35:08
I'm sorry, I went to VHS. Yeah, I remember that from my
35:11
childhood. But go to
35:13
indiefilmpodcast.com/submit if you'd like to be a Featured
35:17
Filmmaker of the Week on our podcast.
35:19
We'd love to have you record a voice memo as well, and we'd be
35:22
happy to play that on our podcast.
35:23
And send us some footage from your project so we can show that
35:26
off to everyone who's watching. Yes, those are the ones that get
35:28
precedent. So please do that.
35:31
All right. Shall we succinctly say
35:32
farewell? I think so.