An OCD-afflicted photog wins over an energetic creative through her awkward yet relentless affection, but as their relationship develops, it becomes too much.
Scott DanzigSamurai
An OCD-afflicted photog wins over an energetic creative through her awkward yet relentless affection, but as their relationship develops, it becomes too much.
Share
What is the goal our photographer needs to achieve before the story ends? A logline needs to describe a plot and a plot needs a goal.
What is his flaw (not OCD, that’s a condition not a character flaw) that he must overcome during the course of the story?
>>>it becomes too much.
Too much for whom?? The OCD character or the normal one?? And too much in what way?
The logline sort of tips it’s hand about the crisis that arises in the 2nd half of the plot.? But’s that a predictable outcome. It goes without saying that an? Odd Couple relationship generates conflict that builds to a crisis — so it need not be said in the logline.
The premise of the logline will inevitably be compared to “As Good As It Gets” which had Oscar winning roles.? But notice that the screenwriter James Brooks triangulated the relationships of the protagonist, Melvin Udall:? there was the girl he likes –but can’t get juxtaposed with the gay artist and his dog whom he loathes — and has to take care off after the artist is brutally assaulted.? Rather than a story line that focuses on the conflicts created by OCD with the romantic interest, Brooks leveraged the disorder to create conflict with everyone Melvin meets.
And that’s the way it should be in this story.? The character’s OCD should create problems everywhere he turns with everyone he interacts. (Because that’s the way it is in real life;? OCD people are high maintenance.)? It should threaten to defeat his struggle to succeed professionally, to accomplish some overarching objective goal.? (What is? his objective goal, anyway?)
fwiw
>>My collaborator suggested ?A woman plagued by compulsion builds a relationship with a fiery creative using the very exactitude and devotion that threaten to wreck her.?
Okay, how about her using her OCD to organize his chaotic life?? His tends to not plan ahead, to impulsively live in the moment. And it’s sabotaging his career, preventing him from fulfilling his Big Dream.
Can he be the photographer?? And?his impulsive behavior threatens to defeat him, to prevent him from getting ahead.? He has just landed the a photo shoot that could be his big break, enable to him to (finally) quit his day job and devote himself full time to his passion — and get paid well for it.
Whatever.? My point is? that he needs her desperately, urgently to organize his chaotic life.? Initially, their? relationship is a purely business — but then romantic and other complications ensue.
fwiw
“… but I think it?s okay to have a character flaw that?s not necessarily a flaw in moral character…”
No it’s not.
You want your hero to overcome a negative aspect of their character. They can have OCD, as DPG pointed out, it could be a good source of conflict, but they would need to have better themselves in some other way. As Good as it Gets, is a good example in this case – the main character has OCD and is also a short-tempered bigot who hates gay men. By the end of the story, he would have overcome his dislike of gay men but his OCD still remained. This makes his OCD an obstacle standing in his way, not a character flaw. Much the same with Matchstick Men, Nicholas Cage’s character was a con artist who suffered from OCD – he was self-centered and morally corrupt, so he needed to learn to be a better person throughout the story. His condition was used as an obstacle that created conflict but by the end of the story, he learns his lesson and stops being a con man through fatherly love (all be it fake)? – that was the emotional payoff of the story.
Character flaw aside, the wording in the logline is confusing and the goal is not clear. You wrote that he “…wins over…” which means he already got the girl, so what is his goal now? If that is his goal, then the inciting incidnet is falling for her in the first place, not winning her over.
Good points and examples by Nir.
A character who suffers from OCD at the beginning of a film will also suffer from it at the end no matter how the story ends? — there’s no character arc to be had on that character issue.? It’s a cognitive disorder that a character cannot intentionally “overcome”.? However, he may use his disorder to rationalize morally reprehensible behavior, to con others (and? himself) into excusing his? bad decisions.? And that rationalization/con is the raw material for a character arc.