1. Posted: March 25, 2019In:

    After a spectacular failure, Thomas Edison reluctantly assembles a team?of great inventors to perform a mysterious project for the villainous Otto von Bismarck, not realizing until too late that not only are their reputations at stake, but their very lives are in danger.

    dpg Singularity

    >>>a mysterious projectVague.? ?A "mysterious project" can mean? any one of a 1,000,001 things which is to say it means nothing nothing in? a logline. The target audience for the logline, movie producers, want to know? specifics.? Don't play hide and seek with them.? They want to know whatRead more

    >>>a mysterious project

    Vague.? ?A “mysterious project” can mean? any one of a 1,000,001 things which is to say it means nothing nothing in? a logline. The target audience for the logline, movie producers, want to know? specifics.? Don’t play hide and seek with them.? They want to know what protagonist’s objective goal is– they shouldn’t have to guess.

    However…

    >>>not realizing until too late

    Don’t give away midpoint discoveries and reversals.? Those are spoilers.? Loglines are about what a protagonist intentionally set out to do, not about the complications he unintentionally discovers along the way.

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  2. Posted: March 24, 2019In:

    After his neighbour criminal gets arrested, a jaded man takes the criminal’s young son to his home and must decide whether he will take him to an orphanage or keep taking care of him. (short film – p.s. my protagonist grew up in orphanage)

    Best Answer
    dpg Singularity

    >>>making his economic situation real bad.Yes, I can see how that might work.? A possible scenario:Setup: The man has finally scrapped together enough money to avoid eviction that day.? He's done so by going hungry.? He's not only hungry but? hardened by a hard life has inured him to the plRead more

    >>>making his economic situation real bad.

    Yes, I can see how that might work.? A possible scenario:

    Setup: The man has finally scrapped together enough money to avoid eviction that day.? He’s done so by going hungry.? He’s not only hungry but? hardened by a hard life has inured him to the plight of others.? For him, pity , love are luxuries he can’t afford .

    Inciting incident: And then who should show up on his doorstep but the boy from next door, now homeless, hungry, shoeles. Maybe he needs some medical care.

    Dramatic dilemma: Take care of the kid BUT get evicted. Or pay the rent BUT consign the boy to? an unhappy, loveless life in the orphanage.?

    Climax😕 He takes the boy to the? orphanage.? But at the last moment, changes his mind.

    Denouement: The man feeds the boy, buys him a pair of shoes. He gets evicted. The man and boy walk away into an uncertain future. But there is one certainty, the boy will have the love and protection of the man, love and protection he never had with his father.

    fwiw

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  3. Posted: March 24, 2019In:

    After his neighbour criminal gets arrested, a jaded man takes the criminal’s young son to his home and must decide whether he will take him to an orphanage or keep taking care of him. (short film – p.s. my protagonist grew up in orphanage)

    Best Answer
    dpg Singularity

    variable:>>> where ?deciding to decide? becomes the plotMy statement is premised on the assumption that the short film is the length of a 1st Act in a feature length film.? And at least half of the 1st Act of a feature film is about the protagonist deciding to decide, right?? So it seems toRead more

    variable:

    >>> where ?deciding to decide? becomes the plot
    My statement is premised on the assumption that the short film is the length of a 1st Act in a feature length film.? And at least half of the 1st Act of a feature film is about the protagonist deciding to decide, right?? So it seems to me that in theory “deciding to decide” might work in a logline for a short film.

    In my canon, you can violate every rule about screenwriting save one: “Thou shalt not bore thine audience.” That is the greatest screenwriting and film making commandment. Breaking it is the unforgivable sin.? (Isn’t that’s the purpose of all the rules, paradigms, gimmicks and guidelines about screenwriting, to avoid committing the unforgivable sin?)

    It seems to me that “deciding to decide” might work in a short film. But in a feature length film it would commit the unforgivable sin.

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