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When a smash repair shop explodes, a declining Barrister must infringe his professional code by encouraging his son to restore justice by convincing a Court to set aside his own client?s acquittal.
The goal of the protagonist is simply to encourage his son to restore justice. Why not make the son be the protagonist who goes to his father, an ailing ex-judge, for help on getting the acquittal. The protagonist really needs to be the person who has the biggest job to do and in this case, in my opRead more
The goal of the protagonist is simply to encourage his son to restore justice. Why not make the son be the protagonist who goes to his father, an ailing ex-judge, for help on getting the acquittal. The protagonist really needs to be the person who has the biggest job to do and in this case, in my opinion, it’s the son. The third act will possibly be taking place in a court room where the son is arguing the case? As I’ve said before, I know very little of this sort of thing but, cinematically speaking, that’s where I want it to end – like A Few Good Men or any other good court room drama.
There is some ambiguity as to what the son does. To me it’s not 100% clear whose client it is.
There is also no connection between the inciting incident and the rest of the story. You need to clarify that the client is the one who blew up the repair shop otherwise there’s nothing tying it together. (Or at least that the barrister believes it’s his client). Why a smash repair shop? Why now? What makes the barrister think it’s his client doing the deed? More cohesion is required.
See lessWhen a Barrister with early onset Alzheimers obtains a mysterious brief, he must break his professional code to restore justice by convincing a Court to set aside his own client?s acquittal.
Second all of Richiev's comments. Why is the Alzheimers relevant? I can't help but think that this would have professionally diagnosed and the moment that happened this guy's career as a lawyer would be over. He's possibly breaking the law by not disclosing this information and if it is revealed theRead more
Second all of Richiev’s comments.
Why is the Alzheimers relevant? I can’t help but think that this would have professionally diagnosed and the moment that happened this guy’s career as a lawyer would be over. He’s possibly breaking the law by not disclosing this information and if it is revealed then potentially all his cases that he’s tried since his diagnosis (or even when the symptoms first started) would have grounds for retrial as he, arguably, could be seen as mentally incompetent.
What is in the mysterious brief that results in this lawyer needing to break his professional code? You need to explain this as there seems to be a disconnection between the inciting incident and the goal. Loglines require specificity. You’re not trying to entice someone into reading your screenplay, you’re supposed to sum up the story in its entirety so they shouldn’t have to.
If this brief is effectively proving his client’s guilt why would the sender not send it to the prosecution? They can present this and the acquittal is dropped. I’m not a lawyer, or even particularly knowledgable legally speaking, but surely it makes more sense to send it to the other side? Why send it to this guy?
See lessWhen a shelter bully blackmails a recovering junkie, the leader of a small group of homeless takes a heroic stand to protect her.
Is this a short or a feature length? The goal of the protagonist is to protect the junkie by taking a heroic stand... this could be over in a couple of minutes. If it's a feature length I think there needs to be more in there. I don't think the blackmail element is required. He's a bully. If he's beRead more
Is this a short or a feature length? The goal of the protagonist is to protect the junkie by taking a heroic stand… this could be over in a couple of minutes. If it’s a feature length I think there needs to be more in there.
I don’t think the blackmail element is required. He’s a bully. If he’s being abusive in any way then he deserves to be stopped by our hero. ?It’s usually the protagonist who’s being blackmailed because there’s a very obvious struggle and a very obvious arc (weak to strong). By having someone else step in you lose a lot of conflict and ultimately the junkie doesn’t learn anything. In this case neither does the leader. It’s almost Deus Ex Machina – the leader steps in to save the day and the film ends.
In this version, the fact that he leads a group is seemingly irrelevant. He doesn’t need to be the leader of a group to step in and sort the bully out. If it’s relevant enough to be included in the logline it needs to be relevant to the story.
Maybe consider making the bully just a bully, and the protagonist, rather than a leader of men, just a new face at the shelter. A bum who is down and out, his wife left him when he lost his fancy job and took his kids (who are now being raised by Dave the accountant), so he turned to drugs. He had no purpose in life. When he turns up at the shelter the bully picks on him but he doesn’t submit so he gets a beating. He looks around and sees all the scared faces and he realises he has a purpose – to lead these bums in uniting against the bully and teaching him a lesson. This might not be the story you want to tell (and it’s still a little thin for a feature) but the inciting incident happens directly to the protagonist upsetting the balance in his life so, in order to restore the equilibrium, he has to knock the bully down off his perch. This can also then teach him things about himself. Things that can possibly help him get his life back in order and be allowed to see his kids again. Then we have a nice Internal and external struggle plus subtext all over the place.
Got carried away a bit there but I hope this helps.
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