September 27, 2004
The Beginning (but not really)
This, of all my many blogs, is the one that's for me alone. I tend to write for an audience regardless, but this will be an attempt to record my thoughts on ... holy shit, I'm already writing as if someone other than myself is reading it. I'm such a sell-out. Maybe it's unavoidable.
I just watched the intro film for Phillips Exeter Academy, and it really depressed me. Because I see all these young, idealistic young kids who are planning on making it big, and I felt that way too. OK, OK, I'm only 22, and I've actually come a long way, and I've got a long way to go, but it still bugs me that I'm in this sort of holding pattern at the moment. I'm not sure exactly what to do next. I should apply to grad schools, for example, but the GREs are killing me, I need three recommendations, it costs money, and I'm not sure if it's for me. Perhaps I should also take a year off, though I don't want to let time slip away like an idiot.
In the meantime, I'm trying to work on this screenplay that will take place in Salem. It's tough at the moment to tag it, but it's more or less a monster movie ala Jaws that takes place in Salem, Massachusetts. I know what the monsters look like, but not where they come from or why they kill. Oh well, it's a start.
There are two films that I want my first to resemble: Jaws, or Psycho. Both low-budget, both simple stories, both with memorable characters (shut up about the stereotype problem!), memorable scenes, memorable dialogue, and memorable stories. So simple, and yet so effective. I want to pull that off, but mine are always so much more complicated. And a simple story requires a simple world. The world of a hotel, or the world of a small resort town. Maybe that's why all non-city towns in film are basically hicksville - because it's tough and complicated to capture that middle ground of America.
I've analyzed several of my favorite films, including Jaws and Ghostbusters, as having a trio of protagonists which serve as different functions to the group. Usually, it's more or less the brain, the hands, and the heart - the brain has the intelligence, the hands does the legwork, and the heart (usually the central character) keeps everyone moving forward. In my particular Salem film, it looks as if they main character was involved years ago in a deadly encounter in a supposedly haunted house. Ultimately, it's his desire to face his demons (literally and figuratively) that compel him to eventually hunt down the monsters and destroy them. I also have a brain character worked out to some degree, who will also provide comic release.
One of the few principles in the book Story by Robert McKee that I agree with is when he says that you should stick with a genre you love and be true to your passion - and I totally agree with this. While I would love to make Casablanca, or Persona, or The Apartment, they aren't really what I do best. I think genre films ala Howard Hawkes will eventually be the way I go with my career, and my goal is to be as versatile as he was - I mean, god, Rio Grande, The Big Sleep, Scarface, The Thing - so many different genres and yet doing each so effectively.
Thus, while I think I can pull off comedy, it's the suspense stuff that really gets me moving. And that's what I plan on this film being - a suspense film over straight horror. Sure there will be gore, but not excessive gore. And the monsters will be completely new, and hopefully scare the shit out of you. That, of course, remains to be seen. As it stands, if this can be written, I'm pretty sure I could shoot it all in Salem pretty easily. We'll see.
Posted by nick at September 27, 2004 03:40 PM