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Day 6 Assignments
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BOB SMITH’S MARKETABLE COMPONENTS.
“WHAT I LEARNED DOING TIS ASSIGNMENT IS…?”
Less is more: Concentrate on two components (only) to develop a marketability profile.
TITLE: “Moths Around a Flame: The Making of ‘The Blue Angel.’”
LOGLINE: The making of the erotic thriller “The Blue Angel” (1930) has an impact on the principal actors, Emil Jannings and [then unknown] Marlene Dietrich and the director (Josef von Sternberg) that leads to success for von Sternberg, stardom for Dietrich, but ironically, the fall of Emil Jannings in a manner that parallels his role as the professor in the film, whose infatuation with a cabaret showgirl leads to his ruin.
TWO COMPONENTS OF MARKETABILITY: (1) A great role for a bankable actor and (2) It’s a first.
1. A great role for a bankable actor: In fact, three roles for bankable actors:
MARLENE DIETRICH, JOSEF VON STERNBERG, and EMIL JANNINGS
For Marlene Dietrich: Jessica Chastain or Amanda Seyfried.
For Josef von Sternberg: Jon Berenthal, Paul Rudd, Jake Gyllenhaal, Adam Sandler.
For Emil Jannings: Gary Oldman.
Von Sternberg was the film’s director but also the mentor and lover of Marlene Dietrich.
He also had to referee the feud between Dietrich and Jannings. This hostile triangle is rich for any actor wanting to showcase their abilities. .
2. It’s a first. No one has done a movie about the making of the movie, “The Blue Angel” and there was an element of the story that parallels real life: Von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich developed a partnership with one another that led to six more films together and their having an affair. Jannings was the first actor to win Best Actor Oscar but he feels rivalled by Marlene Dietrich for the lead of “The Blue Angel.” After the film is made, the trajectory of the lives of Dietrich and Jannings are similar to those of the characters they play in the film: Dietrich goes on to stardom and Jannings is ruined because of his appearance in several Nazi propaganda films.
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My trilogy of novels is narrated by 1) Sedimentary Shawangunk, Climb and Punishment, 2) Metamorphic gneiss, schist, and marble, Come to Magnificent Metamorphic Manhattan and 3) Magma Monsters or igneous rocks Seismic Seesaw and 4) two human narrators –a NYC tour guide rendered homeless in the second novel and an ADHD fitness instructor who captures the serial killer in the third novel. There are some true elements about the serial killings near New Paltz. I developed the homeless characters from the inside out because I had a fire in my small room, and I lost jobs during the pandemic that forced me into the food lines. Over a period of seven years, I made friends with 20 homeless people, some of whom fell in love with me and caused PTSD. All screenplays are adapted from my novels that may be popular somewhere in the world. I have included timely events in the novels like condo collapses and flooding from Sandy Storm and Hurricane Ida, the pandemic, and trendy things like sex changes and finding cures for neurodegenerative diseases. The three screenplays could be filmed in ultimate and edgy ways because of the iconic Manhattan sites and rock climbing in NYC parks and upstate. “Bankable” changes every season so I will let my agent, then publisher, then producer cast. But if anyone want to give me a role, I will try to be bankable because I need more money in my bank for old age. The novels may not have wide appeal in the States, one reason I need a global publisher, but the screenplays can be dumbed down enough (I will say simplified to a producer) to please the masses, if they pay me enough.
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Amy’s Marketable Components
What I learned doing this assignment is that by concentrating on what could make my movie marketable, I know where to focus my efforts in my rewriting.
Pick two components and tell us how your script already fulfills them AND how you might highlight these two in order to elevate the pitch.
Logline: A local TV anchor who has been neglecting her family travels through time and arrives one year into the future. When she gets back, she must compete with the woman who took over her family while she was gone.
2. Look through the 10 Components of Marketability and pick one or two that have the most potential for selling this script.
*Wide audience appeal
*A great role for a bankable actor
3. Do a quick brainstorm session about ways to elevate those two components for this script and tell us how you might pitch the script through the two components.
Wide audience appeal-My movie appeals to both adults and children. It has a little bit of romance in it, but since it involves a supercollider and time travel, it could also appeal sci-fi fans.
A great role for a bankable actor: My protagonist is relatable in that she is torn between her career and her family. This would be a great role for an actress who wants to play a character who is imperfect and struggles with their imperfections to ultimately grow and change into a better version of herself. I see this as being a good role for a Hallmark actress who might want to play a character who’s not so perfect but a little more messy and layered. Of course, I have work to do, because she isn’t very layered at the moment.
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Thanks Hal. I reread your details about true stories and although this is inspired by some true events, it is completely fictionalized, names and bios changed, and I only take responsibility for my own journeys from the lives of NYC’s homeless to rich New Yorkers. One must be careful about lawsuits especially since so many of my characters are mentally ill, marginalized, and in protected groups. But being authentic in a project that screams insanity with talking personified rocks, grounds my fantasy and horror elements, and provides enough didactic elements to please global publishers who want literary novels to matter and last.
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Michelle Damis’s Marketable Components
“What I learned doing this assignment is that I can simplify my focus to be provide clarity and better target my potential producers.
LOGLINE: A bored, existential vampire forced to find a new place to live, finds a home with empty-nester parents, who unknowingly trade their soul-sucking daughter for a blood-sucking tenant.
G. Wide audience appeal.
I. Similarity to a box-office success.
Wide Audience Appeal: There doesn’t seem to be too many feel good, family friendly movies anymore. Ted Lasso did so well becuase it had that feel, I see this as reaching the same groups in a film.
Along with the above element it is similar to ELF and is loosely based around Halloween (which is a sub character in a way) and gives it a “holiday” marketability.
I wanted to create something that families could relate to and sit down and watch together. I set out to flip the narrative on the vampire genre and use a somewhat absurd premise to make people think about their purpose and perspective in life. This story is warm and funny while at the same time tackling several real-world issues. A vampire story with a heart, that is funny and relatable while being thought-provoking and existential. Who knew?
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Elizabeth’s Marketable Components
What I learned: I’ll do this iteratively throughout the developmental and creative process.
Working Logline:
When a loner, retired psychiatrist meets the chaotic family of the son his deceased “one and only love” gave up for adoption as a teen, he recruits his retirement home-mates to help with their menagerie of psychological needs—and as everyone comes to “love and work” (a la Freud) better, gets forced to face his own demons when he discovers this is actually his biological family, too.
It’s a first:
Engaging illustration of what the controversial father of psychology got right—and wrong—and how a better understanding of human nature can set the world free.
Elevated with: Entertaining illustrations of psychological defenses, a menagerie of psychological dysfunction (think: As Good as it Gets; Silver Lining’s Playbook, etc.); all the complexities and titillations of sex; and a Freud-like character who finally gets happy.
Pitch: For all the people Freud helped, the man, himself was miserable—because of what he forgot. Here’s a story about a psychiatrist who, when he’s forced to do his own psychological work, discovers that knowing what Freud got wrong can set the world free.
Wide audience appeal:
Compelling roles for bankable actors in multiple demographics (teen, 30’s, 70’s). A comedy with content—about love, work, sex AND…
Timely:
For people emerging from isolation and craving connectivity, with more awareness of the value and needs of people of all ages.
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Budinscak Marketable Components
Day 6
What I learned doing this assignment:
o Introducing the excitement – creating the pitch.
o No one knows your story better than you – know how to market it.
o Business Hooks and Story/Character Hooks make your story marketable.
Logline:
A sly gangster teaches his two stowaway nephews about life and family on a cross-country trip he’s agreed to make to save his family’s restaurant from destruction.
Tagline:
Who doesn’t have a favorite uncle?
Isn’t the crazy uncle your favorite one?
Marketability Components:
Great role for a bankable actor
True – Inspired by a trip I took as a twelve year old.
Pitch:
I’d work in this quote from Joseph Gordon-Levitt about his current role in “Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber” – “slick hair plus a gift of gab plus questionable ethics equals fun as hell to play.”
I’ll pitch it’s a coming of age story for the uncle as much as the nephews.
The selected actor will have poetic license as he runs the gamut of emotions going from heel to hero.
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Emmanuel’s Marketable Components
What I learned doing this assignment is your script must have at least two marketable components in the business hook to attract a producer, studio or actor.
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Pablo’s Marketable Components
What I learned: Finding what is marketable in your film can give you a big boost of confidence. It is not just coming up with a “good” story but convincing others WHY it is a “good” story and what makes it worth starting.
Logline: To escape the Mexican drug lord responsible for her husband’s murder, a mother must take her son’s across the border only to become unknowing contestants in a twisted, online game show where American viewers place bet’s on their success… or their downfall.
Components of Marketability:
C. Timely — connected to some major trend or event.
I. Similarity to a box-office success.
Possible Pitch:
It’s “The Running Man” meets “El Norte.” Not only is it timely with the state of the border crisis and the current culture wars, but it is also a commentary on social media, online gaming, and dehumanization through sports/entertainment.
It was very much inspired by films such as Hunger Games and Get Out; movies that were highly profitable. And with the success with shows like Black Mirror and Squid Games, this could appeal to not just to streaming audiences but all moviegoers. While this is an homage to other sci-fi classics, it is much more realistic in the sense that this story could actually happen today.
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