Lesson 1

[RAMSEY ANDERSON]

3. Answer the question “What I learned doing this assignment is…I really like discussing movies and I also enjoy jumping into my stories to make them better so that others want to see them on the silver screen.

ASSIGNMENT PART 1: Select Your Project

I have to admit Lesson 1 took the fun out of my 3 big crowd shots haha.

1. Based on the guideline any of the 5 stories will work. One comedy/drama feature that takes place in a comic books store would work the best but it isn’t the story that I want to work on right now. I’d rather reconstruct my thriller/horror feature because I think it has the largest appeal and it’s easiest to pitch.

Yes DEADLY PAYLOAD (horror/thriller) can be a contained story, pitched in 30 words and is extremely unique while also stacked with comps like: GREEN ROOM and BLOOD SPORT.

ASSIGNMENT PART 2: Adjust a Produced Movie to Covid Guidelines

TITLE: GREEN ROOM (2015) horror/thriller

AS THEY DID IT:

A. People – Band of 4 people, a dozen killer Nazis, two police officers and an audience of 40 people.

B. Stunts – A dozen violent stunts.

C. Extras – 40 in the audience.

D. Wardrobe – Punk rock, skinhead outfits and two police uniforms.

E. Hair and Make Up – About a dozen Special FX moments through the whole film.

F. Kids and Animals – 2 pitbull dogs.

G. Quarantine – Audience of 40 people only during parts of the first third of the film.

COVID GUIDELINE VERSION:

A. People – Band of 4, 6 killer Nazis, two cops and no audience.

B. Stunts – Limit to 6 violent stunts

C. Extras – None

D. Wardrobe – Incorporate more plain cloths outfits; just accessorize.

E. Hair and Make Up – Limit Special FX moments to 6 instead of a dozen.

F. Kids and Animals – Keep the 2 dogs.

G. Quarantine- Just have to isolate cast and crew.

Thank you. Any feedback is appreciated. Rams~

[Angelina Fluehler]

A. Actually one of the contained stories is abou COVID and all the f–ck ups connected with its testing. Mostly single location – hotel.

B. A kind of general Logline: Married couple stack in their holiday hotel because wife tests corona positive.

C. There is something unique about it that it never happened before COVID and I hope it will never happen to other people again.

I am usually selective due to lack of time and will publish and make only certain homeworks. Also because I am doing few classes in parallel.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by  Angelina Fluehler.

[Tom Wilson]

Tom’s Guidelines for NO WAY BACK

Contained Environment: Rescue boat with three desperate people aboard.

Contained Characters: A ship’s crewman, a rich heiress and the ship’s owner.

Difficult Situation: If they aren’t quickly rescued, they’ll die of exposure.

Reason for the Containment: Their ship sank in the middle of the ocean.

What I learned doing this assignment is when forced to, I can make quick decisions.

Once I did a few, it was easier for me to scale down a non-Covid made movie.

Title: GUNS OF NAVARONE

As they did it:

A. People – 7 main speaking parts

B. Stunts – 3 scenes involve stunts

C. Extras – 3 scenes involve extras

D. Wardrobe – 12 Nazis uniforms

E. Hair and Make Up – extensive

F. Kids and Animals – one kid reports a good guy to the bad guys

G. Quarantine – They didn’t have to quarantine.

Covid Guildelines Version:

A. People – 5 main speaking parts

B. Stunts – 2 scenes involve stunts

C. Extras – 1 scene involves extras

D. Wardrobe – 6 Nazis uniforms

E. Hair and Make Up – minimal

F. Kids and Animals – A better way is devised to report the good guy

G. Quarantine – minimal needed.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by  Tom Wilson.

[David Polcyn]

David Polcyn’s Guidelines for Reservoir Dogs

3. Answer the question “What I learned doing this assignment is…?” – It’s incredibly difficult to look at a script/ film like Reservoir Dogs and think about how to change the script (a master piece) after the fact. This assignment made me realise it’s far easier to make the script decisions in advanced. It primarily caused me to focus on reverse engineering the actual production and what decisions could have been made during preproduction and shooting to execute the film under covid restrictions. In other words how to take limitations and turning them into stylistic choices which can then be applied to future scripts like we are writing in this class.

Assignment 1

A. It can be done as a contained story – <font face=”inherit”>Yes, most ideas can but the reoccurring problem I saw was starting out larger and becoming contained, for example a full school classroom and </font>funneling<font face=”inherit”> down to a few characters.</font>

B. You can write a pitch in one or two sentences – Yes, I can do that with all 5.

C. There is something unique about it – Yes, the ideas I have narrowed it down to all have a unique twist.

Assignment 2

TITLE: Reservoir Dogs

AS THEY DID IT:

A. People – 19 listed cast, 6 uncredited, 5 radio voices

B. Stunts – Car crash, shootings.

C. Extras – people on the street and in restaurant.

D. Wardrobe – Black suits and wardrobe provided by actors or donation.

E. Hair and Make Up – blood and SFX make up for ear.

F. Kids and Animals – none

G. Quarantine – none.

COVID GUIDELINE VERSION:

People – Create distance between the characters so the reverses can be shot individually. Then use cross cutting with locations tying the space together. The majority of the movie has usually three or four characters. So I layering the shooting schedule – starting with the most used actors, Orange and White and then add additional cast who would be simotaniously quarantining. All radio voices could be recorded at peoples homes. Use phone calls for some of the scenes and cross cut. For some some of the scenes outside of the warehouse you might be able to get away with audio cues such as gunshots or sirens while focusing on the main character.

B. Stunts – Car crash. It was a very slow crash and would require a stunt person which could be shot on the last day or you use an audio crash and pick up the scene after the crash has occurred.

C. Extras – Shoot individually scattering on the streets to limit exposure or have crew members stand in as extras. Maybe even

D. Wardrobe – Fine as is.

E. Hair and Make Up – Not listed on IMDB so fine as is. The necessity of the SFX ear the blood was a lot so a script supervisor or make up person must track the amount of blood from scene to scene to scene.

F. Kids and Animals- none

G. Quarantine – Start with the major actors and layer them in as you are shooting to avoid paying the actors to quarantine and then sit and wait for their shooting days. However this requires having multiple shooting plans incase someone falls ill.

[H. Vince]

Student Name: H. Vince

Contained – 2023

Lesson 1: Keys To A Great Contained Movie

What I learned from doing this assignment is…

This is more of a challenge than I realized since I had to find a movie and cut it down with COVID guidelines. That’s difficult to do with a lot of movies. I also found out that usually contained movies are called “bottle” movies.

ASSIGNMENT PART 1: Select Your Project

A. It can be done as a contained story:
this can be pulled off because for the most part, the movie takes place in
an office building.
B. You can write a pitch in one or two sentences: This
will be a journey getting the wording of the pitch down so it can sell
immediately.
C. There is something unique about it: it seems to
me that a common component of a contained movie is usually that the
characters are trapped and can’t escape which is what the main character
feels like in my concept and there is a specific journey there of mental abuse
and a desire to leave but something is holding her back.

ASSIGNMENT PART 2: Adjust a Produced Movie to Covid Guidelines

TITLE: CUJO (1983) HORROR/THRILLER

AS THEY DID IT:

A. People: Vic and Donna Trenton, their son, Tad, Donna’s ex-boyfriend, Steve that she’s having an affair with, the abusive mechanic and his family, Sheriff George Bannerman, a couple of other Cujo victims.

B. Stunts: Stuntman Gary Morgan in a dog suit

C. Extras: A Labrador in a St. Bernard suit on stand-by, Different sources say 5 St. Bernards or as many as 13 were used as extras.

D. Wardrobe: 80s and dirty, sweaty for certain scenes.

E. Hair and Make Up: Dee Wallace and Danny Pintauro need make-up to look hot and dehydrated because the film was shot in the cold.

F. Kids and Animals: 1 St. Bernard, one kid who ends up stuck in the car and the mechanic’s kid that searches for Cujo in the fog.

G. Quarantine: Mother and child trapped in a broken-down car in extreme heat while a rabid bat bit dog tries to attack them.

COVID GUIDELINE VERSION:

A. People: Keeping the main people seems important since it tells the story of why a mother and her son are stranded in a broken-down car and no one is looking for them for a while.

B. Stunts: possibly more mechanical or CGI dogs and to try to prevent the training issues and Dee Wallace being bitten on the face and needing stitches.

C. Extras A Labrador in a St. Bernard suit turned out to not be necessary. Maybe cut down the amount of dogs as extras.

D. Wardrobe Fine as is

E. Hair and Make Up: possible hair and make-up put on by the actors themselves. Possibly shoot it in summer with water breaks to avoid extra make-up and took look more natural.

F. Kids and Animals: Fine as is

G. Quarantine: I’d say this movie could almost pass as a contained movie due to a lot of it happening out in the woods or in a car. Since this movie is based on a book it’s hard to cut out a lot if we want to stay true but maybe have more scenes where people are not in close contact, Maybe keep the original story from Stephen King’s book where Tad dies to prevent further close contact to the mother or use a wax figure. Maybe cut out any scene where people are too close in contact like the one showing Dee Wallace and Christopher Stone in bed together having an affair except they were married in real life so that could pass. The film was shot in around four locations – maybe cut down the number of locations with finding a location with two homes on a lot making it look like it was shot in two different locations. Maybe use air filters to clean the air of spreading viruses.

[Gustavo Cosenza]

Gustavo’s Guidelines for Last Night in Soho

What I learned doing this assignment is that some big studio movies spend so much money on scenes that don’t add a significant amount of value to the story, these scenes add pretty much just to the visuals, which is important, but the story should definitely be the priority.

TITLE: Last Night in Soho

AS THEY DID IT:

A. People: two main actresses, 10 supporting roles, and a large group of extras

B. Stunts: one scene where a man gets run over by a car and the fire scene

C. Extras: Dance scene, school scene, bar, street in the night, club

D. Wardrobe: Plain clothes, masks for the “ghosts” and 60’s theme clothes

E. Hair and Make Up: 60’s themed hair and makeup, kill scene with blood

F. Kids and Animals: none

G. Quarantine: large amounts of extras throughout the movie.

COVID GUIDELINE VERSION:

A. People: 2 main actresses and reduce to 4 supporting actors. Maintain a more internal characters journey with more up close camera positions and cut wide shots.

B. Stunts: the run over scene can be more suggestive and the fire scene less graphic

C. Extras: Cut scenes with crowds and keep it to the minimum and just the necessary extras

D. Wardrobe: reduce to the minimum the necessary wardrobe

E. Hair and Make Up: resolve with wigs and simple makeup

F. Kids and Animals: none

G. Quarantine: Reducing and cutting wide shots that only provide context to the 60’s time period and crowded scenes to reduce complex locations.

[Robert Barhite]

Robert Barhite’s Guidelines for 3:10 to Yuma

What I learned doing this assignment is: It sparked creativity. Limiting the number of locations forced me to focus on the story. I was worried it would be a struggle, but the ideas flowed. Assignment 1 helped to narrow down which story idea to use for the rest of the class. Selecting “3:10 to Yuma” reinforced that a contained story puts the focus on the story.

ASSIGNMENT PART 1: Select Your Project

A. It can be done as a contained story: That’s the cool part of the exercise. Limiting locations puts the focus on the story.

B. You can write a pitch in one or two sentences.: That’s how I start writing. If a story can’t be told in a couple sentences, then it’s broken and needs rewriting.

C. There is something unique about it: All five have ironic twists. It’s “The Twilight Zone” influence.

ASSIGNMENT PART 2: Adjust a Produced Movie to Covid Guidelines

TITLE: 3:10 to Yuma (1957)

AS THEY DID IT:

A. People: The outlaw, the hero and his family, stagecoach company’s owner, a couple bar patrons (total cast = 16)

B. Stunts: Falls from horses, jumps onto moving train, gunfights.

C. Extras: outlaw gang, townspeople

D. Wardrobe: Typical 1950’s interpretation of 1880’s Western wear (jeans, chaps, cowboy hats)

E. Hair and Make Up: Minimal, a lot of dust and sweat

F. Kids and Animals: Both

G. Quarantine: The outlaw gang rode close together. There is a stagecoach robbery scene at the start – kicks off the story, a few extras in the town.

COVID GUIDELINE VERSION:

A. People: Can focus on the ride to Contention City after the hero captures the outlaw when he’s recognized at the bar. The bar scene is needed but focusing on the two men eliminates a number of extras.

B. Stunts: Can eliminate the stereotypical “Guy gets shot off the roof” and “Guy gets shot and is dragged by his horse.” Still need the train at the end.

C. Extras: Lose a good number of extras by focusing first on the two men as they ride to Contention City, then on the hotel room where the outlaw is held until the train arrives.

D. Wardrobe: Nothing complicated. It’s a Western. The stuff is literally of the rack.

E. Hair and Make Up: Other than the hero’s wife and a barmaid – not much. Dust and sweat.

F. Kids and Animals: Need the horses. Lose the hero’s kid.

G. Quarantine – Small cast. The stunt team can double as non-speaking extras.

[Aurora AURORA Harris HARRIS]

I’ve learned that a little thinking during rewrite could save thousands in unnecessary expense and get your script sold.

Part 1: Selecting my project

I’ve figured out my TV series “Insurrection” can be done as a contained story by making the majority of the episodes occur while the protagonist is under house arrest. The pilot episode is going to be more difficult to modify, however I had already written it with an eye to avoid big expensive vistas of ancient Rome. The next rewrite will make more action occur at fewer locations and will limit the number of exterior scenes.

Logline: A politically naïve but loyal Centurion, relegated to Palestine to quash a rumored rebellion, struggles with his headstrong multicultural slaves, yet he continues investigating despite house arrest, only to discover he himself is an insurrectionist.

An old story can be retold uniquely through the eyes of a flawed man and his family slaves, all of whom are loaded down with willfulness, secrets and emotional baggage.

Part 2 Adjusting a Produced Movie to Covid Guidelines

Title: CASABLANCA

AS THEY DID IT:

People: Leads: Rick, Ilse,
Laszlo, Renault. Supporting: Sam, Ugarte,
Strasser
Stunts: piano playing, roulette
wheel, shootings, airplanes landing & taking off, police chase
Extras: Bar customers,
refugees, crowds in the street, police and German military
Wardrobe: police uniforms,
German Nazi uniforms, period
European gentry, Moroccan native dress of market sellers, waiters/ staff, European
or Mediterranean period clothing in
variety of refugees
Make-up /Hair: focus on female
lead, also likely some skin coloration, Moroccan hairdos, period European hairdos,

Kids & Animals: yes, in
street scenes
Quarantine: none

COVID GUIDELINE VERSION

TITLE: CASABLANCA CONCENTRATION CAMP- Rick is a “trustee,” a trusty inmate working the transit portion of a concentration camp and making money bootlegging booze and contraband.

People: Leads: Rick, Ilse,
Laszlo, Renault. Supporting: Sam, Ugarte,
Strasser
Stunts: harmonica playing,
gambling with dice, knifings, sound of airplanes landing & taking off,
sound of police chase
Extras: Bar customers,
refugees, crowds in the street, police and German military
Wardrobe: police uniforms,
German Nazi uniforms, single style,
ill-fitting concentration inmate uniforms
Make-up /Hair: mussed up and
certainly do it yourself.
Kids & Animals: none
Quarantine: all scenes in concentration
camp All the action and dialogue occurs one on one between two or three people
max in the confines of the camp’s empty canteen, showers, hallways, cells ,
admin offices or an escape tunnel.

[Thomas Doran]

“What I learned doing this assignment is a much better understanding of the elements of a contained movie and how less funds, in terms of the budget, can actually lead to more creativity/uniqueness in the story. It also made me more aware of the scenes that can unnecessarily add cost to the film.

Assignment Part 1: Select Your Project:

1. Go through your five ideas and determine which of them can easily fit the Covid-19 guidelines. For the moment, don’t list the ideas. Just tell us your experience of evaluating them based upon the guidelines.

A. It can be done as a contained story: Each of my five ideas takes place in a small confined area for most of the story which includes: a car, a grocery store freezer, a boat, a small single engine plane, and a small ER. <div>

B. You can write a pitch in one or two sentences: I can establish for each idea a longline that includes: quick sense of the main character, the event that launches the story and the challenge and mission in solving it.

C. There is something unique about it: My most unique ideas may come from true events that occurred in my hometown.

Assignment Part 2: Adjust a Produced Movie to Covid Guidelines

2. Pick a movie that is outside the Covid Guidelines and give us your thoughts on how they could make it in the current production environment.

TITLE: Flowers in the Attic

AS THEY DID IT:

People – 6 main actors, 6 minor characters , at least a dozen or more extras at the party and wedding scenes.

B. Stunts: Christopher and Kathy (the teenagers) use a rope to climb down and climb up the steep facade of the mansion.

C. Extras: two police officers, who have no dialogue, about 5 extras at the party and a dozen to 20 extras at the wedding.

D. Wardrobe: Casual and very formal wear for the wedding and party scenes.

E. Hair and Make Up: Negligible.

F. Kids and Animals: 2 small children, 2 teenagers and a pack of 4 to 5 dogs.

G. Quarantine: Large amount of extras at the wedding scene.

COVID GUIDELINE VERSION:

A. People: Several extras, including the two officers who show up at the family’s door to reveal the death of the father could be eliminated with just the mother receiving a phone call and seeing her reaction. The wedding could have could be just a few people, without people sitting next to each other in the pews.

B. Stunts: Remove the rope stunt.

C. Extras: Cut the number of extras at the party and wedding scenes along with the two officers.

D. Wardrobe: Some of the very formal wear could be replaced with more casual clothes to lower budget.

E. Hair and Make Up: Fine as is.

F. Kids and Animals: The two young children are critical to the concept, but the pack of dogs could be replaced with the sound of dogs barking.

G. Quarantine: Remove the extras at the party and wedding scenes. Remove the two officer extras and some of the supporting cast that had little to no impact on the story.

</div>

[Martha Manuel]

ASSIGNMENT FOR LESSON 1

Subject line: Martha’s Guidelines for “CELL”

What I learned doing this assignment is… <b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>how important it is to consider all aspects of making a movie if I want to get it <b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>produced.

ASSIGNMENT PART 1: Select Your Project

1. Go through your five ideas and determine which of them can easily fit the Covid-19 guidelines. For the moment, don’t list the ideas. Just tell us your experience of evaluating them based upon the guidelines.

A. It can be done as a contained story.

1) In some instances it was necessary to cut back on the number of people involved to reflect the need for a minimum size cast and crew.

2) Another idea included two separate locations and a possible third and had to be

changed to prevent the need for moving cameras as much.

3) One idea included too many actors/actresses, but could be worked with since they

would be the only characters in the movie.

4) Wardrobe should not be a problem since most of the scripts would be held in everyday

clothing throughout the shoot

5) No small children or pets are involved

6) No special stunts are involved

7) Could get by with a minimum of crew members

B. You can write a pitch in one or two sentences. – Ideas in the making.

C. There is something unique about it. – Working to develop on topic chosen.

ASSIGNMENT PART 2: Adjust a Produced Movie to Covid Guidelines

2. Pick a movie that is outside the Covid Guidelines and give us your thoughts on how

they could make it in the current production environment.

Title: CELL

AS THEY DID IT:

A. People: Cast members: 122

B. Stunts/ Special Effects:

a. Airplane blows up outside plate glass window of airport.

b. Waterfall scene.

c. Field of people dead from fire bombs – some still alive, on fire, running over those dead.

d. Special effects run rampant.

C. Extras:

Large groups at airport, in streets, on escalators, everywhere you look.

D. Wardrobe:

a. Everyday clothing at first.

b. Tattered clothes when people turn into for zombie creatures.

E. Hair and Make Up: Lots of make-up needed for zombie like characters.

F. Kids and Animals: None

G. Quarantine: Large number of extras used throughout the movie.

COVID GUIDELINE VERSION:

A. People: Cast members: 122

a. Cut out scenes not absolutely necessary to movie, i.e.:

Woman, Clay, and Tom meet in Clay’s apartment building

b. Cut back on huge groups of zombies in movie. Use smaller groups with

same heightened awareness.

B. Stunts:

a. Airplane blows up outside plate glass window of airport: Delete.

b. Waterfall scene – beautiful, but not needed.

c. Field of dead people from fire bombs – some still alive, on fire, running over

those dead – scene impressive, but such a large group could be cut back.

d. Special effects run rampant. Great job on how they are done, but to cut down

expenses, many could be left out.

C. Extras:

a) Large groups at airport, in streets, on escalators, everywhere you look.

b) Need to cut back on excessively large crowds.

c) Heightened tension to make up for smaller crowds.

D. Wardrobe:

a. Everyday clothing no problem.

b. Tattered clothes after people turn into zombies – no problem.

c. Cutting down on number of people in scenes would mean fewer people

required to help with wardrobe issues.

E. Hair and Make Up:

Lots of make-up needed for zombie like characters. Will need adequate

number of make-up artists to complete looks in time. Smaller cast will help

relieve the need for large make-up crew.

F. Kids and Animals: none

G. Quarantine: Allow “zombie” cast to do as many scenes as possible in as few

days as possible. Letting them finish faster and leave the set will also limit

their exposure to the possibility of acquiring COVID. It should also help cut

back days in production.

[Bent Hanlen]

Bent’s guidelines for Commando

what I learned doing this assignment is this…. what is necessary and what is simply an ego presentation for the main actor. Can it be removed? What is moving the story forward and what is cheese and doesn’t have to be there?

TITLE: COMMANDO

AS THEY DID IT:

A. People = Arnold, female assist, daughter, bad guy, henchman,

B. Stunts – cabin in woods attack, explosions, gun fight,

C. Extras mall battle, end battle with soldiers

D. Wardrobe – simple, could be personal clothing, military uniforms, a couple police un[forms

E. Hair and Make Up – blood

F. Kids and Animals one kid

G. Quarantine – can be shot in one area

COVID GUIDELINE VERSION:

A. People – same. no mall no airport interior.

B. Stunts – remain the same, digitize explosions

C. Extras – mall scene can be removed, the end battle is essential for showing one against many

D. Wardrobe – actors can provide own clothing. Uniforms are necessary

E. Hair and Make Up – make up is required by someone doing special effects blood

F. Kids and Animals = one kid

G. Quarantine -most of the cast are in common scenes until you get to the scenes requiring extras