Lesson 1

[Brian King]

Brian King’s guidelines for FREEZER BURN (a working title)

What I learned doing this assignment, is that one of my five ideas stood out for several reasons (cost to produce, simplicity of plot, a contemporary piece, a limited number of characters, and locations. Yes, all five of the ideas are Contained scripts, but four of the five are not ready for primetime production.

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 on the guidelines.

>I put all five through the “spanking machine of elimination” and asked the question, does this fit the contained guidelines, does it appeal to a contemporary audience, are the two leads compelling, can I do this with a limited number of actors

A. It can be done as a contained story.

>All five ideas are “contained stories”, but do I want to spend the next six months pouring my heart, soul, and time into writing one of these. … it came down to two choices, with one of them ultimately prevailing; oh, and I asked myself if I, as an actor, would want to play this character (hero and villain) and that helped me decide.

B. You can write a pitch in one or two sentences.

>The pitch came easy… err… well, not easy, and not ready for the elevator just yet, but the idea that I went with had the three things that I need when penning a logline, a hero, a villain, and a world

C. There is something unique about it.

>Yes, the location of the story… and the location is one that I have physically been in many times… and while I’m there I ask myself, What if… and BAM-A story w personal elements in a unique location.

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.

>Okay… I went totally outside the box with this… and took one scene from the movie Die Hard and used my imagination to again ask, What if… and used my answer to that as a basis for Act 2.

TITLE: Die Hard

AS THEY DID IT:

A. People, a cast of hundreds

B. Stunts- Some greats ones

C. Extras Lots of background

D. Wardrobe Hero has really one, or two/wardrobes for everyone else would fill a warehouse

E. Hair/Make Up Simple but, lots of actors = lots of assistants

F. Kids /Animals Limited

G. Quarantine – None during the late 80’s shoot.

COVID GUIDELINE VERSION:

>I used a scene from Die Hard (one actor) to come up w/ act 2 location for Freezer Burn / one scene featuring the hero, dialogue, and in a contained location

A. People- A cast of three

B. Stunts- Limited, some climbing and some maneuvering in a tight location.

C. Extras – Could use a couple of folks but could shoot without.

D. Wardrobe -Simple, very simple

E. Hair / Makeup -“Sweat,” lots of sweat

F. Kids /Animals -Zero

G. Quarantine- Small cast and a small crew, and a closed set

• This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by  Brian King.