David Polcyn
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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.
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1. David Polcyn
2. Not sure off the top of my head but have had 4 projects produced.
3. Looking to acquire new skills and different approaches to put in my tool box.
4. I finished shooting a project two hours before the first covid lock down in Prague, so very familiar with the moving target of Covid restrictions. Then I ended up moving there from Los Angeles – but the winters always cause me to flee back!
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1. David Polcyn
2. I agree to the terms of this release form.
3. GROUP RELEASE FORM
As a member of this group, I agree to the following:
1. That I will keep the processes, strategies, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class confidential, and that I will NOT share any of this program either privately, with a group, posting online, writing articles, through video or computer programming, or in any other way that would make those processes, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class available to anyone who is not a member of this class.
2. That each writer’s work here is copyrighted and that writer is the sole owner of that work. That includes this program which is copyrighted by Hal Croasmun. I acknowledge that submission of an idea to this group constitutes a claim of and the recognition of ownership of that idea.
I will keep the other writer’s ideas and writing confidential and will not share this information with anyone without the express written permission of the writer/owner. I will not market or even discuss this information with anyone outside this group.
3. I also understand that many stories and ideas are similar and/or have common themes and from time to time, two or more people can independently and simultaneously generate the same concept or movie idea.
4. If I have an idea that is the same as or very similar to another group member’s idea, I’ll immediately contact Hal and present proof that I had this idea prior to the beginning of the class. If Hal deems them to be the same idea or close enough to cause harm to either party, he’ll request both parties to present another concept for the class.
5. If you don’t present proof to Hal that you have the same idea as another person, you agree that all ideas presented to this group are the sole ownership of the person who presented them and you will not write or market another group member’s ideas.
6. Finally, I agree not to bring suit against anyone in this group for any reason, unless they use a substantial portion of my copyrighted work in a manner that is public and/or that prevents me from marketing my script by shopping it to production companies, agents, managers, actors, networks, studios or any other entertainment industry organizations or people.
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David Polcyn’s Life Threatening Sequence
Answer the question “What I learned is…?” and put it at the top of your assignment.
I learned to look at crafting the story from the problems the main character will face and endure. It’s an interesting process since it’s quite a different development prospective.
What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?
Cover up political corruption scheme using blackmail and dirty money. Joe inadvertently caught the whole thing, including murder on film while doing surveillance. The villain needs the tapes and needs to eliminate Joe.
2. What other potential dangers could your Hero experience as they try to solve the mystery and confront the Villain?
Threats
His own paranoia.
Blackmail
Physical danger
Surveillance / watched
Chased
Lured into a dangerous situation
Arrested
Danger to someone they know
People around them die or are injured.
Stalked
Professionals hired to hurt them.
Presence of weapons
Damages to their reputation
relationships could end.
Their own secret could be revealed.
Public humiliation.
Loss of a job or career.
A demand to stop pursuing the mystery.
Betrayal from someone close.
Someone operating covertly around them.
3. From the list of potential dangers, choose the ones that work for this story.
Threats
His own paranoia.
Blackmail
Physical danger
Surveillance / watched
Chased
Lured into a dangerous situation
Arrested
Danger to someone they know
People around them die or are injured.
Stalked
Professionals hired to hurt them.
Damages to their reputation
relationships could end.
Their own secret could be revealed.
Public humiliation.
Loss of a job or career.
A demand to stop pursuing the mystery.
Betrayal from someone close.
Someone operating covertly around them.
4. Sequence those dangers in order and make a list like the one I did for Basic Instinct above.
1. Joe catches the politician with a mistress on tape.
2. Politician commits “suicide”
3. Joe is told he’s responsible. he reveals he keeps the hard drives locked. never online.
4. Joe is hired to get the rockstar on tape by exgrilfriend. He does.
5. On the way out the woman interacts with Joe. “I did what you wanted now let me go.” “They will kill us if they find you here”.
6. Ella’s assistant who hired him aranges for the tapes to be picked up.
7. Rockstar is murdered and hard drives stolen.
8. Joe is late to meeting and discovers body.
9 joe is a suspect and detained.
10. He contacts the lawyer he met in the begging to rep him. He’s the villain.
11. tabloids trash Joe and already have decided he is the murder. Claypool seemingly defends him says joe should give him the videos to someone he trusts.
12. He gets the videos and decides to give them to the producer from the tabloid show.
13. Producer is murdered before he can collect them.
14. Joe is pursued is he being followed by paparazzi or hit men?
15. Hides the videos.
16. He confronts Ella, who claims she never hired him. At first she tries to play him with kindness then tries to push him away. She doesn’t have an assistant. Doesn’t know the girl. She knew husband had affairs, they had an agreement.
17. Follows the call he received from “Assistant” to an abandoned landline where he is attacked and finds the dead woman from who was in both of the videos.
18. Joe is dosed and left there, escaping before the police arrive.
19. Joe is pursued while hopped up.
20. he goes to hide at Ella’s who may or may not betray him.
21 She talks him into taking the tapes to Claypool.
22. He goes into he building being followed by one of the assassins.
23. He arrives in Claypool’s office to overhear his assistant. That’s the voice of the person who hired him.
24. He escapes. Confronts Ella, she says she didn’t know.
25. Joe gets the tapes to the tabloid but there is enough political leverage not to show it.
26. Joe must live looking over his shoulder.
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What I learned? Found it quite a good exercise and difficult to go through and list the mystery chains without having the reactions of the hero fully developed. Also was difficult not to overthink it.
What is the big secret that the Villain is covering up? Policitical corruption from the billon dollar money laundering racket.
2. How many ways can they cover that secret? Those become the mysteries.
Blackmail and or Kill the anticorruption Politician before he goes public.
Steal the tapes.
Kill rockstar and Frame Joe.
Destroy Joe’s credibility – Manipulate the police and media by controlling the narrative. (Murder suicide/ Jealous ex-boyfriend)
Kill the teenage trafficked girl to tie up loose ends.
kill anyone who gets in the way.
3. The first mystery must engage the Hero into solving it.
Who killed the rockstar and took the hard drive?
4/5.
Who Killed the rockstar?
Meeting was changed last minute
Ella denies her assistant called.
Ella is Rockstar’s wife.
Rockstar was cheating on her.
Ella was the last person to see him alive.
They had a big fight right before he was killed.
Ella gets big life insurance payout.
What is Ella (red Herring) hiding?
Ella is stand offish to Joe pushes him away. She is angry with him blaming him for the death.
She publicly calls out Joe, turning the tabloids on him. (Trying to protect Joe).
She lies and gives conflicting information.
Says she doesn’t have assistant.
Who actually hired Joe?
Meeting was changed last minute.
Where did the hard drives go?
Who was and where is the girl in the video?
What was she afraid of when she saw joe?
Why did she say she “did what they wanted”?
How does Joe find her?
She turns up dead with a needle in her arm, was it an overdose?
Who killed her?
What was on the full hard drive?
Same girl in both tapes.
Teenage runaway.
Was the first death of a politician actually a suicide?
Politician was the real target.
They need that hard drive to cover up the politician’s murder.
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David Polcyn – Villain’s great plan
What I learned is….
Reverse engineering the plan really let the villain be the puppet master, pulling the strings and the hero must rise to the challenge. Makes it much easier to build the script from this prospective.
What is the end goal? To cover up a billon dollar money laundering/ sex trafficking ring targeting celebrities and politicians by killing the rockstar who is going public with the details.
How can the Villain accomplish that in a devious way? Make the whole thing looks like a simple Murder suicide by a jealous ex-boyfriend, in other words pin it on Joe.
How can they cover it up?
1. Go on TV to build rep as Celebrity lawyer – news consultant for celebrity scandals.
2. Befriend tabloid hack, pretend like he is trying to help Joe while twisting the screws to make his life more difficult, setting him up and undermining him behind the scenes.
3. Convince two bit tabloid hack (Joe) he will make a lot of money with compromising photos by letting him broker a deal with celebrities rather than tabloids.
4. Covertly tip off said tabloid about Rockstar’s infidelity and make sure Tabloid hack (Joe) get’s the job to get the photo.
5. Set up Rockstar infidelity with a trafficked teenager to be photographed by said hack.
6. Dispose of Teenager to keep her quiet.
7. Report teenager missing to ensure Rockstar will pay to keep it hidden.
8. Get a sample of Joe’s handwriting so he can forge a blackmail & suicide note.
9. Set up “blackmail” deal with Joe which results in former KGB assassins murdering Rockstar at Joe’s office, setting it up to look like a murder suicide. But Joe escapes.
10. Manipulate police/ shape narrative with media. Destroy Joe’s credibility – Having Ella implicate him as the jealous ex and Joe was blackmailing her husband/rockstar.
11. Kill anyone who get’s in the way by framing Joe or making it look like suicide.
12. Back up plan is to set up a meeting with Joe and Ella. Murder them both and make it look like a murder suicide of a jealous ex.
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David Polcyn – World and Characters
What I learned? To ensure the characters feed BIS and all their actions arise from this. Something I was reminded of is to start simple and direct to move the process along rather than get hung up on details early.
Intriguing world – The world of tabloids and the ecosystem of celebrity exploitation (those who catch celebrities at their worst and seek to profit from it).
Big Mystery: Who killed the Rock Star (Damien Zhig)? And what happened to Scarlett, the young woman (Joe saw having an affair with Damien)?
Big intrigue: The shadow organisation of former KGB agents turned criminals, who are using dark money and human trafficking to control powerful people (celebrities and politicians).
Big Suspense: Will Joe survive long enough to discover who is trying to frame or kill him and why?
Unwitting but Resourceful Hero – Joe
Mystery – Who is trying to frame/kill him?
Suspense – Will Joe survive long enough to find the truth?
Intrigue – He is skilled stealth at operating in the shadows.Villain- Vladamir, aka “Claypool”
Mystery – Why does he broker celebrity blackmail materials? (Regaining materials for celebs or exploring them, or both)
Suspense – Will he successfully set up Joe up to take the fall for his orginzation’s crimes?
Intrigue – Will his scheme to control and manipulate powerful people be successful? He has some very dangerous people working for him.Red Herring – Ella
Mystery – Was she involved with her husband’s murder?
Suspense – Is she setting Joe up? Or actually in danger?
Intrigue – Wavering between wanting Joe’s help and trying to throw him off the trail. What happened between them in the past? -
David Polcyn – B.I.S. – Assignment 2
What I learned – To approach the story from the perspective of the foundation (Big M.I.S/thriller conventions) and let the story grow from there, rather than the other way around.
Logline: When a Rockstar he attempts to blackmail is brutally slaughtered, a down on his luck tabloid photographer must navigate a web of corruption, human trafficking and murder to prevent his own liquidation and prove his innocence.
Unwitting but Resourceful Hero: Joe, a down on his luck tabloid photographer who’s become quite skilful at the art of surveillance and security evasion.
Dangerous Villain: Vladimir “Claypool” – a former KGB officer turned “celebrity fixer”, heading up the blackmailing of powerful people to ensure they do organisation’s bidding.
High stakes: Joe’s life, Scarlet’s life (a trafficking victim) and Ella (Damien’s wife/Joe’s antagonistic ex, who became famous after they broke up), the exposure of the blackmailing/trafficking racket.
Life and death situations: A murdered rockstar, imprisoned and trafficked woman, murder attempts by former KGB assassins, Joe being framed for the organisation’s crimes.
This story is thrilling because? We are worried about Joe, who is clearly in over his head, as he moves closer to the truth, his untimely death is more and more a possiblity.
Big Mystery: Who killed the Rock Star (Damien Zhig)? And what happened to Scarlett, the young woman (Joe saw having an affair with Damien)?
Big intrigue: The shadow organisation of former KGB agents turned criminals, who are using dark money and human trafficking to control powerful people (celebrities and politicians).
Big Suspense: Will Joe survive long enough to discover who is trying to frame and or kill him and why?
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What I learned – How to view thrillers from the perspective of this model and the conventions being presented.
1. THE FUGITIVE
2. Unwitting but Resourceful Hero – Dr Richard Kimble a highly intelligent doctor who escapes from jail and now must find the one armed man who murdered his wife to prove his innocence.
Dangerous villain – Dr. Charles Nichols, who hired the one arm man to kill both Dr Kimble and his wife to prevent Kimble from exposing the harm that his new pharmaceutical causes to people who take it. If this comes to light he will lose millions.
High Stakes: Kimble’s life – the exposure of the drug cover up and loss of millions of dollars.
Life and death situation – Kimble is convicted and sentenced to death. When he escapes he faces the US marshal (who think he is guilty), the Chicago PD (who believe he harmed one of their own) and the men who murdered his wife.
3. BIG MYSTERY – Who is the one armed man who killed Dr Kimble’s wife and tried to kill him?
BIG INTRIGUE – Why did the one armed man try to kill Dr Kimble? What is he connection to the new miracle drug Provasic and what is the drug company trying to hide?
BIG SUSPENSE – Will Dr Kimble survive and prove his innocence by catching the one armed man?
4. Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great thriller?
Dr Kimble is constantly in life and death situation, he has no one to turn to. Not even the right side of the law – the US Marshall who is relentless and refuses to negotiate.
The also set up set up clues early on that seem like innocent chatter but pay off later on. For example: In the first scene we meet our villain who is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He borrowed Dr Kimble’s car since there was a problem with his but later on we find out that a phone call was made from Kimble’s car phone to the killer which seems to further incriminate the innocent Kimble.
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Hi Everyone,
Nice to meet all of you.
My name is David Polcyn. I have written around 15 scripts, about half with my writing partner. Out of those, a few have been made, some optioned and a lot are gathering dust – that is if it’s possible to gather dust on a hard drive.
What you hope to get out of the class?
Often times I feel over reliant on inspiration, I tend to mull things over, chew on them a bit too long. So I am always looking for more tools to put in the craft tool box, especially when the approach is quite different from mine.
Something unique, special, strange or unusual about you?
I moved to Prague after living in Los Angeles for 20 years. I was traveling back and forth, before coming to Czech to shoot a film in February of 2020 – we wrapped two hours before they locked down the entire country due to Corona Virus. Since then I have been more or less in Prague waiting for the world to open back up, trying to be constructive by editing, writing and attempting to learn the Czech language. But so far all that studying Czech has taught me is how easy Spanish is.
Look forward to taking this journey together with all of you.
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This reply was modified 4 years ago by David Polcyn. Reason: Strange characters and text appeared upon posting. Maybe an issue with Mac and safari
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This reply was modified 4 years ago by David Polcyn.
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This reply was modified 4 years ago by David Polcyn.
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David Polcyn – “I agree to the terms of this release form.”
GROUP RELEASE FORM FOR “THRILLER 20” CLASS
As a member of this group, I agree to the following:1. That everyone’s work here is copyrighted and they are the sole
owner of that work. I acknowledge that submission of an idea to this
group constitutes a claim of and the recognition of ownership of that
idea.2. That this program is copyrighted by Hal Croasmun and I will not share,
disclose, present, or deliver the information, design, and writing of this
program to anyone for any reason without written permission from Hal Croasmun.3. That I will keep the other writers’ ideas and writing confidential
(including Hal’s materials) and will not share this information with
anyone without the express written permission of the writer/owner.
I will not market or even discuss this information with anyone
outside this group.4. I also understand that many stories and ideas are similar and/or
have common themes and from time to time, two or more people can
independently and simultaneously generate the same concept or
movie idea.5. Finally, I agree not to bring suit against anyone in this group for
any reason, unless they use a substantial portion of my copyrighted
work in a manner that is public and/or that prevents me from
marketing my script by shopping it to production companies, agents,
managers, actors, networks, studios or any other entertainment
industry organizations or people.This completes the Group Release Form for Thriller 20.