[Michele Le Blanc]

M.M.’s BUDGET

What I learned doing this assignment is to think creatively and get the script to a barebones position for low budget, then beef it up for a high budget.

MAIN VARIABLES – LOW BUDGET

Number of Locations: Instead of
using the FBI building and various apartments and houses, I can use one
building with many rooms and set dress what I need.
Expensive locations: Instead of
using the courthouse, I can either use stock footage or film it for TV
exteriors only, then set dress a room in the FBI building to be the
judge’s chambers, and eliminate the courtroom scenes.
Number of characters: Instead of the EMS and press and other
judges and their clerks and secretaries when the murder happens, this can
be an exterior shot seen on TV of an ambulance driving away, or it can be
just one reporter on TV reporting from the exterior of the courthouse.
Special effects: No need for guns or smoke bombs in the
courthouse; just cut to the report of the murder. We’ll hear the gunshot in the final
scene but no need for actual gunds.
Number of pages: This was in the 100-110 range, but can
be cut to 90.
Crowd scenes: Eliminate all the
crowds outside the courthouse after the murder.
Stunts, Chase scenes, and Fight
scenes: No stunts at all. Main actor can start to run in the final scene
without needing a stunt double.
Special sets: Cut the courtroom
and large FBI conference rooms; use the rooms in that one building to
double for FBI offices as well as the judge’s office.

SECONDRY VARIABLES – LOW BUDGET

Of these variables, Night Scenes are used, but they can be shot inside a building rather than outside.

MAIN VARIABLES – HIGH BUDGET FILM

Number of Locations: Instead of
using the FBI building and various apartments and houses, I can use one
building with many rooms and set dress what I need.
Expensive locations:
Courthouse, courtroom, cemetery, judge’s home and interior rooms, judge’s
chambers and ante rooms, FBI building, exterior and interior, lobby,
basement research rooms, etc.
Number of characters: Quadruple staff in FBI, add Bureau Chief
and his staff, add EMS, press, ambulances, judges and their clerks and secretaries.
Special effects: Guns, smoke bombs, explosions in the
courthouse.
Number of pages: Increase from 90 to 120 pages
Crowd scenes: Huge crowds
gather outside the courthouse after the murder – press, ambulances, EMS,
police, courthouse staff, other judges, etc,.
Stunts, Chase scenes, and Fight
scenes: No stunts. Main actor can start to run in the final scene without
needing a stunt double.
Special sets: Need courtroom
scene; young daughter’s home and bedroom, father’s home and bedroom, large
FBI conference rooms, investigation rooms with cameras, etc.

SECONDARY VARIABLES – HIGH BUDGET FILM

Rights to music, brands, books,
etc.: I publish my screenplays in
book form so the IP rights would need to be purchased for the film.
Explosions and Firearm: This would beef up the murder scene by the
murderer at the courthouse laying bombs (explosions, smoke, firearms). The
final scene could be a shootout where now it is a single gunshot heard
offscreen.
Kids — shorter work days, tutor
on the set: Add the backstory of
the father and daughter, requiring additional actors – wife/mother and the
daughter at age 9.
Animals – need a wrangler, more
time to shoot, Humane Society: As
of now, there are no animals in the show but they could be added to the
home scenes of Jill who buys a guard dog to protect her when she thinks
the murderer is after her too.
Weather — Rain, snow, wind,
tornados. This could be reset in
the northeast in the wintertime during snow, or in the tropics with
tornados and hurricanes. It is set in late summer/early fall as of now.
Water and underwater scenes: None.
Night scenes: Add many more night scenes such as traveling
to and from the office for research.
Helicopters, aircraft, drone
shots: Add drone shots of the courthouse building focusing on large crowds
going to and from the courthouse; and of the ambulance, EMS and police
exiting the courthouse when the judge is murdered.
Green screen work: This could
be done with the cemetery scenes, and adding more street scenes with the
courthouse in the background.
Extensive Make-up: The murdered judge needs extensive
makeup, blood, head injuries.
Archival Footage: Obtain city footage to show the period
when the father and daughter were younger and what caused their
estrangement.
Anything else dangerous that
increases preparation time and/or Insurance: Large crowd scenes, press
reporters, ambulances, police escorts outside the courthouse after the
murder.

[Michele Le Blanc]

M.M. Writes Great Hope/Fear

What I learned in this assignment is to alternate between hope and fear, to modulate the emotions of the audience/reader up, down, up, down and create a stronger emotional journey.

In Act 1, Jill’s hope of getting engaged changes to the fear of the murder of her father, then the hope of an elopement and hearing noises in her office the fear is that that the murderer is out to get her, too.

In Act 2, Jill and her fiancé reconnect with hope, and she hopes she will be able to help investigate her father’s death, but fear arises when her fiancé becomes angry and refuses to allow her to investigate but she hopes she can do so surreptitiously.

In Act 3, Jill’s hope level of finding the killer is strong as she works through an outside consultant secretly, but the threat that her fiancé can find out makes her fearful

In Act 4, Jill’s hope is that she can forget her ex fiancé who killed her father, and he is killed in the cemetery saying his last goodbye before making a run for it. The end gives hope and a satisfying resolution to all the players involved.

[Michele Le Blanc]

The concept is communicating with the ghost of a murdered victim to find out who killed him.

Main conflict is daughter and the killer, her supervisor fiancé.

What i learned doing this assignment is a quick way to see all four Acts on the page and to move major scenes where they should be and fill in the holes.

Act 1: I have following the Opening, Inciting Incident and Turning Point.

Act 2: Jill makes a new plan, she puts her Plan in Action and we see the Midpoint Turning Point where we find that her fiancé may be a suspect though he is leading the investigation team.

Act 3: Jill must rethink everything. She makes a new Plan when she investigates her fiancé’s home and office. At the Turning Point, she uses a third party to accuse her fiancé but his boss dismisses the proof

Act 4: Finally the fiancé reveals he was the killer. In the Climax he is arrested and asks to visit the grave. The Resolution is that he tries to escape and is killed. The true meaning of what happened is then revealed.

[Michele Le Blanc]

M.M.’s Delivering Multiple Layers!

What I learned in this assignment is the structure to create layers and the foundation to be able to build them into the story. Interweaving the plot, character and location layers showed me the holes, overlaps and changes needed to make the overall story more complex and fascinating.

PLOT LAYERS:

Surface Layer: A judge is murdered.

Beneath That: He was estranged from his daughter

Beneath That: He abused her years earlier

How Revealed: Climax scene at cemetery

CHARACTER LAYERS:

Protagonist:

Surface Layer: Protagonist is an FBI investigator of unsolved murders

Beneath That: Protagonist unofficially investigates her father’s murder

How Revealed: Recording

Antagonist:

Surface Layer: Antagonist is bureau chief and Protagonists’ superior

Beneath That: Antagonist refuses to let Protagonist investigate

Beneath That: Antagonist is hiding his participation in the murder

How revealed: Cemetery

LOCATION LAYERS

Surface Layer: FBI unsolved crimes investigation office

Beneath That: Noises are heard in the basement day and night

Beneath That: Victims reaching out to solve their murders

How Revealed: Captured on equipment

[Michele Le Blanc]

M.M.’s Character Journeys

What I learned doing this assignment is to create a
beginning, middle and end for each character’s journey. This shows the conflict
and complexities of the characters weaving in and out of the story, and it’s something I have not implemented before in my scripts. Excited about this process.

[Michele Le Blanc]

What I learned in this assignment is to look at each character from the inside out to create more appealing, complex characters.

But the subtext issue needs much more clarification (if anyone from Screenwriting U is reading these).

The instructions are not clear as to whether we are supposed to actually post the work we are doing or not. I’m seeing mostly not.

[Michele Le Blanc]

M.M.’s Right Characters

What I learned doing this assignment is to examine each character in light of the Hook and Contained Setting to make sure they are the right ones for the story.

MAIN CHARACTERS:

Leigh, FBI investigator, is used to solving murders independently, so is the perfect one to run a parallel investigation.

Rob, her fiancé runs the investigation and is the perfect one as the DC Bureau Chief.

Justice Theodore “Teddy” O’Donnell, Leigh’s estranged father, has written a politically explosive majority opinion and ends up murdered. He’s the perfect character because he made a lot of enemies by his opinions on the bench, which increases the mystery and intrigue level of the story.

<hr size=”1″ width=”100%” align=”center”>

[Michele Le Blanc]

M.M.’s Great Hook!

A. How did the process work? It was a good structure to use to build the foundation – the High Concept. I used the elements of a hook and learned how to interchange them to create a much more interesting one.

B. What did you learn? I learned that I can combine the 30 day screenplay info for speed writing to brainstorm the concepts and components for this class, which helped run through 5 ideas in the limited time I had.

[Michele Le Blanc]

M.M.’s Guidelines for Titanic

What I learned in this assignment is to cut to the heart of the movie with just main characters, and a limited cast and crew. The revised version is only 2 locations and doesn’t cost $100 million!

SELECT PROJECT:

A. It can be done as a contained
story: I changed one story to
eliminate the young child, and focus solely on the adults. Another I
changed from 2 lead actresses to one playing twins. They were all set in a
contained location — an isolated cabin, a government office building, an
abandoned warehouse, a restaurant, and a law office.

B. You can write a pitch in one
or two sentences: Easier to write a short pitch about any of them by
honing in on the main concept, but I really like the one I chose.

C. There is something unique
about it: It was easier to find the
hook and what is so different from anything else by focusing on the essence
of the story – dramatic characters.

ADJUST A PRODUCED MOVIE TO COVID GUIDELINES:

TITLE: TITANIC

AS THEY DID IT:

Locations: Many, built ship in canal in Mexico for some water scenes; prior to ship sailing; dining rooms, dancing scenes, shipboard deck – multiples; diving ship; underwater scenes, lifeboats, etc.

A. People – boarding ship, crew everywhere, dock filled with people boarding and saying goodbyes, inside big dining room scenes (first and second class), upper and lower deck scenes, family quarters

B. Stunts – Many – jumping from ship, landing in lifeboats, swimming underwater, climbing when ship is sinking, dying in the water, etc.

C. Extras – So many, though some looked like CGI

D. Wardrobe – extravagant, especially the hats, lots of expensive costume changes,

E. Hair and Make Up – a lot for the elite, not so much for second class

F. Kids and Animals – none

G. Quarantine – huge cast and crew.

COVID GUIDELINE VERSION:

Locations: only 2

A. People – Eliminate opening and closing scenes on the diving boat. Focus on the drama of the 2 main characters, Jack and Rose, with intermittent scenes with mother Ruth and fiancé Cal, and the investigator when the necklace goes missing; action in 2 locations – first class cabin where Jack enters carrying Rose to Ruth and Cal and explains she nearly fell and fainted; and water with him next to her on the floating debris. No need for big ballroom or dancing or dining scenes.

B. Stunts – None. Use main characters in the final water scene that can be done in a swimming pool at a hotel with a luxury hotel suite doubling for the ship first class cabin.

C. Extras – reduce large crowd scenes; start when family boards and does not participate in the goodbye waves on deck, stick to the elite suite of cabins

D. Wardrobe – Only need one set of clothes for the period in the first class cabin.

E. Hair and Make Up – keep to only the 2 main characters, Kate and Leo, with the boyfriend and the parents and the investigator

F. Kids and Animals – none

G. Quarantine – only a handful of actors needed; small crew; contained in the first class suite.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by  Michele Le Blanc.