Capturing Big Ideas for Less in Feature Film How a Limited Environment Can Serve Substantial Themes

Introduction:

Chapter 1: Your Character, Theme, and World: Three Basic Tests

(A)  Do your Homework!

(B)  Back to the Basics

I.                    CHARACTERS: The lead, the ally, and the friend, the foe, protagonist, and antagonist

II.                 THEME: What is your story about? What are you trying to say?

III.              WORLD: The environment that your characters live in can be as important as the characters themselves.

IV.              ARCHETYPES: The archaic concepts we all carry in our collective.

V.                THE PROBLEM: If your lead characters don’t have a problem, why should we want to see a movie about them?.

VI.              BATTLES: Every script is a war.

VII.           DIALECT AND TONE: How your characters talk, how they approach basic human communication.

VIII.         LIFE EXPERIENCE: You do write what you know.

(C) Character, Theme, and World

(C)  Life is About Loss and Change

(D) The Cliché Trap

(E)  The Character Test

(F)  The Theme Test

(G) The World Test

Chapter 2: How to Create the Big Idea in the Right World -- The Narrative Synonym Process.

(A)  Go for the Unexpected

(B)  Start Big, then go Small

 (C)  The Narrative Synonym Process -- Building the World, Piece by Piece

 (H)      The Story Surge

 (II)              Budget

 (III)           Character

 (IV)           World

 (V)              Theme

 (VI)           Do Your Homework!!!

 (D) Finding the Zone in the Twilight one

 (E)  Launching the Narrative Synonym Process

Chapter 3: Dollars and Cents -- Why do movies cost so much?

 (A)  Pre-production:

 (B)  Production:

 (C)  Postproduction:

 (D) The End Result:

Chapter 4: Finding the Footage in a Found Footage Film

(A)  Expect the Unexpected

(B)  Documenting the Bizarre

(C)  Finding the Meta Idea

(D) Finding the Format

Chapter 5: Science Fiction & Fantasy Films – Brave New Worlds on Earth or as it is in Heaven

(A)  The World and Everything Else

(B)  Warning in Space

(C)  Trapped in Space

(D)  From Sea to Shining Stars

(E)   The Play is the Thing – Along with a Trap

(F)  Waiting for Sandoval – Time is the Enemy

Chapter 6:  The Horror Film -- The environment itself becomes a death trap.

(A)  Bloody, Scary Worlds

(B)  Monsters Among Us

(C)  Master of Horror:  Stanley Kubrick

(D) Master of Horror:  Alfred Hitchcock

(E)  Beware of the Cliché Trap

(F)  Mr. Hell – The Road to Hell Can Lead to a Strong Story

Chapter 7: The Western – A small world with a big vista.

 (A)   Wide Exterior, Narrow Focus

 (B)   Period or Contemporary – The Western Today or Yesterday

 (C)  Rio Bravo – A Bloody Little War

 (D) East or West, Do Your Homework!!!

 (E)  Modernizing the Western

Chapter 8: Mixing and Matching Genres

(A)  Start in One Place, End in Another

(B)  The Highs and Lows, the Lows Being Very Low

(C)  The War at Home, in Japan and America

(D) From One Century to the Next

(E)  Taking a Classic and Ruining It

Chapter 9: War with no Peace – Suspense and jeopardy in controllable but dynamic exteriors.

(A)  Men in War -- Every War is a Horror Story

(B)  Samuel Fuller—Big World, Small Story

(C)  Robert Wise – War in Tight Spaces

(D) Beyond Reality – A Real World Example

Chapter 10:  Siege and Hostage Dramas – No matter the budget, we can’t

                   leave a single interior.

 (A)  The Trap is the Point:

 (B)  Order Versus Disorder:

 (C)  The Desperate Hours – Ground Zero for the Hostage Drama

 (D) Suddenly What?

 (E)  An Unreliable Witness

 (F)  Rear Window and its Copies

 (G) What if the Hero is the Villain?

 (H) A Very Tiny War

 (I)    They Fought the Law and the Law Won

 (J)   Mad Dogs Trapped in Hell

Chapter 11: The Crime Was Murder – Death in Small Places

 (A)   Who Done It, Not Why Done It!

 (B)  Mistress of Murder

 (C)  Murder Out West

 (D) The Theme Bricked Up in Brick

 (E)  Blood Out, Lots of Blood

 (F)  Heaven and Hell in High and Low

 (G) I, Robot, I Accuse

 (H) Murder On the Hour

Chapter 12: Avoiding the Play Trap – Turning a theatrical stage piece into a cinematic film

 (A)  From Stage to Screen

 (B)  Comedy Dipped in Acid

 (C)  The Innocent Among Us

 (D) Justice as Drama

 (E)  Making Music in Strange Places

 (F)  Don’t Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts

Chapter 13: The Ordinary can be Extraordinary; No High Concepts Allowed

(A)  Welcome to the Real World

(B)  Don’t Forget the Unexpected

(C)  Working Without a Villain

(D) From the New Realism to the New Wave

(E)  Back to Japan

(F)  Back in America  

Chapter 14: From Nothing to Something: How Do You Launch Your career?

(A)  Final Review

(B)  Final Advice

(I) DIY

(2) The Production Synonym Process

(1)   Take care of Your Crew

(2)   Be Prepared

(3)   Protect Your Material

(4)   Be Flexible

Biography

David Bennett Carren is an award-winning screenwriter whose work includes numerous episodes for such television shows as Star Trek: The Next Generation, Stargate SG1, and The Twilight Zone, among many others. His feature film script credits include Mr. Hell, Waiting for Sandoval, and The Red Queen, which he also directed. His recognition as a screenwriter and/or director includes a Writer’s Guild Award Nomination, a First Place in the New York Television and Film Festival, Grand Prizes in the Cynosure and StoryPro Awards, Platinum, Gold and Bronze Remi Awards, and a Silver Palm at the Mexico Film Festival.

His first screenwriting textbook, Next Level Screenwriting: Insights, Ideas and Inspiration for the Intermediate Screenwriter, which he wrote with David Landau, is available through Focal Press. A member of the Writers Guild of America and the University Film & Video Association, David earned his MFA in Screenwriting from Spalding University and is a Professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley where he has served as the Chair of the Department of Theatre.