Starting a new script

When starting a new script I always look at three factors:

1) What is the budget, if known?

2) What resources are available, if any?

3) What are my goals with this project?

For my latest finished script, the answers were:

1) $43,000, exactly. That was how much money we have available to shoot this project. So we could either make a microbudget feature film or a very well funded short film. I decided to go with the short film.

2) I have a one time access to a major Hollywood actor. One time only, I can put a script in his hands and he'll read it. So it'd better be good and we'd better have the money and be ready to shoot when he reads it, otherwise I'll have blown that opportunity. So I've been waiting for the right script and opportunity for two years. But now is the time to cash it in.

3) My goal with this well funded short film with a name Hollywood actor is to win some awards. I've made short and feature films, I've gotten them placed in film festivals, and I'm on IMDB. Now it's time to go further and start winning some film festival awards. So the script would have to BE about something, and it couldn't suck.

Knowing all that, I started spinning ideas in my head. These factors combined with another factor, I wanted to do a film where a couple of the major roles were older actors. Actors over 50 get screwed in this business. They either play the kind or bumbling grandparents, or the sick and dying old person, or the old person who introduces the flashbacks which are the meat of the movie, or the sad senile person. That's pretty much IT for older actors. So I thought it'd be interesting for an older actor or two to carry a film without ever being any of those things.

So I needed an older actor to carry the film without the focus being on him or her being old and/or senile. I needed a 30 something character with a meaty role so my Hollywood contact would have something to do. And I needed about 30 pages so we could fit into a five day shooting schedule. And finally, I knew what my title was going to be as soon as I ran across this awesome quote by Edith Wharthon: "There is no such thing as old age, there is only sorrow." So I knew the title of my short film would be: "There Is Only Sorrow" and we'd open the movie with the full quote.

I knew what I needed, now it was just a matter of finding a good story to encompass all of this that was actually about something and that didn't suck.

First Attempt
In the first attempt, my old character, named Bear, was a retired spy who was living in an old folks community, which was a series of cabins around a shallow lake, all of which was miles away from the nearest town. The story would be that Milo, the son of a spy that Bear killed years ago, would show up looking for Bear so he could kill him. Meanwhile, an evil demon is stalking the old folks community, luring people out of their homes at night by appearing as dead loved ones and then eating their souls over a period of a week. It was a knockoff on the original Bram Stoker vampire story but with old people and souls instead of hawt 19th century babes and blood. Milo and Bear would team up to defeat this demon and then Milo and Bear would have their final confrontation. To complicate things, I was going to have Bear's exwife living in the same community with her new husband, whom Bear hated. Bear's wife would be the first to die in the film.

It was a nice idea and would make an entertaining film, but a couple pages in I realized that it was too genre to ever win any awards, which beyond entertaining people was my major goal for this film. So I abandoned it and spun the creative bottle again. Here's what I had:

http://home.att.net/~dextergoad/tiosoriginal.pdf

Second Attempt
If you're reading along at home, you'll immediately notice that "Lakeside Grounds" still exists but has changed to a park. Milo, Bear, and Willow all still exist as well (though Milo didn't even have time to appear in the first script). But a lot has changed. Why don't you read it for yourself and then we'll continue?

http://home.att.net/~dextergoad/tiosver2.pdf

And we're back, assuming you've read it. I really love the concept in this script and especially love the Willow character here. Her dialogue is awesome. So I'm definitely going to be doing something with the concept and with the character down the road. But in this case, it was still going down a road that was way too genre. You can be a little whacky and a little genre and win awards, but the more genre you are, the lower your chances at awards. So I spun the creative bottle again, and this time I hit the jackpot.

The Final Attempt

This script had everything I'd been wanting to hit. It had a philosophical debate, which award givers love. It had action and plenty of dialogue that a great actor could really sink his teeth into. And it had two really good character arcs for Milo and Bear. There will be changes as we go into development and production, but they're going to be minor because I really love this version of the script.

I'd love to hear your feedback on it.

http://home.att.net/~dextergoad/There_Is_Only_Sorrow.pdf

But anyway, what I hope to accomplish with this post is to show how much a script can change during the course of it's development and also how some things can stay in there for whatever reason. The process I've described here took place over about four weeks.