Saturday 21 October 2017

Black Hole

I recently enrolled on a screenwriting course. Last Wednesday evening was week three of an eight week introduction to learning how to develop characters, fine tune stories, dialogue, plots & subplots and generally getting an insight into turning an idea into a fully formed, all singing all dancing, script.

We're looking at a lot of films (full length and shorts), covering a lot of genres and in so doing trying to bottle that elusive spark that will ultimately give birth to the complete package - something that can then
be pitched to film makers. That's the theory, anyway! Me and my other nine cohorts are under no illusions; whilst we all enjoy writing and are bristling with ideas, the chances of us getting a script picked up by Hollywood is as remote as a lottery win.

Some of the films we've looked at contain little or indeed no dialogue. The Black Hole is a case in point. This five minute gem is near perfect. It had a budget of less than $5,000 and is the real deal. Forget what I said about Hollywood earlier - if I came up with something this good, I'd be a happy man. Tell me what you think.

6 comments:

  1. This is brilliant John, thanks. So simple... nothing spare...and, as you say, not even any dialogue, yes I can see how inspiring this is. Your screenwriting course sounds really interesting, what a great thing to do. Wishing you lots of luck with it and perhaps you'll post some progress reports?

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  2. In a world of box-set TV series, which use endless hours of film to elaborately tell their stories, short films like The Black Hole take a special kind of genius to get it all done in less than three minutes.
    Like C, I'm looking forward to hearing updates on the fruits of your labour.

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    1. Less is more. Yes, updates for you both - probably when I have something tangible to show.

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  3. Good luck with the course - With short films like this as inspiration who knows?! Very, very clever and I suppose we all knew that as soon as money/greed entered into the equation, it wouldn't end well.

    I once did a similar course but my screenplays always had to be based on real life and actual dialogue as I find it hard to be truly imaginative - The feedback was that in real life, no-one would say such cruel things! I feel that real life is indeed very cruel sometimes and we almost have to tone it down for the world of the screenplay. Sad indictment.

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    1. You can count on me to keep it real Alyson!

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