Silver Screen

So new projects begin and I find myself back where I was a few years ago, looking at writing a screenplay again. This is OK, the new project dovetails with the YA novel, Girl In the Box, I'm just trying to imagine the first scene, and whether Alice should speak via voice over or dialogue. She's carrying a rabbit at the time, maybe the rabbit should have the voice?

I'm back to summing up a whole film in one sentence, the dreaded logline.
Went to our local flicks to see Les Mis yesterday, it's logline is:'Fight. Dream. Hope. Love.'

That's cheating, it just about sums up everything.

I watched it with an eye on the clock, a nod to Blake Snyders, Save The Cat, in which his beat sheet divides a screenplay into actions and minutes.

At one minute we should have the opening image (Les Mis, the slaves battling to pull a listing ship back to dock, a symbol of their struggle, way below the oppressors - Javert).

Theme stated - the next 5 mins - More of the same in Les Mis, with a few shots of a battered Hugh Jackman staggering about. Set up should be the first 10 minutes - Hugh rambling around, given a chance, reforming and becoming a new man - Law V Grace, and all that jazz. You get the idea.

Despite my objections to the goal driven approach being a particularly male view, its amazing how almost every film follows this pre set structure, go on, give us some examples of those that don't please!