ROOMS (Good or Crappy idea?)

[foxfire]

ROOMS (working title)

I'm currently plotting ideas and notes for a new screenplay idea I have. It's about six contestants who are chosen to be apart of a new reality television series. The show has them locked up in an abandonded school which is rigged and wired with props of their greatest fears. They get released one by one from their sepeate rooms into the school and they all get terrorized by everything...but can quit at anytime by pressing their panic button.

When there is a blackout and the the wired props arn't working and the cameras arn't on, they soon realize that the game is still on.



I'm just wondering if people think it's a good or bad idea before I start buliding it so I can change things around.

[Ronaldinho]

Here's the thing:

Movies are about people. Who are the people of this story?

Also, it seems that a lot of aspiring screenwriters want to write multiprotaganist stories. Instead, tell a single person's story. Why? Because it's hard enough, and until you figure out how to do that you'll fall flat on your face trying to write a movie with six protaganists.

When you talk about them getting released one by one, you essentially making your film into a series of shorts. This peron's fears. Then that person's fears. Then person #3's fears. But it's more interesting ot watch one person grow and change over the course of an hour and a half than it is to spend 15 minutes each getting to know a bunch of different folks.

[Maestro]

In addition to what Ron said, I guess I'll add the usual, "and then what?" You've given us what is essentially an overwritten logline. Could it be expanded into a cool movie? Sure, but it really depends on how it's expanded.

Maestro

[NobodySpecial]

I agree with everything that's been said, plus I just don't get the point. Why are they on a show? What's the point of that? Why not just have six people (or like Ron says just one) wake up in the middle of the night, get spooked, and go through whatever character arc you have in mind.

As it stands I'm not really sure what the arc is. I don't really know what kinds of themes you'd be telling with this sort of thing.

[Beeblebrox]

Originally posted by foxfire
When there is a blackout and the the wired props arn't working and the cameras arn't on, they soon realize that the game is still on.

If I hear you right, what happens is that the power goes out and there's no show, but crap keeps happening to the contestants to terrorize them (and kill them I assume), right?

I definitely see the movie here, although I am making certain assumptions about where you're taking the story. My problem is that the premise is probably a bit tired in the wake of box office duds The Haunted, 13 Ghosts, House on Haunted Hill, etc, all of them about a group of people who stay the night inside a building that tries to kill them.

[Tuukka]

Sounds like a combination of Cube and that other movie which came out 1-2 years ago. I don't remember the title, but it has a few reality TV contestants who have to live on a small house by the countryside and a killer starts stalking them.

But even if it's not entirely original, I can see the potential. This *could* make a good movie. The problem is that how do you establish the TV program so that it's believable? I don't quite understand the consept, how it would work in real life as real TV?

Also, like others said it might be a good idea to minimize the number of people and give us some info about who they are. Don't fall in to reality TV character cliches, because those have been done to death in recent years. It doesn't work anymore even as a satire.

The success of your script is heavily dependent on the main character. Who is he and why is he there?

[C-Desecration-]

I'm not going to suggest sidestepping this multiple protaganists deal, because I'm just going to assume you can pull it off; it's not very difficult. The easiest way to do this (for me) is give them quirks.
Huh?
I just mean fairly unique oddities in their personality, or past:
character #1 is suffering from the aftermath of an attempted rape, but instead of being uneasy and skittish (which is typical) she's (or he's) far more outgoing than she was before. Hmm . . .
character #2 is restless, always biting his/her lip, rubbing his/her elbows, never sitting still, although it seems more of a nevous twitch than an attention deficit problem
etc.
From there the characters usually build themselves. Give each of them a push (it doesn't matter if there's 2 or 3 or 8) with one or two unique attributes (like the ones above) and they'll start to make their own past/personality.

Here's the problem:

It's about six contestants who are chosen to be apart of a new reality television series. The show has them locked up in an abandonded school which is rigged and wired with props of their greatest fears. They get released one by one from their sepeate rooms into the school and they all get terrorized by everything...but can quit at anytime by pressing their panic button.

I'm not interested. Sounds pretty bad. I've seen this before, give us something new. Now I know it could be decent, but especially when you're a screenwriter trying to get noticed a good, original idea can go a long way. This isn't original in the slightest.
BUT, stick with the fears motif'
Just don't go the 'game show gone awry' route.

Maybe . . . maybe there's a new drug introduced into the market that is being used for medical studies because it somehow materializes the users fears in his/her mind and allows him/her to confront them. But a few characters OD and become entwined in their fears . . .
Sound better? That didn't take me very long; but if you sat down for a few hours and just tinkered with this fears thing and you'll be able to get something good.

[mr_eff]

Sounds like a combination of Cube and that other movie which came out 1-2 years ago. I don't remember the title, but it has a few reality TV contestants who have to live on a small house by the countryside and a killer starts stalking them.


Sounds like My Little Eye (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280969/).

[Ronaldinho]

[B]I'm not going to suggest sidestepping this multiple protaganists deal, because I'm just going to assume you can pull it off; it's not very difficult. The easiest way to do this (for me) is give them quirks.


There's nothing wrong with giving your charactesr quirks-- unless you are under the impresseion that quirks constitute character.

Quirks exist on the surface of a character. As a writer, you need to dig into their soul.

-Ron

[C-Desecration-]

Quirks exist on the surface of a character. As a writer, you need to dig into their soul.

EDIT: Actually, scratch that.

You don't need to get tinto their souls. You put them on paper; that's it. From usually ten-or-so pages in the characters - for me - always start acting on their own accord and I just write it like I imagine it.
And everytime things work out. Sometimes the characters tie up loose ends, surprise me with revelations, etc.

If you're commanding them every second of the story than you're doing something wrong (in my opinion). That also goes for detailing every seocnd of their past; they do that for you.

[XvoorheesX]

I'd like to see some of your characters.

Not insulting your method or anything, but characters need to be round, they need attitude, opinion, point of view change, feelings, goals... Et cetera.

So saying that you can replace all that with something like "this character rubs their elbows a lot" seems a bit sketchy.

[foxfire]

I totally agree with what everyone said. As well I WILL NOT make this into a ghost story, this is about each fear of select indivduals. I'm not even sure if they are going to be killed off..well exactly. Quirks is great advice for this idea, it should (or needs to be character drivin.) This is not one of the best idea's I've ever had, thats for sure, but when I thought about it, it seemed like it would be fun to write or even see.

As for it being kinda like a bunch of shorts, I would like to quickly let them meet up with eachother over a period of time, but never in groups of more than 3.

I was also thinking about having it set in a hospital were suddenly the power shuts down and things happen..but I'm sure I've seen that somewhere before in that exact idea so I tossed it.

thanks people

[Ronaldinho]

From usually ten-or-so pages in the characters - for me - always start acting on their own accord and I just write it like I imagine it.


On some level, everybody has to find a method that works for them. No two writers use exactly the same method.

However, that being said, very few people put enough depth, complexity, and consistency into their main characters. Most writers, especially when just starting out, will end up with very flat characters if they try to let the characters tell them who they are.

For most writers-- maybe not for you, but for an aweful lot of folks out there, and, dare I say it, the vast majority of schmoes-- saying that they let their characters tell them who they are is a cop-out. It's a way of not having to consciously make hard choices. People get sucked into the romance of it ("My characters are so real to me that I don't have to do the work!") that they don't notice that they're creating flat, uninteresting, inconsistent characters.

I agree that it's possible to get too caught up in writing biographies of characters, although I do think that your protaganist's primary internal conflict should have been with them for a long time, and you should probably know in what ways it's affected them before the story started.

[Maestro]

Originally posted by Tuukka
that other movie which came out 1-2 years ago. I don't remember the title, but it has a few reality TV contestants who have to live on a small house by the countryside and a killer starts stalking them.

Originally posted by mr_eff
Sounds like My Little Eye.

Thanks, I hadn't heard of that one, and I'm always up for something starring Jennifer Sky.

Personally, I was thinking:

http://www.slashersthemovie.com/

Maestro

[C-Desecration-]

Not insulting your method or anything, but characters need to be round, they need attitude, opinion, point of view change, feelings, goals... Et cetera.

First off, this is all under the knowledge that everyone has their own method, so I'm not saying 'I'm right and you're wrong' . . .

I never said that characters should consists only of quirks (he rubs his elbows--how deep!) or anything, I was suggesting that you could start with that and build characters around it. Like with someone who fidgeted a lot . . . why do they do that? Maybe their lips are scabbed, nails trimmed too short, etc. Then that could (A) go into a deeper problem of the character being a sort of masochist (he hurts himself when he's not keeping busy) or (B) just a cute little quirk that the audience kind of 'awws' at. Let's take 'A' and move it along to a masochist who has problems with himself, self-esteem issues that clash with his masochistic tendencies, for he occasionaly hits himself and cuts himself, thus rendering his face a little short of the ideal. So basically it's another form of the 'I eat cause I'm sad and I'm sad cause' I eat' cycle, except he paradoxically ENJOYS the hurting during, but its effects are what he hates; its like an alcoholic (loves the feeling after dozens of beers, but hates the hangover afterwards). And from there - in my experience - this character would build himself. His personality (funny, clever, quiet, what?), a backstory, and so forth would come about and build around what I have above.
Take 'B' and you'll have to add on something more. Something different, whether that's in his past, personality, look, whatever. Each of those can create characters by themselves. Like with the latter, if he has a deformity a whole new range of emotions and inner struggles come up. Or with a bad past that could bring something out, as could an odd personality that doesns't blend well with others.
See what I'm getting at?
I basically give them a core and they wrap layers around themselves, dress, I suppose you could say. So I throw them naked into the world I create, and they naturally clothe themselves.

And hopefully this isn't straying off topic, because it still deals with ROOM on a general level.

[Xandrew88]

I like it, it sounds awesome so far.

[NobodySpecial]

I'm not going to suggest sidestepping this multiple protaganists deal, because I'm just going to assume you can pull it off; it's not very difficult. The easiest way to do this (for me) is give them quirks.
Huh?
I just mean fairly unique oddities in their personality, or past:
character #1 is suffering from the aftermath of an attempted rape, but instead of being uneasy and skittish (which is typical) she's (or he's) far more outgoing than she was before. Hmm . . .
character #2 is restless, always biting his/her lip, rubbing his/her elbows, never sitting still, although it seems more of a nevous twitch than an attention deficit problem
etc.

I think you're overlooking at lot of problem with having multiple protagonists, many of which are practical from an actual production point of view.

But just looking on paper, the immediate problem that jumps out is that in the same 120 pages you have to elucidate multiple character arcs, which is actually very difficult to do well. You see, it's not just about coming up with a distinct character and throwing him onto the page -- it's about telling a store about a distinct character. Six characters, and you've got six different stories to tell. They all have to be interesting, and they all have to work within the greater context of the film as a whole. This isn't an easy thing to do, and it's generally not recommended for people to attempt doing this unless they've mastered more basic stories (one character, two characters, etc).

That said, there are some very real reasons why you don't want six different protagonists running around, not the least of which being that you want the audience to become emotionally attached to someone on the screen. With six different people running around you reduce each individual character's exposure and therein reduce the chance your audience will build a meaningful connection with any of the characters.

Unless we're talking about truly amazing writing, it's a bad idea.

[C-Desecration-]

I'm not a screenwriter (I know I'm sounding like a broken record here), I do novels, and the fact of having to cram in six characters into a 120-page-ish range did kind of fly over my head. So make note that I'll routinely give out bad advice.

But also I think ROOMS would've been something of a slasher type deal, so probably three of the characters would be rather thin and killed off within the half hour. I was under the impression that the main characters would consists of two, maybe three people.

[Ronaldinho]

Well, take a look at some classic slasher movies.

Halloween is the Jamie Lee Curtis's character's story. You would never describe anyone else in the story as a protaganist. Everyone else is experienced only as Jamie experiences them.

Same thing with Neve Campbell and Scream.

What foxfire wrote, on the other hand, sounded very much more like a genuine multiprotaganist idea.

[Tuukka]

Quirks can be a very effective way to create small supporting roles. You don't enough time to render them as three dimensional people, so it might be good to let the audience know immediately who they are.

I think One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest used this tactic very effectively by giving the supporting players both caricature personalities and very distinctive looks. But the film was also flawed in some characterizations, like the two young girls outside the hospital who just came off as dumb and cliched.

But at least the supporting characters in OFOCN were unique (with the exception of the girls). Most horror-thrillers use the same cliched archetypes over and over again and there is a danger that this film idea might fall into the same trap.

If you are going to kill someone right in the beginning, then you can make him relatively one-dimensional. But a longer a character survives and has screen time, the deeper personality he should have.

[Beeblebrox]

Originally posted by Ronaldinho
What foxfire wrote, on the other hand, sounded very much more like a genuine multiprotaganist idea. [/B]

Unless of course the bulk of those people die off. Then, like in most slashers, one character emerges as the hero/protag. I don't think there's anything unusual about doing it this way. Ultimately it CAN'T be a multi-protag story because you have to kill off your characters.

Unless of course you're not going to kill off your characters, but then the issue becomes what's at stake.

[Ronaldinho]

Unless of course the bulk of those people die off. Then, like in most slashers, one character emerges as the hero/protag.

I think this is one of the best ways to approach a slasher. If you watch "Alien" again, try to blot out that Sigourney Weaver is the lead. It's really not obvious and contributes a lot to the effectiveness of the movie. You don't know who's going to live or die.

"Scream" pulls a similar trick by taking the most famous face in the film, making her look like the lead, and then killing her. (You may have forgotten how much the marketting was based around Drew Barrymore.) Of course, this is really just stealing an idea from Hitchcock, but the point is that as a result you're much more willing to believe that Neve Campbell is in genuine jeopardy -- and might actually kick the bucket -- for the bulk of the film.

But the thing that I reacted to in the original post was the line, "They get released one by one from their sepeate rooms into the school and they all get terrorized by everything."

E.G.-- they're not all together at the beginning, they're not all together while going through the house. You, almost by definition, have to approach each character from their own POV because you're not seeing it from anyone else's.