melodrama

B

bluegrey

Active member
Hey so I think I'm gonna shoot something for this. My goal is too keep the premise and acting, subtle and realistic. But I was wondering how many people are concerned their subject matter will be over the top and melodramatic.

I'm not judging anyone for the approach they take. I'm just curious how many people have thought about this or are even concerned or are completely just going for melodrama. A six minute drama is an interesting premise for sure.

Just thought I'd start a different conversation on here, peace.
 
I don't think it will be anyones goal to be melodramatic. But it is bound to happen. But that just means we can all laugh a little too :)

When I think, melodrama, I think comedy.

But seriously, Polly Holliday (you know, Flo? "Kiss my grits") once said to me (not that I am special. She came to our school cause she had a crush on the Dean when they were younger.) well... I don't remember what she said, but something along the lines of the more "dramatic" or powerful thing to watch, is someone who is trying not to show emotion. As opposed to just screaming and bawling, etc.

I think that is a great piece of advice to keep in mind (for me anyways) when tackling dramatic material.

The same goes from an actors point of view. If you try to force emotion, it just doesn't work out so well (again, for me).

Put people in dramatic situations, don't make them make the situations dramatic, I guess is what I am trying to say.

Yeah, I'm not so sure what I just said :)

Jason
 
I think your dialogue can be cheesy and stereotyped even if this is not your intention. As long as you have a few people reading your scripts during the process of writting it, then you'll be ok and will be able to find these spots and change them.

The acting can be over the top but that has to do with actors and direction. YOu may have writen an amazing scene, someone learns their daughter is dead, the mother literally bursts into tears, she screams and shouts. This can be done in a way that the viewer may feel the pain inside and just stop breathing, or it can become a comedy but not because it's funny, but because the actor wont be able to make it seem real, it will be forced out of him.

Finally, the story as a general concept and not dialogue-based, is something to consider. Maybe a character has more than one bad things happen to him, this can happen in real life of course, but unfortunately, there'll be people who wont like it coz they'll think it's over the top, being so unlucky or whatever.
 
We solved this problem by handling all auditions and rehearsals in a hot tub (see our thread). Ted brought out the very best of subtle acting from a variety of talents by asking them to say various expletives while seated on his lap.
 
Mark Johnson said:
We solved this problem by handling all auditions and rehearsals in a hot tub (see our thread). Ted brought out the very best of subtle acting from a variety of talents by asking them to say various expletives while seated on his lap.
Click to expand...

Brings new meaning to the term "casting couch." :)
 
Um, Ted's wife isn't going to be too happy with MY thread! Sheeeesh! Those Hot Tub pix got out of hand!

>>>>>>>>>

bluegrey, good for you for jumping into the fest! What's rolling around in your head? Any ideas to share?

Ted
 
Theodore J Arabian said:
bluegrey, good for you for jumping into the fest! What's rolling around in your head? Any ideas to share?

Ted
Click to expand...

Yeah I usually spend a good deal of time thinking about different ideas before I start writing. I honestly am concerned about the melodrama and making something that's just too over the top. Having 6 minutes to delve into a character and have the audience empathize is difficult.

You can't really introduce Eric and then 60 seconds later have him find out his wife and kids all got killed and then have him pull a "mystic river" and expect people to feel horrible for him. People don't seem to buy into that kind of situation that quickly.

So i'm going to spend the whole 6 minutes on one character and try to get people to feel for him and his loss (however big that might be). In drama people just have to be able to relate right? They have to be into what's going on.

Also my biggest concern is the acting and finding someone to do it. The acting pool in Portland, OR isn't that big.....sigh.
 
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