1st act climax - opinions needed
- Thread starter USLatin
- Start date
Randall_Oelerich
Veteran
Yea... I wanted to call it a Suspense myself several times... can I call it a "Winter Spring Break Supernatural Suspense Thriller Drama"?I pray I can deliver on the suspense... cause I am really hoping for some of that nail biting to happen. I wouldn't try to compare my work to "Silence of the Lams" but I could die happy if someone else did after they watched it.
You can have it be supernatural horror or drama or whatever, the suspense just is a tool that it sounds like you will be using as part of the emotional ride you will give the reader/viewer.
10s
Veteran
Hey 10, thank you for your ideas. It is defenitely a very different movie than what you envisioned, mainly because there is hardly any gore in it.
The horror doesn't need to be gore, it could simply be something really twisted. Go do some research on really weird killers and such, some have absolutely wierd things about them. Maybe similair deviant behaviors of twisted irrational and compulsive drives could come through somehow. The more disturbing and disconnected from reason/logic the better. That stuff really gets under our skin.
Side note: when I was an undergraduate years ago I had a professor who was a police corner/investigator. He showed me all these behind the crime scene stuff no one ever sees -- some of it is absolutely shocking and bizarre.
The hero's wound/need: this is something that can be the causation of the whole mess. It's what causes the hero to take or not take the actions that sets up this story. If the hero didn't have this need caused by the wound, then the bad stuff would never have happened. When the hero (as Truby will preach to us) finally has a revelation of who they are and what they have been doing to themselves and others (they uncover their blindspot and see the need caused by their wound) and then with this revelation, the hero can make a moral choice to continue to hurt others or not. They often choose to stop hurting others. This may fit or not. The idea is that in the end the hero is somehow healed and now whole and at a higher state than before. This is classic myth/ Joseph Campbell stuff. With the healing of the wound balance is reestablished in the hero's life.
And, Yes, this works for horror, even though many horror stories may not go this far.
The horror doesn't need to be gore, it could simply be something really twisted. Go do some research on really weird killers and such, some have absolutely wierd things about them. Maybe similair deviant behaviors of twisted irrational and compulsive drives could come through somehow. The more disturbing and disconnected from reason/logic the better. That stuff really gets under our skin.
Side note: when I was an undergraduate years ago I had a professor who was a police corner/investigator. He showed me all these behind the crime scene stuff no one ever sees -- some of it is absolutely shocking and bizarre.
The hero's wound/need: this is something that can be the causation of the whole mess. It's what causes the hero to take or not take the actions that sets up this story. If the hero didn't have this need caused by the wound, then the bad stuff would never have happened. When the hero (as Truby will preach to us) finally has a revelation of who they are and what they have been doing to themselves and others (they uncover their blindspot and see the need caused by their wound) and then with this revelation, the hero can make a moral choice to continue to hurt others or not. They often choose to stop hurting others. This may fit or not. The idea is that in the end the hero is somehow healed and now whole and at a higher state than before. This is classic myth/ Joseph Campbell stuff. With the healing of the wound balance is reestablished in the hero's life.
And, Yes, this works for horror, even though many horror stories may not go this far.
Last edited:
Hey! Randall... I just realized you are in Duluth! lol... We are shooting this in Detroit Lakes, Fargo/Moorhead and Minneapolis. 
That is random.
Aside from suspense I am also trying to have the audience try to keep up with what's going on,or lag behind, unable to piece it together. I guess that would qualify as mystery.
Matty, Savage and Jamie rule.
That is random.Aside from suspense I am also trying to have the audience try to keep up with what's going on,or lag behind, unable to piece it together. I guess that would qualify as mystery.
Matty, Savage and Jamie rule.
Indeed. I am going for disconnected from reason and a disturbing enjoyment of the emotional terror he causes on the protagonists.
That is good stuff too. Thanks.
Her wound is the reason she goes to the area to deal with it once and for all, and if she didn't go she would have never been exposed. However there are a lot twists and connections that make it work better than it seems. Also, the ending is not typical.
I wish I could go into detail without spoil the movie/script. Much smarter scripts have been written, but I am very happy with the way that the end ties everything together and performs some acrobatics before landing on an unexpected spot.
I hope I'll be able to share it with some of you guys soon. I am unable at this point but when I can I would really love it if some of you decided to read it. It may sound convoluted and confusing, but I got lots of good stuff from this thread already.
Randall_Oelerich
Veteran
Hey! Randall... I just realized you are in Duluth! lol... We are shooting this in Detroit Lakes, Fargo/Moorhead and Minneapolis.
Unfortunately yeah I am stuck here in Duluth. Just when the snow had almost melted and the streets and sidewalks were cleared, just a couple of days ago we got hit with that blizzard that also hit the poor folks at Fargo/Moorhead sandbagging the flood in the cold winter wind. I am researching where to move to in 1-3 years, I thinking a filmmaking community would be nice-- Austin TX area, or Wilmington NC area, but definitely somewhere with less ice and snow! Minneapolis has lots of great cinematic locations-- I always remember that bridge out in Minnetonka from Prince's film (Purple Rain?) as I have been there (lived in Mnpls/StPaul six years).
Michelle's parents live in North Fargo. Their house has ~4 feet of water held back only by a sand-bag levy about 300 yards from their house right now.
Minneapolis is such an arts city... the whole state of Minnesota is really into their arts! I love the people up there. Very polite, family oriented, open-minded and educated... hehe... not that you can characterize a whole State in 6-8 trips. But I really like the atmosphere when we can get up there.
Just a little update. I did end up working on the leading girl's scenes, making her a touch more on edge in the 1st act. Very small tweaks, but I think they fit very well and should help. I'll have to go over it one more time just to check her arch. Then an other for the many changes I just did to the Antagonist. So much work since I started I can't even remember the first 20 drafts.
Thanks to everyone that posted! I feel I got some nice feedback on this thread yesterday regardless of whether our conversation made sense to all of you. I appreciate all your posts. And Michelle also seemed to really like the ideas that spawned from it.
Minneapolis is such an arts city... the whole state of Minnesota is really into their arts! I love the people up there. Very polite, family oriented, open-minded and educated... hehe... not that you can characterize a whole State in 6-8 trips.
But I really like the atmosphere when we can get up there.Just a little update. I did end up working on the leading girl's scenes, making her a touch more on edge in the 1st act. Very small tweaks, but I think they fit very well and should help. I'll have to go over it one more time just to check her arch. Then an other for the many changes I just did to the Antagonist. So much work since I started I can't even remember the first 20 drafts.
Thanks to everyone that posted! I feel I got some nice feedback on this thread yesterday regardless of whether our conversation made sense to all of you. I appreciate all your posts. And Michelle also seemed to really like the ideas that spawned from it.
Randall_Oelerich
Veteran
...Minneapolis is such an arts city... the whole state of Minnesota is really into their arts! I love the people up there. Very polite, family oriented, open-minded and educated... hehe... not that you can characterize a whole State in 6-8 trips.
We Minnesotans have no choice but to be friendly as a general rule, because we get to know each other, our neighbors and even strangers, by regularly taking turns jump charging each others' dead car batteries during the six months of winter, hehe.
For your listening pleasure--winter in Minnesota-- a comedy radio sketch from a nationally popular radio show done weekly from St. Paul Minnesota. This sketch is about information for people thinking of coming to minnesota, let them know about winter, hehe:
http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/...081011_64&starttime=00:22:27&endtime=00:27:48
Last edited:
I thought you were laying it on thick... but then:
by regularly taking turns jump charging each others' dead car batteries during the six months of winter, hehe.
Made me laugh.
I enjoy weather in the South for the most part, but have you experienced a southern summer before? You really won't want to go outside between dawn and dusk... but that might be the perfect excuse for you to lock yourself inside and write all day. I haven't been to Austin, but I do have relatives in Wilmington, and it's a nice town. I'd personally spring for Wilmington mostly due to the ocean breeze, but hurricanes can be a PITA too, even if they don't strike you directly.
Anyhow, I'm sure you'll find a good place.
Anyhow, I'm sure you'll find a good place.
Randall_Oelerich
Veteran
I was talking about that with a friend just yesterday. You know, up here it is 4 months of ***** arse cold that will kill you if you are out in it too long, plus shoveling, salting ice, slippery walking, scraping windshields, car accidents from sliding around (plus a month of intolerable heat anyhow from Gulf humidity coming up here, midcontinental extremes). And then you are trapped indoors anyhow because of the cold weather. I figure even in the hot humid south okay I stay inside the house and car and wherever, air conditioned, and write, but geez at least i would not have to shovel, scrape ice, slip and break my neck on icy sidewalks, have fender benders from sliding, have to run from wind chill, etc. Really, I think even killer heat might be better for a few months than the bitchin winters here. And then the rest of the 9 months of the year in NC/TX I would think it would be pretty nice????
I know this is all off topic from the original post, but it does relate to writing, and filmmaking. Where to live, where to have a decent writing life, and the ability to do indie film production (thus thoughts of Wilmington NC). So any tips and advice greatly appreciated. Because I am moving in 1-3 years. My day job is all by internet, I teach all online, so it is just a matter of negotiating a complete geographical move with my college and then I can sell my house and go; just need to research where "go" will take me to, where to live.
~randall