Have you ever tabled a screenplay -- semi-permanently?

Randall_Oelerich

Randall_Oelerich

Veteran
I beated out a story, beat the sheeeet out of it, wrote a first draft, complete with a sympathetic protagonist. Problem is, the LOCATION is cliche (the proverbial farmhouse) and CREATURE/LEGEND has been done to death, even though the killing in my story is done by a human (falsely leading the viewer to think the killer is the creature)-- no stories done with my cliche location and my protagonist as killer, but still. At this point I am feeling like just tabling it for some time, get to work on my other two screenplays that have far more originality and higher concept, super small cast for indie potential, etc. I don't think it would fly as a spec because of the reasons I just cited, and the cast is too big to self produce it as indie.

So just curious if any of you other writers have gone down this path before?
R
 
I'm sure many of us have. My first feature sits on a shelf where, short of a rewrite so massive that it would hardly be the same in any important way, it will sit forever. I should probably formally re-title it "A Learning Experience".
 
Heck yeah! I cranked out a dozen or more feature scripts before I finally got signed by a manager. I've pitched all my old scripts to him as possible material to be dusted off and shined up, but none particularly thrilled him, so back onto the shelf they went.

Bits and pieces have been cannibalized for other stuff, though. And the premise of one of the very first ones was adapted for my most recent feature, CRIMPS, nearly 30 years later. :)
 
I have a 'morgue' folder on my computer for unusable/unsaleable projects. I look through it now and then - it's surprising how often I suddenly realise a crap old story can be made non-crap by changing/adding/removing something, or that an idea can be cannibalised for better use elsewhere
 
Being that we're all here on DVXUSER I highly recommend you plan on shooting the story next spring ( or whenever) and just accept it as a learning experiment. Put it on the shelf for the moment and dust if off March 1st for a quick rewrite and then go into production planning. Make your movie dirt cheap; go Rodriguiez. To me, learning this craft is somewhat like trying to be a great basketball shooter, you need to shoot a lot to get good. Going out and throwing the ball a few times just doesn't cut it and neither does thinking things over and over withour actually taking the physical steps to bring it to life. You will be surprised at how good things will appear as you start to bring this creation to life by taking physical action.

Don't worry about cliche, we love em! We watch em all the time over and over and there are new ones out every week on the shelves and we rent them... Just remember what we really want. We want an emotional thrill, we really don't care if it's another farm house, just give us an emotional ride and throw in some unexpected stuff here and there; surprise us, that will make us happy. Also, most stories are basically the same old thing told over and over, but they're just dressed up in different clothing each time. Chances are none of us will come up with anything new so let's not let that stop us.

A horror story should makes us get physically tense, increase our heart beat, make us cringe, yell at the screen, look away, etc., If you give us this then we all win. This is what your story is there to provide, our reaction, our experience. Damn the rules, now give us the ride!

So ask yourself, " Do I want to just be a writer, or would I also like to direct, maybe even some producing and editing?" ... I'll bet you want the whole thing. If so, commit and be brave. Be willing to turn out crap, it's OK! Have faith that with each production you will improve and soon you will be at the level where throwing some money at it will be a reasonable idea. Others will also have reason to toss in some money on it. You won't have to plead with them, they will volunteer.


Go have fun and do your best, just don't get hung up on perfection. Perfection is too often the enemy of production, and production is the father of perfection.
 
10s said:
Being that we're all here on DVXUSER I highly recommend you plan on shooting the story next spring ....
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In an ideal world, yes. But I plan on sinking serious cash into an indie feature, and it will take a year of preproduction. I plan to make money on it, so the script has to be worthy, can not afford a vanity project (unless a benefactor here wants to pony up the investment cash, lol). But yeah, even though i knew the farmhouse was cliche, I did NOT want another simple slasher or creature slasher, I wrote this screenplay from the start with the intent of a complex sympathetic protagonist, twists, emotional material galore. I might just go with it as is (meaning write it), the farmhouse location, corn fields, scarecrows (although the killer is NOT a scarecrow creature-- THAT is the problem, there are half a dozen Scarecrow horror movies and try finding any box revenues for them on boxofficemojo or imdb, they are off the radar. But really, I know I have a great protagonist as killer because when I had some test readers look at my treatment, and the protag killer (antihero) was killed off at the end, NOBODY wanted that to happen, they wanted the protag to survive! So I changed the ending. Hard to know what to do, the story is compelling, just the damn cliche farmhouse that has been so overdone. But I can just simply change the location as has been suggested by a friend, because the setting is so tightly linked to the scenes and motifs, and I have a first draft already written. So, go forward with rewrites, or put it on the shelf?

My plan is to write three feature screenplays, all horror (genre i like and with best chance to make a ROI) by Spring, then pick the one with the best potential to go forward on with rewrites and preproduction. I have this one I am unsure of because of the cliche farmhouse location (but hey, The Messengers used a farmhouse and I never even considered that cliche as I watched it), an snt thriller, and a serial-killer-mystery thriller. I am so endeared to my protagonist in the farmhouse horror screenplay, I just hate to kill off the storyworld, but if needed I am willing.
R
 
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Hmm, would a non-generic farm make things feel alittle less cliched? Especially one which somehow can become a plot element or at least add atmosphere? Just off the top of my head: an apiary (bee farm), emu/deer/llama/some-other-weird-animal farm, a poison farm (growing poisonous plants for medical/industrial supply)...
 
clang said:
Hmm, would a non-generic farm make things feel alittle less cliched? Especially one which somehow can become a plot element or at least add atmosphere? Just off the top of my head: an apiary (bee farm), emu/deer/llama/some-other-weird-animal farm, a poison farm (growing poisonous plants for medical/industrial supply)...
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Good ideas Clang. I am still open to a different location if it works for the story.
 
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