Again, I am majoring in English and Cinema. My original choices were either to write a script or do a research paper and project on subtitling. While I enjoy the idea of subtitling research, the script was receiving more attention from the class, which I did not expect. Also, Prof. Jeffries gave me some great advice on what to do with that interest outside of this assignment.
After our discussion last class period, I am more heartened on the prospect of a professional script. Some of the class questions were about how I would rate my project completion, on either submission, acceptance to whom I submitted to, or what. I will of course want to complete writing, but I will probably consider my project complete on the response from whom I submit it to. If I submit to a contest, I will await contest results. If I submit to a person or company I will want to go through at least a second stage of communication (ie. Hear what they have to say about it).
I was once doing odd jobs for a very wealthy man who was interested to hear that I was a potential script writer. He told me that if I ever write a Christmas script, to let him know. Apparently, there are too few Christmas scripts but they are always money-makers, so favorable to producers. With that being said, I will attempt to write a Christmas script of some sort and attempt to contact this man as well as look into other options of submission.
My favorite Christmas movies are It's a Wonderful Life, The Bishops Wife, Mickeys Christmas Carol, How the Grinch Stole Christmas,The Christmas Miracle of Johnathan Toomey and Holiday Inn If you do a Christmas script.I hope hearing that helps you to get an idea of what others like in a Christmas film.
ReplyDeleteBen, you've already got a start with the Christmas film idea. I'm glad you went with what you most wanted to do and didn't do a thesis that was less interesting to you.
ReplyDeleteI talked on Friday with Steve Hall, an IS graduate who wrote a screenplay with Mark Jeffreys as his senior thesis and then went on to do an MFA in screenwriting at New York University and who is now teaching humanities classes at UVU. He said he knew you from Mark's class on storytelling and that he would love to talk with you about screenwriting in general and about your project in particular.
Finally, that's a nice list of Christmas movies Misty laid out. And a personal anecdote: my partner Lyn Bennett and I built a house in Woodland Hills and are surrounded by wonderful and mostly Mormon neighbors. Lyn's from Kansas/Alaska and knows Mormon culture only through her students. When the ward our neighbors are in came caroling one night before Christmas and brought us a nice basket full of fruit and homemade candies, we thought again what fine neighbors we had.
"But what's this!" Lyn said, picking a DVD out of the basket. "They've given us a horror Christmas film!"
I took it from her and saw Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Kruger's Christmas."
"Not Freddy's family," I told her. "Distant relatives."
I really like the odd christmas movies like Fanny and Alexander, Nightmare Before Christmas, and stuff like that. Mostly because there are other things than the christmas to focus on. Do you have any preliminary ideas about what kind of christmas movie? There are so many genres.
ReplyDelete-Van
Ha! I used to think that about Mr. Kruger's myself!
ReplyDeleteI liked Babes in Toyland, A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Christmas Story, and A Year Without a Santa Claus. This is probably giving you WAY too broad of ideas for a script but I like these random movies.
ReplyDeleteI love Charlie Brown Christmas :) You should do The Santa Claus - all ba-zillion of them. That series is just like Land Before Time with its never ending sequels!!
ReplyDeleteAlthough Christmas films are demanded anew during the holiday season, they are rarely original. The plots are too often predictable and/or really lame. You will undoubtedly have to incorporate traditional myths into your script, but try to do it unconventionally. These films that everyone is listing... rely on them for one thing... to tell you what has been done. Go from there and conceptualize something completely different, in my opinion :)
ReplyDeleteI would think that given the world climate we're in, a Christmas movie from the view of an outsider would be especially interesting. Someone like a Muslim or a Jew and their take on our wacky western ways. Or possibly something about different cultures views of Christmas...like how in Russia Christmas is celebrated in January (I believe), in Scandinavia at another time, and so on...just a couple of thoughts
ReplyDeleteThinking of original, a Holiday film -- instead of just Christmas -- where you somehow may incorporate a mix of the holidays. We have become a globalized conglomeration of cultures where one family may have multiple ethnic backgrounds and celebrate holidays that you wouldn't think could mix together. Ex. Christmas (Christian), Hanukkah (Jewish), Bodhi Day (Buddhist)
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking how wierd it is that Christmas comes in the summer in the southern hemisphere. I used to spend a "traditional" Christmas in South America with fake snow and all and then we would go swimming. My vote is for you to do a cartoon with some characters who end up on a journey to somewhere in the southern hemisphere and other places around the world where they experience christmas (and other similar holidays) in other cultures. That would be an eye opening view of the world. (kind of like that babies movie if you know what I am talking about).
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