BSA 204 W2 : Spaghetti

During today's class we read through the handbook and that process helped me decide which one of the ideas I have floating around in my head I would like to use for this paper.

At first I was thinking about doing the I Saw Hell idea.

It is something that I came up with recently and have been somewhat excited about, I also think its a story that can adapt itself to more than just a long form concept (as it was originally conceived).

The log-line is:

A criminal lawyer is officially declared dead during an operation after a drug overdose, in those three minutes he is transported to hell, an event that scares him enough to re-evaluates his entire life. His quest to rectify his sins is somewhat complicated by the demon that follows him back into the world of the living.

I've broken the story down into a loose three acts, this was originally planned as a feature - as most of my ideas are.

ACT I

He wakes up from his operation, panics, is followed by a supernatural entity. A demon that recognizes his wish to repent for all the sins in his life, and makes a deal with the lawyer to trade his soul for that of other sinners. This means he gets the power to see evil from the demon but he has to go out and kill the evildoers to pay his debt.

ACT II

He refuses to kill someone and instead just brings them to justice. This upsets the demon who goes against him.

ACT III

In the final act he realizes he can bring someone to salvation, like himself, before ever having to give them over to the law. He also defeats the demon.

The thing that excited me about this project was the combination of genres: the guy acts as some kind of unwilling vigilante, echoing the superhero genre while also having close ties to criminal stories like Dexter or Breaking Bad,  as well as obviously being horror. The last genre that really makes this concept lucrative to me is the "self-improvement movie", things like Castaway or The 40-Year Old Virgin, where the protagonist spends the movie improving their own life and becoming a better person. I always love seeing these types of films and for some reason they are just cathartic to watch.
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Then I decided Cursed Objects idea from last year would be better (something I wanted to write but didn't have the confidence to, and which I actually pitched for my proposal).

I have now had the ability to develop it further:

The log-line is:

Four high-schoolers are given the task of cleaning out a cabin in the woods that just so happens to house a collection of supernatural objects which the landlord considers to be nothing more than 'junk', the boys surrender to their more entrepreneurial side and decide to sell the items at their school for a pretty profit.
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A more specific synopsis: 

With the end of their time at school hanging over their heads and their future unclear Peter and Armie, two 15 year old boys about to start their first level in NCEA, make a pact that they will differentiate themselves from their family and peers and become successful, leaving Lake Taniwha, the small New Zealand town where they've been trapped their whole lives.

Their first day at school sees the arrival of a new kid from a rich family who just moved to the town, Peter befriends the boy hoping to learn a thing or two about living the good life, a concept that personally offends Armie, who believes that they can and should make their own way in the world - his underlying motivation of course being jealousy of this new member. 

Peter's plan immediately starts bearing fruit as the new kid, Richard, says that his dad has many real estate partners in the area and the next day snatches a small gig for the four boys (the fourth being a farm kid who has an insatiable interest for the weird and supernatural). They accept the job, which is to clean out an old cabin whose tenant has not been seen for over a year and which the landlord has finally decided to sell. At the end of which each boy gets to pocket a hundred bucks.

The farm kid shows an immense interest in all the strange and weird objects they find, a fatal attraction that all the boys share. Peter and Armie see an opportunity for an entrepreneurial expedition and decide to bag and sell all the cool looking things instead of throwing them out. 

Aside from this they also find a large chest that they decide to hide nearby in the woods as its too heavy to carry all the way home.

The boys sell the items at school and stack up a pretty profit, they manage to open the chest only to find that something escapes. Inside however is a pot of gold, but they don't know what exactly to do with such pure wealth. At least they have no idea how to convert it into usable currency. Still they take some home.

The town is robbed that night and the boys who took gold attacked. The next day everything reported stolen is in the chest and the four young-uns panick. 

The farm kid reads through journals left by the previous tenant and they find that they have an Irish demon on their hands, one which accumulates valuables - in other words a leprechaun. The only way to end its reign of terror is to lock it up with its accumulated wealth.

The boys have to devise a trap and capture the demon, locking it up again and say auf Wiedersehen to their new found riches.

At the height of their triumph they realize what they've done by dispersing the objects through town and as dread sets in we see a small montage of potential problems unfolding related to the cursed objects in the town.
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The idea is to have a series which feels like all the goosebumps books rolled into one, taking its cues from the likes of Stranger Things, IT and  Scooby Doo. A monster-of-the-week type show, but with the intention of the different monsters overlapping and snowballing into bigger problems, becoming a juggling act for the characters,

One particular tonal and dialogue inspiration will be the movie Super Dark Times, which does a very good job of representing individuals from this specific age group and creating seamless and natural interactions between the characters,

Thus far I have sorted out the beat sheet for the first episode, in it I want to establish all the characters, set the main plot in action, have the protagonists experience a character arc and provide them with a single supernatural conundrum to solve by the end of the episode, acting as a cross section of what the series will be like.

The episode will end with them defeating the monster-of-the-week but then realizing what a Pandora's box of chaos they've created for themselves because of spreading the objects all over town.

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Beat Sheet 
(with notes): 

1) Peter and Armie are traversing the forest floor with a metal detector, they come across a cat's carcass but nothing valuable. They are confronted by a group of underachieving bullies in their early twenties, who attack Armie specifically about his brother who has gone into the military.

( I chose to open with a metal detector because I think it relates to the type of person Armie is - one who likes to play with gadgets and who thinks he's cool, but his interests skew to a side which isn't usually considered popular. The kind of kid who picks up Wetas and chases the girls with them in elementary school. It also ties back into the thematic core of the episode and immediately establishes the two main charaters' desires. It's a form of efficiency that I also thinks makes for quite interesting imagery from the get-go. In my mind I have it as autumn as well, with the detector gliding over leaves and beeping here and there as the operator triangulates the source of the signal - which is of course just a necklace of a dead cat. The third thing about this opening is that I wanted to contrast the two characters with the exact type of person they don't want to end up being - the underachieving bullies stuck in the town and living off the dole. Armie's brother being in the military ties into his own upbringing and militaristic father which is something I wish to explore later in the series, but them being bullied and immediately put into an underdog situation makes the characters instantly more likable, which is important I think because of how brash and directed they can be for the rest of the episode. Their motivation isn't just cocky or entitled after seeing them put down in this manner, I think it makes it more realistic and helps us sympathize with their feeling of being trapped in the town. I wanted the dead cat as a show of how unfruitful their venture is as well as setting a bit of a darker mood as it is a horror show.)

2) The boys bike home, and ride through a rich neighborhood discussing which houses they would like to own one day. This is followed by them clearly stating their motivation of wanting to be successful and escape Lake Taniwha, Armie and Peter make a pact before each returning home. We see a quick scene where Peter arrives at home, his parents argue and he goes to his room.

( Again a lot of re-establishing the theme and character motivations. If the audience doesn't pick up on it here they wouldn't at all, the pact they make is important in the drama that unfolds between the two throughout the episode and we see how close of friends they are. The drama at home for Peter is something that I'm intending to stem from money problems and his father's mid life crisis. During the ride home there is a small dialogue interaction where Armie tells Peter how he feels about the bullies, as well as his own brother, and hope to do better. Peter agrees and relates this to his father who we learn is a failed writer. This is something that could change, not the failed writer bit, but how his parents act when he gets home. A better way of showing that his father might be insecure about his own achievements could be in a subtler way I think - a weaker way might be more effective. The last bit of this scene is his mother or father wishing him luck for the next day at school - I'll have established this quickly before when the boys are using the metal detector to look for valuables, but since I'm intending to have very naturalistic dialogue I don't want there to be any chance the audience could miss the fact that the next day is the big start of their first year in NCEA.)

3) First day at school, they meet up with their friend who lives on a farm and they see the rich kid.

( There are some parts of the original structure and series of events that just don't really change in my mind, this is one of them, I knew I wanted them to see the rich kid here. What I've added since last year is that now the farm kid establishes him a bit more. The farm kid's parents are not very kind about the rich family, who we learn are buying a lot of real estate - they also have a tourist business up in Tekapo and this is a negative because the small town people aren't big fans of all the tourism. I decided to do this because it establishes what background the farm kid (who I'll call Franklin) comes from and its quite relevant to New Zealand today. Hitchiking last year I ran into quite a couple of farming folk in Southland and if there's one thing they all share is it the dislike of foreigners and tourism, specifically the Chinese drivers and stuff. Not in a very negative way, but in a way where its ruining the natural beauty of New Zealand as well as making things more expensive. And there are a lot of bad drivers from China who come over without ever having driven before and are then let loose on New Zealand roads, so its an understandable concern. Anyway this gives the audience an impression of the rich kid and we see Franklin's home life in a second hand kind of way. A big thing of this series is that it is set in New Zealand and I want to milk that for what it's worth. This scene also expresses that Peter is somewhat intrigued by the new face meanwhile Armie is not.

The other major set-up/development in this scene is that Peter asks Franklin (who's been working on his father's farm over the holidays) if there aren't any jobs for him and Armie as well, Franklin tells them unfortunately the season has ended. In response to this Armie quite brashly expresses that they don't need to rely on their fathers' or Franklin's, they can do it by themselves. This shows that Peter is already thinking of getting his foot in the door and also displays Armie's cockiness and where he differs with his best friend. Two significant elements of these two characters are Peter's ability to learn from those more successful and his entrepreneurial curiosity and Armie's cockiness and surety in their own ability. This is also where they come to a head in the episode, especially with the Rich kid (who I'm calling Richard))

4) Peter introduces himself to Richie in class.

( Here is where Peter moves the story along, he interacts with Richard and we see both his personality and grow somewhat fond of the kid because of what Franklin said before. Peter is kind and Richard is shy. He asks about his family and Richard tells him that they aren't bringing tourism down (before one of the boys would have said "good luck with this weather" about the notion of a tourism operation being set up in Lake Taniwha) but that his father is buying a lot of land to set up housing. Real estate is booming and will do well here apparently. I think this creates sympathy with the new kid and because we see the assumption made by Franklin's parents were wrong we align ourselves subconsciously with him - an underdog victory where you don't judge a book by its cover. While shy and not confident Richard is more sympathetic in our eyes now because he has gained the high moral ground by default of Franklin being incorrect. I think Franklin will be likable because of his fun and vibrant personality, Richie needs to be made a bit more likable because he will be less confident and more cowardly. Showing him here displaying traits of humility and putting him in the right makes us like him more.

We like Peter because of his resourcefulness, we like Armie because of being bullied at the start, Franklin because of his zany sense of fun (and hopefully humorous dialogue) and Richard because of his underdog status.)

5) At lunch Richard sits alone and Peter invites him over, which creates some friction between him and Armie.

( Peter displays kindness while also furthering his goal of learning from the upper class, Armie disagrees with his methods, partly because of his belief that they can do everything on their own without external aid, but really because he shows signs of jealousy towards Peter's newfound bestie, Peter will be presented as using the "getting close to the rich" as a motivation specifically designed to get Armie to allow him to let Richard join the group, this keeps Peter good and kind in our eyes and doesn't make him out to be a manipulative individual working towards his own ends. If he is being manipulative it is for the greater good.)

6) Armie acts out a bit in P.E. after him and Peter walk home where he discusses his concerns and emotional response to Richard

(In this scene we further display Armie's insecurities about Richard and his fear of the potential of him and Peter drifting apart - even though his actions and responses are the things that are making this happen. At this point in the story we start seeing drama in the group and Peter explains himself properly, saying he's already talked to Richard about money making and stuff. When Armie acts out in P.E. it would keep the audience engaged as we wonder what's going on now, it also says a lot about his character.)

7) The next day Peter walks to school with Richie and he tells him that one of his dad's friends has a job opportunity. Peter tells Armie when they get to school, who is dubious.

( He should pick Richie up with his bike, Richie doesn't have a bike so they walk the way to school, him just holding bike as they go. He sees Richie's dad and waves, important set-up for later as this rich dad will become and important player in Peter's arc for this episode and relates directly to how he feels about his own father.)

8) They all accept gig over phone.

( One of the elements I want present in this series is the presence of modern technology, the boys will spend some time of each episode apart and be interacting via Facebook or Skype (messenger video call more likely), here they all come to an agreement and it establishes a major story telling device that will go forward with the series. This group of heroes can contact each other at almost any point and will have to do so since the monsters and events will disperse them out over town many times during the show. I also want to establish the language of this in the first episode so that the audience is accustomed to it and so it becomes a storytelling tool I can resort to using at any moment.)

9) At Cabin they get briefed on what's expected of them.

( A real estate agent who knows Richards father tells them to clean out the cabin and throw everything away, the rules for their objective are set but he also drops some important information like the fact that the guy who owned the place hasn't been back in nigh a year and the landlord want to sell.)

10) They start cleaning out and Franklin is the first to find everything very interesting, the others concur. Armie proposes that they should sell the goods instead of chucking them, if they find them interesting so would other students. Richard nervous and unsure about breaking rules.

( I wanted Richard to display cowardice which is part of his arc going forward and a major element in a scene later on. Peter is keen, Armie comes up with the idea because I wanted him to display a positive trait as well for once. He is the one who believes most in everyone, while this results in brash and sometimes bad decisions, its a leadership quality he shows the most adeptness in. Peter displays more scrutiny and carefulness, but is immensely resourceful. Richard falls on the other end, being very apprehensive and even cowardly, yet is extremely intelligent and shows moments of pure genius. Franklin is excited and completely unafraid, morbid curiosity always taking control - however he does read a lot because of his interest in the world and this leads to him becoming the group scribe or Q type character in a way, In this scene Richard opts out of helping to sell the objects, the other are keen though, which creates more animosity towards him coming from Armie's side, who feels undermined and in disagreement.)

11) As they pack everything into bags and finish tidying up, Armie does a last sweep with metal detector and they find a chest in the dirt floor of the basement. Too heavy to carry home, they hide nearby in forest.

( So this is the main focus of this episode, the chest needs to be buried again by the end of the episode to keep the entity inside at bay, this scene reincorporates metal detector and shovel, which I wanted to do just so they are actually used again. A small little bit of satisfaction for audience I think. Feels more deserved in a way than them just finding chest and Armie faces ridicule when he first brings it along, gives him some moral high ground for once.

Of course at this point they are unable to open it, but see keyhole and lock - Richie is too worried and distracted to actually look, they take photos anyway.) The chest moves, which unsettles everyone and they look at each other. Unable to do anything about it they head home.

12) They do inventory check on phone, going through objects and deciding what to sell next day at school. Farm kid took bunch of journals which Armie thinks are useless. 

( Again a phone scene, but here we get sneak peaks at interesting objects, Armie is somewhat obsessed with chest. Richard is still not part of group chat. I think at this point the audience would be very intrigued to see what kind of things they found and it creates a sense of anticipation I think, especially with how weird and eerie the items are.)

13) Armie works at chest again before school and hears it breathing inside. They sell objects at school but principle puts an end to it and confiscates one particularly disturbing object (a voodoo style shrunken head in a bottle). Peter and Franklin get detention, while Armie is in bathroom.

( Here Armie displays an obsession with the chest, being the one to find it he obviously feels a sense of ownership over it and puts even more value on it than the others. I am splitting the group here for a scene coming a bit later, and setting up for future episodes. While a small scene this one holds all the weight for the rest of the series, because its here where the supernatural objects get dispersed among different students, one even ending up with the principle. The scene with the chest creates a bit more mystery and would be tense as he leans over chest and listens.)

14) Peter's parents talk with teachers, his father shows concern over this new found money hungriness present in his son.

( This is important because his dad doesn't berate him (too weak) but does show disappointment and concern, which obviously creates and even stronger motivation inside Peter. Anyway him and Franklin have detention the next day. Maybe he's even grounded, that would create greater stakes later when he'd have to sneak out. I also think that they should talk here about maybe looking into business and retail properly since that obviously didn't work out. It'll be a funny aside but also show how Peter reacts realistically and with even more gusto after being put down.)

15) Next day Peter picks up Richie again, who now has a fancy new bike, and meets his father, who for one is actually impressed with his entrepreneurial spirit and encourages him looking into the laws surrounding selling stuff at school.

( Obviously this directly contrasts with Peter's own dad and he finds himself accepted by this new father figure, which means a lot to him and he cheers up even more. He and Richie talk light-heartedly, who now agrees to join him and Armie quickly before school to give the chest another go.)

16) They tinker with chest and now looking properly Richie notices symbol on chest and remember throwing away key. Armie angry, Peter wonders how to solve problem, luckily Richie knows where they dumped the trash. Plan to go to dump and get it but Franklin and Peter can't attend because of detention.

( This'll be a hard scene to write I think, there are many emotions and temperaments at play now. What I mainly want is for Peter to convince Richie to show Armie where it is and retrieve the key.)

17) Armie and Richie team up to go look for key in dump, phone call others while in detention, Richie displays cowardice, Armie helps him get over it by pure force, they are chased by dogs but escape with the keys.

( This is the tense kind of scene I want present in the series, here I have multiple elements at work - one one hand the typical sneak and get away with theft type plot, but it happens to be in a dangerous setting with security. As well as the boys in detention trying to follow and give advice without letting teacher notice. And then the character based level of Richie being inexperienced and scared, he holds Armie back. Oh yeah the odd couple team up is an idea I love and here its the two characters who least get along, its fun and dramatic. By the end they will be a bit more comfortable with each other and Richie starts his climb out of cowardice.)

18) All four gather to unlock chest, something escapes! Inside: pure gold.

( After detention Armie and Richie wait by chest, they don't want to open it alone. Exchange a couple of words, they bond a slight amount and the chest is unsettled again. The other arrive and all four open it very cautiously, Peter shovel in hand ready to strike whatever's inside. When they open it there is a flash of dark green but they can't see it. They are shocked but assume it must have been a cat or something, the logic of this hangs in the air as very unlikely but they accept the silly explanation and look inside. A whole pot of gold. They are ecstatic and immensely surprised, their problems solves. Only they don't know how to sell gold. They decide to look it up later, lock it again, but not before Armie takes some with him "safe keeping".)

19) People are robbed and attacked during the night.

A scary short scene, where people wake up in the middle of the night to hear a commotion, a lady is even attacked by a dark figure over her dresser. It's a nice horror scene, making something that usually isn't scary actually scary - another mission statement of this series.

20) Peter hears the stories the next day as it spreads quickly in the small town, the boys talk lowly and worry its their doing, Franklin even saw the police at someone's house that morning.

21) They check the chest again and find all the valuables that were reported stolen, now they worry. 

22) Franklin does some reading, Armie is attacked and the gold he took from the chest is nabbed by the creature.

23) After the attack they meet and talk, Franklin tells them what he found - they have an Irish demon on their hands, A Leprechaun! They decide to put an end to it the next day.

24) Peter picks up Ritchie, its a Saturday or something, and they go to set traps. He talks to rich dad again who tells him its not about being rich but about personal achievement.

25) They set traps and steal gold to lure the demon, a calm before storm scene.

26) They lock up demon and bury it again with shovel.

27) Realize all the other objects are now spread over Lake Taniwha and as dread sets in: go to credits.

( This is a great cliffhanger I think and promises more adventures, originally I just had the set up and ending of first episode in mind and it seemed awesome to me. We were told that future plot lines and stuff should be promised if we write a series and I think my Pilot offers a lot of that, especially with this big climactic realization.)

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Writing this Beat Sheet and adding the notes I feel like I've gotten much closer to the treatment, which is my next step in the writing process.

It also gave me a better idea of each character and where I want to take them, the more I work at the story the more I flesh out these details, including the subtext. It's really helpful and each day I feel like the characters become more refined. At the start they were just rough inclinations towards certain traits or emotions, now they are becoming truly rounded individuals in my head. 

When I had the idea last year I didn't have any characters in mind and could only visualize the general shape of four boys facing off against these supernatural odds. A big reason I gave up on the idea so quickly and switched to something else (Jump Scare, a project I'd love to be able to make this year actually) was because when I started thinking about characters it was these ones I have now, but they felt like an extra add on and not part of the original core idea. Not integral to the story. Now I have much better integrated them, but the biggest savior of this first episode was figuring out what monster of the week to do. 

I have some of the monsters brainstormed and roughly blocked out in my head, but didn't want to adapt any of them for the pilot. I feel like each should have an entire episode dedicated to themselves so didn't want to do one half by only giving it half an episode. Tying back to the theme and deciding on a Leprechaun (which even I thought was really stupid at first) was really what saved this project for me. It's not a creature I want to give that much time and fits perfectly with the narrative being told in this first installment of the series. 

Admittedly I've created a lot to cover in the Pilot, but that's also because I feel like it needs to be an accurate representation of what the series will be like. I'm thinking of an opening episode like the Pilot of Fringe, even if the last draft surpasses an hour maybe that's worth it. 

Sometimes when I come with stories it just feels very specific to me and like it's my thing, this is one of them, the tone and way the story is told is something that I can't find anywhere else really and yet its very integral to what I feel a story should be. There's other specific examples of this that I've come up with (but obviously never written properly - only ever outlines - like Jump Scare is another one) and this is that style of mine on a TV series scale.

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I even started developing my proposal before fizzling out and realising that I may be doing the wrong project for what the assessment brief is:

LOGLINE

A group of kids are hired to clean out an old cabin that the
landlord wants to sell since the current tenant has been
absent for months, it just so happens that said tenant was an
avid collector of the supernatural, seeing this opportunity
the kids decide to make an extra buck by taking the
unwanted items home and selling them at school.

That's the logline that I had last year. This was a bit long and over-complicated
 from the feedback I remember, the solution I came up with was almost too simple:

 "A group of kids find a collection of supernatural objects in the basement of a cabin in the woods".

This is the logline I presented in my last blog:

Four high-schoolers are given the task of cleaning out a cabin in the woods 
that just so happens to house a collection of supernatural objects which the 
landlord considers to be nothing more than 'junk', the boys surrender to their
 more entrepreneurial side and decide to sell the items at their school for a pretty profit.

I looked up how to write a logline and used their step-by-step
 process to refine my own:

https://www.raindance.org/10-tips-for-writing-loglines/

Four ambitious teenage boys with a wish to escape their small New Zealand community find a collection of supernatural objects in a Cabin in the Woods and sell them for a profit, taking responsibility they have to battle the evil supernatural forces that they have released upon the innocent town.

I'm not sure how much better that is, but I included goal, characters and antagonist and implemented descriptive words like ambitious and evil.

SPECIFICS

We have to define what kind of production we are pitching.

Format : Long Form Television Series (40 min episodes) 

Genre : Horror / Adventure

Target Audience : Teenagers / Young Adult

I'm never specific enough with my target audience so I've decided on a
demographic here that is quite small but undefined enough and familiar
enough with the public and production companies that it is a financially 
viable market.

Young Adult books attract a large variety of people but it is very specifically 
made for pre-teens and teenagers, it's also a target that has proven again and
again to be very lucrative financially. The characters and themes of my story 
fit very well into this genre and demographic.

PLOT

The plot is something that I have worked out very well, but I think giving a general impression of both the series as a whole and the pilot cleanly and succinctly is important when pitching here, so I've reworded it a bit.

Pilot

Peter, Armie and Franklin are heading into their first year of NCEA, with the future and end of high-school looming menacingly over them they make a pact to be more successful than their families and escape the small town where they have been trapped for the past 16 years. With this newfound career focus they look for job opportunities and meet a rich kid with a father who owns a real estate company. They are hired to clean out an old cabin for him, of which the tenant has not returned for nigh on a year. Inside they find a miscellaneous selection of supernatural items which they choose to make the most use of by selling them off at school. One of the items is a chest which they manage to open and find gold inside, gold and an Irish greed demon. They have to capture and subdue the creature and bury it along with their newfound wealth.  

Series as a Whole

Peter, Armie, Franklin and Richard, four ambitious teenage boys with the goal to become rich, come upon a collection of supernatural objects which they sell at their school. This entrepreneurial venture soon turns into a supernatural nightmare as the items now dispersed across town sequentially become activated. The boys have to battle the evil that they've released and save their town from damnation. Each episode functions as a 'monster-of-the-week'  but things aren't so clean cut in their universe, it doesn't take long for the different problems to start overlapping, causing a snowball effect where the variety of supernatural conundrums pile up and overlap. The boys have more in their hands than they can hold, but slowly build a set of skills that will lead them to eventually subdue the evil forces in their entirety. Each episode sees a new problem, as well as the characters learning new skills and growing as people. The original owner of the cabin also comes back looking for his stolen loot, this along with the different supernatural events, the police's curiosity and the boys' responsibilities to be on school on time and not home after dark creates a whole cascade of problems to juggle.

CHARACTERS

Peter 

The protagonist of our story, who we follow for most of the series and the first of whose home life we are privy to. His is a failed writer and he wishes for more in his life, he is eager to learn from the more successful and open to new knowledge but his major flaw is how much importance he places on his self interest. Confident, patient.

This is as far as I got in the development of this idea before deciding that it would most likely not be the best choice for the assessment brief. 

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After all of this development I finally thought that the Possession idea I've been working on would be better for such a short format thing. It is difficult for me to make something within such a tight page limit, and especially something that is like a web series instead of TV or film. Cursed Objects is too long and I know that now, it will cause problems in the future and I am not willing to butcher it down into something much shorter, this other idea might actually adapt itself pretty well to that structure though, especially with how the writing process has been.

This is my script so far for this idea:

Web series are very short and need to entertain the audience in a very limited amount of time, the way they are generally feels a lot like what I've written here. A simple premise, quick into the action and filled with the comedic hook. personally I can't think of a good web series, I just genuinely dislike most of them, and it's very hard to play in that field not least because of how structure less it is. When I develop my ideas they always

But after deciding that this would indeed be the best route to go for this assessment Patrick said something very interesting. He talked about the writing process and specifically about free writing, where you sit down and let your mind on the page without much planning or thought put into things like structure, theme and subtext. He even talked about how that recently happened with his Mad Cows movie, and how when that happens it usually feels great directly after writing it, but is in actually an incoherent piece of shit. Likening it to throwing spaghetti against a wall and hoping something sticks.

This is an important consideration for me to take because when I wrote Possession it was on a day where I was tired of planning and taking forever to get anything on the page. On that day I decided to take a premise that I had come up with and just sit down and write, letting the story develop organically. The first of the spaghetti rules applied, I really enjoyed it, felt inspired and excited to see where the story went.

Hopefully the second rule isn't true too, although I regret to say reading it again it is really quite bad.

The reason I titled this blog Spaghetti is also because this lesson in writing resonated with me on another level - that I have too many ideas in my head, am floundering and at the moment just looking for something to stick.

Throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks is a good description of where I am in the process at the moment.

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We also briefly discussed sympathy and empathy, a topic I found interesting. The idea is that one is experiencing the feelings of the character, and the other is just understanding them. Like knowing why a character does something vs feeling/wanting the same thing they do.

Empathy vs. Sympathy. Empathy is the ability to experience the feelings of another person. It goes beyond sympathy, which is caring and understanding for the suffering of others. Both words are used similarly and often interchangeably (incorrectly so) but differ subtly in their emotional meaning.

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