Bowie
02-13-2005, 02:32 PM
hi guys, i'm obviously new here, but i came up a while ago with this idea for a screenplay, tentatively titled "[Making a] Connection" (or "Connect the Dots").
i told my screenwriter/3d animater friend the idea and we debated heatedly whether or not it would work as a feature film.
simply, it tracks a daisy chain of about 10 people who engage in overlapping relationships, as depicted below (the dashes represent relationships), where Billy dates Louise, who meets Charlie - they form a new relationship, until Charlie breaks it off cos he's now into Marie, etc:
Billy - Louise....Charlie - Marie....Nathan - Mike....Ashlea - Peter....Jenna - David
.........Louise - Charlie....Marie - Nathan....Mike - Ashlea....Peter - Jenna
my question is, is it somehow possible to give each of these characters a deserved and fully developed and satisfying character arc, which interconnect in the above order? my friend says you could do five completely separate films/episodes about unrelated couples (billy-louise, charlie-marie, etc) but when you overlap them with one partner jumping over to the next, it somehow would not provide enough room for the characters to satisfactorily develop? or the couples would become too insignificant? "too much of too little," he says.
He also says it has no purpose... but of course there is a twist, and only when it is revealed do i think it gives full weight to the film (as twists tend to do), but he says the twist is obvious.
can you predict it?
yes?
well it's simply that on a tv or something at the end, the original guy (in this case Billy) is revealed to have aids. so, blah blah, obviously it is suggested that everybody in the chain has been carrying along the HIV, though hopefully the script is written in such a way as to not make that end 'payoff' obvious -- perhaps the gay relationship in the middle might tinker some bells.
but that twist doesn't really say much besides "engaging in sex leaves you open to the potential of acquiring AIDs," i know, but the purpose i feel is that as each character is introduced to a new person - their next fling - both we as an audience and the character can only see what the new person is showing us, and we are taken along the ride on face value much like the case truly is on the dating scene (besides what i call the unrealistic 'incestuous' Friends and 90210 set up, etc). as i see it in my idea, a relationship is broken off generally when a dark side of that new person is revealed, but we are all humans and they are given a shade of humanity, so that we accept their dark side (to some degree), as they become the next person in the chain whom we follow into their next relationship.
so it's a two-fold dose of reality, with temporary overlapping realistic character arcs where we are shown only the sides of ppl they want to show (and uncover hidden truths), and one overall sweeping arc of the risk of HIV.
is this a doomed screenplay idea?
i told my screenwriter/3d animater friend the idea and we debated heatedly whether or not it would work as a feature film.
simply, it tracks a daisy chain of about 10 people who engage in overlapping relationships, as depicted below (the dashes represent relationships), where Billy dates Louise, who meets Charlie - they form a new relationship, until Charlie breaks it off cos he's now into Marie, etc:
Billy - Louise....Charlie - Marie....Nathan - Mike....Ashlea - Peter....Jenna - David
.........Louise - Charlie....Marie - Nathan....Mike - Ashlea....Peter - Jenna
my question is, is it somehow possible to give each of these characters a deserved and fully developed and satisfying character arc, which interconnect in the above order? my friend says you could do five completely separate films/episodes about unrelated couples (billy-louise, charlie-marie, etc) but when you overlap them with one partner jumping over to the next, it somehow would not provide enough room for the characters to satisfactorily develop? or the couples would become too insignificant? "too much of too little," he says.
He also says it has no purpose... but of course there is a twist, and only when it is revealed do i think it gives full weight to the film (as twists tend to do), but he says the twist is obvious.
can you predict it?
yes?
well it's simply that on a tv or something at the end, the original guy (in this case Billy) is revealed to have aids. so, blah blah, obviously it is suggested that everybody in the chain has been carrying along the HIV, though hopefully the script is written in such a way as to not make that end 'payoff' obvious -- perhaps the gay relationship in the middle might tinker some bells.
but that twist doesn't really say much besides "engaging in sex leaves you open to the potential of acquiring AIDs," i know, but the purpose i feel is that as each character is introduced to a new person - their next fling - both we as an audience and the character can only see what the new person is showing us, and we are taken along the ride on face value much like the case truly is on the dating scene (besides what i call the unrealistic 'incestuous' Friends and 90210 set up, etc). as i see it in my idea, a relationship is broken off generally when a dark side of that new person is revealed, but we are all humans and they are given a shade of humanity, so that we accept their dark side (to some degree), as they become the next person in the chain whom we follow into their next relationship.
so it's a two-fold dose of reality, with temporary overlapping realistic character arcs where we are shown only the sides of ppl they want to show (and uncover hidden truths), and one overall sweeping arc of the risk of HIV.
is this a doomed screenplay idea?