Action Movie!

This week in class we learned about the structure of movies and how screenwriting fits into that structure. We talked about the structure, cycle, and act structure of movies. The structure of a movie is basically the selection of events from the character used to arouse a specific feeling. It is important that the events selected do a good job of arousing a feeling; Eric definitely stressed that. The movie cycle includes: goal, action, conflict, and reaction. Though regular length movies have three or four acts, we will have a one act movie that encompasses the aspects of all the acts, so we’ll have to include the exposition, build up, and climax in five minutes. We also learned the format of screenwriting, the job description of screen writers, and the relationship between the screenwriter and the director.

The highlight of the class, though, was finally getting the specifics of our five minute video! I was very excited to see what type of movie we were going to do. Some of the requirements of move include 1) a clown or mime 2) the lines: ““Why is this happening to me today of all days?” and "It would be better for us not to talk about that” and 3) a guitar, a cheese grater, and skull. Very peculiar stipulations for a movie, but I’m sure we can figure out creative ways to incorporate them.

My group (the best group BY FAAAAAR) was assigned an action movie. I think everyone in the group was very excited about the assignment. We started brainstorming instantly about possible ideas, characters, plots, and even cool screen shots we could include in our movie. As far as ideas, I think we all want it to be a suspenseful movie as well as action packed. We thought a lot about who our main character could be. We thought about a child action start, but it would be difficult to have a child come in whenever we needed and act without some kind of pay or reward. I think we’re pretty set on having a B.A. female action character. I like that idea and I think that we could have a lot of fun with that. As far as plot, we have not come up with anything concrete. We thought about having something very simple but stressful that a lot of people could identify with (like losing a key or paper) occur to the main character and showing all that action that ensues as she attempts to retrieve. A chase scene was agreed upon by all the members. I think a chase scene could add to the build of suspense and the overall entertainment of the film. Some shots we thought would be cool would be a staircase scene or a shot that focuses on the feet of the character and the pursuer. We have plenty of ideas floating around, but I think it’s important that we get them down soon. Develop our plot and work from there…

One of my main concerns is special effects. We tend to expect action films to have top of the line special and visual effects. We, as poor, uneducated (in the realm of special effects) college students, do not have the means to pull of blockbuster or even bad movie special effects. So I think one of our challenges will be to have special effects that are low budget but are still visually effective. I’m excited to see how our project turns out.

Also, Eric said something about having an award show. That would be a lot of fun…