Zombie terrorist

Participants of the 4th edition: 15/06/2009

Editors: Killa Köllő (Trillian)

Regular guest: Csaba Tóth

Current guest, expert: Norbert Köbli, scriptwriter

DJ: Turiszt    

About Ourselves, Absolutely Not 

The third scriptwriter suggests that we should make film about ourselves (where are You in the story?, how important the personal experience is when you are elaborating the characters, etc., etc.), which we absolutely refuse. However, we take the advice of bringing something personal into the film, if this is our task. 

Characters, Characters, Characters 

Norbert Köbli says that we should be acquainted with our characters, which is quite difficult without personal conviction. According to great directors like Woody Allen, Billy Wilder, Mike Nichols: “Complex characters, simple plots”. They made successful films by having set the story to the main characters. Thereby their characters are complex but vivid. There are no extreme events in their films, so when a pistol appears, it is a sudden change. Polanski’s Chinatown is obligatory even in the scriptwriter school. The characters are interesting, as well as the situation (a mysterious case has to be investigated, while in the background LA is a desert, which should be sprinkled from below and deeper layers come to light by corrupt conspiracy and philosophical foundations). It is hard to decide whether Chinatown is a noir or a genre film. As Good as It Gets is an excellent example for the film which contains nothing interesting, but the protagonist is fascinating. 

Mutant of Csaba’s swine flu idea (there is no title just the subject of an email: “flu”) 

The swine flu virus arrives from Mexico at a hospital, which is in possession of research laboratory, in Mátrahegy. The experiment begins to find the antidote but at the end a more dangerous mutant version is made out. One of the doctors, who is Arabian, wants to sell it to a terrorist organization. Although the head physician discovers his intentions, the disease breaks loose because of an accident and the hospital has to be locked up, which is not supported by everyone.

The idea may come to anyone’s mind but our expert asks more questions. Where are You in the story? Which character will be enough remarkable to make us remember to the film? How the elaboration is going to be? He wants to know how determined we are since there are left two years writing, shooting and last but not least learning the basis of filmmaking, which was our original aim.

The Hungarian zombie attempts cannot be compared with a production of Hollywood. A Hungarian filmmaker does not take him/herself as seriously as e. g. the makers of Terminator may have done. There is the danger that our film will resemble to a satire. Moreover, hardly would this plot with the zombie-virus be sold with serious face in Hungary, despite of the world-widely known fact that our country plays important role in the medical researches. There is also fierce competition, since a film is in preparation with similar content under the title of Block 66. Balázs Lovas and Gábor Kriegler intend to come out with a film about zombies. Even our expert, Norbi, has similar intention: in his film the zombies attack an OTP bank (this is supposed to be the social criticism) in order to get their bank deposit. 

Back to Csaba’s hypothesis, the positive protagonist is the head physician. There would be two kids on vacation (like in Jurassic Park), who accidentally see the Arabian doctor smuggling the virus, or they would be saved from some dangerous situation. The head physician saves the world due to his sense of duty (or to his personal motivation because his children get ill also). There may be something in his past, which mixes the story up or even he might be the traitor.

The negative character would be an Arabian terrorist, what, according to our expert, might be offensive and clichéd. Nowdays Americans try to avoid this stereotype in their movies (except for Transformers). Therefore, we should vary the plot: the Arabian doctor is suspected but at the end it turns out that he is innocent.

Csaba wanted the film to be a bit zombie-like as 28 Days later…, where the skinny characters eat each other. The root of the exterior danger would be in a closed area, in addition someone undermine the mood of the participants and they would intend to accuse each other, what can keep the audience in excitement. Like in The Thing or Body Snatchers: you do not know on whom you can rely, since there is no visible sign of the disease; the human changes only inside. Or if we prefer the metamorphosis, just for fun, at the end everyone would change back like in a Disney-film.

The expert is enthusiastic about the hen night story because its characters are closer to the makers than the research doctor’s world. He suggests inserting an incident like in Romancing the Stone, e. g. a dispatch-rider arrives or a runaway motorcyclist messes up, since the girl does not know for whom she is waiting. 

In the next edition the characters will be outlined and then the vote will decide, which synopsis will be carried out. 

To dress a mask

This is the documentation of a "letsmakeamovie" workshop as part of the movie programme called Free Cinema on Tilos Radio Hungary.   

Participants of the 3rd edition: 11/06/2009 

Editors: Killa Köllő (Trillian), Luca Pályi (http://freikino.blogspot.com/)

Current guest, expert: Balázs Lovas, scriptwriter, Fade In Script Consulting

DJ: Turiszt   

We have discussed 2 synopsis-like materials during the programme. The first one (Hajnlanka and the Bank Robber) can be read here. The second (Survivor Trip Hen Night) can be read here.   

In this edition, we picked to pieces two writings, both somewhere between a synopsis and a logline, whose key issue were still: „ where would we like the story to lead up?”, that is what should be the essence of the dénouement? It is worth to approach the problem taking the main character into consideration: what is her problem of life, what opportunities will be offered by the forthcoming change, how will our character size it?   

A feature film is usually constituted of 3 main parts, just as we have learnt in school: introduction – rising action – dénouement. When we strike out the end of the story, it is crucial to at least roughly presume the questions raised by the film (introduction) and the answers to these questions (dénouement) to be able to see the potentials of the movie. This can be followed by the elaboration of the characters, and than it’s possible that the whole story will change. Thus the synopsis will earn its final shape after the most important part of the process, the elaboration of the characters, since the presentment of the characters and the „treatment” (action plot in a prosaic format) add up to constitute the final shell of the movie: out of it will the script born.  

It is worth thinking about the back-story of our main characters (backstory, life story before the time of the film): it is good to know where they came from and what they make for. We should write a 1 or 2 page long presentment of the characters, which will be able to point a direction to the scriptwriter and the director. We should find functions for the sidemen as well, mostly in the case of a comic movie: their back-stories don`t have to be as detailed as those of the main characters, but it can be useful to find the main characteristics. It doesn`t pay to implement too many (side)characters, it would just overcomplicate our story. 

1. The story of the bank robber, written by Yvonne.

Hajnalka is a bank administrator, a lonely, single woman, who was left by his last boyfriend (that turd Tibor). The security guard of the bank, Laci would like to squire her, but she refuses to pay attention to this, instead she spends her spare time checking Tibor’s iwiw data or daydreaming: she sees herself as a masked bank robber, covering her customers with a gun. Just until her imaginations become real: bank robbers try to take Hajnalka hostage, who simply and laconically says no. Or yes - it is to be decided upon further considerations, but the main point of the idea is that she will become the employee of the year by the end of the movie.  

According to Balázs, this frame story would be enough for approximately 15 or 20 minutes in film-time, although it contains a lot of interesting turns. It is worthwhile unfolding the bank robbery, the hostage from the aspect of the more and more gripping character of the heroine: e.g. someone else could say no and she could take on the exciting role of the hostage.

Since she is terribly bored by her job, she could say yes to get some thrill into her life, and than she could ’join in’ or disarm the bank robber and step down with the money. She could even take a train to save the train chase scene.  

In case if she is opened the door to the plucky change, the key question arises: to what extend the bank robbery affects her personality?: Will the dormant power shoot out of her, while she will still seem milquetoastish, so that she will be able to sleekly elude and disarm the bank robber? Or will she volunteer for hostage, so that the upcoming episodes will entail a series of funny situations?  

The amorous leading man Laci could follow the bank robber, but then Tibor could show up or Hajnalka could call for him.   

After the starting sequences of the story (bank robbery, getaway, disarmament at an unguarded moment) can the unfolding of the message take place – that is to say we have to search for Hajnalka’s goals. What does she want to do with money: bring it back to the bank or keep it? Since the situation is the frustrated and suppressed girl’s first and only opportunity to get away and rebel. How does she handle the situation? Will she try to get Tibor back (by compelling him with the money or by literally buying his love back?), or when things have fallen out well, will she become Laci’s lover or the bank robber’s lover?   

Here manifested the importance of the 4 main characters – Hajnalka, the Bank Robber, Tibor and Laci.

It can touch up the movie to implement some comic potential into the characteristics of the characters (e.g. Hajnalka’s and the Bank Robber’s personalities could be poles apart, just like in a classic action comedy), and then to shake them together or put them in touch with each other by the rising action. Moreover, in case they are given a flaw, it can be entertaining for the spectator to realise how they cannot see their own limits or how they learn to handle them only by the end of the film.   

Hajnalka’s back-story lies in the elaboration of the character: how did she behave in school? (was she popular?), does she have friends, how did her private life work out, what are her most important frustrations (what does she hate or admire in others – this is almost psychology: she is looking for her own dark side in others), what are her strenghts, her fears? It is crucial to set up the mask of the main character: what image would she like to show to the outside world or to herself? Of these elements will her true self emerge by handling the crisis – these psychical factors can serve as the source of the story. The mask is the tool for self-defense, only after its formulation can turn out what hides behind it. Or does she show her face nice and happy for her customers, but when she turns aways her sad life reveals? The sad life of which she would like to break out, or to prove herself, her parents or Tibor with whom she would like to travel to a faraway island? So that she has plans with the money?    

 

2. The hen night story, written by Trillian

The main character is Hanna the bride (26), and her friends organize a hen night for her: she receives messages, the first one right after waking up that contains a path marked with playful task. The different stations are supposed to prepare her for the life of a married woman, so that by the end of the day, having her fears gotten rid of, she arrives at the site of the wedding tired, but prepared and hardened.  

The movie, according to the original conceptions, would start as a light comedy, then it would turn out to be a terrific survivor trip, thus becoming an action movie.   

Ideas for turns in the movie: she would enter a bank by accident, where she would be taken hostage in the course of a bank robbery or at a railway station of a hick town in course of receiving the next message. In this case she and the spectators are not supposed to know whether the robbery is part of the game or not. Her friends should then find out that something is going wrong, and some of them should start on her rescue.   

According to Balázs’s remarks showing up of the kidnapper can change the orientation of the story, so that we should secede from this situation and create some other situation of violence.

The 'insighting incident' seems to be cool: the story starts zippy, by a sudden turn to upset the balance of the main character’s everyday, and the appearance of the kidnapper can spice up the story in case this turn of the story happens near the 20th minute of the time of the movie, but it is a must to look strictly to keep ourselves to the main line.  

The film doesn’t like accidental events or constrained situations, and the meeting at the station seems to be just of this kind. In classic stories the causality and the successiveness of action and reaction are essential. It is important to keep the logic of the story, the main line, that is to say when an obviously constrained event gets into it, that doesn’t follow from a decision of the character, there is a chance that the spectator will lose the thread. Thus, accidental events should rather be used to start the story, but we must not solve the story this way, because it feels as a remote deus ex machina. To keep our spectators it is worth staying consistent during the build-up of the genre: to rough out a light and romantic or an action-thriller-like genre movie or an intentionally mixed one, and keep ourselves to this one all along. 

So our main character is soon to be married, what could she have on her mind? Her fears? Maybe she doesn’t know how to be a good wife, and that is what she will have to get over through the plot, just as it would be a crash-course? The mask of the good wife offers itself, but the terrific truth is: she is unaware of the finality of the decision. The main line of the movie should hence be the presentation of the flaws, or she should fight her kidnapper (rescuer?) instead.

Where is the wannabe husband all this time? Is it necessary to show him or would it be better, as a stylistic knack, NOT to reveal him? According to Trillian he is not part of the message, which is about the personal fears of the girl, so that he shouldn’t show up at least until the end of the film (happy ending).

According to Balázs these fears could more tightly connect to the fiance’s character, his appearance provides too many opportunities to be missed out. He should find out that her bride has been kidnapped, and he should follow her, or he could organize the kidnapping himself (of which a romance arises later on) to read the chick a lesson. There is the possibility to include junctures like psychological games, beautiful (spiritual) struggles, and our main character could become a better man, prepared for the marriage.   

In the next edition we will continue dissecting further synopses.  

Al Pacino or Jean-Claude Van Damme should be our hero?

This is the documentation of a "letsmakeamovie" workshop as part of the movie programme called Free Cinema on Tilos Radio Hungary. 

Participants of the 2nd edition: 28/05/2009 

Editors: Yvonne Kerékgyártó, Killa Köllő (Trillian),

Regular guest: Csaba Tóth 

Current guest, expert: Gergely Zoltán, scriptwriter

DJ: Turiszt 

2 weeks ago we stopped at the question to what extent our film should be personal. Following a semantic debate, Trillian’s karaoke bar-experience has been rejected as it has turned out to be too subjective and therefore fails to fit into a radio workshop where the principal point of view is teamwork. We agreed to settle down to a genre film by all means because that allows to acquire professional skills of filmmaking. 4 ideas were raised during the programme: in connection with swine flu a virus topic, inspired by the news, a bank robbery topic, and the train-chasing action film is still holding its position, while the notion of a new Russian chamber play emerged as well.  

1. The bank robbery

It occurred a short while ago that a bank robber ran away by escaping into a block building from the police that was chasing after him. Nobody has ever found him since. It is so Hungarian (as a genre) and so Up-to-date (it happened maybe a month ago at Flórián square) that the analysis of this path got under focus during this session. The idea came upon the occasion when our programme hosted Zoltán Gergely two weeks ago to expertise so he went to the bank earlier than usual to settle things. He attached his less than a year-old son on his back - to the greatest pleasure of the female bank employees. Following the radio broadcast, on his arrival home did he hear about the hostage-bank robbery on the news. Later on he inquired one of the women at the cashier what had happened who told him that the robber had wanted to get her to become his hostage. „I’m not going” – she said, ignoring the gun pointing at her. Somebody else went finally. 

The bank robbery idea excited everyone, since it is an issue lying „in the street”. At the same time, the story raises problems such as an action-super hero with a child on him: what would he do? Surely he wouldn’t start playing the hero. Or? We found out during our debate that bank robbery stories can only star bank robbers, as the story is simply theirs. Could it be exciting to focus on a hostage? Or the guy who says to the gun pointing at him that they should leave him alone, he’s not going anywhere. What motivations could he have?

As references we talked about Dog Day Afternoon and JVCD. In Dog Day Afternoon we can see the story of a bank robbery that ends up in a failure: two desperate but good guys don’t manage to rob a bank. (Al Pacino as one of them). In JVCD the main hero is not the robber: Jean-Claude Van Damme (the title of the film is the actor’s monogram) happens to be a simple client passing by the bank when it is getting robbed, and Van Damme, playing himself this time, cannot show off anything heroic: he’s exactly like a common man. 

2. Trillian’s train chase action film is still among the selected ones which cannot however be advanced during this brainstorming. The maximum we can add to it is that the story would probably fall prey to a train chase scene. 

3. Csaba carried on with the swine flu idea which would tell the story of an abortive experiment to find an antidote in Hungary: in a hospital under quarantine in the woods, a virus endangering the entire world is made out of the antidote by accident. It has to be prevented from getting out, and here you can play with the community locked up, it can get personal with the doctor’s 10 year old children whom you can worry about, and then there are the „simple patients”, but the main character would be the hospital director; there would emerge a love plot as well, and the scene has a lot to add to the story. Dramatic details, breaking out of the human/restrained space. Genre: thriller spiced with the evil. 

4. Yvonne’s absurd horror rockandrolla chamber play with three characters: in Russia in 2 musicians’ refrigerator a fan’s corpse is discovered. According to the journal article, the two guys had even tasted the body. Could they be a boy group or maybe contemporary jazz players?    

For the next occasion log-lines (1-3 effective sentences as a sum-up) will be made out of these ideas. The log-line has to draft the basic situation, the conflict, the intrigue, that is: the beginning, the middle and the end of the film. This is the basis of the future synopsis, but is also possible to present it directly next time. It happens many times that the synopsis is rewritten based on the scenario, because the plot changes so much during the writing process that the original version often becomes unrecognisable. 

Brainstorming 1: Babe3 has swine flu

This is the documentation of a workshop as part of the movie programme called Free Cinema on Tilos Radio.

Participants of the first edition: 14/05/2009

Editors: 

Yvonne Kerékgyártó, Killa Köllő (Trillian), Ferenc Wostry 

Regular guest: Csaba Tóth 

Current guest, expert: Gergely Zoltán, scriptwriter

When it comes to making films, the first thing to be made clear is the attitude: depending on the all changing parameters (money, time, human factor) it is possible to try the impossible: making a feature film on the occasions of every second Thursday. 

The most important question of the creative process is: what will the result be? 

The members of the workshop are not completely but almost amateurs, and our specialists invited join in to pave the way for us.

Target group 

Who and Where is going to watch and What?

• Are we preparing a film for someone who goes to cinema on Saturday evening with his girlfriend and wants excitement? Is it about an action horror comedy with stunts and stars or light entertainment for friends or maybe for the radio audience? Either way, it is possible to slip in some excitement.
  
• Under a different light: should we aim for a character-centered drama or a psycho-crime story?
  

Main Stream 

What should we define first: the genre or the idea?

 

It is worth laying down some basic elements in advance, what we wish to see absolutely and what we do not. According to Zoli Gergely it is generally necessary to have a personal link to the mainstream, since one knows (theoretically) himself the best.  

This is what goes for the genre movies as well: personal touch can be added. Genre films normally react on a given period: this is how we can see for example the pursuit of the American dream of the 80s appearing in many forms, which is well balanced by the European filmmakers. Today’s popular topics are the refugee subject, or the virus-aspiration for world hegemony-vision.

In any case, according to our experts it is the idea that bears the genre: let’s visualise Béla, the lone hero, who is home all by himself, doing nothing, can we see now how many possibilities there are in it? You can start out anywhere, the purpose is: to make a good film.

 

1st phase: the basic idea 

A classic and good example for the basic idea is Hitchcock’s North by Northwest: as an idea, it is a slender one but Hitchcock, as the main feature brings the genre with himself, and so this will be the basis for all James Bond movies. 

It is worthwhile getting down to the brainstorming from a technical point of view: it should be well concentrated, that is, a leader is supposed to put down (on a board) the key terms resulting from the brain storms, then sum up the outcome and direct erring ideas towards the finished film.

 

Basic idea/1: (We abandoned it in the next edition - the editor) The personal experience of one of us: a movie-like working place, a Japanese karaoke bar in Budapest. This is an unmarked club only by invitation visited by Japanese business men. The leads could be made up by the staff: the hostess girls themselves who live the night workers’ collective lives in the cloakroom (moral questions emerging: where they come from, where they go – are they students and/or working here by necessity). Leaving the cloakroom, they pick up the American smile straightaway: let’s turn on the music, as well as the guys - but what is behind, after, and in the end?

Basic idea/2: During the programme, as part of the current issues, the „bird flu / mad cows disease/ swine flu that spreads by biting, sweeps over the world and makes everyone a zombie” -idea, and as a counter-idea, by the time the film is ready, how much will any of the above be up-to-date, maybe a new animal decease should be invented immediately, just to avoid oppositions.

 

Basic idea/3: The main character, a girl is preparing for her wedding, and has to face a series of tasks upon her chickens’ party, but of course, to be able to cope with the tests (her fears) there is no real need for a farewell party. Let’s say that the girl gets up in the morning and is prepared for her evening party, knowing nothing about that it has in fact already started: she gets a message saying that she has to take the train, and because of a misunderstanding, the game becomes one of life and death, everything goes astray, like with Bill Murray “The Men Who Knew Too Little”, or “The Game” or Rejtő’s: “A szőke ciklon" (The Blond Cyclone). Or even "Grand Hotel" (by the same author), which has a funny start but turns out to be a film noir.

Spot 

The scenes for the ideas already existing: 

A/1: a restricted space or, as it is now closed at Kolosy square; a lot of questions emerge. The film could be set in the cloakroom or even the bar. 

A/2: It’s almost like a masterpiece to create a Mexico stroke by the disease on a Hungarian pig farm with one single sombrero. Or: the virus arrives therefore the whole building is quarantined - it could be an epidemic centre. 

A/2: Several metropolitan and country scenes, but mostly trains. 

  

An interesting aspect is the point of view: remaining with our examples, it is possible to use an outsider’s position but also that of the characters, so it be the hostess girl (or throughout the episodes every character’s point of view), or the investigator, the recently involved employee, or the child who doesn’t understand why mum coughs, or the laboratory researcher who gives orders to set up the quarantines and fights for other people’s lives, or the pigs doing kung fu on each other.

 

The genre could be horror, reality show, catastrophe film, or drama: the members of the family follow each other to death in the quarantine. An Andromeda Strain-like film, or here comes McGywer, and then there will be action-sci-fi-adventure, and comedy – all in one. However, the objectivity of the news programmes is not a bad idea either, media power in focus. Or a satire-comedy entitled Babe3, where the little pig gets infected and the whole Hungarian army is trying to trace and hunt him down – well this idea has its disadvantages as well, at least the experts say it would be difficult to rent a piglet every two weeks, and then there’s the training the animal needs and all that time and who knows what else to make it into a feature film and not just a game. Or it could be a genre parody, we have the target, (Babe3, the chasers) and the Bábolna factory is going to sponsor it, which will make Hungarian pigs survive everything and aspire for world hegemony.

The brainstorming is to be continued in our next edition.

Written by: Turbina

Filmmaking is cool

The programme called Free Cinema has been running on Tilos Radio (Hungary) since 2004. Now we have had the idea of going through the different stages of filmmaking to our own cost. The programme can be followed every second Thursday. On this blog we present you the memo of the programme and other partial results. We are going to invite somebody to each edition whose ideas we are to follow throughout the filmmaking process. In the beginning our guests will be scriptwriters.

In case we get stuck somewhere, we’ll make it interactive: we will announce public voting occasions, and we hope that the audience will be interested enough to vote for questions rising about the genre of the film to be made, or whether bed or table, blond or brown, and so on.

We promise to put online every sentence written, every casting photo taken. We’ll even comment on them. The posts are going to be shortened memos, and the long versions will be accessible through a link. At least if our memo queen, Turbina, will have the energy to do it.