After reading Screen Australia’s Info Guide – Story Documents, it got me thinking about a few things.
– First there was the ‘how to guide’ to writing a story’s pitch (p. 5) and how this helped contextualised my own work,
– Then there was the notion of core concept, or premise, and the importance of grounding this early in dramatic writing
– But then I started thinking about the bureaucratic jargon that seems to be based on the earlier Hollywood studio system model and the problems that this causes for the Australian industry.
For my piece, the guide help me establish the pitch version of the one-paragraph synopsis for my own story.
It is as follows;
(NOTE: I have made bold my story’s beats and left the template normal)
This story is a…(noir thriller) …about…(Beecroft, love locked in a toxic relationship in a dying world)
…but then this happens….(through meeting the free-thinker Harvey, he begins to repair himself and his world) At the end of Act One they…. (plan to overthrow the corrupt rulers at every cost) At the midpoint… (he is reunited with his oppressor and concedes to her wishes) At the end of Act Two…(his new found followers turn there backs after hearing of his racketeering and dishonesty)
The climax… (as they watch him burn alive after the final dispute with Melanie, the free-thinkers congregate in sorrow) In the end….(The people learn that there is no truth in the world, just the hope of love).
Blah.
From here, I feel as though I got closer to a core concept, or a concrete premise… which is; There is no truth in the world, just the hope of love.
The fill in the gaps template thingy was a lot of fun and it definitely helped me see the bigger picture with my own work. Though it seems to encourage high-concept mentality as described by Michael Haugue in his 2011 presentation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X3j5koW76k) and brilliantly executed by the seminal high-concept production Jaws (Spielberg, 1975).
However, to impose such a blanket treatise on an infantile industry such as Australia’s could well obfuscate the country’s unique trajectory and films can end up feeling contrived, pretentious and/or just missing the mark. It marginalises alternative and subversive concepts with influences of Godard, Tati and the likes. It sends local prodigies off to the USA to produce block busters like Saw (2004) when the talent and infrastructure was at their home base all along. This poses more questions for me like, why are so many world class facilities such as, Fox Studios, Docklands Studios and Global empty most of the time when budding producers are shelling out thousands to rent low quality spaces? Is it because admission frameworks are too rigid? And is this why Australia is still considered a cultural back-water? Hell, since the Gordian knot seems to only get tighter with thanks to the cultural cringe, perhaps people need to create their own cinematic balls of twine on the fringes. And perhaps one day, on the release of the government’s budget, we can see a slice of the pie offered to creative mavericks like Wan and Whannell.
Ah jeez… this is such a cynical, tangential, cursory blog rant… but I’m sure I could use it as a rickety framework for something.
Now, just click your heels together and repeat after me, there’s no place like home and a systemically flawed industry.
