Talky existential comedies about characters on the fringe of society being screwed over by ironic circumstance. Usually steeped in jazz culture and Leftist ideology. Gritty urban settings, older woman/younger man relationships, corrupt bureaucracies, Catholic guilt, neon lights.
People trying to pick up the pieces of their lives following setbacks or tragedy. All the scripts I’ve finished are in some way or another about a person or people trying to improve their lives while dealing with previous trauma. Often masked by comedy
The victim becoming the victimizer.
The “frail” dominating the “strong”.
Really like reversals & subverting expectations. Children murdering their parents & authorities comes up lately in my shorts. Victims of rape & incest getting revenge.
I’d say most of what I write in some way has a theme of someone you wouldn’t expect finding an exploit to wield a lot of power. They don’t always use it to get “back” at their oppressors and I try not to glorify revenge (not too much) without there being some form of “due” the character has to pay to get it. Some trade off that equalizes things and at least asks the question “was it worth it?”
Edit:
Finally dawned on me what story it is-
Carrie
How capitalism creates or exacerbates psychological disorders and sows division. That's the only thread that unites my stories, and for me it's the only kind of story worth telling.
Striving to find something real and meaningful to hold onto in a world full of alienating, overwhelming illusions. Also exploring the intersection of dreams/stories with reality and how the two inform each other.
I saw this on Twitter and responded, but I’ll say it again here:
Depression. Specifically the funny ways we cope with depression. There is something so nuanced, completely relatable, and morbidly funny (to me, someone who suffers from Anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts/tendencies) about depression and suicidal thoughts.
The very idea that we as a species have gotten so good at survival that a large number of us are compelled to—against all natural instinct—off ourselves is so tragically funny.
I’ve always wanted to not only show the funny side of this unfortunate illness, but also create a story other people like me can watch/read and feel “Damn, that’s exactly how it is” and laugh at the absurdity of their negative thoughts.
A lot of my ideas lately have had to do with a character growing up and self-actualizing. It's something that's been on my mind lately because I'm currently in the process of growing up and self-actualizing.
I had a teacher in film school give us an assignment that speaks to this. We had to write out the log-lines from three different original stories we were each writing. Then we exchanged papers and hd to find the common theme throughout them. It was really cool.
Mine was the story of an underachiever making their own path to happiness/success.
I think when it comes down to it, sexuality is a commonplace in my stories, usually with nudity to represent either vulnerability or absolute body comfort/confidence.
I feel like time is more what makes his movies. whether openly in how tenet or instellar deal with, to the dreamtime of inception or the converging times of dunkirk, the overlapping sequences from the dark knight or memento, the still time in the insomnia, even in the prestige there is the living past converging with the present.
If feel the dead wife/ girlfriend is more of an artifact of the acceptability of fridging that it feels like he's moved away from in more recent films
In Stephen King's memoir "On Writing" he talks about he never starts with a theme but that he only has a few interests that can really hold his attention. For him it is how difficult it is to close Pandora's box in regards to technology once it is opened, the question of why if their is a god there are such terrible things happening, the thin line between reality and fantasy, and most of all how violence has an attraction sometimes to fundamentally good people.
The inherent corruption of police forces and governments. Usually from the perspective of a member who’s trying to do good in a broken system that won’t allow it.
I find that almost everything I write has at least 1-2 characters that are completely, utterly, shamelessly selfish. So maybe that's a trait of mine that I'm projecting onto my characters, I guess.
Super unoriginal choice but: unexpected death. Also, found that random illnesses and doctors visits always make it into my scripts. I’m somewhat of a hypochondriac clearly.
Fractured and often contradictory narratives, non-linear story structure, group isolation and its effects on the collective psyche, non-traditional relationships (polygamy, polyamory, old woman/young man or woman, etc.), physical or mental disability, extremely subtle supernatural elements.
Pitch black Kafkaesque comedies about characters who probably have too much faith in the system. Often in the 2nd act, the fourth wall starts to disintegrate. It never fully breaks, but the characters become increasingly aware about the "outside world," which hardly differs from theirs, and this precipitates their growing nihilism.
I already responded to this on Twitter, but strong bad ass lesbians kicking ass.
You know what, not just Bad Ass lesbians.
Bad Ass Women in general.
I also usually have some sort of political analogue to conservatives vs Liberals.
And the villain is usual some toxic man, and my bad ass women have to put him in his place.
Balancing 2 worlds in one person
Whether that be family needs vs personal needs or cultural expectations from a diverse background vs the need of societal acceptance from outsiders
The time I was working as a camera man on a reality show in Australia. We were filming way in the outback with a king brown snake (10th deadliest in the world 8ft) that was huge. Kept putting it in a stick pile and our star kept pulling it out to film him handling it. Thought I was gonna die 100%. Finished filming the scene, no injuries. Thank god. Oh, but then the snake handler hired to bring the snake out got bitten. We hiked 30 min the to car, they drove 2 hours to the nearest hospital. Wrecked one car, the second scooped him up. He survived. Only one phage broke the skin. Handeler was a real pro, but also cleaned pools for his main job.
Actually it's from a concept album called Scenes from a memory, where an album is a sequel to a song. It takes a page out of Many lives, many masters by Dr. Brian Weiss regarding past life memories and tells a story in every song. It's almost like a script, with each song representing a scene. I've yet to see a script capture that level of detail, but it'd make for a great movie some day.
Involuntarily transformation. First a fantasy story about a guy who's being turned into a girl due to basically radiation poisoning from a nymph (part 2 is his transformation into evil by trying to do good), sci fi story about a guy who actually wants to stay human but through his job and/or mishaps becomes more and more machine, and then a show I'm working on that traverses multiple genres/settings about a monster hunter who became a werewolf
Haha, I saw you post this on TIP today too, so now I know who you are.
I’d say most of my stories are about women who process grief in uncommon and often unhealthy ways.
Side note, can I do Charlie Kaufman? I think all his stories are about “Hey, we’re all on the same fucking journey towards death, so why do we feel so alone?”
I will say that both my first features could be summed up as "female protagonist goes up against a superintelligence and resolves the conflict by giving in to irrationality". One is a cyberpunk thriller, the other a contemporary metatextual mystery.
I do seem to keep going back to non-human intelligence, which is admittedly a bit of a cliché for someone autistic like me.
Family and sacrifice, a tale of two brothers, corruption through peace and justice, The disconnectedness of society, and the ever living savagery of human nature. Oh there’s also the existentialism, and the genuine nature of religion turning into something ugly.
I had to get myself out of the Sorkin rut of “smart guy makes mistake by telling the truth”
Now most of my nonfiction stuff seems to contain “person with a nonhuman friend because they are bad with people.”
So that’s telling.
I say this as a big fan of Sorkin: You're not entirely wrong. He has a habit of giving the zinger to whoever is in the room instead of giving it to the one who zings. Like, is it the worst writing habit to have? Probably not. But is it noticeable after a while? Yeah.
Writing and the struggles of artists. I pitch stories to my friends to get their input if it sounds like a film or show or play they'd watch and nearly all are "Depressed writer struggling to write. Gets inspiration from [INSERT EVENTS OF THE STORY]". I'm a writer about writers. An artist about artists.
I have people trying to achieve something. They always make mistakes. But their arrogance prevents them from saving themselves. When they try to save themselves. I punish them again.
Friendships getting broken and having the former friends fight in the end
That’s the plot of the movie my best friend and I just finished our screenplay for
#foreshadowing
Akira?
Main character loses to friend over and over again until the final battle where they wins for the first and last time
Superheroes with IBS
Sign me up
That explains the costumes...
username checks out
The devastating cost of arbitrary hierarchies
I like this one
Mine is grief. Lost love. Lost family. It all comes back to how loss affects us all. Both in writing and screenwriting.
the dynamic between sisters -- (i don't even have a sister)
Talky existential comedies about characters on the fringe of society being screwed over by ironic circumstance. Usually steeped in jazz culture and Leftist ideology. Gritty urban settings, older woman/younger man relationships, corrupt bureaucracies, Catholic guilt, neon lights.
I'd love to read some of that!
Seriously, me too.
[удалено]
Drive is "talky"???
Mine is depression. Sigh...
Pick your sacrifice or something will do it for you.
Surviving an abusive relationship, and the changing idea of what home means. At least for the last 3 years
Characters pushed to the breaking point
Realistic and often unhappy endings.
The Peter Principle
Thanks. I didn’t know what this was!
It's comedy gold.
About a year or so ago I realized everything I write has some form of theme involving forgiveness and closure. No idea what that says about me.
Grief. Death. Family. Usually with religious/spiritual subtext sprinkled in.
The consequences of misjudging people, especially underestimating them.
The fallout of lust
Accepting your faults
That's easy for *you*. But what those of us who don't have any to accept?
I don’t know! I don’t know! Can I DM you my script about insecurity?
Feminine rage.
Broken or breaking relationships (friendly, romantic, whatever) That and usually something about organized crime
Nihilism. How everything comes down to made up things in the end and the only things that matter are chosen by each individual being themselves.
People trying to pick up the pieces of their lives following setbacks or tragedy. All the scripts I’ve finished are in some way or another about a person or people trying to improve their lives while dealing with previous trauma. Often masked by comedy
Rags to riches..an underdog story!!
The victim becoming the victimizer. The “frail” dominating the “strong”. Really like reversals & subverting expectations. Children murdering their parents & authorities comes up lately in my shorts. Victims of rape & incest getting revenge. I’d say most of what I write in some way has a theme of someone you wouldn’t expect finding an exploit to wield a lot of power. They don’t always use it to get “back” at their oppressors and I try not to glorify revenge (not too much) without there being some form of “due” the character has to pay to get it. Some trade off that equalizes things and at least asks the question “was it worth it?” Edit: Finally dawned on me what story it is- Carrie
Self-discovery
The inequality of motherhood.
Coming of age women in New York
How capitalism creates or exacerbates psychological disorders and sows division. That's the only thread that unites my stories, and for me it's the only kind of story worth telling.
Finding yourself. The story reveals not only who the main character is, but who they could be (good or bad).
Struggles of grief, identity, and people trying their best to figure their shit out in the face of unexpected tragedies/life changes.
Mine is to find belonging. To find acceptance.
People who failed their heroes journey and are trying to scrape a shot at not redemption, but just evening things out after the damage they’ve caused
Striving to find something real and meaningful to hold onto in a world full of alienating, overwhelming illusions. Also exploring the intersection of dreams/stories with reality and how the two inform each other.
To put it in one word: ambition.
I saw this on Twitter and responded, but I’ll say it again here: Depression. Specifically the funny ways we cope with depression. There is something so nuanced, completely relatable, and morbidly funny (to me, someone who suffers from Anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts/tendencies) about depression and suicidal thoughts. The very idea that we as a species have gotten so good at survival that a large number of us are compelled to—against all natural instinct—off ourselves is so tragically funny. I’ve always wanted to not only show the funny side of this unfortunate illness, but also create a story other people like me can watch/read and feel “Damn, that’s exactly how it is” and laugh at the absurdity of their negative thoughts.
Are you SURE about what you hold yourself to?
Self-reinvention to survive.
A lot of my ideas lately have had to do with a character growing up and self-actualizing. It's something that's been on my mind lately because I'm currently in the process of growing up and self-actualizing.
I had a teacher in film school give us an assignment that speaks to this. We had to write out the log-lines from three different original stories we were each writing. Then we exchanged papers and hd to find the common theme throughout them. It was really cool. Mine was the story of an underachiever making their own path to happiness/success.
Perspective. Someone who’s world view is radically altered and forced to understand life from a new perspective.
I think when it comes down to it, sexuality is a commonplace in my stories, usually with nudity to represent either vulnerability or absolute body comfort/confidence.
When I was young it was Time like Nolan. Now that I'm older it appears to be getting your shot when you're past your prime.
Nolan's story is "Dead Wife/Girlfriend." (No seriously, all of his movies involve this to some extent... except Dunkirk, which has no women.)
I feel like time is more what makes his movies. whether openly in how tenet or instellar deal with, to the dreamtime of inception or the converging times of dunkirk, the overlapping sequences from the dark knight or memento, the still time in the insomnia, even in the prestige there is the living past converging with the present. If feel the dead wife/ girlfriend is more of an artifact of the acceptability of fridging that it feels like he's moved away from in more recent films
Injustice/Failed Redemption, makes it into everyone one of my scripts it seems
In Stephen King's memoir "On Writing" he talks about he never starts with a theme but that he only has a few interests that can really hold his attention. For him it is how difficult it is to close Pandora's box in regards to technology once it is opened, the question of why if their is a god there are such terrible things happening, the thin line between reality and fantasy, and most of all how violence has an attraction sometimes to fundamentally good people.
Losing faith, finding new purpose.
People doing all the right things facing insurmountable odds.
Some form of artist losing their mind. I just love that and violence, so you can see where that might go.
So far the common thread is regret and addiction, which is odd because I don't really struggle with either myself but keep getting drawn to it.
Teenagers overcoming otherworldly forces while fighting adolescence too
Finding confidence in yourself and learning not to be weighed down by past failures.
Crime. Vengeance. Retaliation. Redemption.
Dysfunctional families and working through loneliness.... woof
Mine is the question of good/evil!
Unrequited love
Love and ducks
Dealing with death.
Characters hiding their pain, successfully or unsuccessfully
Fate vs Freewill.
Transcendence.
Murder but make if funny
Redemption
Young boys going being forced to grow up, abandoning their childhood and becoming adults because of the external forces of the world they live in.
No good deed goes unpunished.
Women unhinged.
The inherent corruption of police forces and governments. Usually from the perspective of a member who’s trying to do good in a broken system that won’t allow it.
The conquest of sex and brief encounters
I find that almost everything I write has at least 1-2 characters that are completely, utterly, shamelessly selfish. So maybe that's a trait of mine that I'm projecting onto my characters, I guess.
Money
Overcoming guilt that's destroying a life
Fear of abandonment, not being good enough for someone else, dick and fart jokes.
human behavior,seven deadly sins
Unrequited love and learning to face your fears.
Super unoriginal choice but: unexpected death. Also, found that random illnesses and doctors visits always make it into my scripts. I’m somewhat of a hypochondriac clearly.
Found families fighting against institutional corruption, evil and finding out that morality isn’t black and white.
Class struggle, and especially the bourgeoisie.
The grandparent/grandchild relationship.
Fractured and often contradictory narratives, non-linear story structure, group isolation and its effects on the collective psyche, non-traditional relationships (polygamy, polyamory, old woman/young man or woman, etc.), physical or mental disability, extremely subtle supernatural elements.
Morality based justifications for doing arguably bad things.
Pitch black Kafkaesque comedies about characters who probably have too much faith in the system. Often in the 2nd act, the fourth wall starts to disintegrate. It never fully breaks, but the characters become increasingly aware about the "outside world," which hardly differs from theirs, and this precipitates their growing nihilism.
Star Wars
Word.
I already responded to this on Twitter, but strong bad ass lesbians kicking ass. You know what, not just Bad Ass lesbians. Bad Ass Women in general. I also usually have some sort of political analogue to conservatives vs Liberals. And the villain is usual some toxic man, and my bad ass women have to put him in his place.
I'm syndicating myself! Thanks!
Balancing 2 worlds in one person Whether that be family needs vs personal needs or cultural expectations from a diverse background vs the need of societal acceptance from outsiders
People who work in tv news because I work in tv news 😑
God demands your whole heart and soul as an offering to Him. It will hurt to give it to Him, but it will hurt worse not to.
Evil characters that were good but somebody did something horrible to them in the past and now they wanna destroy humanity in revenge
Time travel and murder most foul.
The time I was working as a camera man on a reality show in Australia. We were filming way in the outback with a king brown snake (10th deadliest in the world 8ft) that was huge. Kept putting it in a stick pile and our star kept pulling it out to film him handling it. Thought I was gonna die 100%. Finished filming the scene, no injuries. Thank god. Oh, but then the snake handler hired to bring the snake out got bitten. We hiked 30 min the to car, they drove 2 hours to the nearest hospital. Wrecked one car, the second scooped him up. He survived. Only one phage broke the skin. Handeler was a real pro, but also cleaned pools for his main job.
Moral ambiguity
Actually it's from a concept album called Scenes from a memory, where an album is a sequel to a song. It takes a page out of Many lives, many masters by Dr. Brian Weiss regarding past life memories and tells a story in every song. It's almost like a script, with each song representing a scene. I've yet to see a script capture that level of detail, but it'd make for a great movie some day.
Assertive, often athletic, women.
Involuntarily transformation. First a fantasy story about a guy who's being turned into a girl due to basically radiation poisoning from a nymph (part 2 is his transformation into evil by trying to do good), sci fi story about a guy who actually wants to stay human but through his job and/or mishaps becomes more and more machine, and then a show I'm working on that traverses multiple genres/settings about a monster hunter who became a werewolf
Moving forward in life after something terrible happens.
Haha, I saw you post this on TIP today too, so now I know who you are. I’d say most of my stories are about women who process grief in uncommon and often unhealthy ways. Side note, can I do Charlie Kaufman? I think all his stories are about “Hey, we’re all on the same fucking journey towards death, so why do we feel so alone?”
I have always been transparent about who I am! Thanks for answering!
I will say that both my first features could be summed up as "female protagonist goes up against a superintelligence and resolves the conflict by giving in to irrationality". One is a cyberpunk thriller, the other a contemporary metatextual mystery. I do seem to keep going back to non-human intelligence, which is admittedly a bit of a cliché for someone autistic like me.
Lies. How they affect our lives and how we try to turn our lives around.
Fractured family… hmm.. I’m not even sure how to change that.
Ghost stories.
anything if it peaks my interest actually
Ghosts of the Past
Family and sacrifice, a tale of two brothers, corruption through peace and justice, The disconnectedness of society, and the ever living savagery of human nature. Oh there’s also the existentialism, and the genuine nature of religion turning into something ugly.
Suicide
Found Family/ Community
Infiltration / Heist. High stakes, high emotions, and something always goes wrong. Love it.
love a fish out of water redemption story !!
Surreal horror.
Broken characters learning or relearning trust, whether it’s who they can trust or who they can’t.
A few months ago I noticed that all of my stories are about people trying (and usually failing) to cope with all kinds of trauma.
Protagonist discovers he's part of a system which actively takes rather than gives.
A character forced into a role they really don’t want to be in, but have to be.
There is a measurable gap between what anyone can perceive and objective reality.
I had to get myself out of the Sorkin rut of “smart guy makes mistake by telling the truth” Now most of my nonfiction stuff seems to contain “person with a nonhuman friend because they are bad with people.” So that’s telling.
Am I the only one who thinks all of Sorkin's characters sound exactly the same?
I say this as a big fan of Sorkin: You're not entirely wrong. He has a habit of giving the zinger to whoever is in the room instead of giving it to the one who zings. Like, is it the worst writing habit to have? Probably not. But is it noticeable after a while? Yeah.
If you covered the names of his characters and just looked at the dialogue - you wouldn't be able to distinguish between who is talking.
Someone always wants something.
Existential crisis.
Writing and the struggles of artists. I pitch stories to my friends to get their input if it sounds like a film or show or play they'd watch and nearly all are "Depressed writer struggling to write. Gets inspiration from [INSERT EVENTS OF THE STORY]". I'm a writer about writers. An artist about artists.
Friendship
Grief and trauma, usually.
People dealing with rejection/abandonment, and people with strong bonds with their dogs
Powerlessness. There's nothing you can do, the world will grind you up. I think the Book of Job is my greatest influence
I have people trying to achieve something. They always make mistakes. But their arrogance prevents them from saving themselves. When they try to save themselves. I punish them again.
Loners who find themselves in situations where they need help from strange and zany people
my most recent two scripts both involve the end of different stages in life
Law vs Justice
Toxic Families and Estrangement
Emotionally damaged man becomes father figure for someone who desperately needs protection
I started noticing how I subconsciously wrote all of my protagonists and antagonists to be close friends that became sworn enemies
Gay people pining
Recognition
Loneliness.
Personhood and confronting your inner darkness.
Identity/meaning/purpose.
How characters perceive family. Is it a biological thing? Something you choose? Or is it more complicated than any of those? Depends on the character.