wilderworks

When you're writing a story, it's important to fulfill the promise of your premise. You need to fully explore your concept, you need to make every event spring from that central idea and enhance that concept. You can't get distracted or side-tracked. To maintain unity, you should always stick to your premise. Except of course when you shouldn't. The Ultralight Some of the best comedies succeed by using a very light-weight, very natural premise. With very little plot to follow, it makes comic digressions and set-pieces easy to integrate. Nothing feels like a side-track if there's no main path. This freedom lets the characters lead the way, lets the comedy spring from common human thoughts and experiences. A simple premise keeps the comedy grounded. Christmas Vacation Some successful examples might include The Hangover , Grown Ups ,  or Christmas Vacation . There's also  When Harry Met Sally .  It has almost no plot whatsoever, but rather, a qu...

Character Misleads. I want more. I heard a great story on This American Life . A small-time Lawyer is trying to free an Innocent Man from prison. The Lawyer invites a paroled, convicted Murderer into his office (actually, his meager apartment home), so he can interview the Murderer and maybe learn something that might help exonerate the Innocent Man. You see, the Innocent Man is in prison for the same killing that the Murderer committed. When the Murderer arrives, he's dressed like a hip-hop star or perhaps a successful drug dealer, wearing in an extravagant suit, hair perfect, fingering a firearm, driving a Mercedes. He comes shouting up the stairs an hour early, "Yo! Where's the lawyer!" When interviewed, he boldly tells his tale, acting-out how he shot the man in the back of the head, using his pointer-finger on the back of the Lawyer's neck to demonstrate the way it was done. But then -- when the Lawyer asks the Murderer why he let the Innocent Man do time ...

Act One (Phil is an Ass Hat) 00 min - Phil gives report 01 min - We meet Rita and Larry 02 min - Opening credits 05 min - Phil is a dick, Rita cheerful (Rita-Phil interaction) 08 min - First time: Groundhog Day 13 min - With the groundhog (Phil's report) 16 min - Trapped by blizzard (officer turns them back)   This is Act One. It appears in two 10-minute chunks. In the first 10-minute chunk, they establish who the characters are, why they're going to Puxatony, and what they think about the fact that they're going to Puxatony. This actually takes less time than implied: there are credits in there, and it's actually over by the 8-minute mark. Efficiency. In the second 10-minute chunk, they take us through the first Day. Several side-characters are introduced and geography is established. We see Phil's report at Gobbler's Nob. And finally, they are turned around, trapped in Puxatony by a blizzard. Notice, the scenes are averaging two or three minutes, to...

00 minutes - Phil gives report 01 minutes - We meet Rita and Larry 02 minutes - Opening credits 05 minutes - Phil is a dick, Rita cheerful (Rita-Phil interaction) 08 minutes - First time: Groundhog Day 13 minutes - With the groundhog (Phil's report) 16 minutes - Trapped by blizzard (officer turns them back) 19 minutes - Second time: Groundhog Day (first repeat) 26 minutes - Third time: Groundhog Day (broken pencil confirms) 28 minutes - Phil sees doctors (is it in Phil's head?) 30 minutes - New locations (bowling alley), admitting it's real 32 minutes - Getting reckless / crime 35 minutes - 4th time through, happy, no consequences 39 minutes - 5th time through, taking advantage, making plans (other women) 41 minutes - Finally: skipping ahead indeterminate amount of time (robbery) 42 minutes - Another skip - gags now - movie night 43 minutes - Getting to know Rita (Rita-Phil interaction) 46 minutes - Fast repeats to woo Rita begin 50 minu...

Someone posted on Facebook: "Does anyone know if you can get acupuncture if you're allergic to nickel?" I was tempted to respond, "Don't risk it unless a medical professional is present - and an acupuncturist doesn't count." The placebo effect is a big part of healing. Finding ways to trigger it is not a bad thing. But taking risks with allergies, and infections, and paying someone handsomely in the process -- that shouldn't be acceptable behavior for a thinking person. As a result of this posting, I've been reflecting on the sham triumvirate: homeopathy, chiropractic, and acupuncture. I've been searching double-blind placebo-controlled studies on all three, trying to determine how confident I should be in my disdain. So far, it looks like I should be pretty confident. Now, I'm doing a movie with a flu-stricken character who believes in alternative remedies. Should I say something about these practices? Mock them...