FRIDAY'S SCRIPT TIP:

PERIOD PIECES


Though movies like GLADIATOR have opened the doors to period films like LAST SAMURAI and TROY and ALEXANDER, anything that doesn't take place present day is still a tough sell. Why is that? Don't I always run tips saying we should transport the audience into another world in our scripts? Isn't the past the best other world, because we know it really existed? And what of those amazing true stories from history? Hannibal (not the serial killer) and his elephants - that's a story that can fill the screen! So why doesn't anyone want to read a big epic historical drama?

Three main reasons:

1) Audiences LIVE in present day - they understand it, they identify with people who live in 2020. If your story takes place in 1620, the audience has to use *their* imagination to see themselves in the protagonist's sandals... and many folks in the audience don't have much imagination. So they find it hard to get into the movie. Even doing a film that takes place in 1969 is tough - that's a different world! Viet Nam War, civil rights, sexual revolution, ecology movement, women's movement... people then had different priorities than people do now. I was a kid in the 60s, and one of my friend's mom became a peace protester, throwing rocks at the police and getting arrested a dozen times. Can today's 35 year old suburban mom imagine herself doing that? Would today's 35 year old suburban mom consider that "normal behavior"? It was back then. It's hard for the audience to imagine themselves being those people. That makes a period film a tough sell to an audience - a great film like AVALON flops at the box office because it's about people who aren't like us. They don't go to the mall, they don't play GameBoys, they don't have computers, they don't check their smart phones for Facebook updates. So a period film less likely to attract an audience than a non-period film.

2) The core audience for a movie is 15-25 years old: dating age. This is not the time in your life when you start thinking about the past, it's the time when you think about the present and the future. Though some people in this age group may be history buffs, most people interested in history have a bit of history themselves. So it's not only tough for the core audience to identify with the lifestyle and characters in period pieces, they may not be interested in the subject matter in the first place. Who cares what people did in 1969? Again, a period film is more likely to flop than a contemporary film.

3) Cost. A story that takes place in 2020 is easy to shoot - you just rope off a street and start filming. But a story that takes place in 1620? You have to build EVERYTHING. You have to build a city and create costumes and props. Even a film that takes place in the 50s is tough because the world doesn't look the same as it did in the 50s - cities look different, and cars & clothes & props all have to be found or created. That stuff makes a period film very expensive to make. Sure, some of that stuff can be done through the miracle of CGI today, but the rest has to be created especially for the film. If you have a couple of hundred Viet Nam War protesters at a peace rally in 1969, you're going to need a lot of tie-dyed costumes! A lot of cars from the 50s and 60s in good condition. Plus you need to find basic locations that look the same, then CGI out the new buildings and CGI in things like telephone poles. Even a story that takes place in the recent past will cost a lot more money than a film that takes place today.

Okay - now add Expensive To Make and More Likely To Flop and what do you get?

A tough sell.

And in post-ALEXANDER, post-KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, post-ROBIN HOOD, and post-WINTERS TALE Hollywood a period script may be even more difficult to sell than ever before. Though TROY did "okay business" and LAST SAMURAI eventually made enough overseas to cover the cost, ALEXANDER was an outright flop as was KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. Now, the film may be bad, but Hollywood thinks they did it right: Big name director, Oliver Stone. Big names in the cast. Lots of big battle scenes (eye candy). An exciting subject with youth appeal (the dude conquered the know world before he hit 30). So, if all of the elements are "right" how come the film still flopped? Hmm, must be the audience doesn't like period films.

And before you say "But the film stunk!", maybe Hollywood has a point. TROY wasn't the greatest movie ever made, either. They sold TROY on Brad Pitt's nekkid butt... and it still wasn't a *massive* hit. And even though ALEXANDER had Rosario Dawson nekkid (and maybe I'm the only one who cared about that), they couldn't get a big enough audience into the cinema on the opening weeked to get any box office momentum going. ROBIN HOOD had Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott from GLADIATOR... and still flopped!

Audiences decide whether a film is a hit or a flop based on word of mouth (friends telling friends they have to see this movie) but a bad film may still have an okay opening weekend if the story *idea* is appealing to the audience. They like what the film is *about* enough to fork over $12 for a ticket, then when they see how bad it is they tell their friends and kill the film's second weekend. In the case of ALEXANDER, even if the film had been the best movie ever made, there weren't enough people on opening weekend for good word of mouth to matter. The audience just didn't want to see the movie.

Now part of that may have been that people who thought Brad Pitt looked nothing like that cowboy guy on THE APPRENTICE, thought Collin Farrell looks even less like that guy from SEINFELD.. so they skipped it. But I'll bet most people thought the story was about people and events they couldn't relate to. People who wore funny clothes and talked weird and didn't own a GameBoy. They rejected he film because it was a period piece.

ALEXANDER and KINGDOM and ROBIN HOOD closed whatever door GLADIATOR opened, and until a *hit* period piece comes along, that door will probaly remain closed. Tougher sell than before.

And even an all star film like MONUMENTS MEN "underperformed"... do we really want to see a WW2 film about art conservation? It's been out for more than 2 weeks and has yet to make $50 million, on a $70 million budget. I'll be they spent about $50 million promoting the film! WINTERS TALE hasn't even made $10 million!

Okay, AMERICAN HUSTLE, period piece, has done well. $142 million since it opened in December... but compare that to the LEGO MOVIE which has made $150 million in 2 weeks.

Another problem you may run into - no copyright on the past. Let me tell you from experience, there's nothing worse than finding a great untold story in history... only to discover that someone else has a script on the same event. The greatest events from the past are free for anyone to write about, so there are probably dozens of scripts out there with the exact same story, same characters, same exact events as your period script. Heck, they probably even used the same research materials that you did! And if you write a fictional period script, producers will wonder why you didn't use a true story from the same time period. Hey, if they're going to spend all of that money recreating a time period, why not do an "important true story" instead of something you made up?

You're damned if you're fact and damned if you're fiction!

But here's the thing: a hard sell doesn't mean it's an impossible sell... and 98 percent of sreenplays are really just job applications for assignments. So you may not even care if it's a hard sell! You were never gonna sell it in the first place. But I also worry that a great period script might only leads to whatever period assignments are out there... and since Hollywood makes very few period films in the first place, that could lead to that treadmill of scripts that never get made. A freind of mine was a great writer in a dead genre and managed to get all kinds of assignments that never were made... and then they just stopped developing projects in that dead genre and he was out of work. I never want to tell people what they can and can't write, just inform you that it may not be the easiest path so that you don't become disappointed.

If you *must* write a period script, you *must* write it. I wrote mine. If it's a passion project, you have to do it, right?

WRITING PERIODS

If you *do* decide to write a period film, you run into a strange catch 22 - how much detail do you need to paint a picture of the time period without boring the reader to tears? Remember that you aren't the costumer designer or the set decorator - so describing that stuff isn't actually your job... but you have to paint a picture of the times for the reader. That reader is most likely in their 20s and has no memory of the 1970s or 1620, so you need to find the way to show them that world without boring them to tears. Your screenplay is not a history lesson, it's *dramatic*. I think the key to this is *hiding* this information in *actions*. Anything that directly relates to the story IS your job - so if Joe's bell-bottoms are so wide that they get caught in a closing elevator door - that's part of the story. Part of Joe's character into might even be - "wears impossibly wide bell-bottoms" because that article of clothing is critical to the events that follow. They will hire experts to make sure the furniture and clothes are authentic, so you don't need to go into massive detail... just enough to give the reader a feel for the location and times. Remember: there is no "description" in a screenplay... there is ACTION (that's what that element is called). So always try to sneak in any period details in action sentences. That way the "history lesson" will be exciting and fascinating to read.

Also: too many novice writers feel compelled to show every bit of research they did on the time period, and their scripts read like textbooks. So the fourth reason why period scripts are a tough sell - they're often boring to read! Instead of an adventure, they're a history lesson.

So that's why period scripts are a tough sell. They cost a lot to make, they frequently flop, and sometimes they're difficult to read. If you have to write one, you have to write one... just don't expect it to sell. You may end up getting meetings and assignments from it, but even that may be a tough road.

We have a couple of big action films in historical settings on the horizon, and maybe those films will open the doors for *your* big action script in a historical setting.



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E BOOKS: BLUE BOOKS & NOVELLETES

ONLINE CLASSES
Furious Action Class
MY OTHER SITES

B MOVIE WORLD
Cult Films, Exploitation, Bikers & Women In Prison, Monster Movies.

FIRST STRIKE PRODUCTIONS
Producing my own scripts, investment possibilities, pipe dreams.

NAKED SCREENWRITING MP3s

Naked Class The NAKED SCREENWRITING CLASS ON MP3! The 2001 London Class on 8 MP3s! Recorded *live* the morning after the Raindance Film Festival wrapped. The two day class on 8MP3s, plus a workbook, plus a bonus MP3 with PDFs.
The 2 Day Class on MP3!

BOOKSTORE

Every screenwriting book in the world!
SCREENWRITER'S BOOKSTORE
In Association With Amazon.com
From the latest screenwriting book to guides for finding agents and producers... all with at the Amazon.com discount!

BOOKLETS & PRODUCTS

bluebook FIRST STRIKE BLUE BOOKS
Each Blue Book is 48 pages and focuses on a different aspect of screenwriting. Dialogue. Visual Storytelling. Your First Ten Pages. Act 2 Booster. Protagonists. Great Endings.
Seventeen Blue Books now available!

THE SECRETS OF ACTION SCREENWRITING The Best Nuts & Bolts Screenwriting Book On The Market!

BILL'S CORNER

My nineteen produced films, interviews with me in magazines, several sample scripts, my available scripts list... And MORE!
...............................BILL'S CORNER


Available Scripts

CLASSES ON MP3

Class MP3s CLASSES ON MP3! Take a class on MP3! GUERRILLA MARKETING - NO AGENT? NO PROBLEM! and WRITING THRILLERS (2 Full length classes on MP3). Now Available: IDEAS & CREATIVITY, WRITING HORROR, WRITING INDIE FILMS, more!
Take classes on MP3!