Screenplay???

Already got some basic ideas spinning in my head, but work has fried my brain, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to explore them more. Still, a few initial thoughts:

* Figuring out what to rip off. Shakespeare's kind of the standard here, though hardly the only option. Anyone got suggestions for some classic we can do that will stand a little "National Lampoon" treatment?

* Somebody's going to have to get a tape or digital recorder, so we can start recording our conversations at group gatherings -- we all know that's where we're gonna generate the best dialogue for the characters.

* Every bawdy story has one thing in common -- at least one sub-human character. By which I mean a non-functional adult who has no inner rational voice to stop him/her from chasing their basesest id-driven desires (see Falstaff, or any character on "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"). Since that type of character can be instrumental in driving plot/action, we ought to start thinking about what that character might be like for this screenplay. Personally, I think we should model it off Brent =) And the fact that he can't decide if he's hurt or proud of that recommendation is my best argument for it!

Well as far as deciding what to rip off, My favorite Shakespeare is A Midsummer Night's Dream, which would allow us the opportunity to incorporate a donkey show and still stay true to the story... just thought I'd throw that in there. I think what will make our story unigue though is the fact that most of the characters will be sub-human...

Okay, here's what I'm thinking:

I want a male protagonist. Modeled off Brent, sure fine, whatever, but this guy needs to be single because we need the lovestory angle. I want the protagonist to be the "normal" one in his group of wacky, id-controled, subhuman, whatever you want to call them, friends. I want him to want a girl who is WAY far out of his league, not necessarily in terms of looks and body, but in terms of life--In other words, she's mature already and he's not (uh, sorry Brent...this whole "model off Brent" idea was not mine..)

I'm rethinking the college-age thing and thinking more along the lines of 40 Days and 40 Nights--just out of college and still young and figuring things out. Right now, a lot of the humor in my life revolves around my kid, so I keep seeing the love interest as a single mom. On the other hand, I'll be the first to tell you that mommyhood is SO unsexy. BUT...I'm thinking something along the lines of a household of guys living in half of a duplex and the other half is occupied with said single mom and maybe a couple of her friends--the hot, punky bitch, and...maybe another. The guys want to continue their college partying ways, which creates a problem fir their career-minded neighbors. Comedy and hijinx ensue.

And we MUST include the following lines of dialogue (Nathan, I believe gets credit for both):

Morning sex is better because the ***** has been marinating for eight hours.

More later...

Nope, that's Martin Lawrence.

Are you telling me that your best material isn't your own? ;-) Okay, I can live without that...

The Animaniacs story...tell me that isn't someone else's???

No that's mine

Good. :-)

Okay...Shakespeare's MSND is the one about the two couples that kind of swap partners, right? (Yeah, only in this group would that be the first idea to come to mind..)

It doesn't even have to be a rewrite of a classic. We can take a classic THEME and work with that--the quest, for example, is popular...Or, if you want to do the MSND thing, the "marrying the wrong girl/guy" is fun to work with.

What do we want our protagonist's (hell, can we name him, please?) 1) goal to be? Then, 2) what's keeping him from that goal? And 3) why does he want it so bad that he's willing to fight 2 to get it? Okay, yeah, big questions, but it's the best place to start (in my experience...).

His name is Brent... oh wait we're fictionalizing... How about Kent? Subtle right? Just playing... He's probably coming to grips with gaining maturity and that would be his goal even if he doesn't necessarily see it. His own misconceptions about the views of his friends and such are what hold him back. He doesn't see that all of his friends are wrestling witht the same conflict and are each held back by the need to be "one of the guys". Obviously he wants it because deep down he really wants to bang (okay, be in a relationship with) the MILF next door.

Yeah I know I brought up the swinging and the beastie times but really, you had to know those things would factor in...

I think you've just done a great job with part of the plot. The whole coming of age thing will definitely be an issue, and I love the idea of the internal conflict of needing to be "one of the guys", but we need an external goal and external conflict, too. I find it works best if there's something that the character is going after and then he also has an internal goal (gain maturity) and a romantic goal (bang MILF ;-) ) that he accomplishes along the way to a) achieving external goal or b)realizing that external goal isn't really what he wants or that he didn't want it for the reasons he thought he wanted it.

For example, in Knocked Up, which is really a coming of age story, his goal in the beginning is to get their Nude Flick website up and running. Really, he wants to be successful in something (and the website just fits his perception of himself) and he realizes that later. I'm a BIG believer in characters needing an actionable goal--something they can consciously take steps toward achieving. Unfortunately, I'm a "pantser" (meaning I don't plan) and I never know diddly about characters until I write my way into them, so without "seeing" this guy, I can't come up with a goal to save my life. (If you'll excuse the cliche..)

I apologize if I'm jumping in and shouldn't be, but I have a small idea to contribute. Mainly because that's probably what I'm going to be best at. Overarching themes I have a harder time coming up with on my own, but smaller details I can do.

Mainly I was thinking about what Leshia mentioned regarding an external goal. Perhaps if the protaganist (I'm calling him Arthur, I don't know why) was chasing after said MILF, and she presents him with the notion that he needs some kind of career goal to make him a suitable mate for her and her child. I know this is fairly well tread territory, but I see some funny moments as the rest of his friends give him job ideas. This would allow you to setup some fun conversations between the friends about career possibilities, along with some visual humor in some of the career paths that could be chosen (Video Game Designer, Strip Club DJ, Beer Brewer to name a few).

Not sure if that's any help but thought I'd throw the ideas out there, if nothing else to add to the brainstorm.

Here . . . I never use these, but maybe it would help get us rolling. And we do all need to be on the same page, so . . . I'll fill in the easy stuff. :-)

CHARACTER NOTES

NAME: Not Brent -- I hate naming characters.

SEX: Male

AGE: 24/25 sound good?

RACE:Caucasian

BUILD (height, weight, etc.): Obviously we're not going to be as specific here as we would in fiction, but is this a big guy, a little guy? An athletic guy? A lazy fool?

PHYSICAL SCARS AND/OR HANDICAPS : obviously only important/or directed in screenplay if it affects the plot

EMOTIONAL SCARS AND/OR HANDICAPS:

KEY DATES IN CHARACTER'S LIFE

BIRTHPLACE:

BIRTHDAY: August -- he should be a Leo

PARENTS: divorced, both remarried

BROTHERS AND SISTERS: please..I love writing family.. :)

MARRIED/SINGLE: single

CHILDREN: none

EARLIEST, MOST IMPORTANT INFLUENCES:

EDUCATION: 4-year degree in . . . ??

FIRST JOB: he's working first "Career" job now . . . or just left it for some reason . . .

OTHERS:

PRESENT JOB:

PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE:

AMBITIONS:

CLOSEST FRIEND(S): ugh. Names again.

ACQUAINTANCES:

ENEMIES:

AFRAID OF: Bears! okay, but seriously . . . I say this guy has a fear of being alone. Otherwise, why the obsession with staying young when he's dying to grow up?

SEES SELF AS:

IS SEEN AS:

BEST CHARACTER TRAITS: loyal, steadfast

WORST CHARACTER TRAITS: he's afraid of change

MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW ABOUT CHARACTER: he's not as tough as he thinks . . . and everyone knows it but him.

DESCRIPTIVE WORD OR PHRASE ON SEEING CHARACTER FOR FIRST TIME:

PROBLEMS AT STORY'S BEGINNING:

PRESENT PROBLEM:

Thanks, Neil! (Um, I think it's Neil...sorry if I have it wrong)

Actually, I like to keep the romantic goal and the external/main story goal separate so the story doesn't fall flat (see Leshia's much rejected first novel as evidence #1). HOWEVER, your thinking is in line with what I've been playing with. I like the idea that he's looking for his "life's passion" type job. That could be fun. Hmm...keep thinking...

You got it right. I am Neil. The big Green Lantern head would be a give-away for most, but since you probably haven't been privvy to my GL obsession, its totally understandable why you wouldn't know.

well for jokes I think his degree should be in Criminology, Sanscrit, or Management Information Systems, or some other mostly worthless degree program... No seriously, it should be MIS, lots of us know about that. Oh and plot-wise have him struggle with the conflict of professional/monetary success versus the feeling of creating something worthwhile or doing something noteworthy with his life. Thus he discovers that he can't be fully realised as an individual until he reconciles both of his needs and puts them into proper priority for himself. MAybe he ends up running/starting a successful or at least promising NPO that uses his education to help people... or he could give it all up to write a screenplay...

Okay, yeah, I thought MIS too, maybe. Although one of my WIPs has a programmer who's trying for a career change... oh well, we can do it twice. No one will care. :-)

I'm fine with the lesbian sister or the gay brother but not both. I mean, come on. It'd be funny if NOT BRENT's love interest gave more time and attention to NOT BRENT's sister than NOT BRENT himself. Hmm...

Where's Chris? Chris? Are you out there? Bart?

What if the love interest was a friend of said gay sister or brother? Might give a reason for how these 2 would meet.

Well we've got them as next door to each other in a duplex... plus that might actually decrease the stress of any jealousy if GAY SIBLING already knows BANGABLE MILF before NOT BRENT. Whereas if NOT BRENT introduces GAY SIBLING to BANGABLE MILF and then those two hang out more than NOT BRENT and BANGABLE MILF you get alot more tension. Just my thoughts... And the duplex gives you "heard it through the walls" potential... nice...

So are you going for an Office Space meets Old School vibe? With the popularity of Office Space and, more recently, the Office it would be hard to do a story about a young professional in the IT industry without working in some of that type of humor. If anyone gets the chance, check out the restricted content trailer for Role Models. That seems to be the kind of humor our group gravitates to.

As far as NOT BRENT goes, you want a sub-human and that's cool. Just be careful thought. You're going to realize that your big bad sub-human is actually a teddy bear. Awww, look at the cute teddy bear. Cuddle him, feel how soft he is? But then some asshole is going to try and test him and is going to find out that the teddy bear has a fuckin chainsaw for an arm! Wrooowrrrrrrrrr! How you like that shit huh?! How you like THAT!

If there is one immutable law of nature, it's that you don't mess with anything that has a chainsaw arm. It's in the bible. Look it up.