One Liner

So it’s the first tute of the year and already I have doubts about my ability to produce something AMAZING for our first assignment. Given the them of “Seven Deadly Sins”, we have to come up with a short, 5 minute long script based on one of the scripts.

One of the biggest tips I have received from writers such as Millard Kaufman, Paul Haggis and Walter Murch is to always write about what you know. In terms of the “Seven Deadly Sins”, I have to admit that I have had an affiliation with Lust on more than one occasion which is why I chose it for the basis of my script.

Working that theme into the brief however was a lot harder than I had previously imagined. Here were our limits:

- Must feature 2 characters with a maximum of 3
- Can not be any longer than 5 pages (which equals 5 minutes in film speak)
- Must be on one location
- Can only be filmed across one day
- The film MUST contain some form of conflict

And there lies the rub. No matter how or which way I looked at the bloody project, I could not get my head around this idea of deliberately creating conflict within my script. As a natural peacemaker (unless I’m on some hormonal rampage), I don’t like initiating debate or arguments which is why I think I found it so hard to think up a conflict related to the theme of lust which was believable.

The ideas that flashed across my mind initially were the obvious ones: boy meets girl, boy falls in love, girl has boyfriend; girl meets boy, falls in love, boys cheats on her; boy is gay etc etc.

The biggest thing that I got from the first week’s tutorial however was that the film should be as original as possible. NO CLICHES ALLOWED! I realized early on that this was going to be my biggest challenge.

For my one liner, I have finally found an idea that appeals to me in terms of exploring its boundaries and is something I know about well enough to write about. So here it is:

“Sally is your typically sweet, innocent, naive 18 year old. One of her favourite passtimes involves making pancakes in the morning for Dan. Then Simon. Then Tim. Then Michael…”

Let’s hope it goes well at the tutorial next week.