Friday, June 6, 2008

MY CURRENT SCREENPLAY


The title: Club Love

Logline: A young, broken hearted nerd takes a job at a nightclub in hopes of finding true love.

Tagline: The wrong place, to the find the right one.

Treatment and synopsis have been registered with the WGA and as soon as I am complete with this one, it will be registered with the copyright office!

The idea for CL came to me about 12 years ago when I was heavily involved in the club scene here in Hollywood. At first, it was coming to me in flashes of scenes from the crazy shit that I have experienced. Then I started to think about the romantic part of what I was experiencing and I knew that I had to combine these two ideas.

Now, my view of things that happen out at the clubs in a bit skewed because I'm not your average club-goer. I'm a nerd. I'm not the "ladies-man". I'm more behind the scenes than actually creating the scenes. I'm a DJ myself, so I like to look at the workings within the machine. And being in this position allows me to see, from a third-party perspective, just how crazy things can get.

Now, my style is to make fun of as much shit as possible. So you know in this movie there is going to be a lot of exploitation on the stereotypes; the drunken club girls, the 'dick' doormen, the popular male promoter that nobody realizes is gay (not even himself), and of course, the DJs (both good and bad)! This is just to name a few of the "regulars" that you will encounter out there in the crazy nightlife world.

So, I had the idea sitting in my head, NOT ON THE PAPER WHERE IT BELONGS! It had gone through many iterations before I actually got more focused this year. The biggest problem was because I knew what I wanted to say, as far as the message of the film, but I didn't have my story. And I didn't have the theme exactly nailed either.

This year, after signing up on Triggerstreet.com, I started to really talk more about the screenplay, the idea, and the story with more and more people.

I have read many books on screenwriting. I've even taking college courses on the topic. But it wasn't until I purchased and read "Save The Cat", that everything changed for me. Not to say that I strictly go by what STC says - in fact, I actually combine a lot of the ideas from the many books that I have read - but STC helped to lighten things up and put things into a new perspective for me. It's toted as "The last book on screenwriting you'll ever need" and I have to say, this could be true! Another great book is the "The Screenwrter's Bible", so STC wasn't the last book I got or needed. Sorry Blake Snyder.

Save The Cat helped me get the logline right! And that in turn helped the theme. And actually, now that I think about it, talking to my wife REALLY helped me get the theme down. And talking to my daughter actually helped me get one of the major plot points figured out!

That's the point! Once you start talking about it, with as many people as possible, you will start to put it into existence!!!

So STC helped with the logline and the BS2 (you'll have to read the book to really understand) got me to "beat out" my story and figure out what the hell my main character is supposed to do! What obstacles must he face? What does he have to go through to reach his goal?

A lot of the events in CL are based on true occurrences, but of course, it's a movie, so there is some fictional things as well.

When it comes to the genre of this film, I always tell people that it's a Romantic Comedy (Rom-Com). But the more I think about it, it's a Coming of Age or Rite of Passage movie since it's really geared towards the goal of my main character. Which is more than just finding true love. It's about finding himself and facing one of his biggest oppositions (club life) in the process.

ANYWAYS... I have finally started to write Club Love. I am currently on page 29 and I am sure that I will be finishing the first draft very soon. I'm writing from the heart and then I will re-write from the head.

There are plenty of laughs and tears to be had at Club Love, so I hope that when this film gets sold and produced, you will go and see it!

More to come as I continue to write this puppy!

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