Tag: screenwriting

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I am now finished with one step of working towards writing a screenplay. I’ve finished a roughly fleshed out treatment. Now, at least for me, is the process of writing scene summaries. That is, writing a summary of each of the 40 to 60 scenes that will ultimately make up the screenplay. I have given myself an informal deadline of later this week. If I have finished the scene summary, I will buy Final Draft and start to actually write the screenplay. At least, that’s general goal. We’ll see what ultimately happens.

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

As I keep saying, it’s tough to write about Donald Trump in fiction because he’s such a well-defined character — and so innately surreal — that it’s difficult to to represent him, at least for me. I see this screenplay as a stepping off point. I hope to finish something, anything, just to say I’ve done it, then use what I do finish as something I can use to maybe get help on.

I’m a concept guy, not a plot guy but because I have no money, no one will listen to me unless I have something complete that I can show them. So, I have to put in the work. I have to actually do something that people can read and put their hands on instead of daydreaming. That’s tough for me. I have a tendency to bounce around a lot creatively, but I do have the bucketlist objective of having written a screenplay, so I’m trying to do something different for once.

But, anyway, the point is, it’s nearly impossible to write about Trump for me. I can write about the era that he’s created, but not he, specifically, himself. Maybe someone else can help me and do that at some point down the road, but I see my goal with this screenplay just to get something, anything done and then run with it.

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

The issue is, if you want to get anything done creatively, you have to put in the work yourself. I got really spoiled living in Seoul and so it has taken me nearly a decade to come to grips with the cold hard fact that no one gives a shit and I have to prove myself. This, despite being middle aged and it nearly impossible to do what I want to do.

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I continue to make my way through the darkness to figure out the specifics of a movie concept that I think is pretty strong, pretty powerful. It’s about humanity — and the United States specifically — being given the greatest opportunity in human history and because of how screwed up everything is, we’re not able to take advantage of it until things get so desperate that we feel we have no choice.

That, at least, is the general concept. If I were doing a “high concept” elevator pitch, I would say something like it’s “Close Encounters of The Third Kind meets Network meets Burn After Reading set in the Trump Era.” Now, I’m not suggesting I’m a good enough writer to pull this off by myself. My goal is to simply produce something, anything in screenplay form and use that as a the basis of a something I could get someone else to help me with. I need a collaborator who knows plot. I know how to think up a concept, but plot is difficult for me. But, thankfully, the plot of this one is, so far, flowing quite well.

I am enjoying fleshing out the story a great deal. It’s a lot of fun thinking all the different ways things could go wrong given the construct of the scenario in question. And as I conceive of it, there would be enough whiz-bang action and adventure in the movie for it to be a legitimate summer scifi blockbuster. I like how this concept would both be deep and entertaining in a way that the masses would enjoy it. Some people, obviously, would be turned off by the politics of it all, but fuck them. 🙂

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

As I sketch out this concept for a screenplay, I find it’s definitely strong enough to pursue. But it’s going to take time. Maybe a long time. A few months at least. But it’s fun to dwell on this particular scenario and run with it. Anyway, the below video goes on at length about this situation.

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

The more I think about it, the more I realize the screenplay concept I’m sketching out could be seen as something of a metaphor for the Trump Era. Kinda. Sorta. There definitely would be elements of a metaphor in it. There would be a huge amount of subtext about how screwed up the Trump Era is in it.

There really hasn’t been a major movie that talks about the Trump Era in a big way yet and maybe a lot of them are in the pipeline. I don’t know. But it’s fun to sketch out a story that talks about a lot of the issues that we’re all dwelling on these days.

Anyway, watch the below video. It’s interesting.