We have the big idea, but how dow we squeeze it all into a ten minute film? In my experience I default to the Syd Field three act story structure. Within this format there are well established rules long adopted to be the standard on which any screenplay worth its salt is judged. Are all the main characters introduced by page ten? Does the audience understand the theme? Who is the bad guy? Does the first and last page have the same imagery?
Working inside this box is a professional approach and skillset that has opened many doors for me. I had the privilege of working on many short films with highly professional people and the short story scripts we worked with were often illusive. Some were two pages long. Some had monologues that went on for pages. It became very apparent that the pages mattered less in contrast to the production value added by the equipment and those operating it, and the producers and directors riding the wave trying to keep the train on its rails.
Filmmaking is a singular type of romance in my life. One objective of The Super Fantastic Mad Lib Club is to bring all the chaos, frustration and pride of pulling off a film production to anyone who wants to participate. With this brings us back to the story and our submitted elements.
We are making a puppet crime drama. The story has to be solid. I want to be in the position to excite. Not just in the final product, but with the process of taking a few silly ideas and spinning into a production with dozens of people all working in the same direction to tell a story we can be proud of. The strongest tool of reference through our journey is going to be the script.
The short version is The Super Fantastic Mad Lib Film Club is a collaborative venture. The script is open to interpretation and modification until production. Then we are locked in and the collaboration shifts to production. This transition will be much easier if I can work out this big problem: How do I write a solid short story script that is as impenetrable a feature length script? How do I write ten pages that inspires people to be involved?
I took a pass early into the process and wrote a first draft. I got about five pages in and added a murdered wife, long dialogue and back story between Gun and The Captain and still didn’t have our main character in the room with the other puppets. I loved where it was going, but it became very clear that I would need to find a new structure to wrangle in these ideas and give the story a through line that carries us forward until the end. A quick youtube search on “Short Film Story Format” bared fruit: The Dan Harmon Story Circle.
Thanks to the brilliant Dan Harmon.
Turns out the man behind Community and Rick & Morty knows a thing or two about telling great, genre playful stories in a short format. I turned to his story circle formula to tame the lore of Broken Tommy.
A few pieces of the pie had to be forced in.
Does our main character get what he wanted? What does he want to begin with? This was the gift of the story circle. I had to think about it and find something to write down.
Beat it out.
My favorite part of crafting a story. Knowing that it flows. This happens, causing this, which causes this, action/ reaction. The flow chart here is the heart of the film. Why does each scene move the story forward? Because of these bullet points.
I repeat this process before production to remind me of which moments must get captured.
Free writing.
I know the story flows. I believe it has heart, conflict and stays within its limits. Next I write the story without worrying about syntax or formatting. The pen gets put down and I see if I can write the story without stopping or getting hung up on a question. This is all feel.
How to prevent writers block.
Anyone who has sat down at a laptop has stared at a blank, ominous cursor. Blinking in an out of existence. Promising of the words to come and vanishing, leaving nothing but a heavy and blank page. Fortunately I have these hand written pages to guide me.
In the next post I share the script, in screenplay format.
Click the link below to read it!
Read our screenplay here:
We have our elements, time to beat it out.
Matt I have made many short films together over the years going back to high school, so he is by far my choice to go down the rabbit hole of what a story can be. The outline of this project began bearing fruit immediately give we already had solid jumping off points. Usually our dialogue in pre pre production goes like this:
Taylem : Hey Matt! I have an idea for short!
Matt: Let me guess, I am a zombie.
Taylem: Yeah! But this time even better than last time. I learned a new way to do your make up that will add another hour before we can shoot and involves gluing paper towels to your face.
Matt: Do I have to carry a heavy chain around this time?
With the elements provided by the contributors of the first Super Fantastic Mad Lib Film Club, we knew we’d be working with zombie puppets this time. Criminal and dramatic zombie puppets… yes. I like where this is going!
Matt the muse kept us on task and away from my comfort zone of the undead by planting the seed that would grow into a epic short film idea:
“What if one of the puppets smoked a cigarette and when he exhaled it came out of the puppets mouth?”
Genius!
So now we know there has to be an interrogation scene where this gag is played out. What gets us in the room? How can we add to the reveal? Maybe our main character is trying to solve a murder and when the smoke comes out of the puppeteer’s mouth he knows black magic is at play. Maybe he knows this because he has practiced this dark art too, but gave it up after it backfired.
Excellent.
We have the frame work and we have conflict.
Now we also have to get this across in a short film. Preferably under ten minutes. Keeping out project around ten minutes should arguably keep us from going to far off the rails with a big idea… but here we are, trying to create a world where puppets and puppeteers fuse their souls to accomplish true ventriloquism… and a also a murder.
I love it.
Matt and I laughed, cracked open another beer and then sat in silence. I was letting the magnitude of excitement for this problem to sink in. Could we do it? absolutely. How? No idea. And I was on the edge of my seat spinning my wheels.
Matt used this time to try to beat another level on block breaker.
During the lull and refraction period of a lighting strike I googled ‘ready made puppets’ and smiled. There as the top hit was a very affordable and well built puppet. In bold letters read “Tommy.” I hear you universe, you mysterious minx. If I did not hear you right, I also appreciated the slap to the face that comes next.
“I googled ready made puppets and we knew we were on the right path… The top hit is named Tommy.”
At this point we know our main character, a detective, has practiced black magic to fuse with his puppet, surrounding a part of his soul for the glory of being a police puppeteer, with all the fame and glory that goes with it. This must go terribly of course, leaving our hero in a pit of despair. Then his call to action: A phone rings and he gets put on a case of an attempted murder of the one who took up his mantle. Somewhere in the interrogation room we get the gag that sets the final act in motion… but how does it end?
And holy shit! What about our elements? Peter Wiener, easy. Name a character. Line of dialogue, “Really? Really that’s all you’ve got?” is easy enough. Enter the captain unhappy with the main characters progress. What about our prop, the left shoe?
Matt and I recall My Left Foot which as film buffs have never seen, and The Usual Suspects that features a tilt shot in its climax of the antagonist reveal of Verbal Kent being Keiser Soze all along.
How great would it be if we could pull that off with a puppet getting disconnected from his soul bond?
The imagery that gets called to mind of a marionette-like dance of a puppet playing out against a sunset was too silly to pass up.
So we have our beats! We know where our main character starts. We know the conflict that forces him to change, and we know how it ends. Time to write it all down and put some pen on paper.
We finished our evening now buzzed and high on a great idea with watching some puppet films for inspiration. The universe shouts this time: KEVIN SPACEY STARRED IN A SHORT FILM ABOUT A VENTRILIQUIST!
In the next post I will share how I took this far out idea with a huge world to build and began to shape it into something that can be put into script format. In the mean time enjoy Kaiser Soze himself act his ass off in The Ventriliquist:
And afterwards, I posted the pages I wrote after Matt went to bed outlining our beat it out brain storm session. Please read and enjoy.
-Taylem
The Beat Sheets:
Continue our story here:
We gathered up all the sheets, did the god awful thing and dumped them in a hat, then drew the elements for our first production.
I’d like to add, hot damn am I glad a some of these did not get picked. Perhaps I did a poor job of explaining that this is a project that is going to be produced. ON A LOW TO NO BUDGET. How was I going to make a grounded barge? An optimistic Apocalypse Mystery… Really?
Oh well, I am sure we would have figured it out. The rules are loose on purpose. The idea for the Super Fantastic Mad Lib Film Club is to test our creativity and stretch our story telling muscles after all.
Here is what did not get picked:
Genre :
Christian Psychological Thriller / Bollywood / German Soap Opera / Sci Fi Psycological Thriller / Comedy / Nordic Noir / Optimistic Apocalypse Mystery / Screwball Comedy
Title:
The Call of a Rail Bird / SuperThick! / Hello, Butt Stuff! / Das Gupta / Does Paper Really Beat Rock? / Darkness Doesn’t Ask questions / Bowlers Roll Harder / Toten Welt / The Pyramid Is On Fire / One Last Hamburger
Prop:
A moldy peach / A grounded barge with unknown contents / Stubbing your toe on a sock found on the floor of a 14 year old’s bedroom / Hot dog / Bar stool / Cricket bat / A single lightbulb / Assorted beard hair / Coffee Cup / Rubber chicken
Line of dialogue:
“something german” / “Who killed the bus boy?” / “Ain’t no thing but a chicken wing!!” / “This isn't a pancake!?” / “Creating topics for a mad lib” / “If that was mine, i’d throw it in the trash” / “How many soldiers” / “I want to travel and fuck you in every city we go to.” / “Naw!”
Character Name:
Jo’momma / Egill Thorsson / Chumpy Hobo Nugget / Kahlil Ichiro Solis Seymour / Hamster / Munch Man / Ravi Srivanasan Gupta / Logan Dixon / Ethan Ethan
Honorable Mentions:
Genre:
Christian Psychological Thriller & Optimistic Apocalypse Mystery
Title:
Hello, Butt Stuff! & Darkness Doesn't Ask Questions
Prop:
A moldy peach & Assorted Beard Hair
Line of Dialogue:
“This isn’t a pancake!?”
Character Name:
Chumpy Hobo Nugget & Hamster
WHAT DID GET CHOSEN?
Time to take this project to the next stage of production: the brainstorm! So we have to make a short “Puppet Crime Drama” called “Broken Tommy” featuring “Peter Wiener” saying “Really? Really that’s all you've got?” using “a left shoe…” Maybe I bit off more than I can chew with this project. Read all about what we threw against a wall, what stuck and what did not here.
Thank you all for your participation in this gift of adventure.
-Taylem
Follow our next steps here: