A Fun Way To Break Into Screenwriting

Out in the middle of South Carolina, knee deep in marsh grass and mosquitoes, filmmaker Dayton Colie is making a movie. He's using friends and inexperienced actors for a cast, borrowing props and working with a glorified camcorder (he's shooting on miniDV). Yet he's being feted as an important writer/director and people are bending over backwards to help him make him first feature. Partly it's because his job sounds glamorous, no matter how big or small his budgets are. Partly it's because of the free booze supplied by Palmetto Beer as product placement. And partly it's because he's getting on with the production, not just sitting around and talking about it. But above all, Dayton gets his way because of his scripts. Some viewers bemoan the frat boy humor in his screenplays, but most audience members ignore the low budgets, poor sound quality and amateur acting because the films are funny. He's been particularly successful at film festivals, where gloomy, worthy tales abound. "When you go to a festival," Colie says, "it's usually pretty dark. Nobody makes short comedies." His funny stuff tends to stand out, and he's currently a forerunner in the Rhode Island Film Festival for a short called Catnap, beating some 2000 fellow entrants. Even if comedy's not your bag, it's important to include an element of fun in your formula. Love 'em or hate 'em, this summer's leanest, meanest box office winners are daft comedies, a fact not lost on script buyers. One of the most-bought on spec genres is the romantic comedy, because execs know there's a built in audience for such films; female moviegoers will drag their partners along, just as the fellas will take their dates to see an action flick. (So the pigeonhole-heavy movie studio mantra goes). Look for ways to observe and reflect on life in a light-hearted way. Enjoy the way your favorite comedians or sit com stars take a fact of life and poke gentle fun at it. Think in terms of visual gags - say you're strolling down the high street - what could happen there that would make you laugh? Many comedies grow from the things that the writer find funny, and not from an attempt to pander to the audience. (Mike Myers admits that his Austin Powers blockbusters were little more than a private joke, and he wasn't sure whether anyone would 'get' them.) Colie's movie, The New Thing, will be screened in New York and LA, and in sizeable theatres at major theatres. And because of the time and attention he paid to writing, storyboarding and developing his comedic characters, audiences will be too busy laughing to complain about technical trifles. If screenwriting is a large-scale, friendly form of storytelling, then what are the stories you recall hearing from your friends? I'll bet a few of them will be funny ones.