Screenwriting : Corona movies. by Stevan Šerban

Perhaps comedy is the best genre because it is easily accepted by viewers, and through a comic story the writer can point to serious social problems. That's why I love comedy!

Personally, I wouldn't. One golden piece of writing advice I've been given. Don't follow the trends, create them.

If you don't already have a completed script in the pipeline, you're already behind the curve. By the time you finish a screenplay, get it submitted to someone with approval power, it goes into production and the film is completed, a couple of years will have already gone by.

All movies are based on trends and that's the only way major studios are making money. People are not looking for creativity now.

Habou - I have to disagree. All trends are started by an "original". Someone creates an original film that becomes successful, then others jump on the bandwagon and ride their coat tails. In the years following "The Matrix" (1999) every film, tv show, and commercial had elements from the movie in it. Whether it was mind games, "Inception" (2010) or using the "bullet-time" special effect.

People are stuck at home and starving for something new. Any studio that opens itself to new ideas is going to suck up viewer dollars like a vacuum. "Trolls: World Tour" by-passed theaters and did a straight to digital release. It broke records by earning $100M in one week. So which people are not looking for creativity???

Anthony,

What is older, chicken or egg?

Anthony,

If you look at things that way, then you are definitely a cliché opponent. The cliche is only a recognizable construction. A skilled and imaginative writer will use the cliché to tell the story in a different way, right?

Revenge also existed in the Stone Age, but even today in the twenty-first century. However, what does the story of the Stone Age look like today? Certainly not the same, but in essence the problem looks the same!

This is the same with this situation today. This is not the first virus that has happened to us. There was also a pig virus, a bird virus, a crocodile virus ...

After all, I don't remember anymore what was first, the virus movies or the viruses? However, I think this is an opportunity to use a "cliche" or "trend" to write a story about what all the problems this situation has indicated! I think it has pointed to big and serious problems, for which our society was not ready !!!!!

That is the essence of my question, not the trends!

Ava DuVernay and her peers of 75+ filmmakers from all over the world took over Twitter yesterday and they answered questions, gave career advice.

I don't remember anyone saying they're doing a pandemic/virus movie. The one constant advice was being original, do movies you want to do, have a voice & meaning because this occupation is really hard and making movies, good or bad, is a miracle to even finish.

Anthony,

What happened during this pandemic?

Millions of people lost their jobs!

The doctors had to decide who to help, a man of seventy, or one of forty!

People were buried in mass graves, as in concentration camps during World War II!

Who will be admitted to the hospital, those with health insurance or those without health insurance?

People will need to have virus tests to travel!

Is it just a matter of trends, or has this pandemic pointed to the much more serious problems that today's society has in the twenty-first century?

Maybe I'm wrong, and you're right!

Dear Dan,

Should we then destroy or ignore all the Vietnam War movies, all the Cold War movies, all the Flight to the Moon movies, all the JFK assassination movies, all the Italian Mafia movies ... ???

Dear Dan,

All the stories were told three thousand years ago!

For today's reader or viewer, they are being rewritten, but in the contemporary context, unless you have some idea of a new flowerpot hole or wheel!

Stevan Šerban Were filmmakers making movies in the same decade as JFK's assassination, Cold War, Vietnam, Mafia movies.

The Godfather was made in the 70s and the story takes place in the 1950s. Scorsese wasn't making mob movies when the real mobsters were living in their prime.

Oliver Stone made Platoon in the 1980s. Not during war.

So maybe year 2030, we will see lots of pandemic/virus movies. Seeya then!

Dear Dan,

Then do you think we should act like we live those years? Was it possible in the immediate aftermath of the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the mafia events in the USA, etc. boldly speak about these topics in public?

We live in a time when every piece of information is available as soon as it happens. The next second will be replaced by some other information.

This is exactly what creates a great space for manipulating information! It is our responsibility as an artist to respond immediately, in line with today's technological capabilities!

Did the common man, at the time of the aforementioned events, in addition to his daily struggle for naked existence, have had time to deal with Kennedy's murder, the Cold War ...?

Today, at the touch of a button on your phone, you can keep up to date with everything that happens.

That is why the reaction of the artist must be at the same moment when something serious is going on that concerns every common man on the planet, regardless of race, nationality or religion! Maybe I'm wrong and you're right?

I don't know if you use the benefits of the internet today?

Happy New Year 2030 !!!

Just have 'Love thy neighbor, stay together' in Puerto Rico stop-corona competition. Would be happy with your thumb up and/or comment under the Youtube film, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zak5ZiXYt_8&list=PLDhb-a1na-xIA2JROOFv9b...

I'm writing one right now. A combination of real events and Sci-FI. It does mentions China a few times, tech, food, medical industries it even mentions Foundation. None of the characters are mentioned by their full names, only by some made up names such as Mr. Robins, Mr. Lloyd...etc. Does the story or concept make sense.... it does, is it entertaining.... it could be if it's done right, do I care what China and anyone above think or feels.... I DON'T, not any more. You all might think I'm not serious about this.... I AM!

Steven - I don't see your point. Nothing was learned. None of those are new problems. War, plagues, famines, natural disasters, they all cause everything you mentioned above. They have nothing to do with trends. The only difference between now and 50 years ago is the speed at which news travels.

My statement was only meant to say that if you started a script based on the events of today, by the time it could become a film, the "hype" over the event would be long gone. There are already several "virus" films. A few have recently resurfaced on Netflix and Amazon Prime. Probably more channels if I cared to look. I wrote a "virus" film that won a screenwriting contest but I don't see producers beating down my door to get at it.

If you or anyone else wants to write a "virus" movie, I say go for it. It is just my humble opinion that a lot of writers are jumping on the "virus" bandwagon and anything written at this time would be a hard sell in Hollywood.

The movie 'Pandemic' was just released - it starts in Australia and moves to the U.S. They put a lot of effort into it.

Nope. I've had enough of it in real life, and have no interest in writing about it.

Stevan, forget possible pandemic movies that you could write, but refocus on the good ideas you already have!

People go to the movies for escapism and the pandemic is one of the things they are trying to escape.

There is too much of this in my eyes. Need the many ways to forget about this pandemic

I'm with everyone here - not interested in writing or watching this topic. As someone elsewhere on this site said, "people don't watch war movies during a war" or even shortly after (my addition).

I concur with Sam's take 100 percent.

It's a bit soon, dude. I've seen lit agents on Twitter saying they don't want to see any queries about the virus or pandemics. They might go for dystopian, but that's not the same thing. Try writing a comedy instead, lol.

"What if the virus goes off planet and starts killing everything in the Universe? Who will save God? A story idea I had the other week.

What I'd ask myself right now is "Is it likely that a good number of studio executives already want to make a coronavirus movie?" If the answer is yes, which I think it is... then they've already commissioned scripts on the coronavirus or other pandemics from well-established screenwriters. The "Will somebody get on this, please!" phone call has already been made. Executives know this is a culturally relevant event, and have already acted on it.

If you're going to write a spec, write the spec executives never could have imagined they needed - but which seems obvious and necessary once they read it. Don't try to read the script everyone is already thinking about writing. Writing that script does nothing to showcase your creativity.

Do the thing nobody else could do, and not the thing everyone else is already doing.

Stevan Šerban - I am toying with an isolation thriller where something unseen is killing off our characters. So thematically there is something similar.

I think stories related to dystopia are welcome now if you tell them with something original, something that no one has ever made. I am a big fan of SYFY and SYFY has recently started a new serie called "The passage". It's about a project which goal is to find cure to all disease but it turns into a nightmare.

Sam, sometimes people want to hear a fictional story which says that their reality can be changed. Why is Nartuto the favorite manga character?

In Naruto, losers can be the best one no matter how weak they were, and that is an inner will.

Regards.

I could see a murder mystery. Cruise ship. People being killed. Cops can’t come on board.

Or someone smuggler drugs in dead bodies.

Or an infected person trying to get across a border to a country that has better medical care.

Or escaping a country where the infection is out of control.

I think it will be an interesting back drop.

That's right Craig!

Many interesting stories can be told, without the basic story being the story of the Corona virus.

I have a contained thriller - think "Rear Window' - that is getting a lot of heat these days. But it's not about Covid. (Though I did put in a line of dialog about the pandemic - assuming the story takes place AFTER this has passed)

Let us hope that film never gets made Claude! Or it gets made but the real thing never happens.