I have seen top gun and the new jurassic park movies in the last two weeks. Huge. Fun. Eventful. But then last night I watched Winters Bone which was made for nothing and a small movie (that was nominated for best adapted screenplay mins you) — it’s one of the best movies I have ever seen. Small can be better than big. But they need to be perfect on the page. Hollywood can be forgiving about big films and audiences will look past plot conveniences and flaws, which are rampant in Jurassic Park despite the fact that it was a lot of fun and I loved it, but when it comes to the movies with more meaning like Winters Bone they need to sing and be special. Especially when they’re small dramas. So if you’re gonna write small that’s fine but watch winters bone to see how something so simple and raw can have such an impact. Frankly more so than F-16s and Dinosaurs.
Screenwriting : Small ideas can be more successful than the bigger ones. by Ilan Breil
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"Winter's Bone" is my favorite movie by Jennifer Lawrence.
I agree, Ilan Breil: "But they need to be perfect on the page. Hollywood can be forgiving about big films and audiences will look past plot conveniences and flaws, which are rampant in Jurassic Park despite the fact that it was a lot of fun and I loved it, but when it comes to the movies with more meaning like Winters Bone they need to sing and be special." The same thing for contained movies where there's not a lot of places in a script. A contained movie that takes place in one (or a few) location can get boring or repetitive, so the script has to be great (great characters, great story, great scenes, etc.).
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Stories eventually (when it is all boiled down) are about people. The settings are the tools we use.
If you focus on the people you will always have an outstanding story. Look at “Battle Los Angeles”, big stars, huge budgets, crap story. Unbelievable personal struggles.
People are the gold we should be mining.
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Very true, Ilan
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Well, we need to make great "small" movies first before a chance to make big movies.
Chris McQuarrie won a screenwriting Oscar for The Usual Suspects and Colin Trevorrow's debut feature won Sundance Festival awards.
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I don't think I get it, to be honest.
Firstly, there's no such thing as perfect within the arts, and secondly there's plenty of incredibly successful small "dumb" cult films that prove this thesis wrong.
This feels like 1% thinking; either you need to be writing massive studio blockbusters or award winning low budget films to be successful. That's vanity over sanity. 99% of the industry is light entertainment made for profit and there's nothing wrong with aspiring writers building a sustainable career within that.
Plus, it's kinda easy to pick out the winners like Winter's Bone which benefited massively in terms of exposure from Jennifer Lawrence's subsequent lead casting in one the biggest franchises that decade. Most attempts at launching a "festival darling" result in directors/producers being milked dry within the festival circuit only to walk away with little but Amazon as a streaming option because they have something seemingly uncommercial due to the hurdle getting people to watch it.
It's pretty well known within the industry that those half a dozen festival films that make it into the mainstream are injected with crazy amounts of PR money to get their awards and then leverage them. It's nowhere near as puritanical a system as people are led to think and thankfully a lot of that is coming out now.
While I'm at it, I also don't think $2m is "nothing" when making a film. That amount actually falls within the SAG Basic Agreement tier, especially when adjusted for inflation ($2.5M USD).
What I do absolutely agree with is that writing craft (or at least entertainment based in words and drama) tends to become more important as budgets decrease as there's a lot less spectacle to hide behind. But then all writers should be honing craft regardless.
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This is a great discussion. I always think it comes down to depth of character. With a bkockbuster character’s can have a simple arc with just enough depth to Gwynn you through the action and maybe to a sequel. A smaller film - to resonate - needs a greater depth of character. JLaw in Winter’s Bone is such a rich character as opposed to what she is given to work with in The Hinger Games. Both good films. One takes us deeper into humanity and that’s where smaller films can win the day.
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Story telling is in the human DNA - anybody can do it (we all do it everyday). Crafting a moving, cohesive & compelling story is a unique matter altogether.
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@doug well said. When people say “I have a great story”, I always ask “but is it a movie?”.
Novels exist for a reason. Not all stories are movies.
Actually always were...just saw Joe Hill's (King's son) exposition how he sell first version of his short story for 35 pounds to some "brave" British publisher...
...It's now about to become maybe biggest horror flick of 2022 titled "Black Phone""...
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I recently also watched Jurassic World Dominion and Top Gun: Maverick. I enjoyed both movies but Top Gun was so much more exciting because when they characters where sitting in there plains and something went wrong i actually had the feeling the characters where in danger.
I agree that Winters Bone was very well done. To compare it to a BIG studio movie is beside the point. Hollywood and us viewers have all sorts of needs when we go see a movie. I believe that large box office has a place. It has to.