PopcornTreeCt

I'm reading thru hollywoodlitsales.com. Cool site. I read thru their submission guidelines for entry of a script, where you can have your logline posted on their site. Now their rules seem pretty strict I start to question whether my own screenplays are worthy enough. Well I start reading thru some loglines posted and boy, what crap! Most of the plot synopsises are incoherent others are just plain awful. There were a couple that did sound interesting. Its amazing that a site that actually reviews all the submissions they receive has so much crap. There was one logline that called their story: "Dazed and Confused meets American Graffiti" What? That's like calling a story "A Bug's Life meets Seven Samurai" After reading thru so many of these loglines it has only solidified my decision to become a screenwriter.

aintnosin

Everyone talks about how many scripts are registered and how long the odds are. What they fail to mention is that 90% of the scripts are shit and if you are a half-way competent writer, you are in that top tenth percentile.

Rivero

Er, sorry but your analogy make me go "What??"

Dazed and Confused and American Graffiti have very obvious similarities. In fact one time when a friend of mine asked me what Graffiti was like, I told him "It's just like Dazed and Confused only set in 1962". If you can't see the connection between the two movies then maybe you need to take a film appreciation class

Jackskeleton

I gotta go with Rivero here. You really do need to be able to sum up your project with a nice pitch like that.

Jay G.

I may be wrong, but I think PopcornTreeCt was very aware of the similarities, which is why he chose the "A Bug's Life meets Seven Samurai" comparison. Both A Bug's Life and Seven Samurai have the same basic plot: A village hires a group of outsiders to protect them from a gang of bandits. Of course, outside of that, the films are very different. A better comparison would be "Seven Samurai meets The Magnificent Seven" or "A Bug's Life meets Three Amigos."

And I agree that a good pitch can help a film script. However, "Dazed and Confused meets American Graffiti"is not a good pitch. The films are too similar for the phrase to mean anything. The "meet" anaolgy works best when you're dealing with two films that are dissimilar in some way.

auto

This is exactly what he meant.

FinkPish

Exactly, "Die Hard meets Die Hard 2" is not a good indication of what your film is going to be about. "Die Hard meets Tommy Boy" gives a better idea.

Michael Corvin

That sounds great. I'm game.

DonnachaOne

Ah, but is it "Silence Of The Lambs meets Psycho"?

I really hate those "meets" hooks, but sometimes they're the best way to get your message across... and they can be fun, too. Think of two random movies, do a "meets" with the two of them, and come up with a silly story.

Dr. DVD

I've got one, a Matrix meets Underworld and Blade!


Or how about a Jackie Chan movie where he is with a CGI animal as his star? It could be Rush Hour meets Kangaroo Jack !

jaeufraser

The Adventures of Jackie and Jar Jar?

Perkinsun Dzees

I'm writing a script right now that's a cross between RISKY BUSINESS and THE GIRL NEXT DOOR.

jaeufraser

Well I'm doing a script that's a cross between Psycho 1960 and Psycho 1998. Beat that!

DonnachaOne

I'm writing a script that's a cross between Nosferatu: A Symphony Of Horror and Nosferatu: Vampire Of The Night, with a bit of Dracula thrown in.

Dr. DVD

Okay I got it! A mixture of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

FinkPish

I writing The School of The Rock, starring Nic Cage as a quiet FBI chemical weapons expert and Jack Black as a schlubby wannabe rock star who need to rescue a bunch of child musical geniuses from Alcatraz prison, being held prisoner by Ed Harris and Joan Cusack.

aintnosin

I've got one. A mixture of Pearl Harbor and Titanic.

Twice the human tragedy. Twice the vapid teenage romance.

DRG

I'm currently working on a script that is essentially Snow Dogs meets Irreversible.

Supermallet

The trouble is you never know what executives are looking for. Some only want those "It's Movie X Meets Movie Y" loglines, while others will dump you immediately if you try that.

jaeufraser

So you're going to have a 15 minute scene of a dog raping Cuba Gooding Junoir? Hmm...positively genius!

Norm de Plume

37. INT. - COMPUTER ROOM - EVENING

Sitting in a spartanly furnished and decorated den, its floor dotted with used tissues, Norm stares sullenly at the computer screen. CLOSEUP of screen reveals an online forum with the question "Any of you screenwriters out there?" prominently displayed. Back to a MEDIUM SHOT as Norm begins typing.

NORM (under his breath): I wrote one years ago, but nothing became of it. Maybe I'll try again some day.

Tapping a key, Norm returns to Boobs 'n' Beavers.com.

FADE OUT

Troy Stiffler

Self-taught writer here. I work on a few different things. But my dreams? I guess this would be my pitch...

Never thought about it. Cowboy Bebop meets ... 12 Monkeys?

The "Cowboy Bebop" side is more about it's cosmic plot, plentiful jazzy action sequences, and sincere dialogue and characters. Bebop is certainly my foremost inspiration. Lots of good music is a VERY close second.

The "12 Monkeys" half refers to desperity and madness in time travel. It goes a little further than that. Actually, it's not even a good "meets". But it's the first thing that sprang to mind when I read this thread.

I'd really like to explain it further. But I'm taking it very seriously at this point.

The whole thing is currently a little scattered around. Well, very scattered around. But it's been a long process ... almost two years now. What were once good ideas, became bad ideas. NOTHING that I ever have second thoughts on is left in. I think that's a good ideal to stand by.

Troy Stiffler

Hmph. I was more psyched to see the talking dog beat in Cuba's face with a fire estinguisher.

WHAT? THERE WERE NO TALKING DOGS? But - the - commer - huh? - a dream? - aweee.