"Show business kids making movies of themselves
You know they don't give a fuck about anybody else."
- Steely Dan
PRECEDENCES:
1.
In "Me and Billy Bob," and "Screen Kiss"
http://www.meandbillybob.com/
http://soilmedia.org/Screen_Kiss/
Jillian McDonald inserts herself as the heroine in Hollywood kissing
scenes. She's mainly exploring fan culture, but the work also has
the effect of normalizing these spectacular Hollywood moments.
2.
_Chinatown_ ends with the the good guy losing, just when we think
he's about to win, thus subverting the Hollywood formula,
disappointing lots of ordinary movie goers, and thrilling critics.
3.
In _Pulp Fiction_, John Travolta's character gets killed abruptly
early on in the film, thus upsetting the Hollywood given that the
main character won't get killed halfway through because you wouldn't
pay a famous actor and give him top billing if he only appeared in
half the film.
4.
_Last Action Hero_ puts a normal kind in the action movie world and
then takes the action hero and places him in the real world. In the
movie world, all the workers at the video rental store look like
models. In the real world, the action hero nonchalantly punches
through a car window expecting no adverse repercussions, and he cuts
his hand all up.
_Purple Rose of Cairo_ is kind of the same, just more artsy.
5.
http://www.steelydan.com/lyrcountdown.html#track5
CONCEPT:
The idea is not to make an experimental, quasi-narrative film (a la
Bunuel or Brakhage). Instead, take regular Hollywood films and
re-edit them so that normal stuff happens to the characters half-way
through which cause the film to abruptly end. The idea is to inject
some real life banality into the plot lines in order to critique the
Hollywood genre. You get the idea.
INSTRUCTIONS:
You're shooting for a really banal anti-climax. Hollywood films are
premised on all these great and improbably obstacles being overcome,
crescendoing in some amazingly improbably feat. Either that, or they
are anti-hero movies that crescendo in some amazing defeat, or at
least some amazingly pedantic defeat. No matter what, Hollywood
plots always require some climactic event (good, bad, or astoundingly
indifferent). But you are not going for titanic banality. You're
just going for real life banal banality. Let the main character
hurdle a few of the early improbably obstacles, and then just pick
one thing to go wrong (not even the climactic obstacle), and let it
go wrong and end the film. The films you choose to rewrite don't all
have to be _Citizen Kane_ and _Casablanca_ type movies. They
probably shouldn't be experimental films or independently produced
movies. Just pick Will Ferrel or Ben Stiller or Vin Diesel movies.
+++++++++++++++++
Examples:
1.
In Adam Sandler's _The Waterboy_, The Waterboy overcomes all these
obstacles to play college football, only to be accused of forging his
high school graduation documents. With only a day before the big
game, he has to study up and pass his high school equivalency exam.
In the regular Hollywood film, he does pass the exam with flying
colors, and then goes on to face a series of even more challenging
obstacles before showing up at halftime to win the big game.
In your rewrite, He'll get his test scores back, and it will go
something like this:
TEST SCORE GUY: Sorry Waterboy, You did really well and made a 79,
but you need to make an 80 to pass the test. You can retake the test
in a couple of weeks if you like. I'm sure you'll pass. You're
really close.
WATERBOY: But isn't there any way I can take the test any earlier?
The big game is tomorrow!
TEST SCORE GUY: I'm sorry, but the county requires at least a two
week period between tests. I'm afraid my hands are tied.
THE END
2.
In _Racing Stripes_, a baby zebra falls off a circus truck in a
rainstorm and is accidentally left behind. A farmer takes the zebra
back to his daughter, and through a series of trials and
tribulations, the zebra is trained by the father to race in the big
thoroughbred derby, with his daughter as the jockey. In the regular
Hollywood film, the zebra wins the race.
In your rewrite, the circus will send a clown back to look for the
zebra. After searching years for the zebra, the clown will grow
increasingly angry, bitter, and resentful. He will finally track the
zebra back to the farmer and his daughter, and will show up on their
front doorstep the day before the big race. He will be dressed in
full clown regalia, and the dialogue will go something like this:
CLOWN: I'm here for the zebra. He f ell off our truck a few years
ago and I've come to take him back to the circus.
DAUGHTER: But Mr. Clown, the big race is tomorrow, and the zebra and
I have grown so close!
FATHER: Isn't there anything we can do? I'd buy him from you, but
we've morgaged the farm to the hilt to raise the entrance fee for the
derby. If you hang around until after the race, I'm sure the zebra
will win, and the prize money wiil be more than enough to purchase
him from you.
[DAUGHTER gazes lovingly, hopefeully up at her father's face. Then
looks back to the clown.]
CLOWN: No. The zebra is not for sale. I've got to take him back to
the circus.
DAUGHTER: But can't you just wait one more day, just until after the
race? At least let him run in the race!
CLOWN: No, no, no! Enough chit chat. Hand over the damn zebra!
FATHER: Take him if you must. He's out in the barn.
THE END
+++++++++++++++++
Find your movies online and downlaod them via bit torrent. Search
any one of these:
http://www.torrentreactor.net
http://thepiratebay.org
http://www.torrentspy.com
You'll have to get a camera, and stage and shoot your scenes, but
they don't have to be in a fancy locations, and you don't have to
have great actors.
Then post the entire Hollywood movie right up to and through your
newly written ending. This will give the piece more context and
momentum and make the outcome even more stupid and banal.
If you get sued, claim fair use and get a lot of free press.
Call your URL banalhollywood.com
FIN,
curt
rewrite this concept: Banal Hollywood
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Type: discussion