Greetings all. Went down to the Great American this year and got infected with the contained thriller bug (it's been going around). On the long fourteen hour drive home, rather than remark about the barren landscape north of Bakersfield, I began "adapting" a few of the horror/science-fiction concepts that I was going to do as short stories into a contained thriller. It's been a great exercise, so far. Anyone have a link, resource or a dusty old PDF of a contained thriller? I'm watching whatever I can but wanted to see how writers are using the space on the page to convey the space in the script. Ideally it would be the script for something I could watch simultaneously. Cheers all. @emertzwriting
Screenwriting : Contained Thriller Screenplays by Erick Mertz
Other topics in Screenwriting:
Check out Trending Discussions
Register / Log In
1 person likes this
Interestingly, I have recently written a contained action-thriller and a contained five person drama. Coverage says, "Gee, would be a great stage play." Well, there's that. Have you ever seen Bug with Ashley Judd? Wonderfully weird and creepy. A lot of stuff grows around Bakersfield. Why not story adaptations?
1 person likes this
If you have titles of these things -- ones that you really liked as films -- you'll probably be able to get free pdf downloads of them from http://www.simplyscripts.com -- read them in "draft" versions, not shooting scripts. At least one of the tricks is to figure out how to write one of these without making it come across as a stage play.
2 people like this
"Dog Juice". Every film must have the same amount of "excitement" regardless of size. Every time you take away something you need to add something to make up for it. So when you take away all of the locations every other movie has, you need to up the pacing and excitement and twists. Two movies to check out: DISAPPEARANCE OF ALICE CREED and BRAKE. CREED is 3 characters in 2 rooms and is nonstop suspense and twists. BRAKE is one man in the trunk of a car, and is wall to wall action (it's like DIE HARD in the trunk of a car, multiple car chases, shoot outs, twists, etc... seen from the trunk). The key is to give a film experience that could not work on a stage, keep it exciting and cinematic. PS: BUG is based on a stageplay, and was made because it was a stageplay by Pulitzer Prize Winner Tracy Letts.
PS: How could I forget TIME LAPSE? Saw it at a festival last year and the cowriter director took my class ages ago! 3 main characters, mostly in one room, and a trippy time travel story! http://www.scriptmag.com/features/sci-fi-circuit-good-script-opens-many-...
2 people like this
Watch Buried with Ryan Reynolds. the whole movie takes place inside a coffin. And the writer uses clever ways to insert the action.
I liked Quarantine and Rec. I think you can find both on simplyscripts or on mymoviescripts.
Panic Room and the first Saw film are quite good, both those scripts are readily available.
Anyone kind enough to send along PDFs? I've been searching and can't find any of these screenplays on the interwebs.