I’m Dave Russell. I’ve taken a break from screenwriting for about a year just doing songwriting. Going to get back to regularly writing screenplays here in the next few months. I’m in Durham, NC. Taken a lot of courses and taught from some talented teachers. Just need to put in more time and work. Into this March Madness at the moment. Go Tar Heels!
PS- One of my latest songs:
https://writing-russell.disco.ac/playlist-new/10217617?date=20220316&use...
Nice to meet you, David Charles Russell. I live in Greenville, NC. I don't have a college basketball team, but I like the UNC colors. :) What genres are you planning to write once you get back into writing regularly?
1 person likes this
I’ve started writing again. I like thriller/drama/action/sci-fi. Fascinated with characters who have to find their identity throughout the film.
Current screenplay perhaps most like Raising Arizona. Not sure.
Cool. I write the same genres. Thriller is one of my top two genres to write.
"Fascinated with characters who have to find their identity throughout the film." Can you give an example?
I've heard of "Raising Arizona," but I haven't seen it. I just found out it's by the Coen Brothers. I gotta check it out! :)
1 person likes this
It may be in perhaps every Coen Brothers film. A character is forcing or reacting to events causing an identity crisis. In Burn After Reading, it is Frances McDormand, she wants breast implants, so she is willing to go through shady stuff for that new identity of attractive woman. I’ve noticed it’s usually a two fold type thing also. For instance in not a coen brothers movie, the Fugitive, Harrison Ford becomes a janitor in a hospital while on the run, but he has an identity crisis b/c he’s a doctor and so choosing to save patients can risk exposing himself. The roles characters play help inform their identity and the events that unfold in plot, define who they are to that story world.
1 person likes this
It sounds general, but Harrison Ford could’ve not helped but save the boy in the film. But he would perhaps feel guilty. And he is not a guilty person. He saves people, not let them die like his wife. See, this is also informing Tommy Lee Jones character, the detective. ‘Maybe he is not guilty after all, let’s look back into the case.’ And, where is he now if he is proving he is not guilty. Who is Ford going to see? So that scene is kind of what separates it from being not just a good movie, but a great movie. B/c Jones is one step behind questioning who Ford has already seen. And they are lying or vouching for him. Also informing us of his identity as not guilty to the story world.
1 person likes this
Ok, I see, David Charles Russell. Thanks for the examples. Especially the "Fugitive" example. It's like a protagonist who goes on a journey in an Adventure, Fantasy, or Sci-Fi story. They leave the old world one way, then they become who they're meant to be during the journey ("Fascinated with characters who have to find their identity throughout the film").
Some characters also might misperceive their identity and be flawed. Like for instance, Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems. He likes the thought of having a family b/c it means a wife that takes care of his kids, and is probably somewhat fond of his parents that helped make him who he is, but deep down he’s a gambler and that along with lying doesn’t make him a great family man, or business man, despite what he may want to be perceived as.