At what point do you decide to reveal a twist in a screenplay?

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay but do the locations and the production design still have to be more rich looking though, for a Santa Claus premise?

[Brian Drysdale]

No, you're looking at this from a cliche viewpoint, look at the Family Guy extract I posted earlier,

Bad Santa also works.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, but the factor in the Family Guy clip still looks more cinematic than the factories where I live. As long as it will pass. As for going for a more realistic dark consumerism approach, it was not my idea. It was a friend's idea that he suggested in order to cover up for lack budget. So I would be using his idea when I didn't originally envision it for this story, as long as that's the way to go to cover up the lack of budget?

[Brian Drysdale]

There's nothing wrong with "stealing" or lifting ideas, top writers admit to doing it. They soak up stuff all the time, even Shakespeare did it. However, this isn't just copying, they make it their own, they take it and run with it.

Doing the direct opposite of the cliche tends to work most of the time.

It's how you do it that makes something cinematic.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

I know everyone is well meaning but you’re giving professional advice to someone on the spectrum. Since I’ve never meet someone with that condition and because we are communicating over a message board it’s hard to imagine what’s going on.

One thing for sure he keeps trying to take pieces of advice and put them together. He keeps trying to do things he has no ability to do or are way to complex. He has no business trying to make a feature film. Anyone not on the spectrum would struggle to make a feature but he doesn’t get it or doesn’t want to get it.

I’m sure at some point when he was trying to figure out what to do some said you should do what you love. So he loves movies. He goes to film school and that doesn’t work. Ok try your hand working on a movie set. That doesn’t work. Ok make your own film. And that’s not working.

Moral of the story just because you love to watch feature films doesn’t mean you’re equipped to make a feature film. So then what? I’d suggest getting help to find out what you are capable of doing.

[Brian Drysdale]

Some very creative people are on the spectrum.

https://the-art-of-autism.com/6-crea...nd-filmmakers/

https://www.appliedbehavioranalysisp...tism-spectrum/

However, Ryan doesn't seem to be making the leaps that these people are making in exploring the world as they see it.

[Josh Bass]

few things

first, I believe he DID do the skills audit and it told him he was good at planning. he said he didnt know how to apply that to filmmaking.

Regarding the spectrum, I’m no expert at all but I have met a few “high functioning” people on it (those who can more or less live a full life as opposed to the sadder cases where people cant communicate at all or simply stare at walls all day). My layman’s observation is that being on the spectrum, even when high functioning, affects people differently and manifests differently. It ranges from being something you would never notice unless maybe you knew the person really well/for a long time to people who very much seem “challenged”.

For instance Jesse Eisenberg has Aspergers and Darryl Hannah is autistic. Would you have ever known that? Not that theyre writers/directors. Or maybe they are.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

Brian thanks for sharing. I wasn’t aware of that.

One thing I would caution is it is a spectrum. Just because one might share a broad diagnosis with someone one famous doesn’t mean that one could enjoy the same success at what they do. Many geniuses or great artists are often not what we deem normal because in order to achieve great things you can’t think like everyone else. While finding exceptions to the rule may serve as an inspiration, I think it would be far more helpful to look at the individual. I don’t know if you or someone else suggested he take a test to better learn what he is capable of.

The inflexibility, singular purpose, and obsession might be helpful for a genius while those same characteristics will lead someone of limited aptitude down a dead end going in circles.

edit: it was Josh who suggested the audit. Yes Ryan is definitely a planner.

[Josh Bass]

Right...see my post above

[Brian Drysdale]

It is very much an individual thing, like where they are on the spectrum and other factors,

[Ryan Elder]

Originally Posted by Pete Cofrancesco

I know everyone is well meaning but you’re giving professional advice to someone on the spectrum. Since I’ve never meet someone with that condition and because we are communicating over a message board it’s hard to imagine what’s going on.

One thing for sure he keeps trying to take pieces of advice and put them together. He keeps trying to do things he has no ability to do or are way to complex. He has no business trying to make a feature film. Anyone not on the spectrum would struggle to make a feature but he doesn’t get it or doesn’t want to get it.

I’m sure at some point when he was trying to figure out what to do some said you should do what you love. So he loves movies. He goes to film school and that doesn’t work. Ok try your hand working on a movie set. That doesn’t work. Ok make your own film. And that’s not working.

Moral of the story just because you love to watch feature films doesn’t mean you’re equipped to make a feature film. So then what? I’d suggest getting help to find out what you are capable of doing.

When you say that I went to film school and that didn't work, and that I worked on movie sets and that didn't work, what about those didn't work? The film school was fine, and I did a fine job on the move sets it seemed. What about them didn't work?

Originally Posted by Pete Cofrancesco

Brian thanks for sharing. I wasn’t aware of that.

One thing I would caution is it is a spectrum. Just because one might share a broad diagnosis with someone one famous doesn’t mean that one could enjoy the same success at what they do. Many geniuses or great artists are often not what we deem normal because in order to achieve great things you can’t think like everyone else. While finding exceptions to the rule may serve as an inspiration, I think it would be far more helpful to look at the individual. I don’t know if you or someone else suggested he take a test to better learn what he is capable of.

The inflexibility, singular purpose, and obsession might be helpful for a genius while those same characteristics will lead someone of limited aptitude down a dead end going in circles.

edit: it was Josh who suggested the audit. Yes Ryan is definitely a planner.

Do you think perhaps I should try to improve my aptitude then?

[Paul R Johnson]

I think that you need to understand your capabilities, that way you would not waste your time. You have the ability to pick out a few sentences from a huge post, and focus in on them in ways the writer did not remotely expect.

If you cannot remember, we heard all about the things you were fed at the film school, that sadly, like here, you misunderstood, or got the context wrong. We keep telling you that the school was terrible because frankly, what you learned there was totally misunderstood - totally! They clearly didn't notice you got the wrong end of the stick. You told us of all sorts of problems - have you forgotten? You have this wonderful ability to shut out negatives and ignore them, rather than do something about them?

I'm really not sure you understand us, and we certainly don't understand your thought processes at all.

You clearly want to make movies, and I think you probably could - but your need to constantly build a rule book and need everything broken down to levels where you can allow yourself to believe it. You also have a very under-developed appreciation of success and failure.

I really think there is not much we can do to assist you remotely. Do you have any close friends skilled in movie making? They would be the best way to learn. I'm not sure it works at a distance.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, I thought that even though film school, I had some problems there with the projects I asked about, I thought it went well overall.

I have a couple of friends who have also made movies that I worked with. I have learned some things from them but there are other things I want to do, that they do not in filmmaking as well. I feel that my style I guess you could call it, is different than theres, so I cannot learn everything from them of course.

As for constantly building a rule book, well I am told I do things the wrong way in filmmaking and that I go outside the box too much, so if that's true, I wanted to have some rules or guidelines as to what people want. I could make a movie where I have no rules, and it's directed and shot in a completely original way by me, but not sure if people will accept an attempt at re-inventing of the wheel.

But I was told I would do a lot better if I could get better actors and a better DP, if that's true.

[Brian Drysdale]

Although better actors and DPs will assist, you don't seem to have a different vision on how you tell a story. if anything you impose restrictions. You seem to have difficulty with the most basic stuff like "the line", rather than producing individualistic films, they tend towards the televisual.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, so should I ignore the restrictions then like the line for example and still hope it turns out well? Are they more televisual cause of the lighting, or the shot choices themselves, or both?