Raindance Film Festival is a popular UK movie showcase established in 1992. The founder, Elliot Grove, a man who teaches screenwriting, read 2500 feature scripts during the first six years of the festival. He’s offering an interesting insight on what he thinks makes a great screenplay. For starters, out of all the scripts he read during a 6-year period, only 8 of them have been made into movies. And the reason the others didn’t was that the writing lacked the quality required to make a feature film.
Elliot emphasizes the need for violence in a feature script, which includes these three types of aggressive behavior and his feelings about them:
1) Physical violence – the arming of our fellow citizens, the escalation of global conflicts leave me cold. I hate it, even though it is a part of everyday life and likely to remain that way.
2) Sociological violence – the violence caused by the loss of one’s place on society, at work, or at home. This violence fascinates me, partly because I am a voyeur, and partly because I love to study the structures that cause such moves, both failure and success.
3) *Psychological violence – Being put in a position where all my values and beliefs are challenged to the point where I am unable to function is my personal nightmare.
Personally, I’ve never heard anyone put it quite this way and that’s what caught my eye. I definitely subscribe to the notion that a good screenplay is one where things happen and quickly. And, if you do that sobering math on the numbers Elliot provides in his article, you’ll quickly understand that it’s hard to get noticed unless you have a top notch product.
What say you forum dwellers?
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I agree 100% On the other hand look at Bridges of Madison County no violence yeah sex but Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood Ahh! Not so much.
Interesting post Phillip. As a Wes Anderson fan I find this to be a difficult pill to swallow because Wes has like next to no violence in his movies and he is great. I dunno... maybe it's a numbers thing and I haven't done the math.
I believe you can put anything in a movie as long as the script is quality it will succeed. To narrow it down to two attributes is a bit ambiguous for me...
But... and a big BUT for that matter.. at the same time, look at all those Horror movies. I can't stomach gore or horror at all but I know it's a huge industry. In fact this year US is doing very well to prove that maybe what I believe is totally wrong and Elliot Grove is right.
I must also add, RomComs have a lot more sex and nudity in them since the end of the 90s.
I'm so conflicted by this post tho...
Ally Shina Raindance is big, but it is no Sundance or TIFF. Unless I am really wrong, I think it may be more indie than big box office.
The reason I make that qualification, is that I heard a well known indie film producer on a podcast recently and he said, “in the indie (low budget) only horror and sci-fi sells”. He said drama is nearly impossible (really bad for me) and action is just too expensive.
So with that in mind, perhaps the Raindance comment can be useful. Plus it can also be taken as a means of conflict.
Craig, I'm aware of Raindance... the only thing that's caused me to be conflicted about this post is all the other films that are successful without sex or violence. It's not something I can easily dismiss because of Raindance's credentials. I also don't want to be someone in the industry who is intimidated by other people's success to the point of losing my own opinions and observations. And I'm still conflicted... yeah Horror and Scifi are a huge success like I already said but they are a niche that also alienates a huge chunk of the market because people like me vomited during The Exorcist and so I don't watch... so looking at it from an industry as a whole perspective, there may be a lot of sex and violence movies on the shelves but there are also just as many without...
You're right CJ... Hence I wrote that Wes Anderson has "next to none" which generally means there is some but it's moot.
Of course I want a copy of Moonrise Kingdom with behind the scenes images. I'll DM you my email address. Thanks guy.
Hmm let’s look at the movies I have seen this month: Star Wars, Queen and Slim, Frozen 2, Parasite, Knives Out, Ford v Ferrari, 21 Bridges, Jojo Rabbit, Harriet, 6 Underground, Marriage Story.
Maybe Groves has a point.
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Violence is physical conflict. Movies need conflict that we can see. So that Canadian guy is right.
Indie Film Hustle episode 368.
I hope he is wrong as I am a drama writer.
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Violence is conflict; sure. But is all conflict violent? We call 'em movies. The base word is the verb "move" and that certainly implies another verb; "action" Is action limited to sex/violence?
Ally Shina I think sex and violence is like explosions. If in doubt chuck it in. It will appeal to someone. I think writing something cerebral is more difficult and probably why they stand out, and are considered more mastery.
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In my humble opinion a film needs conflict and intimacy to work, not necessarily sex and violence. Think about it: "A Few Good Men" only had the attack by Dawson and Downey in the beginning, but no other violence and only sexual tension here and there. The film "My Dinner with Andre" is literally just a film about two friends discussing their differing worldviews.
I get that a lot of films need sex, violence, or both to seem more real for the audience. But as writers, we shouldn't try to limit ourselves by saying it absolutely has to have them in it.
Just my opinion, of course.
You're absolutely right Craig.
I remember sitting in a UCLA production class when the teacher, a grizzled old producer, raised his voice for emphasis. "Remember, there are only two things that sell a movie. They are sex and violence! Don't forget that!"
Erik; remind me who said that...I forgot.
I was very surprised to read this just now about Elliot Grove finding Psychological violence upsetting to himself but he does not state about psychological violence being upsetting “others”. He once asked me to fly from Spain to England because he couldn’t wait to see me and promptly told me on arrival he was painting for another woman.
I agree with @Doug @Ally @Craig. OF COURSE CONFLICT IS NECESSARY for a film but a “Cerebral” conflict can more than equal a show of sex or violence. We can all see sex in porn and gore in horror. Unless the sex and violence are secondary to the mind play between characters, it is simply sex or simply violence. Sex and violence if executed well, needs to SERVE the story. If the story is shit, why bother with most obvious every day occurrences? @CJ. Sundance or Moondance would be a good idea to get involved with Script Revolution, particularly you now in Hollywood circuit. Also check opportunities out with our Stage 32 guru RB. Go for the gold.
Lock Stock and 2 smoking Barrels (mentioned by Raindance) had superb, witty and edge of the seat dialogue. The sex and guns came second. The soundtrack was also cool and usually followed a peachy one liner Eg “I’m Nick The Greek.”
Debbie - I won @ Moondance a few years back - didn't do me a damn bit of good.
There thousands of good films that don't have sex or violence.
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Sex, Lies, videotape- there’s a famous sex scene with a potted plant and the main character gets punched in the face
@Doug Congrats on winning Moondance. As you correctly state, winning film festivals is not necessary a means to an end but its a worthy accolade. I think all festivals are fantastic to get “Noticed” by outside execs and producers but the festivals themselves do not hand out jobs to artist after event.
Sex and violence can be “hinted at” instead of visually shooting a full blown act. The original Psycho was taught with sexual tension and violence, yet there were no sex scenes and the only violence was a knife shadow. Yet audience got the picture of dread, sex (albeit repressed sex) and death. I do not disagree with Elliot that sex and violence could be a cool idea in a hot script, only that it need NOT be shown. One of the directors I trained under, John Boorman, (Hope n Glory, Queen n Country, Excalibur, Exorcist 2, Deliverance in70s etc). quoted me the phrase “A gun and a girl and you got a story”. I wrote him something for feedback, he said he could not wait to read what happened next, yet there was no actual “act” of sex or full on violence. A place where bad things can happen can sometimes create more dread, tension and fear than a wham bang show it all on the table. It depends on the film. Horses for courses.
@Kay@Luke I am going to check out Sex,Lies n Videotape. Thanks for info. LOL Especially intrigued by the “potted plant”.
Kay - i'd bet that few in here know/understand the difference between a 'movie' and a 'film'.