The next time you’re watching a movie or show, look in the background, find a character, and come up with a script idea about that person. The street vendor, the businessman leaving the hotel, the tourist, the mailperson, etc. You can do the same thing for objects and vehicles in the background.
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Watch those sight lines.
E Langley Giant monster comes to New York to destroy it but ends up falling in love with the food and another monster. The government orders the army to capture or kill them, and the female monster's ex shows up to get her back from the main monster. Sci-Fi Rom-Com with action. Box office hit! Haha
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This reminds me of the Reality Tv Show where the Vendors had to compete and travel city to city, and whoever made the most money at the end wins.
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I had students in my acting class do that — pick out people in a crowd, watch their behavior, and come up with back stories for them.
From YouTube, I found some people-watching videos from the streets of New York. Came in handy for this exercise.
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Pay attention to the one-way sign above the green food truck.
Here’s an idea: The city is filled with missing person posters, yet no trace of them has been found. Everyone in town is a suspect—except for the kind old woman who runs a food truck.
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That's great, Mike Boas. How often do you teach acting classes?
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Interesting concept, Meysam KaiedanBadi. I can picture that being a Thriller or Horror movie/show.
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I’ve taught Acting for Animators twice. Not a regular class for me, last time was two years ago.
It's interesting that Animators take Acting classes, Mike Boas. Does acting help them animate?
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Good idea:))))))))))))
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We like to say that animators ARE actors.
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Thanks, Howard Koor.
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Great point, Mike Boas. Screenwriters can be actors too. I act out the dialogue and scenes in my scripts.
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Haha, reminds me of the time Dave Foley was on a late night talk show, I don't remember which one, Letterman or Conan or Leno. They were going to show a clip from one of his projects, so to set up the clip for the audience he went into this long explanation about his character and what that character went through, culminating in the clip they were going to show. When they showed the clip, it was from the movie Three Men and a Baby. Dave literally plays a background character with no dialog. He played a grocery store worker sweeping the aisle while the main characters in the movie buys baby items in the store. Brilliant!
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Also reminds me of the Simpson's episode, "You Only Move Twice", where the Simpsons move to another town because Homer get a job working for a James Bond Supervillain, Hank Scorpio. The Simpsons are the main characters, but in that episode they are essentially background characters in an epic James Bond story, pushing the Bond story into the background. Brilliant again!
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Haha Thanks for sharing the story, Zee Risek. "A grocery store worker sweeping the aisle." Someone could definitely make a script out of that. A superspy working at a grocery store, an undercover cop working there, etc. Or a monster movie where the worker has to save the day.
"They are essentially background characters in an epic James Bond story." I gotta check out that Simpson's episode! Thanks.