Screenwriting : Ensemble Cast? 5 Kids On A Mission by Daniel Stuelpnagel

Kicking off a concept that I noodled on for about four months, worked on notes, outline, even a bit of location scouting, this will be my sixth feature spec, and I've now written (to a solid full-length outline) Act I and moving into Act II (also already got the final sequence charted out).

I get bored with single-protag stories where there's a dude on screen the whole time and it's just a story revolving around his situation and POV, I know this type of focus is Hollywood bread and butter because high-level talent love being in the spotlight 100% (and get paid accordingly), so often these are the kinds of things that get made.

I've written mostly romantic thrillers so it's often a protag and confidant/lover, and opposition from an antag and supporting antag, or a couple on the run pursued by cops, or a female protag with a network of three or four opponents, a fake opponent-ally and a fake ally-opponent, etc.

I know it can be counterproductive or distracting to have too many cooks in the kitchen.

But I love a good ensemble cast and this newest one is set up that way, it's five art-school kids on a mission, a bit of a "Golden Fleece" with elements of Dude With A Problem, Rites Of Passage and Whydunit.

So far so good.

An established film-industry commentator I follow coincidentally recently voiced a strong general antipathy towards spec writers tackling the ensemble piece, because he felt it's destined to fail and that new writers should not be pitching this type of script, because you're going to fail and embarrass yourself.

So first of all I am already six months into this project (thankfully) so I'm not about to back off, everyone in this arena loves a challenge. Second of all, I get his point, to try and round out not only the main character web (pentagon!) but also the villains and villagers and etc. is a huge challenge,

but I have confidence that I can create a fresh-feeling vibe and functional story and plotlines, based on a really exciting Act I with implications for the whole piece, it's feeling authentic and organic (and funny! this is family-friendly adventure with a comic tilt), and if later I discover one or more characters are thin, subversive or detracting from the momentum, then I would need to solve those issues through rewrites.

But to me the idea of not trying something because it might not adequately succeed is obviously not flavorful.

Yet I also get where he's coming from, maybe industry people are just getting pitch fatigue and really don't want to open the floodgates for more quirky (indie-sounding) clusterfucks. Fair enough.

So it's up to me to not only write it well and to present a fully-developed team character web, but also to create a framework and pitch concept that makes the story more palatable to an industry reader.

I get the mentor's counsel, saying "you're not ready to be able to take on effectively that kind of complex multi-character development and do justice to all of them on-screen," and I'm saying that I'll never know unless I devote a year of my life to the project; fuck around and find out. I'm not going to learn by thinking about it.

So now I not only enjoy great creative momentum, but I also have a challenge, to witness opposition from a critic and try to prove them wrong.

Some of my confidence with the project comes from not only the strength of my imagination and craft but also my experience, I've been a visual artist for more than twenty years, so I know the art-school world and mentality and I have prolific insights into the psychology and challenges of this arena of story and the kinds of people who fight through it.

Wish me luck in eventually selling this story to that industry skeptic!