Two
quotes to live your creative life by:
Neal Adams: "An amateur borrows. A professional steals"Anon: "To steal from one source is called plagiarism. To steal from many sources is called research"
So,
let me introduce you to the Fine Art of Stealing
What
Neal Adams meant was that everyone is influenced by those that came
before them. However, those influences are really obvious in the work
of the amateur but a professional makes them so much a part of their
work that people don't see the original source.
That's
your job.
The
best way to do that is to steal from many sources.
Take
parts from various sources, mix them all up and make them so much
your own that people will think that it's original.
OK.
Here's how it's done.
1.
Sort out your set piece
For
example, you may conceive of a scene where the antagonist and some
goons have jumped from an aircraft with a kidnap victim and the
protagonist leaps after them and must overpower the goons and the
antagonist, rescue the kidnap victim and get a parachute before
becoming a red splatter painting on the ground.
2.
Now pick the characters
Who
is the antagonist? Who is the protagonist?
Pick
your favourite antagonist and favourite protagonist. Go back to your
favourite movies and pick the best bad guy (or girl) and the best
good guy (or girl)
For
the antagonist, I always like Hans Gruber from "Die Hard".
For
the protagonist, how about picking a lady and one of advanced years
at that? American women are always complaining that there aren't
enough good roles for older women - with some justification. So, how
about Helen Mirren's character from "RED"?
3.
Now rewind the action
How
did they get on the plane? Why the plane? Was the protagonist there
by design or accident? I prefer accident because there are so many
more options for stories.
Why
is the antagonist kidnapping the victim from a plane? Well, it's a
good way of not getting followed which is why our protagonist has to
pursue them without a parachute.
But
kidnapping someone from a plane is crazy with all of that security?
What if that's the whole idea? The kidnap victim's bodyguards won't
have side arms so if the antagonist is prepared with (say) plastic
guns or the like, then the fight is one-sided. Hmm, plastic guns are
a little silly. Or how about they're blackmailing the Air Marshall and
he simply hands his gun onto them. Suddenly, they're armed and no one
else is.
Do
you see how the story is forming from a single set piece? And we
haven't even talked about the kidnap victim yet. What if it's a young
girl whose father is a bio-weapons specialist and the ransom will be
that he gives up a dangerous bio-weapon? I "researched"
that character and storyline stright from "Resident Evil:
Apocalypse".
Now,
let's give the protagonist the ability to win. She is a retired
military intelligence officer who worked during the end of the cold
war and the Afghanistan war in the 80s who is now retired. She
was one of the many back-room people who keep operations going. So
she has basic weapons training and some martial arts training like
aikido where age isn't an issue. But what she still has is the mind
to win.
OK.
So now we have a retired intelligence officer on her way home from
visiting the grand kids who gets caught in the middle of a kidnapping
and must use her wits and whatever is freely available inside an
airplane to foil it to save the girl and an awful lot of potential
victims.
You
could also mix and match elements from "Air Force One",
"Passenger 57", "Executive Decision", "Non-Stop",
etc.
All
from a set piece.
Is
it a good story?
I
don't know. I made it up on the fly (pun intended) to show you how it
could be done.
And
it doesn't matter if it is rubbish because it's given you something
that you can re-work. What do you think Hollywood gets it right first
time every time? Yeah, right
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