Lancelot Link Monday: Quiet Please!

Lancelot Link Monday! I've often said that a true high concept is inexpensive to make because the *concept* is the special effect. "I see dead people!" - hey, the kid sees *actors* playing dead! Same with the movie GHOST - Patrick Swayze is just an actor in scenes and nobody can see or hear him because he's "dead". The real world is just a computer simulation called THE MATRIX... but it's just the *idea* that it's not the real world that is the special effect. So what if the *idea* that there are monsters out there with highly sensitive hearing? Make a noise and they attack - so you must always be quiet. *Sounds* become the real special effect - and making the slightest noise creates suspense. How much does a creaking stair sound cost? A QUIET PLACE cost only $17 million to make - with a couple of names in the cast - and made $71 million worldwide in its first weekend. A simple idea. Making a sound is the high concept, like DON'T BREATHE from a couple of years ago. That's our goal as screenwriters - finding the simple idea that costs little but has all kinds of built in production value. A true high concept is inexpensive to make. While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...




Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...


1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Quiet Place ................... $50,000,000
2 Ready Player ................... $25,060,000
3 Blockers ....................... $21,439,000
4 Black Panther ................... $8,430,000
5 I Can Only ...................... $8,356,800
6 Acrimony ........................ $8,065,000
7 Quiddick ........................ $6,200,000
8 Sherlock ........................ $5,600,000
9 Pacific Rim ..................... $4,910,000
10 I Love Dogs ..................... $4,600,000


BLACK PANTHER just past TITANIC and is now #3 on the All Time Highest Domestic Box Office List. Saturday night Chadwick Boseman was on SNL and killed it playing T'Challa on Black Jeopardy... not promoting BLACK PANTHER (which he repeatedly noted in his monologue had been out for months) but promoting AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR which opens in a couple of weeks. BLACK PANTHER may still be in the Top 10 when the next Marvel movie opens! If INFINITY WAR can stay in the top ten until early July, when ANT MAN AND WASP opens...

2) The Real Writers Of A QUIET PLACE.

3) CHAPPAQUIDDICK Interviews.

4) BLOCKERS Writer On Stealth Feminist Comedy.

5) How NOT To Introduce Female Characters. HINT: They are humans beings, not boobs.

6) "One day she could be president, if she could just find her car keys." How your favorite female characters were introduced in the script.

7) The Black List Is Producing Films.

8) The Secret Behind Amazon's TV Shows.

9) TV Writing Tips From TV Writers.

10) How To Distribute Your Indie Film.

11) China's Box Office Is Now Bigger Than The USA's... But foreign box office has been twice USA's for decades.

12) The Limits Of Chinese Box Office. They Mostly Want To See Chinese Movies, It Seems.

And the Car Chase Of The Week:



Because everyone is debating the best decade for movies, here are the best car chase from the 1970s.

Bill



IMPORTANT UPDATE:
Whose Film Is It Anyway? - The Importance Of Point Of View In A Screenplay.
Dinner: Ham Sandwich & Carrot Sticks.
Pages: Worked on some new script tips.
Bicycle: Didn't ride today - walked.

Movie: