IMPORTANT: Everyone email me your 1-page write-up on the series premise ASAP.
It was part of your assignment that was due last night.
Email: aauscriptdoctor@gmail.com
ARCHETYPES
Pair up some other "odd couple" type characters.
Here are the actors we discussed last night:
William H. Macy
cross between Ed O'Neill (Jay in "Modern Family') and Ted Danson (Sam Malone in "Cheers")
Rob Lowe
Guy Pearce
James Woods
John McGinley
Parker Posey (insincere, off-center)
Zoe Saldana (feisty, sexy, spirited)
Emma Stone
Liz Lemon
Elizabeth Banks
Sarah Silverman
Katey Sagal
Sean Young
Angela Bassett
Regina King
Aisha Tyler
Pam Grier
Taraji P. Henson
TONE
Dramedy
Black Comedy
DO YOU SEE HIM AS A PILOT OR CO-PILOT?
As a pilot, he can be an older character who would have trouble finding a job.
That adds the generation gap element.
OR:
As a co-pilot, he's one day away from being a pilot...when he gets laid off.
Then, our two leads would be closer in age.
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I like the idea that they are at a crossroads age wise. She is 29 and He is 39. He can be a co-pilot and that would put more pressure on him to hold on to the only thing he has left, the apartment.
ReplyDeleteI especially like the idea that she would be a person of color. I think it would not only make it more modern but give us some other areas to explore about race and perspective. I also think as a class and a learning process its important to challenge ourselves to explore things that aren't familiar to us. Such as guys writing for a woman character and also writing for a race different than your own.
ReplyDeleteDavid makes a very interesting point about writing characters of a different race and age of ourselves. It certainly can be challenging.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of him being a co-pilot and was maybe one flight away from logging enough hours for a promotion before the airline goes under. Since it did, maybe he'd have to start from scratch because the airline lost the records.
I think you should make her a little younger than 29 so that if she is a party animal or whatever, it would make more sense. If we make the character more mature, then it would make sense to make her closer to 30.
As far as character dynamic goes, I think Zoe Saldana and Ed O'Neill would make a very interesting combination.
I agree with David, I really liked it when we started to come up with people of color for our actress archetypes. It would certainly change how we see her but help shape how we write her and her voice. I really liked the idea of her being a Zoe Saldana type character. There's a lot of fun to be had there.
ReplyDeleteI think that a Zoe character would be interesting with a Rob Lowe type character. There would be definite sexual tension between these two insanely attractive people and there's enough of an age difference to make it interesting but not enough to go to the creepy side. I like the word that, I think Will brought up yesterday, that he's sincere about what he does, no matter who he plays. So maybe a mix of his characters. The incredibly stressed out, weight of the world on my shoulders face of Brothers & Sisters Rob Lowe, with the determination of West Wing Rob Lowe, and just below the surface, suppressed crazy ADHD/OCD Rob Lowe.
I think the sexual tension will happen either way, whether he be the pilot or the co-pilot but with the co- pilot I think it would be more of an overtone as opposed to the pilot where it might be easier to focus on other things than them being young and hot, dancing around how much they want to sleep together.
ReplyDeleteI'm just going to throw another name in the hat of archetype characters. How about Ray Liotta?
ReplyDeleteI generally don't like to pull from people as archetypes but I just thought I'd throw Neil Patrick Harris in the pool and see if it floats, not a particular character, but his energy is nice.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the characters being closer in age would have a better life to it than if there was small cultural gap. I feel as if a large gap would make them both able to brush off each others' identities as "an age thing." instead of just being frustrated with it due to lack of understanding.
I'm a huge fan of NPH but I see him as a musical and comedic hilarity. Depending on what kind of comedy or overall feel we want to convey and also what kind of archetype we want to pair him up with, I think it would work.
ReplyDeleteWe could make him the flight attendant and a Zoe Saldana character as a co-pilot.
That would be interesting to flip things around like that, were you thinking to switch them around completely so he would be the free spirit and she would be the ex-military life in shambles person? Or keep her the free spirit, but just give her more direction with her job?
ReplyDeleteIt might be a really interesting dynamic, he could definitely have a inferiority complex with her and it might explain why he would stand his ground against her in keeping the apartment, and possibly his free spirit attitude if we went that direction. If he's aging and "just" a flight attendant, he could have some major emotional conflict with that. Losing his job, it would be much harder to start over in his 40s from Flight Attendant. But I think we would have to put some indiscretion with the airline as well, otherwise, what's stopping him from just getting another job with another airline? (Same with her, for that matter.) And for her, maybe it shatters all her life dreams and she has to consider reenlisting in the military to keep flying? Maybe she needs the apartment to just sort things out for a while because he friends and family wouldn't support her going back to the Air Force again?
I don't know, just throwing some thoughts out there, the idea certainly is an interesting one to explore, Gabriel!
I certainly like the idea of her being ex-military, Lauren. Maybe she was wrongfully dishonorably discharged and is trying to get her credibility back by proving herself as a commercial pilot.
ReplyDeleteThe flight attendant could be the son of the General who had her dismissed from the military. That's why they have to live together, because the general knows that his son will keep tabs on her and rat her out the instant she does something wrong.