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I certainly didn't find this as offensive as everyone else. People do talk like that in certain parts of the world.
I thought this met the requirements on all levels and I thought this worked structurally as a story.
However, personally, I didn't like the resolution. I also didn't feel like the characters existed beyond this stretch of script. Like Marnie, who are these guys?
I think maybe this would work much better as a comedy. You need to up the humour here and come up with a different resolution - one that is uplifting and makes us laugh.
Either that or you need to really dig deep into the characters and give us some dialogue and some action that tells us a bit more about the characters and their relationship to each other. That is the only way to make the current ending effective.
Page 3. Ace’s dialogue stopped me mid-tracks. Very clunky and unnatural.
Since they are best friends, wouldn’t Ace already know how many beds are in Ted’s beach house?
Page 5. You’ve now had two EXT. slugs telling us the trees bend in the wind. It feels very unnecessary as this is story telling, not editing. If nothing has changed outside there’s no need to tell us about the trees again.
Reading their dialogue, I never got the feeling they were best friends. They didn’t seem to know enough about each other to be great friends.
What’s with the FX: on the last page?
All in all, not too bad. Not a whole lot happened in it to me at least. I bet if this was filmed, it would be quite short.
How to improve this one? Fix the dialogue. Make the story a little deeper and not quite as shallow. Good Luck!
Yeah, I definately have different tastes than everybody else.
The last two entries I've read have been comedies. The last comedy ('One of God's Special Children'), everybody blushed over, but I didn't like it. This one, almost everyone bashes and expressed their dislike over it, but I liked it. (And I'm not even a stoner! I've never even smoked weed.)
Now, it's not great by any means, but the dialogue is true to their character. (Eventhough I'm not a stoner, I have quite a few old friends who are.)
And, I think what happens in this story is rather clever. I don't think it's exactly funny like it's meant to be, but the story is clever.
It meets the challenge. A motel with a hurricane (bad storm) approaching, supernatural element that happened in the past, (guardian angel), and a choice that's evil (sticking a knife against somebody's throat (for a 2nd time)) that results in somebody not surviving the night. It may be a little loose on the decision part, but I'll still qualify it.
I've noticed a lot of people said they were wondering what the boys were doing there, but I thought it was made obvious that they were on their way to the beach house, but got derailed because of the storm, and that was the last room left.
Those last two lines of the script, however, is why I can't give this any high marks. I LOVED how you made the one that died the guardian angel over the other one, but it would've made a lot more sense to have him save the other one from killing himself, rather than him failing.
I think because of that is why some people didn't get the story.
Nevertheless, a good job mainly because I liked the clever, twist ending. (except the last FX line.)
Not many challenges were met. Also it took awhile for the story to get going. The cussing didn't bother me, some people talk like that as stated above. Kudos for you taking the challenge a different way than the others and congrats on writing for the OWC.
It was kind of fitting that one of the characters was called Ted because as this story went on, I couldn't help but think that this really should be retitled as "Bill (Ace) and Ted's boneheaded crusade."
I'm sorry but I didn't get into this one at all. Looking past the "amateur hour" mistake on the first page, the writing was terse and it's a fast read but there was too many one line actions which didn't need to be and made this longer than it should be. This could easily be trimmed down by a few pages. I would also watch out for starting the action with the same name or "he" over and over again which looks horrible on the page. It's more visible with your one-line style.
The dialogue was pretty decent if a tad inconsistent at times, they did seem to become more mellow but maybe that's the drugs taking affect. With the use of "mum" over "mom" I get the feeling this was written by a Brit or Aussie.
Is there story here - barley, but I guess you could make a case that you've ticked off a few of the requirements. A few questions though.
Would someone who owns a big beach house really be this stupid and actually kill themselves or even be in this situation? I would get rid of the beach house, raises too many questions about why Ted is even hanging out with this douche.
And why were they travelling with a kettle, gas stove and bottle if they're heading to a beach house? Doesn't it have a kettle or gas for that matter? Very strange, now if they were going camping I could understand this but they're heading to a bloody mansion on the beach. They probably took some sunlounges as well just in the case beach house was running short.
The ending was confusing, I thought Ace was trying to save Ted but then you hear the body hit the floor "FX" style.
Sorry, but this one wasn't for me but it's taught me one thing - don't go looking for your guardian angel because they suck at their job. I mean they didn't save either of these guys anyway.
The Final Trip by - A hurricane turns what could have been the ultimate road trip for two best friends into a real-life nightmare. The culprit? A cup of hot, steamy tea... Brief - Two druggies discover their own guardian angels.
Locations & Sets - Interior, motel room @ night Actors - ACE (21), TED (20), Ace’s MUM (40) Costumes - Ace’s MUM’s white robe Props - empty can of baked beans, bags of something? sticks, wooden boxes x2, gas stove, kettle, cups x2, small gas bottle, a small zip lock bag full of green leaves, bleeding filet knife, liquid stage blood, sword, cut neck prosthetic, knife stabbed neck prosthetic Audio FX - wailing wind, door slam, can crashing into sink, body thump into floor Visual FX - surreal effect applied to Ace’s MUM x2 + Ace; probably will have to green screen them & superimpose Other - Ants + ant wrangler, hurricane wind and trees stock footage, makeup artist Genre & Marketability - Supernatural horror suspense Comments - Ants. What part of “no animals” is so elusive to everyone? Just eliminate that entirely. Only the character’s age goes within the parenthesis. Turn off your screenwriting program’s mores and continueds feature. Ace straightens the dirty mattress? For really? Dialog’s a bit wonky. Bags of what? There are sticks lying in the motel room floor? WTF? Ace straightens the bed covers - while there are sticks in the floor? Crazy. By pg4 I’m wondering if the hundreds of ants (that shouldn’t be in the story to begin with) are now crawling out all over the sink and counter. But at least the filthy bed covers are straightened! “Ace drops to the ground, begins doing push-ups.” Seriously, WTF? Story’s fair. Good usage of a single setting, minimal cast and props. No survival of the night issue nor choice between good and evil. Script format: needs work. Final word: Although I like the guardian angel aspect the story’s un-impactful between a couple of druggies.
$500 - $1,000 Lo/Hi Estimated Budget Range / 10.8 Screenplay Pages = $46 - $93 Estimated Cost Per Screen Minute
Adherence to Given Criteria: Odd but interesting character(s) - nope take refuge from a hurricane - yep in a beat-up motel - yep and are forced to make a choice - nope between good or evil - nope in order to survive the night. - nope Each character must - have some history involving a supernatural event in their lives - yep that factors into their choice. - nope Genre is open. - Supernatural horror suspense This is a micro-budget short, - yep so no destruction of the motel, - yep no children or animals - I’ll eliminate that and minimal special effects. - yep BONUS! Story also included: mime(s) - nope dinosaur(s) - nope
An easy read. Things were ok until page 8 where, IMO, it went south. If the choices were based on them being 'high', I was a little confused as to whether they were or not. Seems like this one was really rushed and probably could have been a lot better given more time.
. Okay a lot of problems here but I thought it was silly/fun. Seems like a semi-pisser, didn't laugh but smiled at the ending. Two friends just messing around and this is what happens.
Could be filmed easily even though it doesn't meet the requirements. If this was for fun, than good job but if it was a serious attempt, I'd recommend a rewrite.
It kind of rambled at the beginning, but i find this funny towards the end. I'm not sure if they were meant to be high in the second part, they seemed pretty coherent to me, and if so, them getting high didn't add much to the story.
I thought these guys testing the hypothesis of guardian angels was a funny idea, especially when his mum turns up to save him, and later Ace. But it didn't make sense, if she was there to save him why didn't she, and the same for when Ace turns up.
This script takes a while to get moving. I don't mind all of the swearing, but I can see how some may find it gratuitous.
This also suffers from too much exposition as do most of these scripts, mine included. I liked what you had going here, but I was confused a bit at the end. Did Ted kill Himself or did Ace kill him. What was the bang?
This is an interesting idea, though. I wonder who was Ted's guardian angel before Ace became his.
Sorry to be harsh, this is the worst one I've read so far.
I didn't like the characters or the dialogue. It took too long to get going for being only 10 pages and by the time it ended...I didn't care, I wasn't really involved.
Congrats on submitting something for the OWC - this just wasn't my cup of tea.
First of all. I can tell that this is a short R rated type of twilight suspense DVD package story.
When you introduced your first page as a title page, It is incorrect. The FADE IN page should be your page 1, And your name should be underneath the title just as in the following example:
FINAL TRIP
by
Edward Doe
When you introduced ACE and TED for the first time. It should look like this:
ACE, (21), and TED, (21), The Parenthetical is not correct when used in narrative description.
Also when we see the term (beat) as described underneath Ace's character cue. I am most certain you are describing Ace's out of this world blood pressure and heartbeats by the seccond. Good work, And I like your writing spirits.
But the term (beat) was used years ago and used only in telephone conversations. You very seldon see that term in screenwriting today in 2013.
We see on page 4 and 5 the scene heading as the following:
EXT. CAR PARK, This is incorrect, It should be like the following example:
EXT. CAR - PARKED - NIGHT
Now in your story. At the very beginning, Ace and Ted enter into a motel room. Then we see on the table, An old can of baked beans which is clobbered with ants all over it.
It raises this question. What type of Motel Attendant would neglet a Motel room, Even though it is a cheap rundown place?
I'll give you my story summary and sum it up later.
First of all. I can tell that this is a short R rated type of twilight suspense DVD package story.
When you introduced your first page as a title page, It is incorrect. The FADE IN page should be your page 1, And your name should be underneath the title just as in the following example:
FINAL TRIP
by
Edward Doe
When you introduced ACE and TED for the first time. It should look like this:
ACE, (21), and TED, (21), The Parenthetical is not correct when used in narrative description.
Also when we see the term (beat) as described underneath Ace's character cue. I am most certain you are describing Ace's out of this world blood pressure and heartbeats by the seccond. Good work, And I like your writing spirits.
But the term (beat) was used years ago and used only in telephone conversations. You very seldon see that term in screenwriting today in 2013.
We see on page 4 and 5 the scene heading as the following:
EXT. CAR PARK, This is incorrect, It should be like the following example:
EXT. CAR - PARKED - NIGHT
Now in your story. At the very beginning, Ace and Ted enter into a motel room. Then we see on the table, An old can of baked beans which is clobbered with ants all over it.
It raises this question. What type of Motel Attendant would neglet a Motel room, Even though it is a cheap rundown place?
I'll give you my story summary and sum it up later.
Darryl It raises
Edward, When a character speaks in dialogue and says a number in dialogue speech, It should be written out as words. For example on page 5. Ace's dialogue speech should be as follows:
ACE Once we drink this, there is no going back. They say four to eight hours. Not a short trip, my friend.
Edward, When a character speaks in dialogue and says a number in dialogue speech, It should be written out as words. For example on page 5. Ace's dialogue speech should be as follows:
ACE Once we drink this, there is no going back. They say four to eight hours. Not a short trip, my friend.
The POV term is rarely used in screenwriting today. So it would have been okay to omit Ace's POV, And then continue with Suddenly, Ace's Mum. and so on. The MUM should not be in Caps.
But then again it's okay to use the POV in this story because it helps move the story forward. And I also notice that we do not see the Angel at all in this story.
It is my judgement that you are allowing the producer to think of and visualize the shot to his own descretion. However, You do need to place in caps SHE. Becaues she appears for the first time.