I have written about 45 pages of a historical script, but I can't get anymore ideas. The plot is: back in 1500, Leonardo Da Vinci is rotting in a Venice jail, being accused of several young girls' murder. While, he's in jail, his faithful student Francesco is trying to prove his innocence along with a young noun, Maria Lisa. That young girl will become at the end, of course, the famous Mona Lisa.
Maybe the thing that annoyed me is the budget. It would be a quite expansive movie for a subject that might interest only myself. Do you share my point of view? You're all welcome.

I don't know the story of Da Vinci or how the painting of Mona Lisa became what it has become but I'd definitely be interested in learning about it from a film or script rather than look it up in a boring history book. History books bore me easily... not sure why .

I just watched the Da Vinci code a couple of weeks ago... though I know it'll be a lot different than that!

Period movies are quite expensive since they require building of sets, costumes, and lots of other things to recreate the past. The producers would have to 'build a new world' instead of using the present one.

A high budget concept is always much more difficult to pitch than a low budget one, specially if you're a new writer trying to break in. Only big studios can make big movies, and for that they usually hire big writers.

So, if you're planning to pitch around your script and try to sell it once finished, the big budget will weight against you. I'm not saying it's impossible to sell a big budget script, I'm just saying that it's much more easier to sell the next 'Saw' than the next 'Matrix'.

If you're a new writer who's learning the craft, I'd say don't worry about budget though. Go wild. Focus on your story. Write what you like the most. Once you written many scripts and feel you're writing skills have developed enough to go out there and try to sell something, then start to worry more about the 'business' part.

As for your idea, I think you've got a potential Crime/Thriller flick there. The wrongly convicted man isn't something new, but maybe you can play with this a bit and try to find an original twist to it.

If you want to head for a lower budget, ask yourself if it's abolutely neccesary to set your story back in 1500. Couldn't the same story take place in present time? Of course you won't have Da Vinci as a protagonist but maybe you could choose another character you're also passionate about.

Hope that helps.

I agree with Mr.T on this, it's expensive to shoot period movies,
BUT
your for instance might be different!

I just went to Venice a few weeks ago, for two reasons : first on hollidays and second scouting some location! And amazing as it is, the moment you step into that small island 'coz trust me, that city should be called an island' you feel like you are back in time! It's amazingly preserved!

So the problem for your movie would be to have the licence to shoot there!

And for other scenes, hey it's Italy : you can always use other cities!

So continue working on the draft!

Me personnally I liked your pitch!

Fight for it!

Thanks guys. I feel like working on it again

Michael

Maybe you've given plot points away too early?

Maybe you should have paced your story so the plot points unfold at certain places within the 3 ACT story..

Go back and use Christopher Vogler's Writer's Journey 12 Stages.

ACT I

Seq #1 = stage #1
Ordinary World (5 mins)

Seq #2 = stage #2
Call to Adventure (5 mins)

Seq #3 = stage #3
Refusal of the Call (5 mins)

Seq #4 = stage #4
Meeting with the Mentor (5 mins)

Seq #5 = stage #5
Crossing the First Threshold (5 mins)

ACT II

Seq #6 = stage #6
Tests, Allies, Enemies (10 mins)

Seq #7 = stage #7
Approach to the Inmost Cave (10 mins)

Seq #8 = stage #8
The Ordeal (10 mins)

Seq #9 = stage #9
Reward (10 mins)

ACT III

Seq #10 = stage #10
The Road Back (8.20 mins)

Seq #11 = stage #11
Resurrection (8.20 mins)

Seq #12 = stage #12
Return with the Elixir (8.20 mins)

This is a template for a 90 minute screenplay which comes in at 90 pages..

If you don't know about Christopher Vogler's Writer's Journey then you can buy his book on Amazon..

The 3 ACTS are actually split into 4 ACTS

ACT I = 25 pages

ACT II a = 20 pages

ACT II b = 20 pages

ACT III = 25 pages

Page 25 is the inciting incident

Page 45 is the mid point

Page 65 is the reversal

Page 85-90 is the climax..

You should put in at least 6 Plot points into your screenplay, above I've only mentioned 4.. There should be one on page 10 of a 90 page screenplay when the character gets a call to adventure but refuses. This would make it five. Read Michael Haugue's book Screenwriting For Hollywood or order his 3 DVD set The Hero's 2 Journeys and you'll be able to sort out your screenplay problem..

You need to plot your screenplay properly from the start and Haugue and Vogler provide help with structure and character in their books and in the 3 DVD set.. Search for them on the web

Or visit http://www.screenplaymastery.com/index.html

You can order Michael Haugue's book and the DVD set from his site..  You can acquire the Vogler book as I said from Amazon..

Even if your screenplay is an "epic" and will probably cost too much if finished, plotted correctly and populated by a great hero character and antagonist character, with a good story then at least your script will act as a Spec Sript for an agent or future writing job. If you can show you can write epics then maybe you'll get writing jobs writing epics - makes sense..

Hope the information helps..

Sound advice Kev mate.  I finally put an order in myself for that Vogler book. Thanks for the tip off.

"Historical" is misleading.  This is fiction.

As for the Kevan's suggestions, no offense but at first glance they seem horrible.  Screenwriting is not a technical procedure, and rules on how many plot points to have and what page to put them on is overdoing it and can in fact ruin a script with good potential.  The basic 3-act structure is not bad, and makes some sense.  But once you go into details on each act and where everything should be, you kill it.  Get a good plot, good characters, and sometimes a rough estimate of certain scenes.  Then let it unravel itself.  At worst polish it to be formulaic in rewriting.  But approaching the writing from such a technical perspective is not art - it's engineering.

Quoted from jerdol The basic 3-act structure is not bad, and makes some sense.  But once you go into details on each act and where everything should be, you kill it.  Get a good plot, good characters, and sometimes a rough estimate of certain scenes.

I entirely agree with Jerdol. If "Christopher Vogler's Writer's Journey 12 Stages" was so efficient every script made that way would be a blockbuster. Remember what said that old Alfred "To get a good movie, you've got to have a good story, a good story and a good story". I think that the more important of all is to have THE IDEA that'd make your script higher than the others. Maybe that idea won't make a good script, but it would be there and you have to dig it. In fact, if you can pitch your story in only one line, you may have a good story. And most of all, write and describe what you would love to see on the screen.

Okay Michel.  The first thing I noticed about your synopsis was that it wasn't true.  I'm not expert, but I'm pretty sure that the Mona Lisa was painted as a self-portrait with feminine features.  I may be totally wrong but you even admitted that it was a work of fiction.

The only problem I have with this is that it is automatically going to get bashed by critics because it is unfaithful to the source material.  That'd be like watching a movie about Abraham Lincoln where he died in a drive-by gang-bang instead of watching a play.  Many would say the movie is stupid just because it strays so far from the truth.

Now, if you are writing the script on true fact and just feeling in the holes that we don't know, then i think you have a winner.  If you are building a fiction story around a very famous person then I would be prepared for the backlash to come.

Quoted from jerdol "Historical" is misleading.  This is fiction. As for the Kevan's suggestions, no offense but at first glance they seem horrible.  Screenwriting is not a technical procedure, and rules on how many plot points to have and what page to put them on is overdoing it and can in fact ruin a script with good potential.  The basic 3-act structure is not bad, and makes some sense.  But once you go into details on each act and where everything should be, you kill it.  Get a good plot, good characters, and sometimes a rough estimate of certain scenes.  Then let it unravel itself.  At worst polish it to be formulaic in rewriting.  But approaching the writing from such a technical perspective is not art - it's engineering.

How wrong you are. Everything you say in your argument is given space for within Vogler's Writer's Journey and your assertion above only goes to show you've never read the book and don't know what you're on about. It's one thing to adopt a position of opposites within an argument but to do so without any prior knowledge of the subject matter is a sign of ignorance and bad manners to the person you are arguing against.

I suggest you read the book before you make rash statements, at least you'll understand what The Writer's Journey is all about when you adopt a stance and argue against it..

Only fools dismiss a thing witout any knowledge of a thing...

Most of the big time scripts are written with a knowledge of the technical aspects of screenwriting. Like it or not, this creative art is also a very technical craft; one that must be honed and worked until you have something dramatic. Drama is the real key and in a movie, this drama must happen very quickly to retain interest. How do you do it? By knowing a dramatic structure and adhering to it. Do you need this structure for every story? No. But if your story is foundering and you need to know what to do to fix it, here's something that has worked. Maybe you need a reversal somewhere in there. Maybe your protagonist isn't making the decisions. Your first draft is your time to free write and let all the ideas go into the script, but rewriting is when you lock it down to a form that tells a solid, dramatic tale. You can knock the technical aspect of writing all you want, but 100 years of making movies tells us that they do need a structure, and it is well established.

The scripts without a structure are as rare as the screenwriter who gets a 6 figure deal and an Oscar for his first sale.

That was a bit of a late retort on your behalf Kevan, but i agree. There has to be some structure to art, except modern art, thats just stupid.

All the Shining chatter has been moved to Movie Reviews and Discussion to keep this thread on topic.