Step 2. What is is?

9 days to go and we are ready for the next step. You have to do is find what type of movie you are writing. We are not talking action, thriller, epic drama or anything like that. There are ten categories that a story belongs too. And they are:

Monster in the house: There is a "house" and there is a monster.
Golden Fleece: Any "heist movie" rode movie.
Out of the bottle: any movie that start "I wish.." and the wish come true.
Dude with a problem: A ordinary guy or gal get into deep trouble.
Rites of passages: Every change of life story.
Buddy love: Any buddy move, and also any love story.Whydunit: It is the why that is interesting, not the who.
The fool triumphant: the main character is considered to be a fool, but triumphs in the end.
Institutionalized: Family sagas and movies about a group.
Superhero: Stories about anyone with some special powers, they don't have to be the good guys.

I am not going to discuss every type of move. There are book for that, and this list and in fact any theory that I clamed to know anything about is all Blake Snyder's doing. He wrote a wonderful book called “Save the cat”. Get it, read it.

So what category does my story belong to? I could go several ways with my premise, but “dude with a problem” is what sounds closes to what I want to do.
This category is simple: you have an ordinary person that finds him or her self in big big trouble. And the trouble has to be primal. It has to be big, and it has to seem impossible to conquer.
My hero gets into deep trouble as he tries to solve a case with a crime boss that he knows is dirty. He just can’t prove it. Then he gets into more trouble by blowing it at work and gets thrown of the case. All seems dark, but are we true tormenting this guy? No! Then he figures out that his wife, that he though was little miss-stay-at-home-perfect, really is a CIA agent and she is heading the case. A tough blow for our male chauvinistic hero. So now he risking his work, his marriage and since I plan to make the crime boss really mean, he is risking his life as well. He got a problem, a big problem.

Step 1. Logline - isn't it ironic

So you want to write a movie? Then you got to have a logline.
Logline - got to have them. It just makes good sense. That one line is the basis for the whole script. It tells you and anybody else what this movie is about. But it can't just be any old line; it got to have several things in it.

First - irony. It just have to have irony, this is a non-debating issue.
Second - Compelling metal picture - You got to "see" the whole movie
Third - Audience and cost. This one is debatable. It depends on whether or not you want to sell the thing.
Forth - a great title. It has to be specific. It has to tell you what kind of movie this is.
From these four pieces, all bulled into one little sentence, you are to tell the most important thing of all - What is it? If you can't explain that you are toast. Anyone have to be able to tell, is it a comedy? A thriller? Who is it about, what is it about? And first of all it has to be ironic. Irony is the spice of a movie, what makes us tic.

Examples, bad examples but still.
"Water - a movie about a swimming instructor." Does that tell you anything? Want to pay to see that? Nope.
"Treading water - a swimming instructor with a fear of water." Ok this got some ironic, and I would guess it was a drama.
"Dark water." This got to be a thriller
Get the point? It is not easy; non of the above really cuts it.

So what is my movie about? I spend some time on this logline and am still not happy with it, so I probably change it, but for now here it is:
"A sexist cop thought he married stay-at-home-prefect goes toe to toe with a crime boss, but it might have to be the little women that saves the day - My wife is a CIA agent?"
Hmmm yes need some work. It got what I hope is a dash of irony. We have to see if I can’t prefect it later.
Can you tell what kind of movie this will be? Does it tell the whole picture?

Script Frenzy 2007

13 days until fade-in. That is what the Script frenzy site says. 13 days to plot and organize a movie. 13 days to get my thought gathered. Impossible or piece of cake - that reminds to be seen.
Script Frenzy - writing a movie script in 30 days. 20 000 words are to be written in script format for no other reason than to prove that it can be done.
So I will attempt this 30 day frenzy. I got an idea, it is thin, but it is a idea. I got what now is my trusted guide and never leaves my side- "Save the cat" a book written by Blake Snyder
I read ratter a lot of book on the subject, this is one of the better once, at lest for content, the writing style is a different story.
So while being on my 3rd re-read of that book I will prepare for the frenzy.