Stay Positive

Good guys and bad guys need to be positive.

Even if the bad guy is an asshole, he's got to be kinda nice about it.

Even when the good guy fails, he's got to look at the bright side.

All characters should be positive.

No one wants to go to the movies, or stream a story of people with negative attitudes.

Even if your character is like Bad Santa...they're a jerk, they're raunchy, whatever, they gotta be content and positive about it and smile

Active - Main Character

If it's not a reaction scene.  Make sure they are actively doing something.  Bring the conflict in and have them attempt to over come it.  They may fail.  That's fine.  Just show them attempting to overcome it.  This pushes the plot along.

Expectations - Screenwriting

When it comes to screenwriting, let's face it.  There are about a thousand or so expectations that must be met to try to keep the readers and buyers happy.  It's fucking, mind numbing and creativity killing, horse shit.

The onset of writers block, stress, anxiety and the like is undoubtedly caused by these expectations.  You name it and it's probably sitting under the umbrella of Expectations.

So here's to throwing those fucking expectations out the window.

Now I can fucking write from my crotch.

"Rock 'n roll don't come from 

your brain. It comes from your 

crotch."

 -Daniel from Freaks and Geeks

America - Engineered Me

I love to systematize and mechanize art.  Writing.  Story telling.  Looking for formulas and patterns.  And I want to write a story about a character who tries to systematize the life of another or even a whole group of people and the relationship cost of doing that.  What child like spirit, loving spirit is destroyed when your life is systematized and logic dominates emotion with an iron cage.

Rushmore - Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson

The end of Rushmore has never been truly satisfying.

I believe it's never clear why max can't have Ms. Cross' heart.  And I believe the relationship at odds Rich vs Poor is not explored enough.

His skill is playwriting and make believe.  He uses it for his own selfish reasons.  The last "Act" has him getting everyone together for his vietnam play.

His play brings the wealthy of rushmore and the "poor" from the public school together.

Yet the story doesn't focus on this.

  If he truly wants ms. cross, he needs to win her heart and satisfying her desire.

I believe that if perhaps Ms. Cross had argued that he needs to use his skill to connect the two communities, that the final scene would have been truly satisfying.  Perhaps there could be another character who doesn't want to associate with those "poor kids"  and the poor kids who don't want to associate with those "rich kids".  and again with the different adults at odds against each other.

Also, Max brings Ms. Cross and Herman together for the play but it doesnt seem that he has truly given up on trying to get her.  It's not clear.  Which leaves me with a feeling that nothing in Max has changed or grown or even taken a step backwards.  Which makes the whole thing a plot and not a story.