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Receiving feedback on this short story (1-2min) would be wonderful

Hi all :)

I´ve worked out the question which I posted earlier in this forum and now I´ve finished my first draft. I also want to thank everyone who responded to that thread.

The film is for an annual filmmaking contest that aims to raise prostitution awareness and attempts to change the minds of potential customers.

(I wrote it in more of a "me telling you the story" form than a screenplay form as I was unsure how to properly write a screenplay where the story is progressed through the camera, rather than through characters, though I will do it before principal photography. )

It would be a real delight to receive feedback.




Working Title: Thousand


We open up to a close up of a white origami paper crane hanging from the ceiling by a thin thread. As we push farther out it is unveiled that hundreds of its kind are hanging alongside of it. They hang in a dusty lower middle class apartment.

At the far end of the room we can make out the contours of a black haired girl sitting at a wooden desk, which is positioned up against a closed window.

Moving in closer on the girl we observe her folding a new paper crane. Though we never see her face, her hands are decisively Asian, veering towards Japanese. Japanese ornaments spread across the apartment further support this notion.

As we watch her fold, our eyes are drawn to peculiar items of interest that are sprinkled throughout her messy desk. She has two cell phones lying next to each other, she carries a little knife in her purse and she has turned a row of picture frames on her windowsill face down (I´m likely to expand on this list of items).

There´s one particular item on her desk that the camera quickly grows fond of, an open folded partly torn magazine. The edit begins to move back and forth between the folding of the crane and moving closer in on this magazine. The magazine is filled with adverts, though we cannot make out most of the text. Shortly afterwards the camera grinds to a halt on one particular advert. It is a red box filled with a telephone number and text that mentions an escort service. In the middle of the ad is a picture of an Asian girl in a red dress; the camera still crops the face. The magazine was a contact magazine akin to this http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gawker/2009/06/escort_ads-thumb.jpg

The girl at the desk has now finished the crane she was folding and she places it on her desk. As the camera stares at the finished crane we can make out a red dress lying on top of a closet door in the far background.

The final shot is of her (in a way that I am not yet determined) adding a number on a count of how many paper cranes she has folded out of a thousand.




The length of the film will be 1-2 minutes.

Also if you where left perplexed, what the girl is attempting to accomplish is this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousand_origami_cranes
 
That is fantastic. Shows a lot, leaves enough unspoken to let the imagination connect the dots. Shot right it could be beautiful, poignant and sad. Makes its point without being preachy or too heavy-handed. I've nothing constructive to add; I think if you filmed like this it'd be great!
 
I didn't understand: Does she make origami cranes while waiting for customers, or
for each customer she had, she made one origami.
Depends which one is true, it changes the meaning of the story.

If I saw a man dressing and leaving the room and then the girl making origami crane, and then the huge amount of origami she had made, It points out a lot.

Lovely story. The story board you've described is very good!
 
Truth to be told, my intentions were always that the prostitute was attempting to accomplish a Senbazuru, which is the folding of a thousand paper cranes. An ancient Japanese legend tells that he or she who musters the willpower to finish the task will be granted a wish by a divine spirit.

I found a certain beauty in telling a story of a prostitute that finds herself in such melancholy as a result of her vocation that she only finds hope in attempting to send a prayer to the spirits and skies.


Though I must say, that was an interesting interpretation to say the least
 
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Now you know, that not all people around the world heard of the Japanese legend, but a lot of people related to the story.

So don't stick to a legend rigidly. Expand it... play with it... translate it to all the tribes around the world through your unique voice of emotion. :)
 
Now you know, that not all people around the world heard of the Japanese legend, but a lot of people related to the story.

So don't stick to a legend rigidly. Expand it... play with it... translate it to all the tribes around the world through your unique voice of emotion. :)

I do of course realize that not everyone is well versed enough in Japanese legends to know what the cranes are all about. Though should any man or woman watch the film and come to a liking of it, despite being left perplexed. One can easily Google "1000 origami" or something similar and the correct page will appear. I actually find this dynamic a little interesting; one may watch it, not entirely understand it, head to Wikipedia, then read " An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane" and be like "oooh". I might even link the page in the video description.

I'm afraid that explaining it in the film itself would ruin the minimalism, mystery and beauty of it.
 
I think it's amazing. A nice look similar to the movie Push with Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning would definitely leave it with a memorable feel.


I saw a trailer and a couple of scenes from that "Push" movie you mentioned. It looks interesting enough, though I´m envisioning "Thousand" with a little less gritty look than "Push". Also straying away from too much handheld. I´m thinking of trying my best at a "beautiful, I totally want to have a still from that movie as my desktop" look :)
 
Nice imagery. Beautiful.

This is well written prose, (far too many words for a script).

Many will disagree with me with my comments below. That is fair. I am just being honest.

A well-known screenwriter, cannot remember his name, once said, when explaining the difference between a a novelist and a screenwriter... " A novelist decides what to keep in, the screenwriter decides what to take out".

Hope I got that right. Anyone? Feel free to correct me. My senility is setting in.

Most selling writers preach a form of minimalism of words in screen writing, however, no one agrees on a set-in-concrete standard, rules are broken all the time...

If this were a complete script. I would have a hard time getting to page 30, (but I would if I committed to).

Once again, the imagery is very nice. Excellent prose. Can't heap enough praise at the imagery you have presented.

A rule of thumb in script writing, approximately, one page = one minute of movie time.

Show as much white of the page as possible.

Disclaimer -- I am not an authority on script writing as others on IndieTalk may be, just my meager two cents, (I write too, or at least attempt to). We all have different styles, genres, interests. I have been writing since 1973 (for the fun of it) -- reading, networking, etc. but I am not famous or rich.

If you want, I would be happy to break down your prose into how I would treat it as a script.

Although, I am sure that many would not like my treatment.
 
A well-known screenwriter, cannot remember his name, once said, when explaining the difference between a a novelist and a screenwriter... " A novelist decides what to keep in, the screenwriter decides what to take out".

I agree, especially when a screenwriter uses one's huge vocabulary to suggest a particular hue of emotion needed in the particular moment in the script. AND uses the right word, thus cutting explanation. That's why (and not only :) ) we learn from Shakespeare and Goеtгe. I hope.
 
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Hi all, I am of course fully aware that I´ve been absent from my own thread for quite awhile, the reason of which is that I´ve been vacationing in France for the last couple of weeks, where internet access was severely limited.

Having had time to further develop my idea, I´ve encountered a crossroads of sorts about the film.
Should I perhaps offer further explanations of the real meaning behind the folding of the thousand paper cranes in the film itself after all, or should I put faith in my audience that they´ll come to find out the meaning on their own.

If I´m going for the former option, my chief idea so far is that at the end, when the Prostitute writes down how many cranes she has folded out of the endgoal of a thousand, a piece of a torn page from either a lexicon that details the legend, or a torn page from the legend itself (though I´m unsure if this is a written legend as I have yet to find it) that would be situated directly over the "scoreboard". Indicating that the prostitute put it their to always remind her of the goal of her folding.

What I am worrisome about though is that, doing this, I would be adding to much for such a short film and ruining the minimalistic and visual storytelling approach.

Any thoughts?


(and also, while I severely thank you for the offer Don Patterson, you do not need to assist me in the writing :)
 
You're stuck with the legend. Forget it for a second. You have something interesting here.

I see it like this: Lots of origami. A prostitute. A client's leaving... She makes yet another origami. Lots of origami... A whole story told in a few shots.
 
If i´m understanding you correctly, you´re suggesting I should trade the contact magazine with showing a leaving client? It´s a great idea, but in my mind the importance of using the contact magazine lies in the ability to cross cut between the folding and the showing of the magazine, thereby suggesting a connection between the two. In addition to the shot with the crane and the red dress which accomplishes the same thing.


Truth to be told, you´re probably right that I may be stuck with the legend. The reason being that I am still quite unsure about how people other than myself would perceive and react to it.
 
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