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Would this plot idea work with one actor?

H

harmonica44

I have a script idea, but I need to make the plot work with one actor. The character is a cop, who goes to questions some suspects and leads. But usually in movies when cops do this they do it in twos. I want to just have one actor so it makes for less actors to have to be on set.

I also have a sequence where a cop is tailing a suspect, but wants to do more with him since he is a corrupt cop with ulterior motives. However, in order for his plan to work he has to tail the suspect alone, with no one else, otherwise they will witness what he does. When the police department is tailing a high crime suspect, would they really only send one guy to tail him with no back up or other surveillance... Especially when that makes it easier for the suspect to catch on, that the same guy may always be in sight?

If the idea does not logically work, I guess I could come up with something else. What do you think?

Thanks.
 
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harmonica44 said:
I have a script idea, but I need to make the plot work with one actor. The character is a cop, who goes to questions some suspects and leads. But usually in movies when cops do this they do it in twos. I want to just have one actor so it makes for less actors to have to be on set.

I also have a sequence where a cop is tailing a suspect, but wants to do more with him since he is a corrupt cop with ulterior motives. However, in order for his plan to work he has to tail the suspect alone, with no one else, otherwise they will witness what he does. When the police department is tailing a high crime suspect, would they really only send one guy to tail him with no back up or other surveillance... Especially when that makes it easier for the suspect to catch on, that the same guy may always be in sight?

If the idea does not logically work, I guess I could come up with something else. What do you think?

Thanks.
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Isn't the maverick lone wolf detective just as much as of a movie cliche as the stakeout with a partner? I'd love to be able to put up an example here, but my powers of specific recall are somewhat addled by lack of sleep right now. I don't see how it would be a problem though.
 
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Usually the maverick lone wolf though, is acting off reservation towards his superiors, where as in mine, I need the cop to be doing everything buy the book as to his superiors orders in order for his plan to be pulled off logically.
 
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harmonica44 said:
Usually the maverick lone wolf though, is acting off reservation towards his superiors, where as in mine, I need the cop to be doing everything buy the book as to his superiors orders in order for his plan to be pulled off logically.
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Just have resources stretched in the city, or the partner called away by a personal issue at the crucial time (that can be pure coincidence, or the corrupt cop can engineer a situation that requires his partner to be absent at the crucial moment).

If you want to verify the details of police procedure, you may be better off contacting a comparable police department and asking. I had to do something similar for my last novel (and that was set in the 1970s, so extra hard to research!)

All that said, I'm still not entirely sure I follow the details of your questions, so I may have the whole thing upside down :)
 
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Have the cop stealthily question his partner whom, he suspects is working for Internal Affairs. Or he could brace a suspect in a holding cell before the suspect is taken to the interview room where the other cop and the suspect's lawyer wait.

There is a good example of a cop tailing someone alone in Dirty Harry.
He could misdirect the Department and have them tailing a patsy. He is then freed up to tail the real payoff.
good luck.
 
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time2focus said:
How big is the town? If you watch Bates Motel, the sheriff does a lot of stuff by himself. It works because he is the head guy in charge AND it's a pretty small town.
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I was going to set it in a big city setting, and use downtown where it is bright enough for exposure at night for the wide shots, during the surveillance sequence. It would be a city big enough where you think the superior would assign more men, especially since the suspect that is being tailed, is suspected of kidnapping which is a capital crime of course, and lives are at steak. So it's a tricky one to write, and make it smart, with just one cop in surveillance.

What if I wrote it so that the chief of police says no the superior officer at the station, and his reason is that the kidnapping crime has been investigated to death with no real leads, and that he is just wasting time. Therefore he only has one man to assign to it. But you think that in a kidnapping, the chief might take it more seriously still.
 
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harmonica44 said:
It would be a city big enough where you think the superior would assign more men, especially since the suspect that is being tailed, is suspected of kidnapping which is a capital crime of course ...
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Why "of course"? Kidnapping is not a capital crime anywhere that I'm aware of and in Canada not even murder is a capital crime!

You asked a related question a year or so ago and the advice was to go and research the subject area. You've obviously ignored that advice as you don't even seem to know what a capital crime is or that Canada abolished capital crimes nearly 40 years ago! If you want to know the police procedure for a particular locale, you're going have to go and do some research!!

G
 
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Okay thanks. Sorry I got 'capital crime' mixed up with 'felony'. My bad, I meant felony.

I am doing research, but a lot of times audiences do not believe realistic police procedure. I wrote a script after doing months of police research, making a cop friend, and interviewing cops, etc. But when I showed it to some people they thought that the police stuff was too fake or unheard of, they said. So audiences might not believe a realistic police movie. They are use to what they are seeing in other movies, that cops do not work a lone, especially when tailing suspects, without the suspects catching on, or getting out of their sites.

In so many movies like Heat, High and Low, The Chaser, The French Connection, The Departed, etc, the suspects are always being tailed by multiple cops. In Seven they even had a helicopter go with them. If Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman were told to go alone, with the suspect on his demand, would the audience believe they would do it?

So even if it does work realistically or not, I need to make the audience believe it, since they are so use to Hollywood portrayals of what goes on.
 
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Then quit showing it to your friends.

Show it to people that review screenplays on a regular basis.
Here in public, your other screenplay buds here, other screenplay forums, and/or paid services.

Believe in specialists.

This is for you to shoot and edit yourself, right?
A) What's the budget?
B) What's the intent with the final product?
C) Who is it's target demographic, ages & gender? (Obviously its gonna be a crime-drama or crime-thriller double genre, unless you're gonna pull a rabbit out of a hat.)
 
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Not sure, what the budget is yet. I will right it for as cheap as I can go, while still have it make sense, and try to determine a budget after. I want the demographic to be for adults, who like suspense thrillers.

I have asked a few cops so far, but they all said they cannot divulge such information. I guess I just asked here, in terms of audience convincing, as oppose to fact, since the facts are secret in this case.
 
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"Write" not "right", for as cheap as you can go.

A) CAD$500, $1,000, $2,000, $5,000, $8,000, $10,000, $20k, $50k, or more?
Seriously, you need to have a ballpark idea of how much you wanna toss in this fire.

B) You completely dodged this question.
1) Putting this straight to YouTube?
2) Submitting to film festivals?
(Headzup: they will ask that you answer more direct questions than I do, but fewer than you do.)
3) Will seek hosting distributor, promote it yourself?
4) Will seek hosting distibutor, will put little effort in promoting it?
5) Will sell it yourself from createspace and promote it yourself?
6) Really don't know.
7) Other?​

C) This is for you, H.
20120213FilmDemographicQuadrants1.png


Learn it.
Live it.
Love it.

Who is your audience?

And it will market better as "crime" rather than "suspense."


BONUS!: Read this and start crafting your film using these market metrics:
http://www.mpaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/MPAA-Theatrical-Market-Statistics-2013_032514-v2.pdf
 
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harmonica44 said:
Not sure, what the budget is yet. I will right it for as cheap as I can go, while still have it make sense, and try to determine a budget after. I want the demographic to be for adults, who like suspense thrillers.

I have asked a few cops so far, but they all said they cannot divulge such information. I guess I just asked here, in terms of audience convincing, as oppose to fact, since the facts are secret in this case.
Click to expand...

I very much doubt the facts are actually secret. Current cops may feel reluctant to divulge things for fear it may come back to bite them somewhere down the line. Seek out a retired cop and ask him off the record? That's what I did.

If you want it to be true to life, there's no point asking non-experts. If you want it to be entertaining, then just write a story entertaining enough that the audience will overlook procedural details. The output of Hollywood is basically made of violations and simplifications of procedural detail in almost every sphere of human activity, so just join the party :)
 
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I would suggest not to show the suspect's face... only hands, or back. This way you can make the same actor to be both the cop and the suspect, but it will still look like 2 ppl are talking. :idea:
 
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