Your future movie poster.

I had a weird thought the other day. Not an oddity, my guess is that +75% of my thoughts are weird and most of them probably illegal.

However, many of us would like to see our stories printed, and I wouldn't mind that myself. But what if they were eventually sold as movies? Think of the swirl of activity around the latest fad movie, The Hunger Games. They have shirts, coffee mugs, collector mousetraps and decorative movie posters.

I began to wonder how my movie poster would look. And it's never a good idea to give my Swiss cheese cerebrum a innovative concept over which to ruminate.

By now you know several things about my lead character. His demise centers on hitting a Kenworth with so much impact that he flips over the entire truck and lands on the opposite side. He really expires. The story has a sad ending.

I envision my poster to be quite simple. It is comprised of the lead, an acerbic monarch, and an ethereal being. Under the artwork is this teaser.

He'll fly. He'll die. You'll cry.

Too cheesy?

 

Sometimes cheesy sells really good, you never know.

 

Cheesy is sometimes good. Getting a movie deal would be cool.

 

What happened with trying to be original eh Tourist?

And if your protag's death is the ending, then your teaser is even worse. Why on earth would you ruin your own story for the viewer like that!? Few people want the protag to die usually, so they'll all be rooting for him in the film until BAM they're shocked that he's dead. But you tell people even before they've decided to watch the movie, you're guaranteeing yourself a loss of a great number of viewers.

Or perhaps is deliberately ruining your own story your idea of being "original" 8D

 

Cheesy... okay, but "He'll die" phrase will completely spoil it for me. Remember, many of the potential viewers might not have read the book, and they certainly won't want to know from the poster if the protag dies in the end.

Oh oh, didn't see the posts above... so, basically I agree with Mckk...err, without the sarcasm

 

C'mon, guys, where's your sense of humor?

You make it sound like my book has already been sold and the film is half in the can.

This was more on the observation that movie posters are/have always been a little on the dramatic side. Now, most of you weren't around in 1969 when 'Easy Rider' came out. One poster read, "A man went looking for America, and couldn't find it anywhere." Cryptic, a nice tease.

But another one read, "As final as a faceful of buckshot."

As for my story, why would an acerbic queen, a guardian angel and a spiritual mercenary ever be in the same room? As humorous as we might find that, it's 'buzz' just like anything else. Besides, in my day Susan Anton wasn't a bad looking woman...

 

I'll be first in line to the midnight showing.

 

I appreciate that. But stay through the credits at the end.

Wait until you find out who he really is...

 

This is (one of) the reasons my husband supports my crazy habits as a writer. In hopes that one day I'll be getting a movie deal LOL

Tourist - I think you should add the mack truck in the background behind the three leads -- or like headlights shining on them.

My movie poster....? I'm going for stereotypical - female lead caught between two men (brothers). See any Twilight movie poster. One is the villain and the other just seems like it, but is a good guy (he just hides it REAL well) - two brothers caught between one very special girl (I was going to say talented and then realized that sounded dirty, which wasn't my intention).

 

First off, I'm a child of the 1960s, I like a little dirty sex. I often refer to that simply as "sophomore and junior year."

BTW, wouldn't it be nice to buy your husband a Vette or get his mistress into a nicer apartment? Sure, "love of literature" is what we all tell ourselves when we're banging away on the lap-top. But doesn't the idea of "Me, The Movie" run through your mind?

I often play 'the movie' in my head to listen to the characters talk. I actually see Susan Anton in this giant tiara, or someone like Joan "Chyna" Laurer party-crashing every free lunch available. If you love the story, the characters become 'real.'

BTW, it's not a Mack, it's big red Kenworth. I see it in my dreams...

(Now admit it, aren't you 'that girl' in the poster? C'mon, 'fess up!)

 

Oh my protagonist, I like to think, is a mixture of my sister and I. All of our best and worst traits.

Of course the movie runs through my dreams LOL I try to think of actors playing my characters all the time. I'm thinking Jennifer Lawrence as my main -- although she's not tall enough (MC is 5'11 -- after me again, but the height has a larger purpose than venting my frustrations at how the world is designed for short people).

PS the hubs would want a Viper or 67/69 Camaro.

 

Good, I'm glad I'm not the only one who dreams about their movie. Which is kind of why I opened this thread. I'd like to hear about the hopes of other writers.

BTW, my characters are all tall. Even the women crest over six feet. It's part of the story.

Okay, a Viper is nice. But I'm a Ford guy. Tell him that some of the new Mustangs go 650 BHP. The Vipers are pegged at 500.

 

Maybe Jennifer Lawrence can wear some big platform shoes for the role, MissRis. Find a clever director

Back to the original topic; Since my story is set in the '20s, I like to imagine the movie poster would be kinda retro-looking, like in black and beige with maybe a splash of red, and the title in one of those old-timey broadway fonts. And maybe the lead alien boy looking all chill and cheery, while his best friend just kind of scowls at nothing. Because Sawyer is never happy about anything ever, not even being in a movie.

It's times like these that makes me wish I could draw.

 

Hey, that's the one good thing about the 'net.

I just had a PM exchange with a member here who is proficient in art. I asked him/her with ideas for a class ring my lead was given. It's a minor plot point, but I like the idea.

As we exchanged ideas, I googled "men's rings settings coin" and the image popped right up! I often use YouTube for research, as well. You'd be amazed at what you can find, and how it helps to develop machines and characters.

 

I'm actually poking around google for vintage movie posters now, gonna attempt to doodle something.

Then this came up and I automatically imagined my lead characters in it for some reason. And now there's tea all down the front of my shirt.


But yeah, it seems like there's a reference for just about everything online. Sometimes I wonder how people got on without it.
I'd google that, but it would just feel like cheating.

 

Just wait until you get to be my age--you become a walking version of google.

When I was younger I read Elmer Keith's book, "Hell, I Was There." I was envious of the history he had seen.

However, when a topic came up about the bombing of Sterling Hall in Madison during the protest years, I related that the blast had woken me up, almost shook me out of bed. I was only a few blocks away, and when I walked to class, I saw the bomb crater. What kids now study is part of my life.

Many times a writer here will mention a story idea. Sometimes I saw the same movie/book/TV show fifty years ago. Yikes, fifty years! I still feel about 30 years old, but you get to view this history just by living your life.

(BTW, when I get up in the morning, I still expect to see "my avatar" in the mirror!)

 

Bombing? What bombing? No one learned me about that. I only know Columbine and that CIA farce... umm what was it called. Oh yeah 9/11.

Seriously, leave the rage from the other page on the other page. No need to sully up multiple threads with cheap attempts at irony.

I have seen several movies where the ending or death of a character were advertised as the only selling point. Crank is an example. Great movie, but the trailer included his dying inner monologue. I'll prefer Jason Statham in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, but whatever. Or for literature, tell me death of a salesman or Faulkner's as I lay dying weren't provocative in their own right. I suppose that only adds to the ongoing debate of "originality is dead", but whatever. I don't think anyone can honestly guarantee anything about popular culture. I mean, snakes on a plane? really? I suppose that one was at least an original premise if not an original story. I was there opening night just to jeer at Samuel L. for how low he had fallen. That only goes to show how uninformed I was. What constitutes low? Is popularity or a movie deal that bad? I knew that Robert Ludlum had turned down every movie deal he had ever been offered because the scripts all butchered his story. What happened when Ludlum died? A movie. Well, I wanted more Ludlum and I sure as hell enjoyed the movie despite its immensely simple plot and its butchering of the original story.

I'm glad you have a sense of humor. I for one will take vampires and the undead over angels and self righteous sell-swords. Post-post-modernism (or whatever we are in now) is taking its own course at the direction of the population. Buzz is fun to contemplate, but that's for the advertising departments.

@myself Lol I just realized we do have nothing but serious comments here. At least the lounge isn't bereft of light hearted contemplation.

And to finish my thoughts, I am working with a tattoo artist right now for an image concept from my "novel in the works". All my friends are telling me to not get the tattoo until the book is published... I am glad I have good friends. I still want the tattoo though. On that note, google can't seem to help me find any tessellations involving fire or flames. My own attempts are laughable. Have you guys ever seen any?

@Miss Riss, suddenly BANSHEES and The Tourist: Thanks again for the humor. Fun thread to read

 

It probably happened before your parents were born. There must be a history book around your house somewhere. However, it was my dad who pointed out this condition to me. When I was studying the history of WWII in school, he acted surprised, and informed me that to him the war was 'current events.'

Humor is a subjective thing. I once got banned from a forum for using the phrase "lint trap technician." The older guys got it. It refers to a young kid living in his mom's basement playing video games all day long, and then tells the world what he believes they should do. I often joked that they never experienced life, as the only job they ever held was cleaning out the lint trap on their mom's clothes dryer.

At this moment ten guys laughed, and ten others are writing Cogito because I belittled their lifestyle.

 

^ I laugh like crazy when you explain your references but...

Here:

I have no idea what reference it is that you are making regarding freedom and sandwiches. All I can take away from it is.

So this guy excludes himself when talking about modern man. He picks provocative language to describe modern man. (Pedantic? So I take it you don't care whether there are a hundred white rhinoceroses left or eighty. Details like that are too trivial for you to bother with) Blah, blah, blah freedom sandwich. Then, oh, this guy feels persecuted, and has some kind of victim complex because he is old and has the email he checks once a month, but has to call his son every time the router goes down.​

Picking obscure references is like writing to a small crowd, leaving other readers excluded and sometimes ticked off. Perhaps your humor is only suited to a very specific audience, but it doesn't have to be that way. I happen to have left home at 18. worked my ass off to pay my own way through college. Never received an unemployment check or federal aide and bought my own laptop because it was a modern tool that allowed me to work harder and more efficiently. I have an encyclopedia, An Underground Education, and American History X. The rest of my library contains the fiction I've accumulated. No "history book" in my house.

Humor is a useful, and effective tool in writing. Although, I guess for the old folks with integrity, being considerate to your audience must seem pedantic. Or selling out, or fad seeking, or trying to hard to be popular.

@myself again: ^ Now whose the hypocrite bringing in stuff from other threads.................

 

I don't respect modern man much. I think they sit on their butts, and adopt a whiney 'let George do it' attitude. They would sell out my rights under the Constitution in a minute if they thought they could obtain immediate privileges. Lord Boyd Orr once said, "If people have to choose between freedom and sandwiches, they will take sandwiches." That about sums it up for me, too.

We have limousine liberals here. They talk a great game. They wear little yellow ribbons, or pink ones if somebody in their family dies, and they don't do much of anything else. They don't really care about the rhinoceroses, either, they just talk a good game.

As to the movie poster, I do worry about putting my guardian angel, Harold, on it. In Madison the movie might get picketed for not giving equal time to Darwinists. But I do intend to serve sandwiches. You have to know your audience...

 

Do you actually remember that radio program? I never thought it was all that funny.

 

The problem I have is that I remember too much. For example, this week I remembered a TV episode from a 1960 broadcast, and the actress who played the part.