The Penguin: What's The Container for Your Show or Movie?
This week, we are going to be talking about The Penguin series on Max to explore the concept of the container for your story. As The Penguin shows us, sometimes, by finding the right container, you can tell a really complicated, character driven, small story that you otherwise might not be able to tell within the commercial framework of what's currently happening in Hollywood. So, we're going to be talking about all different kinds of containers for storytelling, the times in your career when you want to focus on finding a commercial container for your story, (and the times you don’t!) Let's pretend for a moment that you were Lauren LaFranc, the showrunner of The Penguin. Let's pretend you’re Lauren LeFranc and you go into pitch DC studios and Warner Brothers Television, the makers of the biggest, most blockbuster superhero movies and series, the studios that brought you The Batman, and you say:“Here's what I want to do: I want to tell a story about narcissistic heroes and the rise of populism and false idols. And, yeah, I know it's a super complicated political climate for that right now, but I'm seeing this societal trend where a huge portion of our population feels isolated, talked down to, unheard, disrespected, not paid what they're worth, and they're looking for a leader and they're finding it in a very dark and complicated character (whose name we will not mention)... let's just call him The Penguin… And they believe in something good and noble, but they're building that belief around a man who, on the one hand does have this this ego-centered desire to be a hero, but also is a liar and a thief, who never tells the same story twice, who's always playing people against each other. And I want to look at how that desire for respect, it doesn't just drive the people who follow him, it doesn't just destroy the people who follow him, but it also drives and destroys him.” Well, what DC and Warner Brothers are going to say is, “Um… that seems, uh, very, politically flammable. Maybe you should think about like making a Sundance movie or something. But if you take that same story and you put it in a container like The Penguin, suddenly it’s a completely different situation…In this podcast, you’ll learn from The Penguin how to build a container for the story you really want to tell, as well as: * How to fill a container with something that matters to you when writing on assignment. * How to make character-driven stories commercial * Finding your screenwriting voice * Breaking into Hollywood as a new writer * When to write passion projects vs commercial scripts * Writing complex antagonists * Character motivation in action scripts * Adapting indie concepts for mainstream audiences * TV pilot structure examples * Character development in genre films * How to sell a dark character story * Writing compelling anti-heroes * Writing superhero origin stories Join Jake for free every Thursday night at Thursday Night Writes, RSVP here and check all of our classes! a href="https://www.
