firstpagesuccessblog-blog

[firstpagesuccessblog-blog]

THE ADDAMS FAMILY

A Review of the First Page(s) by Rebecca Jean-Carroll

Screenplay by Larry Wilson and Caroline Thompson

Shooting Script: April 11th, 1991

Source: IMSDB - http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Addams-Family,-The.html

Just a quick(ish) note about this blog...

I shall be using this blog as an opportunity to look over some of the great scripts that are available and dissect those opening pages to illustrate the quality we are all competing with. A few concessions must be made up front. The vast majority of what is available out there is big-budget work from established screenwriters. These are people who are not exactly fighting for attention. However, they still have the same hurdle to conquer, all their readers and all their audience need to be satisfied from page one.

Secondly, these may be screenplays far beyond the point of early drafts, even shooting scripts. So, they might very well be filled with all the things this website is going to insist you NEVER DO. We're talking camera direction, the references to music and the indication of credit sequences etc. I will never discuss the amazing camera angle notes and the transition shots in this blog and that is because we're all just going to pretend that they are not there. Everything outside of this, now that's fair game, this is where we should all be aiming for.

Finally, the formatting, I won’t always be able to acquire screenplays in the correct format. IMSDB is a brilliant resource but it’s not the absolute best demonstration of acceptable formatting. Let’s also not forget, the older the screenplay, the older the rules. Take with a pinch of salt what you see and note my reviews will tend to focus on the things we can all aspire to. I hope you find this blog useful and please do comment or ask questions to get the conversations started.

Now for the Review:

Opening Image

A group of carolers belt out a classic Christmas carol with "self-righteous good cheer" waiting for someone to open the front door and donate to their worthy cause. The black wreath, the broken windows and the weather-beaten shingles are a very good indication of the types of personalities we're about to find housed here. The Addams Family "gleefully" pour a cauldron of boiling pitch from the rooftop of their very imposing and creepy looking mansion.

What's so great about that?

In two paragraphs the writers have set up the world beautifully. The normal and the abnormal? What's more the writing lures you into the sense of humour of the whole thing. Those self-righteous carolers are about to get precisely what they deserve... at least according to the gleeful Addams family. This is a family that plays very much by their own rules and their own sense of reality. Pouring boiling pitch on carolers is funny in this world. 

In two paragraphs the audience knows precisely what they're in for; the world is to be flipped. The creepy people are the heroes, the darker the better, bad is good.

If the premise hadn't quite convinced you...

We switch to the view of a giant cuckoo clock that is essentially a replica of The Addams Family house. This ingenious device introduces the entire family and establishes a few behaviour traits that we can expect throughout the film. The devotion and humorous passion that is Gomez and Morticia Addams; "Little Mechanical Gomez plants a kiss between her clockwork décolletage".

Then there's Thing

Surely an animated dismembered hand that can run and scamper down hallways has got your attention now! Albeit, if you're a producer you're probably starting to see the dollar/pound signs.

So, what's this all about?

We understand the world, we understand the rules of this world, we know a fair bit about certain characters already and now we're about to find out what this whole thing is going to be about. Fester Addams. Gomez's long-lost brother. This last scene lingers in a cob-web filled room, a shrine to a lost brother, headless sports trophies and photographs from high school. Continuing this theme that these characters are somewhat at odds with the world outside their front door. It is clear Gomez misses his brother, it is apparent these two were close in their youth, yet now grown up Gomez radiates in "unfathomable woe" because Fester's not here.

Oh! So, that's what this is all about!

We know now that Gomez wants his brother back and it's this goal that continues to push the story forward throughout the piece. Gomez wants to re-establish this kinship again. It’s not exactly Gomez’ flaw as a character but it’s definitely something that makes him vulnerable to the situation that is going to unfold in this story i.e. He can be manipulated by other characters through his devotion to Fester. It's also reminiscent of how tight this family really is. The threat established here is maybe his brother truly is lost, which would leave the Addams Family forever incomplete.

Just two pages and an entire (brilliant) film is born!

Want to read it all? Go to IMSDB.com.

"Don’t torture yourself Gomez, that's my job."

[firstpagesuccessblog-blog]

Hello! First Page Success is officially about to join the world wide web!

I’m Rebecca Jean-Carroll, creator of FPS and I will be blogging from here on Tumblr. It’s all going to be about those first pages. Any website related updates or news I will also certainly include here. 

So please follow and happy writing writers.

RJC

[firstpagesuccessblog-blog]

First Page Success - October 2017

This is the very first blog from First Page Success and I’m thrilled to be starting this journey with… okay I’m very much on my own right now but sooner or later we’ll be a team! What is First Page Success you ask? Who are you, you ask? What are you talking about? All equally good questions.

First Page Success is a website with one goal and one goal only… to help you make your writing dreams come true. Assuming your writing dream is to be noticed that is. 

It’s a website created by aspiring screenwriters for other aspiring screenwriters. It’s not a paid service but a unique one. It is a free and highly enthused place for screenwriters to make a success of your first page. Don’t let spelling, format and grammar let you down. Burst onto the scene with a first page like no other. Give your script a fighting chance and join your peers at First Page Success. The website goes live in October 2017.

Who am I? Never heard of me right? Like I said, I’m not a professional screenwriter as of yet, I’m just determined to be one... Except it doesn’t really matter if I don’t get there. I write, I always will write, I talk about writing and most of the time I genuinely think I know what I’m talking about. I’m Rebecca Jean-Carroll, writer of sins and tragedies, mad for movies and movie stars (fangirl alert). Graduated from Birkbeck University with a Masters in Screenwriting. Lovely to meet you.

First Page Success was inspired by the great Lucy V Hay when I attended her seminar at the London Screenwriters’ Festival 2016. As Lucy blew my mind with how easy it is to lose a reader with just one page of script… I thought… Wouldn’t it be nice to just have a place where writers can safety test their first pages. Now, just a little over a year later, I have made that space.

What am I talking about? In a nutshell I’m talking about the first page of your amazing screenplay. You know, the one with that blatent spelling mistake you haven’t spotted yet. The one that is not in the right font. The one that you think is a hook but is actually missing an all important trick. The one that doesn’t give the genre away. The one that doesn’t give the best impression of you and what is to follow. Don’t be afraid of criticism and don’t be a slave to it. Share your work with your peers and learn to intrigue, excite and wow us with just one page! 

Whether you’ve been dreaming of screenwriting for a few weeks, or years, you’ve probably heard by now that readers won’t read all of your script! I’m talking about the hard truth that one mistake on the first page is genuinely game over for you. You have one page to convince this reader they’ll regret it if they don’t read on. You’ve got one page to convince this reader your script is better than the several hundred thousand that also await their attention. You think your first page has what it takes to do that?

Test it. Submit to First Page Success and see what the people think.

How will it work? Register and become a member for free. Then submit your first page. We hope you’ll take the full challenge and only submit one page but we will accept up to two pages of script. It must be the first page(s). 

Our members will then read and answer one very simple question; “Would you read on”? Yes or No. Members will also have the option to comment and explain why they voted as they did. 

You can upload as many first pages for as many different projects as you like and it’s all free! All you really have to do is to engage and interract. We can’t make you but for this to work we rely on all our members to actively read other submitted work. To place your votes with careful consideration. To be honest, constructive and focused.

Copyright? First Page Success does not or will not claim any rights to material published and accepts that all work belongs to the poster/rights holder and/or author. By joining us you also agree to accept, acknowledge and interract within those exact same terms. Members must only post work for which they are the rights holder to and any violation of these terms will result in all submissions being removed and membership cancelled. Please note that only members of the site can read your submitted work. First Page Success administrators will approve all submissions before being published with this very simple criteria in mind;

Is this an original piece of work or known/suspected to be copied? Is this longer than one/two pages? Is this not the opening first page(s)? Is this in any way deliberately offensive and/or inappropriate? Is this not a screenplay?

When we launch in October 2017 we will be a brand new site in its early and dizzy days of anticipation! We shall always try to make the site simple, effective and safe to use. So please do give First Page Success a try!

The Blog? Since this is the first blog post, I had better also relay my plans for this Tumblr blog too! First Page Success creator, Rebecca Jean-Carroll (RJC), will take to Tumblr to write about scripts. Specifically the first pages. Generally looking at successful first pages and quite possibly in comparison to the film that ended up on the screen. The blog will never refer to work submitted to the website unless permission has been requested and granted in advance. RJC will perhaps rattle on about one particular element of the art of screenwriting or maybe she’ll fangirl about Pilar Alessandra (she does that).

First Page Success Coming October 2017

We look forward to becoming better screenwriters together…Comment if you want to be notified of the day of launch