Pitching A Boy’s Life would be a piece of cake back in 1982. Back then, only Close Encounters of the Third Kind dealt with alien lifeforms from another planet or universe, and it was met with positive reviews and big box office numbers. And that was directed by the same man, Steven Spielberg. The genre was just beginning and had endless possibilities. Alien stories were different than everything else out and people wanted to see something new. Besides all that, I would mention that the demographic for this movie will be little children to young adults, which would thereby include parents that would have to take their kids to see this. It’s also a movie for boys and girls alike.
Structurally, I would pitch the beginning, middle, and end, going over all the important details. Sell the flying bike climax because that’s what moviegoers will remember. Try to keep it as concise and clear as possible, while maintaining the producer’s interest in what you are telling him. Then I would answer the questions who, what, where, why, and how for every main character. The budget would be a challenge if the story was bad, but I just need to convince the person paying for my movie that the script is worth all his time and money. That’s a home run pitch.
But nowadays, it would be quite difficult to pitch this and get a green light. The alien angle is dead and boring now, as many creature stories have been made since A Boy’s Life. A lot of that is Spielberg’s fault, who went on to direct or produce Gremlins, Taken, War of the Worlds, and the Men In Black series. I would just stress to the producer that my movie is different than the rest of those, and this is a story that needs to be told.
- Jared Smith
Discussion Questions!!!
- Uh-oh!! Sternberg Alert!! What do you believe to be the most glaring differences in screenplay presentation between A Boy’s Life and the Citizen Kane excerpts that Sternberg provides?
2. If you had to pick just ONE genre, that McKee discusses, to place A Boy’s Life in, what would it be and why? Good luck.
3 comments:
That genre would obviously be FANTASY*, as E.T. is giant ALLEGORY for connection of FRIENDSHIP which can cross all barriers, including home planet.
Not to mention we have WHIMSICAL aliens running around and FLYING BICYCLES. Those are SUPERNATURAL.
Easy question. Next!
*keys word in caps
I believe that A Boy's Life falls squarely within the subgenre of Buddy Salvation. Despite the films many sci-fi elements at heart it is the story of a boy and his friend. In some ways the film could also be seen as a Coming of age story.
Even though A Boy's Life has obvious sci-fi and fantasy elements to it, I see it as a Buddy Salvation story. One of the main characters may be an alien, but A Boy's Life is a story about a boy doing everything in his power to help his new friend.
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