Monday, March 21, 2011

Emails #20: Frozen Vegetable Entrée

Cap takes the flag from an injured soldier and rallies the troops.
Cap on the top of a hill standing proudly with the flag. The sound of explosions and gunfire are loud. He is calm, steady. Smoke wafts passed him. Tumultuous clouds roil behind him. Black smoke rises in the distance.; An explosion blasts in the near distance. Tracers spray through the air glowing in the twilight.

"For freedom! For liberty! For justice!" He waves the flag and plunges headlong toward the enemy...
original post
In some films, like Superman Returns, the perspective changes slightly to where the hero is watched from afar, then we join him, then we watch from afar... Do you see us doing that here? I ask because the flag waving scene would only work if it was from Cap's POV. (He sees the guy go down.) I'm thinking we should sometimes take the POV of other soldiers so we can feel some of the honor and respect they feel for Cap. If we cut away from Cap and see a wide master of the battlefield, some shots among the soldiers and then we're with the kid as he goes down. We can experience the scene from his POV and feel some of what he feels being hoisted up by Cap. Those are the parts of Superman Returns that choke me up. I saw him fly through the city from the POV of people on the street and got choked up! How long I had waited to see that!

In Highlander the movie, there was a scene cut where Connor finds a little girl and he blows a Nazi away. (She ages into the old lady who works for him.) Connor was very cool and even had a one-liner. Do you see Cap as being like this or perhaps more somber? I mean, he'll have different moods, but I'm wondering what his prevailing attitude might be. A serious chap with a hate for Nazis? Or, perhaps a more fun-loving adventurer?

"Build a fire. Build the biggest fire you can. Let the whole world know that you are American soldiers. When the enemy comes, we will be warm and ready." original post
Cap learns of Hitler's new weapon, the Red Skull... they finally meet and the Red Skull escapes. Red Skull returns later to strike down the American symbol...

"My hands at your throat for all eternity, Captain America. You cannot win. You can never win. I will always find you, always crush you. Only I am the true super man. You are pale and pathetic. Your power a sham. Your country will be enslaved then wiped clean leaving Hitler open plains to grow a new breed of people. A Teutonic race so powerful and glorious that in a thousand lifetimes and still His name will be spoken with reverence..."
Cap’s turned into Frozen Vegetable Entrée...

What is Cap's deeply ingrained heroic nature?

What elements would need to be included in a scene to convey Cap's character?

Why must Cap go up against the Red Skull? And why must he fail in order to later succeed?

What is Cap/Steve Rogers learning about himself and his fellow soldiers as the war progresses?

How do you convey through scenes and dialogue that Cap has been put to a terrible breaking point?



These are the times that try men's souls.
-Thomas Paine

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
-Winston Churchill (regarding the Royal Air Force)

3 comments:

  1. Maybe I need to go back and read the rest of this but what is going on? Is this the new movie? I like it but it seems different than what the trailers are showing? Where did you get this material? -Frank

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  2. Hello Frank! Excellent question! This blog is in no way associated with the Marvel film being released this summer. This is all original content by myself and my good friend Rick Arthur. I'm glad you like it! To learn more about our backstory, click on the "learn more" link on the top-right of this page. Hopefully we'll see your 'round these parts again! -Ben

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  3. Frank and others,
    To reiterate what Ben has said. This blog is in no way associated with Marvel comics or their new film Captain America: First Avenger. We are not doling out secrets from the new movie due in July. This is part of a larger conversation on film and screenwriting where we concentrated on talking about developing comic characters for the big screen. What would Cap really have to be like? Our intent was to write some character pieces then do an outline and write a few scenes to explore how it could be done. We ended up with some unexpected forks in the road and made choices not considering budget, directors or stars but rather character. We have fleshed out a lot of what the character is about simply by making a series of decisions aimed at making a great movie through character. How effective is this approach?

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